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Combat Auto Fraud

“Ask me no questions…I’ll tell you no lies”

This is your invitation to attend the ISB Education Training and Resources Session. This is a series of regularly scheduled training sessions designed to provide professionals with the knowledge and tools they need in conducting claim investigations. The training session will be held at the ISB Corporate Head Office in Milton, Ontario.

ISB Canada is Canada’s largest supplier of source documents and retrieval services to the insurance industry. ISB specializes in providing a single source for the information and documentation required during the claim handling process. ISB is recognized for having extensive in-house experience and expertise in claim handling practices, claim workflow processes, and claim information.

Date: May 12th, 2010 | Location: Milton, Ontario | Cost: $75

REGISTER HERE

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Itinerary
8:30 to
9:00
Program Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 to
10:00
Sergeant Stephen Boyd, Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau, OPP
Trends in vehicle theft. How to recognize them and the role of PATT (Provincial Auto Theft Team)

10:00 to
10:15
Break

10:15 to
11:15
Richard Bicford, Lawyer
Blouin Dunn LLP

“Angels and Demons”…how the courts view fraud cases and how to prepare yourself and your case for court

11:15 to
12:15
Jamie Catania B.E.Sc., M.Eng., P.Eng.,
Principal
Giffin Koerth SMART FORENSICS

Going on a (Fender) Bender: Technical Defence of Fraudulent MVA Claims

12:15 to
1:15
Lunch will be provided

1:15 to
2:15
Thomas Phan, English/Vietnamese Interpreter
Able Translations

Proper use of an Interpreter in investigations

2:15 to
2:30
Break

2:30 to
3:30
Michael Damm, President
ISB Canada

“The facts don’t lie”…how documents can become the Backbone of your
claim file.

ISB Canada Strengthens its Commitment to the Insurance Sector with Hire of Two Dedicated Customer Relationship Managers

TORONTO, January 13, 2010 /CNW/ – ISB Canada, a leading source document retrieval company is strengthening its focus on insurance customers with the appointment of two new Customer Relationship Managers. Maranda Beattie and Christopher McClelland assume their newly created positions, dedicated to improving relationships with insurance clients, effective immediately.

The mandate of these new Customer Relationship Managers is to build relationships with insurance adjusters and increase the quality of ISB’s support to the insurance sector, a key market for this fast-growing company. Through involvement in more insurance events, in-person meetings and training sessions the goal is to provide more targeted and in-demand documentation and background screening services to meet the specific needs of this industry.

“This year, we really want to grow closer relationships with our insurance clients, really become part of their community in order to know and serve them better,” says ISB CEO Gino Fiorucci. “To do this, we have found two smart, driven and customer-centric professionals who are poised to hit the ground running and significantly improve our customer service.”

Maranda Beattie honed her exceptional customer relationship skills through demanding roles in the health and hospitality sector. Prior to ISB, she managed several leading Canadian fitness facilities and worked in customer service at a 4-star Ontario hotel.  Ms. Beattie is a travel and tourism graduate of Sheridan College Institute of Technology in Oakville.

Christopher McClelland brings a strong career track record in sales and service to his role as ISB Customer Relationship Manager. Before ISB, he worked in the social services/non-profit sector working with and developing innovative programs for adults with special needs. Prior to that, he was a service-driven manager of a leading automotive dealership. Mr. McClelland holds a BA in English and History from Lakehead University.

About ISB Corporate

For more than 15 years, ISB Canada has led the way in the delivery of documents and detailed pre-employment background screening. Its services have helped individuals and businesses validate property and casualty insurance claims and source/verify key information on potential new hires.

For media inquiries, please contact

Michael Damm – President, ISB Canada 1-800-609-6552

Positive Effects of Employment Screening

Executive Summary

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), in collaboration with Alliant International University (Alliant), coordinated a return-on-investment study of private sector pre-employment background investigations.

Similar endeavours by many organizations have fallen short of providing measurable empirical data that can be used as a strong argument for why companies conduct certain practices. While benchmarking is often considered the hallmark of security policy, there is little hard evidence to support the efficacy of many routine security provisions in use by most companies, universities, etc. Faced with the traditional challenges associated with measuring a sample of a large and diverse population of entities, and with the assistance of Alliant, OSAC launched a preliminary investigation into the practice and value of pre-employment background screening.

Objectives

Primarily, this study was conducted to benchmark the pre-employment background investigation practices in use by private sector companies, non-governmental organizations, academic and faith-based institutions. The secondary objective of this study was to employ quantifiable measures in order to obtain statistically significant correlations between background investigation practices and several negative workplace issues like employee fraud, theft, termination for misconduct, and the like.

