Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Human Resource Management - New Book: Sleuthing 101

Every resource manager should take a look at the new book called "Sleuthing 101 - Background Checks and The Law" since it is filled with important information that relates strongly to human resource management issues. Written by Barry Nadell, President of InfoLink Screening, this book offers valuable resources for anyone who is background screening as well as why all companies should be screening their applicants and employees.


Background Checks and the Law


Here is the introduction:

The United States Department of Justice statistics for 2002 reveal that 6.7 million people—which translates to one in every 32 adults—are either jailed or in prison, or have been released on probation or parole. At least 95% of all state prison inmates will be released from prison at some point. About 80% are released under supervised parole. Recidivism is high; presently, 67.5% of all prisoners released are subsequently rearrested for a serious misdemeanor or felony within three years.

At the end of 2002, State and Federal prison authorities had under their jurisdiction 1,440,655 inmates; 1,277,127 of these were under State jurisdiction and 163,528 under Federal jurisdiction. Midyear 2002, local jails held or supervised 737,912 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence. About 72,000 of these were persons serving their sentence in the community.

Unless you are diligent in performing background checks, some of these convicted criminals could wind up working for you, thus increasing the likelihood of violence in your workplace and of legal action taken against you for negligent hiring liability.

Virtually every employer today is either considering doing background checks on potential employees or already performing them. Given the statistics on workplace violence, that’s hardly surprising.

Workplace violence currently claims two million victims annually. Homicide is one of the largest causes of workplace deaths for all employees and until 2002 was the single largest cause of workplace deaths for women employees today. Not accidents, not medical conditions, but homicide. Almost a dozen people are murdered in the course of doing their jobs every week!

Homicide is obviously the most extreme form of workplace violence. However, we need to recognize that hostile behaviors such as yelling or screaming, bullying, threatening violence and fighting in the parking lot constitute workplace violence as well.

More than just recognizing this, we need to do everything in our power to prevent such behaviors from occurring.


This human resource book is an important read for any Human Resource Manager / Employer and can be purchased at GreatHire.com.