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Archive for February 2015

Background Checks: What is really necessary?

February 26th, 2015
Background Checks:  What is really necessary?

Employment Background Checks



While background checks of potential employees are certainly necessary, some aspects that are being used today are inappropriate.  I am all for the criminal history check, verification of past employers, and when necessary a person’s driving record.  However, a credit check – your FICO score and overall credit history are no business of a potential employer.  From the numerous studies that have been done showing credit history has no meaning to the ability or trustworthiness of an employee, to the less than stellar economy, and privacy issues (a credit check actually borders on infringement of a person’s right to privacy and is not a business’ concern), there are a multitude of reasons your credit history is meaningless.

With one in 10 losing out on a job due to their credit score (and these are the candidate’s that were actually informed of this issue), there is a real problem.  To quote a 2010 New York Times article and Jerry K. Palmer, a psychology professor at Eastern Kentucky University, “At this point we don’t have any research to show any statistical correlation between what’s in somebody’s credit report and their job performance or their likelihood to commit fraud.”  The article goes on to state “Bernie Madoff had a pretty good credit score” and I am pretty sure no company would want to hire him for any position.  Dr. Palmer continues to comment in the article that “he was not aware of any studies that showed a correlation between poor credit and employee fraud or violence.”

It wouldn’t be fair however if I didn’t also quote TransUnion and other credit organizations in this article as well who say “credit checks are an important security measure for companies.” Keep in mind though that credit organizations also make a lot of money from all the credit checks.  These same organizations also point to the fact that many jobseekers lie on their resume – but this has nothing to do with their credit score.  Candidate’s lie about whether they have a college degree, their dates of employment, and their job tasks.  But, many a candidate who has lied on their resume has an excellent credit score.  The resume lies and criminal history (that the candidate doesn’t disclose) should be what an organization targets, not a FICO score.

So, let’s look at the various things that could have happened to impact a candidate’s credit history (particularly in light of the economic troubles of the last eight years) and are used against jobseekers:

–Unemployment

–Underemployment

–Unexpected medical expenses

–A fail business

–Inaccurate credit information

–Cosigning for an adult child’s loan (and the child doesn’t pay it back)

–Getting behind on a mortgage (sometimes due to predatory lending)

–Divorce

–Death of a spouse

–Long term illness (you, spouse, child, parent)

–Long term care expense for an aging parent

–Lowered income and increased expenses necessitating paying bills late

–Replacing an automobile

–Large automobile repairs

–Large home repairs not covered by insurance

–College expenses

…and those are just off the top of my head.

To be judged as somehow unworthy for a position due to any of the above is ridiculous and shameful.  It is also embarrassing to a candidate to have them explain credit history issues in an interview situation when in all honesty a company or individual is merely being nosy.  I have had so many clients experience this over the past seven years I can’t even begin to relate the number of horror stories I have been told.  Clients have been called and told they weren’t hired due to credit history, asked embarrassing questions in interviews, felt the need to pre-explain the embarrassing situation prior to being asked the questions, and been treated as some sort of second rate citizen because they had a financial issue.  It is all undeserved if only in light of the recent economic climate.

I typically believe the federal government should stay out of such matters, but this is one case where a law should be passed to stop the credit checks from even happening for employment.  And, don’t give me the excuse it is due to money handling – I just recently had a high level bank manager as a client.  This bank manager spoke of helping a new employee become bonded who had only two-month’s prior claimed bankruptcy.  As she told me, she was hardly going to judge someone based on a score and a financial issue, as the employee and her husband had both experienced nearly a year of unemployment each.  The employee has turned out to be stellar and is on their way to a promotion.

Let’s reserve the background check for what it was meant to do, detect lies about criminal history and employment history, thus protecting the company and giving insight into the veracity of a candidate’s information.  Spend more time interviewing people and more time talking to references, as getting a true picture of a person doesn’t come from a FICO score.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps her pulse on the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Human Resources
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Shake It Off

February 11th, 2015
Shake It Off

Bias Wordcloud

About two to three times a year someone writes a “Nasty-Gram” article about how all Career Coaches and Resume Writers are charlatans, and naturally professionals in this industry get very upset.  This is what happened in the most recent case with Matt Charney’s article on Recruiting Daily.  Mind you Matt is “friends” with many of us, including me on some social media outlets, so this was a bit of surprise coming from him.  This is a man who describes himself on Twitter as “snarky and gangsta” and purposely works to get under people’s skin.  Mr. Charney can also be outrageously funny and has a passion for jobseekers being treated well, something I truly appreciate.  The thing about this particular article that really angered our community was his purposeful targeting of colleagues for which Mr. Charney, a very smart guy, didn’t really do his research, but definitely made his suppositions from the limited research as if it were fact.  We need to shake these things off as an industry and continue to do our job well as professionals. Matt is actually, from what colleagues say (I made a couple of calls), a pretty good guy, but I will, as a response from an industry professional that has been in business as a Resume Writer, Career Coach, and Business Coach for 16 years, make a point in this article about the ignorance of blanket categorizations.