The overarching goal was to produce a quality benchmarking report that could provide guidance regarding return on investment for background investigations.

Key Predictive Findings

Three-hundred eighty-five security representatives in private industry were included in the project, which found statistically significant relationships between the numbers of years included in an investigation and several outcome variables. Specifically, robust review of previous employment history leads to significant predictive outcomes.

  • The further back in years an investigation into past employment endeavours, the study indicates fewer fraudulent and criminal activities will occur among employees.
  • The same is true for terminations due to employee misconduct, workplace-related or external, and
  • Finally, the further back in years an investigation into past employment, the fewer incidents or investigations related to workplace violence will occur.
  • Other relationships (e.g. number of years investigating criminal history and terminations due to employee misconduct, etc.) were leaning in the same direction, but those variables have highly uneven distributions.1 If the researchers had been able to obtain more complete data from participants, it is likely the statistics would have shown similar significant predictive value as seen with the previous employment investigation variable.

The report concludes with additional benchmarking involving the comparison of background investigation practices among organizations of similar industries, as well as by type of employee.

Some Key Comparisons

  • While it was determined that the extent of employment history investigated was negatively correlated to several detrimental workplace issues (more years investigated leads to less employee misconduct), most industries do not investigate all available previous employment history.

- Only 13% of “Health Care” entities investigate all employment history

- 23% of “Computer, Info-Tech & E-Commerce” companies

- 25% of “Engineering, Research, Development, & Nanotechnology” companies

- 31% of “Transportation/Supply Chain” companies

- 33% of “Financial (Including Credit Card)” companies;

- 44% of “Consulting, Outsourcing/Off-shoring” companies

- 69% of “Faith-based” organizations investigate all employment history

  • The effect on employee misconduct and other negative issues like workplace violence and fraud appears significantly related to employment checks going back at least 7 years. So, arguably, doing an entire employment check may be unnecessary. Anecdotally, most companies do at least 7 years because of the common misperception that the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) only allows for 7 years to be used in pre-employment practices. This is one case where the misperception works in favor of most organizations; the results of this study suggest that doing fewer than 7 years has no practical benefit to the company while doing 7 or more has significant benefits.
  • A staple of pre-employment background investigations (BI) is the criminal history check. All industries examined in this report indicated they conduct criminal history assessments. Still, a felony conviction does not necessarily result in a recommendation for disqualification.

- 75% of “Consulting, Outsourcing/Off-shoring” and “Computer, Info-Tech & E-Commerce”companies recommend disqualification for a felony hit.

- Similarly, 79% of Engineering, Research, Development, & Nanotechnology” companies, 77% of  “Health Care” entities and 71% of “Faith-based” organizations recommend disqualification for a felony hit.

- Alternatively, 92% of “Transportation/Supply Chain” companies recommend disqualification.

- “Financial and Credit Card” companies recommend disqualification of potential employees who have a felony hit on their record at a rate of 88%.

  • Social networking is an emerging phenomenon. Once a refuge for teens and the technically-advanced, sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are growing rapidly in usage among all age groups of business professionals and blue-collar workers. With the abundance of information voluntarily posted by people across all walks of life, it makes sense that some background investigation teams are reviewing these sites for possible embarrassing information that could detrimentally affect the hiring process and, ultimately, the company or its brand.

- 22% of “Consulting, Outsourcing/Off-shoring” companies check into social networking sites. Of those, 55% indicate they would recommend disqualification based on something found on those sites.

- Perhaps counter intuitively, only 4% of “Computer, Info-Tech & E-Commerce” companies include these sites in their process, but none would recommend disqualification.

- Likewise, only 7% of “Transportation/Supply Chain” and 6% of “Engineering, Research, Development, & Nanotechnology” check social networking sites and not a single company in either industry indicated it would recommend disqualification based on content discovered on a social networking site.

- 20% of “Faith-based” organizations will check social networking sites and of those 33% would recommend disqualification based on their searches.

- Only 12% of “Financial and Credit Card” companies investigate social networking sites, but of those, 50% would disqualify.

- Bucking the trend, the respondents from the “Health Care” industry all reported not using social networking sites as part of their background investigation process.

