• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Background Checks

Background checks

06/01/2007

Q. When may an employer conduct background checks on employees and potential employees?

When interviewing applicants, beware these red flags

05/01/2007
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Prepare to justify policy barring former criminals

05/01/2007

Does your organization have a blanket policy of refusing to hire applicants with criminal records? If so, make sure you can explain exactly why. Because minority applicants may be statistically more likely to have criminal records, requiring a clean criminal-record history may have a disparate impact on a protected class and violate Title VII …

Prevent new type of lawsuit: Credit-Check discrimination

03/01/2007

If your organization uses credit checks in the hiring process, you’d better have a sound business reason for doing so or you could face a new type of litigation …

Asking applicants about age: When is it legal?

03/01/2007

Q. I work as an HR generalist at a large hospital. My supervisor told me to ask a certain applicant for her date of birth during the hiring process. Isn’t it illegal to ask for an applicant’s birth date? —K.G., Philadelphia

Giving references: Limiting info is still safest policy

03/01/2007

Q. I’m new to the HR world. When we receive reference checks on ex-employees, what information can we (or should we) give out without a signed release? —L.M., Pasadena, Calif.

‘Hello, Liability?’ The new trend of telephone testing

03/01/2007

Why does “testing” bring about that sledgehammer-in-the-stomach feeling? Maybe because, as students, we never knew quite what to expect. Now, the same is true when it comes to a recent trend in employment-law cases: applicants and employees making phone calls to secretly test whether your organization is discriminating …

Should you ask applicants about expunged criminal record?

03/01/2007

Pennsylvania employers can use information obtained as part of a criminal record check to deny a job if it shows that the applicant was convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor. But what if the applicant reveals that he or she has an expunged criminal record? …

References, Background Checks

02/01/2007

HR Law 101: Make it your policy never to hire a candidate without a reference/background check. Your organization could be held liable for “negligent hiring” or “failure to warn” should the employee turn violent on the job. If the employee’s past history would have revealed a problem but you didn’t spot it because you didn’t check, the courts will say you “should have known.” Your firm not only might have to pay damages but also would suffer a loss of reputation …    
 

 

‘Gift of time’ benefits: Nice perk, but consider safety, too

02/01/2007

To thank employees for working 10-hour days during the busy tax season, RSM McGladrey gives them back some of their time: four hours of it, to be exact …