Just as in Mr. Charney’s industry, there are people who become a Career Coach or Resume Writer for the wrong reasons, including the hobbyist, the “might get rich” people , the “don’t know anything about the industry” people, the lazy “simple template” people, and the “I think I’m qualified because I offered some career advice or wrote my own resume” people.  When I mentor new resume writers and career coaches I tell them plain and simple – you impact a person’s ability to earn a living, get a job, put food on the table, pay their mortgage, and sometimes self-worth, you had better know your craft, and constantly be educated in it!!!

I also work with recruiters frequently and many of them are good friends and individuals who are incredibly knowledgeable, and I regularly recommend these recruiters to my clients.  Just because there are a few people in recruitment who don’t understand recruitment, HR, applicant tracking systems, the hiring process in general, and only want the potential client commission (the jobseeker be damned), doesn’t mean that is how everyone in the industry operates.

Here’s just a small list of job titles that regularly get complained about in an uninformed manner as if everyone in that profession is problematic:

Recruiters and Headhunters (internal/corporate, contingency and retained)

Web Designers

Human Resources Personnel

Police Officers

Accountants

Doctors

Home Improvement / Construction Personnel

Attorneys

Salespeople

…and any government employee, just to name a few…

So, let’s take a detour about the harm of judging without proper information.  I learned early in my life of the preconceived notions others can have about a profession – my father was a Kansas City, Missouri Police Officer.  No other profession gets the kind of ill treatment and almost gleeful bad press as police officers.  Despite their hard work, he and his colleagues were, and still are, called racists, cruel, stupid, Neo Nazi’s, pigs, and many inappropriate words I can’t put in this article. From being cursed at, yelled at and sometimes nearly killed for giving someone a speeding ticket, to being shot at for trying to stop a crime in process, both the dangers and inane comments are endless.  Yes, some police officers have been awful people, but most civilians know that this is a very small portion of the profession as a whole and don’t spend their time putting ill-informed comments on the Internet saying all policeman are bad.

My father was a true hero in every sense of the word and taught me never to make blanket assertions about a person, their job and industry in general, race, religion or politics, but to look at the whole individual and their true intent.  Here’s a small encapsulation of his career:  Medal of Valor, Police Officer of the Year, Police Officer of the Month, featured on television (multiple interviews), the Kansas City Star, and The Call, numerous commendations, promotion to Detective, promotion to Sergeant, promotion to the head of the Auto Theft Unit, progression to Central Patrol Desk Sergeant in one of the toughest inner city precincts, and Sergeant on the street and Watch Commander (a huge honor), and where he loved to be – helping people directly.  He also passed the torch in both the lives he touched and police officers he mentored.

I know personally he experienced bias and assumptions merely because of the badge he wore, but didn’t allow the ill-informed to keep him from protecting the public. He shook the comments and biases off so he could do his job well.  I am proud to say I am his daughter, I look like him, have his Type A personality, have no fear of speaking in public, am entrepreneurial (he always wanted to own a business), and I don’t judge everyone in stereotypes due to what might have been a bad experience or just ignorance.  Just as my father, we as a profession should not allow an occasional uninformed article to affect our work.

Every single profession, inclusive of entrepreneurs, has the malignant personality, the lazy, the exploiter, the hobbyist, the racist or bigot, the micromanager who trusts no one, and the inept.  To categorize an entire industry negatively makes the person complaining look bad, NOT the industry, as most people reading Mr. Charney’s article will take it for what it is, blathering for attention – sorry Matt, but you are way off base this time (but I still love most of your posts and articles and will continue to share them online – as I am not judging you on just one article).  Some people like to complain about others to make themselves feel better as a person, and some to make people mad.  Shake it off, it’s not worth the anger, worry or emotion.  To quote the Taylor Swift song that I used for the article title, “and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate,” SHAKE IT OFF!

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps her pulse on the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com. 

Categories Opinion, Personal Branding
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