Recommendations

The survey results allow for the following recommendations:

  • Employee background investigations should be conducted to include verification of all jobs held over at least the previous 7 years.
  • If possible, it is recommended that a candidate’s entire available employment history be examined. The integrity of an applicant can conceivably be linked to his truthfulness in regards to employment experience. It is not uncommon for applicants to list only jobs that reflect favourably on their potential employment. Therefore, as far as the possibility, global regulations and budgets allow, the researchers encourage checking the validity of the entirety of candidates’ available work history, with 7 years being the benchmark.
  • Of those industries that employ the use of social networking sites as a source for background investigation, only the “Consulting” group had a majority of respondents who would recommend disqualification based on unfavourable information found on Facebook, MySpace, etc. So this begs the question: “Why do companies bother to investigate social networking sites if the information there would not affect a candidate’s prospects?”

a. If the answer is related to due diligence insofar as the data derived from these websites contributes to the overall assessment, the researchers recommend that more companies investigate social networking sites.

b. However, if the answer to why a company would search these sites but then disregard the information because it is unclear, undefined, or if using information gathered runs contradictory to a company’s human resource policies, then the researchers recommend not doing the investigations. Save time, save money, and do not run the risk of unprofessionally discriminating based on personal biases.

To read the full report click here.

1 In each case, greater number of years investigated (be it criminal history, employment or education) was trending to a lower outcome, such as fewer instances of employee fraud and fewer terminations for misconduct.

The Overseas Security Advisory Council(OSAC) would like to extend a special thanks to Siobhan O’Toole with Alliant International University for her invaluable assistance and expertise. Without her efforts, this survey would not have been possible. OSAC would also like to thank Corey Vitello for spearheading the initiative and his tireless efforts on this project. OSAC also wishes to extend appreciation to all of our constituents who took the time to complete the survey and provide the requested data.


You have a file with only a name and address…how can you make an informed claim decision?

What is the missing link?  A good response would be that it’s a wrestler back in the 80’s who looked like the love child of Krusty the Clown and Michael Myers, but not the answer I’m looking for.  I’ll be more specific…

You have a claim that doesn’t permit you to make an informed decision based on information given to you by the insured and witnesses.  But even if the information was ample, you would still have nothing to support your decision.  So what is the missing link between the claim and a decision?

That’s right!  Supporting documents.

There are more documents available to you then there are fake punches thrown in a wrestling match, and your access goes well beyond that of the general public.  This is in part due to the fact that as an insurance professional, you’ll ensure:

  • The requested documents are related to the claim file
  • Privacy is fully respected as outlined by PIPEDA
  • One of three possible consents as noted below is obtained from related individuals
    • The application for insurance
    • The accident benefit package
    • A specific written and signed consent by the subject (this is usually a person not on the application of insurance e.g. a passenger, witness or other party to the loss

Claim file experience has taught you that scenes and information change over time.  Getting documents from ISB Canada as close to the date of loss as possible can strengthen a case if it goes to trial.   It’s best to know as many answers possible before you interview, but all you have is a name and address.  What can you find out with only that?

Here is an example of searches to begin with and how you can link documents to unmask required information.

  • First, run a ‘Name Search for Driver’s Licence Number
    • This will provide a driver’s licence number
  • Now, with the driver’s licence number, run an ‘Driver’s Insurance Claim History’
    • This will provide a complete history of insurance company names, vehicles, operators and reported claims history

In addition to the above you will also have the following:

  • Name or names they go by
  • Address, Present and Past
  • Driver’s Licence Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Family members or associated persons on past polices
  • Insurance Carrier
  • Number of prior Claims and Types
  • VIN Numbers of associated Cars
  • Prior Suspension of Insurance Coverage

From only two searches you have a fairly good profile of who you are dealing with, so how will you continue from here?  Approve or proceed?

If you decide to proceed, try linking the following searches.

  • ‘PPSA/Lien Search’
    • From a VIN or name, this search will confirm history of land transfers including buyers, sellers, price, dates, mortgages and liens.
  • ‘Land Title Search’
    • From an address, this will give you a history of land transfers including buyers, sellers, price, dates, mortgages and liens.
  • ‘VIN History’
    • From a VIN, this can show all registered past and present owners of the vehicle, including names and dates of transfer.  History gaps indicate that the vehicle is from or has been out of province.

It is quite clear that documents are the undisputed winners of a case file.  Don’t beat your head off of the turnbuckle, use the moves I’ve described here and pin down your future files with supporting information – and it can save your file thousands of dollars.

For more information, to comment on this blog or to schedule a Document Seminar, please contact Teresa at 1-800-609-6552 or via email tklacl@isbc.ca.

What did you think of the Document Linking topic?  What other topic would you like to see in future ISB-U blogs?  Email me at tklacl@isbc.ca.

My sales person was convicted of driving with a suspended licence…but he had a valid driver’s licence when I hired him! How could I have avoided this?

