This document provides an overview of using background checks to protect businesses. It discusses the impact of bad hires, including lost productivity, lower morale, and replacement costs averaging over $50,000 per bad hire. Common reasons for problematic hires include poor work quality, attitude issues, and falsified resume information. The document recommends conducting thorough background checks tailored to sensitive job roles to verify credentials, identify criminal records, and reduce hiring risks. It also warns about risks like fake degrees, references, and provides tips for choosing reputable background check providers.

1. Using Background Checks To Protect Your Business
Presented by
W. Barry Nixon and
Brandman University, School of Extended Education

2. Brandman University
The Brandman University has been serving
the needs of adult students for over 50 years
.
•Originally located on the El Toro Base
since 1958.
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•Twenty six campuses throughout
California & Washington (Including Irvine,
San Diego, Riverside and Ontario).

3. Brandman University,
Part of the Chapman University System
 Providing Education and Training for Today’s Workforce
– School of Education
– School of Business & Professional Studies
– School of Nursing
– School of Arts & Sciences
– School of Extended Education
• Corporate training solutions
• K-12 Professional Development and Credentials
• Business, Management & Leadership
• Certificates, Certifications, and more
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4. Today’s Presenter
W. Barry Nixon, SPHR
 COO, PreemploymentDirectory.com
 Co-Chair – International Committee, NAPBS
(National Association of Professional Background
Screeners)
 Co-Author – Background Screening and
Investigations: Managing Hiring Risk from a HR
and Security Perspective
 Publisher – Annual Background Screening Buyers
Guide; The Background Buzz (the ezine for
professional background screeners)
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5. Have You Ever Made a Bad Hire? If so,
which of the following did you experience?
Please Check All Answers That Apply:
___ I had to spend a lot of time dealing with this person that
took me away from dealing with other important business
___ I had to spend time cleaning up their mess and re-doing a
lot of their work
___ The person caused problems with our customers
___ The person created problems with other employees
___ We lost money because of the person‟s errors
___ We had to hire a new person to replace them
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6. Impact of Making a Bad Hire
 Lost productivity
 Affected employee morale negatively
 Negative impact on client relations
 Fewer sales
 Cost to recruit and train another worker
 27 percent of U.S. employers reported a single
bad hire cost more than $50,000.00 when all
costs were considered.
Source: CareerBuilders.com
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7. Reasons Why the Employee Was a Problem
 Quality of work was lackluster (67%)
 Failure to work well with other employees (60%)
 Negative attitude (59%)
 Attendance problems (54%)
 Complaints from customers (44%)
 Failure to meet deadlines (44%)
Source: CareerBuilders.com
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8. Reasons Why the Employer Made the Hiring
Mistake
 Needed to fill the job quickly (43%)
 Insufficient talent intelligence (22%)
 Sourcing techniques need to be adjusted per open
position (13%)
 Fewer recruiters to help review applications (10%)
 Failure to check references (9%)
 Lack of strong employment brand (8%)
Source: CareerBuilders.com
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9. Why Should You Be Concerned
About Background Checks
 A bad hire can disrupt your company by causing missed sales
opportunities, strained client relationships, employee relation issues,
legal issues and much more.
 40 – 60% of applicants falsify or misrepresent information on their
resume
 60% of losses due to fraud are committed by employees
 The cost of a bad hire can exceed $50,000.00
 California leads the nation in hosting diploma mills that produce fake
degrees
 Negligent hiring lawsuit’s cost can exceed $800,000.00
 Reputation Management and protecting your Brand Name

10. Why Should You Be Concerned
About Background Checks
 Screening provides a comprehensive picture that helps you select the
best candidate that meets your job requirements.
 Screening will help increase retention rates.
– A study by the Aberdeen Group indicated
• The first year retention rate of new hires that are screened is
89% compared to 58% when no screening is completed.
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11. Be Aware of Fake Degrees and Diplomas
More than 100,000
fake degrees are sold
in the U.S. annually
Accredibase.com
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12. Red Flags That May Indicate Fraud:
 Degrees that were earned in a suspiciously
short amount of time
 Credits that were earned based off “life
experience”
 University addresses that go to P.O. Box
numbers or suites
 University is located in city where applicant
has no record of residing
 School is not accredited
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13. Tip: Never use the phone number for
verification provided by the applicant.
Google the school‟s number and then call.
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14. Be Aware of Fake References
The World’s Leading Virtual Reference Service
Unemployed? Fired? Forced Out? Bad Reference? Create
an entirely new work history using our fake reference
service. Our fake companies are so real, our Virtual
Companies actually get sales calls from the public.
If your former employer won’t give you a good
reference, we can replace him.
http://thereferencestore.com/

15. Be Aware of Fake References

16. How to Determine the Type of
Background Check You Should
Conduct
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17. Type of Background Checks Available
 Identity verification: Social Security, Fingerprinting
 County, State and Federal Court Criminal Records
 Motor Vehicle Records
 Credit check for employment purpose
 Employment Verification
 Education and Credential Verification
 Immigration status/ E-verify
 Sexual Offenders
 Federal and State litigation history
 Terrorist Watch Lists

