Transcript Powerpoint

Chapter Nine
Employment Related Security
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Need For Employment Related Security
◦ Employee Related Security includes “Background
Investigations” which also includes:
 Pre-Employment Screening
 Drug Testing
 Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
 Fingerprints
 Employee Monitoring
 Employee Misconduct Investigations
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Employment Related Security
◦ The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reports the
employer must investigate potential and current
workers of several reasons:
 Negligent Hiring Lawsuits are on the rise
 Current Events have caused an increase in the
need for “Employment Related Security”
 False of inflated information supplied by job
applicants seems to be on the rise
 30-40% of all job applicants include false facts
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Employment Related Security
◦ The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reports the
employer must investigate potential and current
workers of several reasons: (Con’t)
 New federal and state laws require background
checks for certain jobs
 The current information age makes employment
related security and investigations easier to
conduct
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Employment Related Security
◦ Other reasons:
 The current extent of drug usage
 10-20% of the nation’s workers who die on the
job test positive for drugs or alcohol
 10-12% of the workforce in any company abuse
drugs
 50% of job site accidents are caused by illegal
drug use
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Employment Related Security
◦ “Negligent Hiring” means that an employer has
hired someone without properly confirming that the
information on their application is accurate and
factual
◦ Lawsuits can result from:
 Negligence in conducting a background
investigation
 Failing to conduct an investigation
 Hiring with knowledge of a dangerous propensity
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Employment Related Security
◦ If no facts were available before hiring an
employee, but became known during the course of
employment, a case for “Negligent Retention” can
be made
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Employment Related Security
◦ Most large corporations and businesses have their
own proprietary security department that provide a
wide range of security services, including
investigations
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Background Investigations
◦ Background investigations are extremely important
in the workplace and include pre-employment
screening and other background investigations,
including the investigations of vendors, private
contractors, temporary workers and other
companies
◦ The background investigations process for selecting
personnel and evaluating them for the best use of
their employment is called “Vetting”
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Background Investigations
◦ Wackenhut Background Investigations:
 Standard Backgrounds
 Applicant checks are intended for entry level
positions and positions in which no money is
handled
 Driving Records, Civil and Criminal Court
Records, SSN Verification, Credit Reports,
and past Employment Verification
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Background Investigations
◦ Wackenhut Background Investigations:
 Comprehensive Backgrounds
 Applicant checks are intended for higher level
positions and positions that involve handling
money or sensitive information
 Verification of Identity, Education and
professional credentials, contact and
interviews of listed references and exploration
of resumes
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ The ADP Employer Services Hiring Index
 9% of the background checks turned up negative
information or inaccuracies
 5% of criminal records checked had an
infraction
 50% of the employment credential and
education checks uncovered discrepancies
 30% had one conviction on their driving record
 45% had a bankruptcy, judgment, lien or report
to a collection agency
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Other Checks:
 Military Records (DD214)
 Date of entry and separation
 All assignment
 Military records facility
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Other Checks:
 Education
 Educational record checks often a deceptive
applicant with a computer and printer
technology skills can create realistic looking
diplomas
 Have copies of transcripts mail directly to the
employer
 Check State Department of Education
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Other Checks:
 Criminal Records
 Of all the pre-employment selection tools,
criminal records checks are the most common
 93.6% of employers look at criminal records
 91.1% of employers check employment records
 75.2% of employers verify educational records
 71.5% of employers screen for drug use
 145% of employers test for integrity
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ The best place to start:
 Check with the candidates former employer
 Liabilities for defamation
 Focus on what the former employer does not
say
 Ask specific questions rather than general
information
 Ask the same questions for each applicant
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Businesses generally must get written permission
from job applicants to conduct background
investigations through an outside pre-employment
checking agency, but do not need written
permission for checks done by in house staff
◦ When conducting background checks, employers
should be fully aware of all laws related to what
information may be obtained and what is
confidential
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ The Federal “Fair Credit Reporting Act” sets the
national standards for employment screening
 Promotes accuracy and ensure the privacy of the
information used in consumer reports
◦ The “Fair Credit Reporting Act” only applies to
background checks performed by an outside
company (Consumer Reporting Agency)
◦ It does not apply in situations where the employer
itself conducts background checks in house
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Three companies maintain “Consumer Credit
Reports”
 Trans Union
 Experian
 Equifax
 Used by banks and lenders to determine if a
person has strong enough credit to obtain a loan
 Used by potential employers to check an
applicant’s credit history
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ “Consumer Credit Reports” contains:
 Trade Lines (history of all credit accounts)
 Credit Balances
 Highest amount ever owed
 Payment History
 Civil Records and Judgments
 Bankruptcies and Liens
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Whenever a company plans to use a credit report in
a hiring decision, it must follow the requirements of
the “Fair Credit Reporting Act,” which are enforced
by the Federal Trade Commission
 An employer is required to notify the job
candidate of a consumer report will be requested
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ If the company decides to take an adverse action
against the candidate because of the information in
the credit report:
 It must notify the applicant in advance
 Give a copy of the report
 Provide a written explanation of the candidates
rights under the law
 The applicant can then dispute any inaccuracies of
the report
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Many ‘Scam Operations” provide false preemployment background information to prospective
employers
◦ Considering the growing proliferation of “Scam
Operations,” good pre-employment investigations
go beyond the normal methods of checking the
applicant’s backgrounds
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Beyond Normal Methods:
 Verifying employment by checking with the
Human Resources Department of previous