Typically when a hiring a person that will be driving a company owned vehicle a provincial driver abstract should be requested and reviewed at the point of hire. Today, it is just too risky to hand over the keys to a new employee not knowing their driving history. Liability insurance is always on the rise and corporations are at risk of hefty price hikes if their losses increase by even one incident.

Many corporations get into trouble because they rely on the initial driver abstract on the date of hire and never revisit the employee’s driver record. A person’s licence status can change at any point and should be reviewed frequently. This simple review can minimize: the probability of loss, reduce the risk of increased insurance premiums, eliminate non licensed drivers driving your company vehicles and reduce corporate liability.

Running frequent driver status checks is a sure way of seeing the current status of your fleet drivers. Today there is a breakthrough product called Check DL. This revolutionary product was produced to promote road safety in Canada and allow for  corporations to run one or thousands of driver status checks in as little as a couple of minutes at less than half the cost of a complete abstract.

Check DL is licensed to ISB Canada and is not intended to replace the provincial driver abstract but to give a quick and cost effective option for driver licence status checks throughout the year. Check DL will give the following results regarding a person’s license;

  • Valid‘ – the driver’s licence number is not suspended, cancelled or expired.
  • Not Valid‘ – the driver’s licence is either suspended, cancelled, expired or a combination thereof and not authorized to drive.
  • Record not found‘ – the driver’s licence number does not exist.
  • Valid,Yes‘ (Ignition Interlock required) – the driver has an ignition interlock condition. The driver must only drive vehicles that are equipped with an approved ignition interlock device.
  • Invalid driver’s licence number‘ – the driver’s licence number is not a recognized licence number format.
  • Invalid date of birth‘ – the driver’s date of birth is not correct or does not match although the licence number exists.

Check DL can be run every month, every 6 months, annually or as often as you wish. Protect your company as well as others on the road. Safety is foremost and loss prevention will be the result.

Statistics show that 10% of drivers have a suspended licence and 75% of these suspended drivers continue to drive.  If one of them is your driver and found guilty you risk: the chance of having your insurer deny all payouts, being sued for injuries, third party damages and legal fees that can cost millions…or you can minimize your risk by using Check DL.

Contact ISB Canada to see if Check DL can work for you.

What the heck is Twitter?

Many people don’t know what Twitter is and think it is very complicated.  The reality is it’s a simple web based texting/email service.  Twitter allows you to send short messages called ‘Tweets’ to all your friends (Followers).  Each message is meant to be short and can only be 140 characters in length.  You can also link Twitter to your PDA or cell phone so you can send and receive Tweets while on the go.

Unlike email or texting, the primary purpose is to eliminate having to enter To, CC or BCC fields every time you send a message.  With Twitter you update your message and it will be sent to all your followers.  You can also choose to be the follower of friends, companies, celebrities or anyone else for that matter and receive Tweets any time they send an update.

Twitter was originally meant to update your contacts as to what you are doing at the moment, similar to a Facebook status. The question asked on the Twitter main page is “What are you doing?” The answer to this question would be your message.

Due to Twitters popularity, many businesses are using Twitter to keep customers informed of corporate news. An interesting feature of Twitter is the search function. You can search for any updates or Tweets that meet your search criteria. This can be a useful tool for your company in many ways. You can see what clients or customers are saying about you or your products and services and keep track of what your competition is doing.

Follow ISB Canada at http://twitter.com/ISB_Canada

For more information see;

www.twitter.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Psychological Assessments….are they a crock when hiring?

As a partner in a professional background screening company I believe in sound documents that reflect an individual’s traits like a criminal record search, credit report or an employment reference.  It was not until one day several years ago, a client called me and asked if we did physiological assessments. We did not. But now that a valued client was asking for them, I decided to do some research. I quickly found that there were several suppliers all eager to sell their wares to ISB. I was looking for the right “fit”, which I later found out was the true value to personality assessments. Does the candidate ‘fit’ into the respective job, work environment, management philosophy? I searched the internet, trade show meetings and several providers until one day a supplier knocked at my door.

It was a provider that ‘fit’ ISB and when asked to give a brief overview of what psychological assessments meant to them, they responded with this;

“With the world changing so fast with new technologies upon us every day, I think that what a person can do is more important than what he has done. The information from a hiring assessment shines a bright light on a persons ability to learn, adapt, socialize, and how manageable they are just to mention a few of the traits that should be considered when looking ahead at what the horizon brings.” Richard Morin President / Owner of Strategic Business Services Inc.

What I hope to do in this month’s blog is to clear the mystic air surrounding psychological assessments as it pertains to employment background screening.