18. How to Determine the Type of Background
Check You Should Conduct
 The type of background check you should conduct
should be based on the nature of the work that
will be performed and competencies required.
 Is the position a „Sensitive Job‟ that has
considerable risk associated with carrying out its
duties?
 Where the applicant has lived and/or
worked?
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19. U.S. Immigration Statistics
 More than 12% of the current U.S. population consists of
immigrants.
 Large number of U.S. citizens have spent time living and/or
working abroad
 24% of employers have hired workers from outside the US
for jobs that have been difficult to fill, according to a 2011
SHRM poll

20. Which of the following jobs do you think
are considered ‘Sensitive Jobs?’
___ Purchasing Manager
___ Sales Representative
___ C–Suite Executive
___ Janitor
___ Executive Administrative Assistance
___ Office Manager
___ Information Technology Analyst
___ Delivery Driver
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21. Determining Sensitive Jobs
 Senior management.
 Care, safety, and security of people or property (includes
safety, occupational health, security, human resources, child
care workers, camp counselors, teachers, etc.).
 Direct access to, or control over, cash, checks, credit card
account information
 Authority to commit financial resources of the organization
greater than _____$$$$_______ .
 Possession of building master or sub-master key access to
facilities (includes custodial services, security, etc).

22. Determining Sensitive Jobs
 Control over organization wide or departmental business processes,
either through functional roles or systems security access (includes
network administrators, system programmers, HRMS and Payroll
functional leads).
 Access to detailed personally identifiable information about
employees, customers or the public which might enable identity
theft.
 Regular operation of company vehicles as part of assigned job
duties (includes delivery staff, commercial drivers, sales, field
technicians, meter readers, etc).
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23. How to Choose the Right
Background Check Provider
for Your Business
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24. Poll Question?
Which of the following is the most effective
source for accurate criminal records?
___ Company conducts courthouse searches for
records
___ The company uses national databases as the
core of their record searches
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25. Choosing the Right
Background Screening Firm
 Be careful when comparing prices.
 Be leery of claims that “we can find anything out
about anyone.”
 Be leery of the promise that searches will always
get done in under 24 hours or some other arbitrary
timeline.
 Be leery about a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
 Be cautious of firms that use national database
searches as the cornerstone of their record search.
 What is the firm‟s customer retention rate?
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26. Choosing the Right
Background Screening Firm
 A reputable background screening company will steer
an employer through the screening process – not only
the legal aspects of the process, but also the
administrative aspects.
 A reputable background screening firm will want to
understand your sourcing and recruiting process.
 Verify firm adheres to industry best practices as defined
by the National Association of Professional Background
Screeners (NAPBS).
 Will firm provide you updates on legal requirements
and will you have access to compliance specialist?
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27. Download Free copy of „How to Select a
Background Screening Firm 4.0‟ at
www.PreemploymentDirectory.com (see
Background Screening Publications)
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28. Pitfalls (3 key reasons pre-screening fails)
 Not getting the right records.
– Searching criminal, but not civil, litigation
records.
 Not searching in the right places.
– We live in a mobile society. Individuals will move
to escape past indiscretions.
 Not spending the right amount of money.
– Spending more money than needed if unaware
of inexpensive alternatives; spending so little
and not getting enough data.

29. Best Practices in Conducting Background
Checks
 Having the right level of person responsible for the prescreening and providing training to people involved in the
pre-screening process on how to review the investigative
reports and make an effective assessment.
 Use a Authorization & Release form for applicant to authorize
you to get information from previous employers and provide
consent to conduct background check
 Follow a defined process for notifying applicants of intended
adverse action and give them the opportunity to dispute
inaccurate information.
 Firm fully complies with Fair Credit Reporting Act.
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30. Best Practices in Conducting Background
Checks
 Selection of a pre-screening firm should be done
as carefully as you would select a CPA firm to
handle your financial affairs. The right vendor
can keep you out of hot water while the wrong
one may get you into hot water.
 Firm has a defined process that is followed for
protecting sensitive information acquired.
 Firm adheres to industry best practices as
defined by National Association of Professional
Background Screeners (NAPBS)
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31. Topical Issues in
Background Screening
 Ban the Box
 Social Media monitoring
 Credit Checks for employment purpose
 Use of Arrest and Conviction Records
 Infinity Screening
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32. In Search of the Holy Grail
As you develop or seek to improve
your pre-screening program keep in
mind that all background
investigations are imperfect.
They are, by definition, limited by the
time necessary to conduct them, the
availability and quality of records, as
well as what economics dictates re
the scope of an investigation.

33. Resources
 PreemploymentDirectory.com
 National Association for Professional Background
Screeners, NAPBS.com
 2013 Annual Background Screening Industry Buyers
Guide (free copy to all participants)
 Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM.org)
 ASIS International Background Screening Guidelines
(ASISonline.org)
 Barry can be reached at 949-770-5264 or
wbnixon@preemploymentdirectory.com
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