Can a parent trust a preschool, even a registered one, has no criminals or sex offenders amongst its staff? Yesterday, Fox Chicago News revealed an eco-friendly preschool in the West Loop area was unwittingly harboring a sex offender. Investigating a tip, the local news station found Eric Ellis, who is listed as a Registered Sex [...]

Is your company looking for an easy way out when it comes to background checks in hiring decisions? The time and care taken to analyze results and consider each applicant, rather than using criminal history as a be-all-end-all factor, ends up having long-term positive consequences. What can happen from careless application of criminal background checks? [...]

95 percent of all hiring employers conduct background checks on potential candidates. Yet, the cost, length, and inaccuracies are often cited as obstructions in conducting these screenings. For candidates or companies, screenings can cost anywhere from $20 to $60. A background check, only examining state-level records, may not give a full picture of a candidate, [...]

Many states require care workers – those working with the elderly, children, or the disabled – to have clean criminal backgrounds. Minnesota is one such state, but the Star Tribune revealed recently that 15,000 waivers have been granted to former criminals looking for such jobs. Taking additional steps away from safety, the state does not [...]

Isn’t the first step of obtaining employment sending out your resume? The first true step, however, is actually having a resume. And while an individual should take applying for a job one step at a time, make sure you connect the beginning with the end. And, in employment, this means thinking about your background check [...]

In several instances, we have seen what happens when childcare centers, senior homes, schools, and contractors do not conduct thorough background checks. Making sure each employee has a clean background is crucial to the safety of those being cared for and should take precedence over the cost of such procedures. To combat this, Washington state [...]

If you have ever been without a job, one well-meaning friend or relative might have told you, “Why don’t you just work in retail until you find a real job?” Retail, unfortunately, doesn’t appear to be the fall-back industry for everyone, and a recent survey about background check use in the field shows that not [...]

In the past, we’ve mentioned that positions involving work with children, the elderly, or the disabled should have thorough FBI background checks; not all states require this, however, and as a result, a convicted felon may end up working in a daycare center or nursing home. But what if the job position is for guarding [...]

FBI background checks are already given to many teachers; workers coming in contact with children, the elderly, and the disabled; and government employees, but should they also extend to utility workers? New York Senator Charles Schumer thinks they should be and proposed such legislation recently. Currently, only workers at nuclear plants undergo such extensive screenings. [...]

95-percent of all hiring employers require candidates to agree to criminal background checks before being a job is officially offered. At the same time, because the pool of unemployed workers has expanded greatly over the past few years, employers are stepping up their requirements for positions, not only for skills but also for the hurdles [...]