What are psychological assessments? Is there a shrink in a room with a candidate looking at ink blotches? Is the candidate hooked up to a bunch of electrodes and asked questions? No, today there are firms that have years of complied relative data from similar positions and traits that form a ‘Job Match Pattern.’

Webster’s Dictionary definition of psychological assessment is;

Psychological: The mental behavioural characteristic of an individual or group
Assessments
: To make an official evaluation

There are no laws in Canada governing the use of psychological assessments used for hiring. However as with anything else you do in the hiring process, these tests must be applicable to the position and the job at hand. As well it should not target a sector of the population so that there is no general discrimination or you may be looking at a human rights issue. Whether they are successful or not, it will take your time and money to defend your position. So use a recognized supplier or ask your employment screening company, as they have probably done the leg work for you. We find that in the US, employment background screening companies own the assessment part of the business where Canadian companies tend to partner with selected suppliers.

We at ISB Canada use Profile International for our assessments. They have been around since 1991, have serviced over 40,000 companies in 90 countries and have Canadian versions of their assessments.

In a recent survey, 40 percent of fortune 100 companies indicated that their employment selection systems included psychological testing. A similar survey by the American Management Association showed that 44 percent of its responding members used testing to select employees.

In talking with a human resources director of a large franchiser of Group 1 Automotive, a Fortune 500 company in Houston, here’s what she had to say about the psychological test they use for selection process: “Historically, our industry experiences extremely high turnover, and as such we have been looking for a tool to help put the right person in the right job. Since we began using a psychologically based selection tool to help in our sales selection process, our retention has jumped from 10% to 77%, which we have calculated saved us $32 Million over the past twelve months in related turnover and lost opportunity costs.” (Regina Roat, HR Director – Sterling McCall Toyota).

I have to say that I was a skeptic of this product until I ran one on a long term existing employee who I knew well and was looking to get promoted into a supervisory position. So I went online and programmed the Profile XT test to the job pattern of an office manager. About 45 minutes later, I received 7 reports by email. They nailed her to a T, both her good and not so good skills. I was sold that this was a very powerful tool enabling to see that she could do the job I needed her to do, took direction well, was a self starter and a good listener – all qualities that would make my management of her that much easier. So now imagine that she just walked off the street, not knowing anything about her…how else are you going to find this valuable information out but through a psychological assessment. They are a very useful tool, but not cheap. They are usually in the range of $200 per test but knowing a bad hire can cost $25k – a huge overall savings.

There are several types of assessments;

Step One Survey - General entry level profile which costs usually less the $50 and it includes; inconsistent responses, employment profile, theft, illegal substance abuse, criminal convictions, applicant’s attitude and suggested interview questions. This assessment is fast, easy and will reduce, absenteeism, turn over and liability while increasing productivity and profit.

A sample question could be ‘There is nothing wrong with using illegal drugs on the job if it helps you to relax and do a better job.’ (agree or disagree) Or ‘It is ok to get around rules, as long as you don’t actually break them.’ (agree or disagree)

Profiles XT -Used for promotion, succession planning, performance review, and training and find the right candidate with the right ‘fit’. ($200-$250 per assessment) This assessment takes about 45 minutes online and runs though several hundred questions that focuses on learning skills, verbal skills and reasoning, numerical and technical ability, people service, administrative, creativeness energy level, assertiveness, sociability, decisiveness, accommodating, independence and most importantly, manageability. This assessment will tell you; can the person do the job? how will the person do the job? does the person want to do the job?

360 – Used by an employee’s peers to review a employee from different angles and assess that person’s abilities or areas that need improvement in the hopes that the person will take on those improvements and be better suited for upward managerial movement in the company.

At ISB we supply assessments to our clients but are quick to pass this onto our partner suppliers. To set up an assessment only takes 5 minutes.  Once the assessment is completed by the employee or candidate, several reports are generated electronically which include an easy to understand coaching report, job profile summary and a copy designed for the candidate. The JOB PATTERN MATCH is a critical part to be set up in the front end. If you are hiring or promoting a person to sales manager, the questions for office managers would be very different and the expectations on a scale from 1 – 10 would be different. For example, assertiveness for a sales person should be between 6 and 9 out of 10 and if your candidate scored 5 – it is clear that you have a passive sales person but as an office manager where you want a cohesive work environment – the preferred scale would be 3-7 and 5 would be perfect.

Profile XT Sample – Good/Poor Match

How do you know if the answers are staged or untruthful? Well these assessments are written in a way they ask the same question in several different ways and if the applicant tries to alter their answers, it becomes evident through the distortion factor number which is indicated on the report.