companies or ask for W-2’s
 Verifying the legitimacy of the company itself:
 Local Chamber of Commerce
 Business Reference Books
 State Government’s Corporate Business
Department
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Beyond Normal Methods:
 Sex Offenders
 The Jacob Wetterling Act (1994) required sex
offenders to register
 Megan’s Law (1996) required community
notification
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Beyond Normal Methods:
 Problems Investigating Sex Offenders
 Records are housed in different areas in
different states
 And each state has their own classification and
levels of offenders
 Records can be lost, no national database
 Hurricane Karina
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Polygraphs or Lie Detector Examinations
 Many corporation used polygraphs in preemployment screening and internal investigations
 In 1988 the “Employee Polygraph Protection Act”
prohibited the use of pre-employment polygraph
examinations in the private sector except for
government employers, law enforcement agencies
and certain critical industries
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Pre-Employment Background Screening
◦ Criminal Records
 The Connecticut Attorney General stated the
single most reliable predictor of criminal behavior
is the fact of a prior criminal history
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Other Background Investigations
◦ A company can also be found liable for the actions
of a temporary or contract employee who harms
someone on company property or company time
 Independent contractors
 Vendors
 consultants
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employers that fail to exercise “Due Diligence” in
their hiring practices risk hiring criminals or
unqualified workers, workplace violence, theft or
litigation
◦ Read Recent Court Decisions on Pre-Employment
Background Screening, Page 255
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 Substance abusing workers have been found to
be:
 Less productive
 Higher absenteeism rates
 Higher worker’s compensation claims
 Higher turnover rates
 Higher accident rates
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 The National Household Survey on Drug Use:
 46% of the U.S. population age 12 or older
reported that they had used illicit drugs at least
once in their lifetime
 15% within the previous year
 8% within the last month
 670,000 drug related visits to hospital
emergency rooms
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 Workplace related drug Testing is completely
legal
 The “Federal Drug Free Workplace Act” (1998)
was passed to provide employers and employees
with the right to work in a drug free workplace
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 In order to withstand legal challenges, drug
testing policies must be created fairly and be well
documented, professionally administered and
effectively communicated to employees and
management
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 Reasons for employers to drug test employees:
 Concern over the economic cost of drug abuse
 Fear of liability for injuries caused by employee
drug use
 Belief that drug use increases the amount of
employee theft
 Desire to control the conduct of employees
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 A comprehensive workplace drug testing
program: (Exhibit 9.4, page 257)
 A pre-employment test
 Random test
 Reasonable suspicion test
 Post accident test
 Return to duty test
 Follow up test
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 Traditionally, drug testing has been done by
“Urine Analysis” and was the most common form
of drug testing costing about $35 per person tested
 Drug testing by hair analysis is gaining popularity
 Hair testing detects exposure over prolonged
periods of time
 Drug tests can be performed less frequently
 Read Exhibit 9.5, page 258
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 Although illegal drugs or controlled substances
receive much attention, alcohol is by far the
largest substance abuse problem in society
 The Bureau of National Affairs states that 1 in 12
American workers abuses alcohol (this is double
the number of workers that abuse marijuana,
cocaine and amphetamines combined)
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Employment Related Drug Testing or Screening
 This abuse results in a loss of $9 to $150 billion to
employers per year in:
 Absenteeism
 Tardiness
 Higher health care costs
 Increase accidents at work
 Reduced productivity
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Other Background Investigations
◦ Board of Education v. Earls (2002)
 The Court ruled “testing students who participate
in extracurricular activities is a reasonably
effective means of addressing the school district’s
legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and
detecting drug use”
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Sexual Harassment
◦ “Sexual Harassment” can be defined as
unwarranted and unwelcome sexual attention
 Approximately one-half of all women will be
sexually harassed during the course of their
academic or working lives
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Sexual Harassment
◦ In the 1970s, Courts first acknowledged that
employees were within their rights to sue their
employer when they were subjected to unlawful
sexual harassment in the workplace
◦ The U.S. Supreme Court has held that Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sexual
harassment in the workplace
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Sexual Harassment
◦ The U.S. Supreme Court has decided several cases
on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
 The general rules the Court has established is that
employers can be held liable for both “Actual”
sexual harassment in the workplace and “Hostile
Environment” sexual harassment
 Read Cases on page 263
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Sexual Harassment
◦ The Court has also found that same sex harassment
can create employer liability and declared that
sexual harassment does not differentiate between
genders
 Males could be held liable for sexual harassment
of males and women for women
 The ruling also includes horseplay, all female talk,
racial, religious, ethnic and disability
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Sexual Harassment
◦ Employers, the Court ruled, should clearly define:
 What constitutes harassing behavior
 Reinforce a “Zero Tolerance” response to it
 Outline the range of disciplinary consequences for
harassment
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Sexual Harassment
◦ The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
employer guidelines:
 Establish a sexual harassment policy
 Post the policy
 Investigate all cases promptly
 Offer remedies to injured parties
 Train employees to avoid harassing others
 Create safeguards to prevent incidents of sexual
harassment
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Monitoring Phone Calls
◦ Employers may monitor calls with clients or
customers for reasons of quality control
◦ Federal law allows unannounced monitoring for
business related calls
◦ However, when an employer realizes a call is
personal, they must immediately stop monitoring
the call
◦ Employees can be restricted from making personal
calls and employers can monitor calls to ensure
compliance
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Monitoring Computer Use
◦ Employers can use computer software that enables
them to see what is on the screen or stored in an
employee’s computer terminal and hard disks
◦ Employers can monitor Internet usage, web surfing
and e-mail
 38% of companies read or analyze e-mails
 33% of companies have fired an employee for
violating an e-mail policy
 50% of companies have disciplined employees for
violating an e-mail policy
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