Psychological assessments are not new. They have been used for years to measure pathological personality traits, yet it is often used as a screening tool for law enforcement, seminary students, firefighters/paramedics, airline pilots, medical/psychology students, and nuclear power facility workers.

One executive who currently utilizes a psychological pre-employment testing program sums it up this way: “It actually expedites our interviewing process tremendously by assisting us in cutting to the chase in determining a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. The candidate profile and interview guide gives our managers the help they need to conduct a probing and revealing interview while requiring less preparation time.

Psychological Assessments are an invaluable tool in selecting the right person for the job which in turn will save you thousands in the long run.

If the people in your company are your #1 asset, how did you pick them?

Diploma mills have brought in well over $1 billion by selling fraudulent degrees. How can you protect your organization?

Wayne D. Ford, author of the employer’s guidebook “How to Spot a Phony Resume”, conducted his own more disturbing survey finding that a minimum of 25 to 30 percent of resumes were considered phony by some employers, but others estimated the number at 50 to 60 percent and even much higher!

Most employers just take it for granted, if it is on the resume – then it must be the truth. Spend the time and money to verify.

What if you want to see the diploma or certificate and the candidate brings it in. It looks and feels real, has the seal and original signatures…isn’t that enough?

Actual Advertisement

“Ordering Fake Diplomas and Fake Degrees is Simple!
Phonydiploma.com is your source for fake diplomas, fake high school diplomas, fake college degrees, online degrees, fake university degrees, fake high school degrees and more! Authentic-looking novelty diplomas are real enough to fool friends and family. Our fake diploma company customizes fake diplomas with real school names. We offer dozens of non-copyright diploma emblems and diploma seals.”

There are two kinds of diploma mills, those which offer low quality, specious programs or courses, and those that just sell you a copy of a degree with your name on it.  With these kinds of services, the advancement of creative art software and high resolution colour copiers, getting a forged or altered document is getting easier ever day.  So how can you determine if the document is from an accredited educational facility and if the diploma is real? Education verification.

So, you may be thinking…’it’s just a document stating a degree, they passed all the pre-screening and have a good work history – what’s the down side?’ Radio Shack’s CEO, David Edmondson who resigned after a Fort Worth, Texas newspaper reported he had lied about his education diploma on his resume. Radio Shack’s stock and reputation dropped that year to all time low.  Eighty four year old Alan Seman, a popular mayor of Rancho Mirage, California, and a member of the town council for the past 17 years, had claimed he was an electrical engineer and with two degrees from good schools. He finally admitted to lying on his resume when he was caught because other local engineers realized that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Among those who acquired bogus degrees, and in some cases counterfeit diplomas from legitimate colleges and universities, were employees in such federal agencies as the CIA, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Department of Health and NASA – even the White House staff. They may come in through the mail room but 10-15 years later holding powerful positions in your company. Why would your business want to pay high salaries for fake talents?

Another concerning perspective is safety and liability.  “The dangers posed by a diploma mill are real,” says University of Illinois Professor George Gollin, who has studied the problem for years.  “It is bad enough that persons using fake degrees obtain undeserved status or swindle unwitting victims, but there is a real danger when phony physicians treat the sick, untrained engineers design bridges or teachers with purchased credentials instruct our children.” Phony degree scam exposed – The Toronto Star

Typical Resume Embellishments

  • Inflated titles
  • Inaccurate dates to cover up job-hopping or gaps in employment
  • Half-finished degrees, inflated education or “purchased” degrees
  • Inflated Salaries
  • Inflated Accomplishments
  • Out-and-out lies regarding specific roles and duties

The significance of tweaking a resume, inventing employment histories or qualifications varies. The shape of offences also varies. A number of instances simply involve ‘enhancement’ of a legitimate curriculum vitae, putting a positive spin on a job description. Others involve omitting or inventing information for a job application, presumably with the hope that the qualifications will not be checked or omissions identified. Some individuals comprehensively manufacture their qualifications, employment histories and conveniently forget about past employers who would make poor referees or occupations that do not fit perceptions of the prospective employer’s job profile.

There are websites that can help verify accredited learning facilities, such as Wikipedia’s List of Unaccredited Institutions of Higher Learning.  This can be time consuming and you don’t know how accurate or up-to-date these types of lists are. Outsourcing to a professional employment screening company is a good option. Reputable companies such as ISB Canada that specialize in this business will have databases of educational facilities with the proper addresses, phone numbers and even some email addresses.

The information required for a typical education verification is;

  1. Full name of applicant, including maiden name if married after schooling
  2. Educational facility and location
  3. Degree or level reached (Department)
  4. Years attended
  5. SIN Number and/or Student Number
  6. Candidate signed consent form

We would then go through a proprietary process to authenticate the educational facility, location and phone number for the registrar’s office. Some facilities will verify information over the phone while others will require a signed consent to be sent in. It is important to verify the phone number for the registrar as in some cases if an educational facility is being fabricated, a friend or paid service could be manning the phones ready to verify the false information. The process is completed by experience reference takers who have completed thousands of education verifications and can detect a problem situation early.

If you require transcripts, class standings or grades unfortunately you must also be aware, the old analogy of ‘the actions of a few’. Recently, the story broke when a York University student not only ‘used fake transcripts from St. George’s University in Grenada to get into Osgoode Hall in 2006, her marks earned at the law school were inflated on transcripts she tendered to law firm Wildeboer Dellelce LLP.’  Fake degree costs woman articling job on Bay St. - Toronto Star

The best way to control this is to have the transcript come directly from the registrar’s office to the employment background company and then to your HR person. There is a fee applied from the university to obtain a transcript and this will vary between institutions.  To verify a degree or attendance, there is usually no fee however an employment background company will charge for labour time, as this process can take anywhere from a few hours to three days involving multiple phone conversations, knowing who and where to call and faxing of authorizations.

In conclusion as long as there is competition and educational requirements in the workforce, the problem of falsified or embellished degrees will continue to exist. We here at ISB hope we have made you more aware by enabling you with the knowledge to protect your business, question those credentials, degrees and verify everything so you will have employees who they say they are.

Famous Quote

‘An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all’…………….Socrates

Did you know 1 in 10 Canadians has a criminal record…Who are you hiring, can you even ask?

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Did you know that you can obtain a criminal background search on any potential new hire, transfer, high risk security personnel or for a required program such as Customs Trade Partners Against Terrorism program, C-TPAT.

Criminal records in Canada are acquired though CPIC (Canadian Police Information Center). This massive database which is managed by the RCMP is only available to the police, citizens looking for their own record or by professional employment background screening companies.  Provincial motor vehicle offences are not available through a criminal record search. Only criminal convictions such as impaired driving are listed. To access motor vehicle offence records you would have to run a provincial driver’s abstract.

The question you will want to ask all potential hires is; ‘Have you ever been convicted or found guilty of a criminal offence for which a pardon has not been granted?’  You can only hope they answer truthfully. In fact, 53% of people lie in some way during a hiring process, according to research from the Society for Human Resource Managers.  They do so because they know employers fail to take the time to verify information.  

‘When can you request a candidate’s consent to a criminal record search?’ After you have chosen the potential candidate based on their resume or passing your entry level process.  At that point, you can make a conditional offer where part of the condition is the successful completion of a criminal background check.

‘Will I intimidate potential new hires by incorporating a criminal background check into our hiring procedures?’  A criminal background check is actually not taboo but expected today by potential candidates.  Often when this hiring process is left out, it leaves one to wonder if the employer is concerned about their employee and client’s safety and if they can really offer a safe work environment.

‘I don’t want to add too much cost to the hiring process.’ Industry statistics suggest that the cost of a poor hiring decision averages between 4 and 8 times the employee’s annual salary.  For a hard-working small business, a bad hire can be very significant and can even lead to the downfall of the business.  

 There are several other benefits to running a criminal background check;

  • Reduce the risk of vicarious liability – running a criminal background check on all hires significantly reduces those that are high risk and could potentially pose a threat to fellow employees
  • Business Reputation – a business’s success and reputation is only as good as your employees
  • Knowing who you are hiring – are they a drug dealer, do they have identity theft charges or are they a professional thief? Are you putting your business at risk of being a target for those interested in accessing your proprietary processes, data or sabotage?

The ‘Consent to Disclose’ police form is supplied by the police agency to the employment background screening company.  This form will require you to physically see the candidate and they must provide required photo ID to verify their identity.  It should clearly state the name of the employment background screening company you are dealing with.  If not, that should be a red flag something is not right.  You do not want 3rd parties having unauthorized access to personal information where you could be held liable.

‘What do you do if a potential employee says he has no criminal record but the results from the screening company states otherwise?’  Federal privacy legislation states that if you make a decision that affects an individual, they must be given an opportunity to refute it.  To ensure an error has not been made, have the candidate go to a local police station and supply a finger print to verify their identity. The police should then issue a certified letter to the potential employer stating either clear or record found.  Access to this certified letter must be limited to the police and the hiring company only to eliminate any opportunity for alterations by the candidate.

‘What about being able to check for pending charges on an applicant?’ Unfortunately, there is no central database for people not convicted of a criminal offence.  Innocent until proven guilty is the rule and we as a professional Canadian background screening company are very aware of promoting processes that are not a ‘best practice’.  Human rights laws currently do not protect a candidate who is only charged and not convicted but you run the risk of a discrimination action by the candidate as they may be proven innocent and you turned them down for a job.  Civil litigation searches can be run if you know the specific court the offence was heard in otherwise there are hundreds to search therefore the process would be deemed  impractical for the purposes of employment background screening, with the immense time and cost involved.

 Human Rights do come into play on the ‘use’ of a criminal record and this varies provincially as follows:

In Ontario, NW Territories, Nunavut, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta employers may refuse employment for any criminal record. Whereas in BC, PEI, Quebec and the Yukon you cannot discriminate against a candidate for having a criminal record unless it directly relates to the position in question.  For example, you can turn down a candidate for a financial call center position if you found they had a prior identity theft conviction.

Should you require more information, we would be pleased to answer your questions directly by contacting ISB Canada. We also invite your comments or suggestions on future blogs. We sincerely hope you find value in visiting ISB-U and thank you for stopping by.

ISB Canada suggests you seek legal advice if you have an area of concern as it pertains to criminal records or the hiring guidelines in your area.

National Association of Professional Background Screeners Seats First Background Screening Credentialing Council

MORRISVILLE, NC, JUNE 2, 2009 – The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®)  announces that it has named 11 members to its inaugural Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) and has elected its officers. Members of the inaugural Council include:

  • Catherine Aldrich (Accurate Background Inc.)
  • Bruce Berger (CARCO Group Inc.)
  • Barry Boes (Accio Data)
  • William (Bill) Bower (Contemporary Information Corp.)
  • Jon Burton (LexisNexis)
  • Micheal Damm (ISB Canada)
  • Noelle Harling  (Frasco Inc.)
  • Kevin Klimas (Clarifacts Inc.)
  • Larry Lambeth (Employment Screening Services Inc.)
  • Jason Morris (employeescreenIQ)
  • Karen Slaughter (Prime Time Research Inc.)

 

Officers are Bruce Berger, chair; Noelle Harling, vice chair; and Catherine Aldrich, treasurer. Members of the BSCC are responsible for managing the business and affairs of NAPBS’ Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP), which advances professionalism in the employment screening industry through the promotion of best practices, awareness of legal compliance and development of standards that protect consumers. The BSCC will provide regular status reports to NAPBS regarding all credentialing activities, including an annual review of all accreditation standards. The Council will propose changes in the standards that reflect best practices in consumer reporting and will review challenges of alleged non-compliance with standards for accredited Credit Reporting Agencies and propose appropriate probation periods and/or sanctions.

 “As one of our key goals, the BSCC will oversee the application and selection process for the BSAAP Beta Test, in preparation for full rollout later this year,” said Bruce Berger, chair of BSCC. “The Council will work with applicant staff and NAPBS consultants to select five participant sites that provide a diverse cross-section of the potential applicant pool, including small, medium and large Credit Reporting Agencies. Feedback from Beta Test participants will help to ensure a successful launch of the BSAAP by ensuring that the processes and procedures developed to properly administrate the program are fair and functional, and that they provide appropriate assistance to the accreditation applicants.

 “NAPBS created the BSCC to ensure that firms seeking accreditation meet or exceed a measurable standard of competence in the areas of integrity, security, consumer privacy and legal compliance, which are crucial components to our association’s goals to promote, develop, educate and further the professional background screening industry.” said Tracy Seabrook, CAE, executive director of NAPBS.

 About NAPBS

The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) is the leading national resource for issues related to the rapidly expanding background screening industry. Founded in 2003 as a nonprofit trade association, the NAPBS promotes ethical business practices and fosters awareness of privacy rights and consumer protection issues. It is the foremost leader in the movement toward establishing generally accepted and reliable standards for background screening professionals and organizations. Now representing 729 member companies in the US and internationally, NAPBS is active in public affairs and presents a unified voice for the industry in the development of national, state, and local regulation. It advances industry objectives by providing a national infrastructure, organizational support, strong branding, and a forum for an open exchange of ideas. It also sponsors research on front-burner issues relevant to the industry; for example, consumer disputes and screening for terrorists. The NAPBS has also unveiled an accreditation program for NAPBS members, exhibited at conferences of human resources professionals and other related industries.