The Worst Employees
These employees seem to cause or attract trouble wherever they go. The problems can be mild like the chronic troublemaker who always seems to have a hard time getting to work on time because the car had a flat tire or there was an “accident”. Then there is the extreme employee who can cause physical and financial harm.

Employers can avoid the “worst employees of the year” by having solid recruiting practices in place. This should include using a professional pre-employment screening firm such as Accu-Screen, Inc. The careful screen of an employee can reveal many inconsistencies and allow an employer to make a solid and informed hiring decision.

When you use the services provided by Accu-Screen, Inc. you can avoid hiring employees who are:

* Violent
* Lazy
* Unskilled
* Liars
* Criminal
* Problematic

The worst employees awards

If there was an award for the “worst employees of the year”, these employees would win hands down:

The violent employee

This violent employee should be avoided at all costs. This type of employee does not work well with others and may cause harm to fellow employees and other persons they come into contact with at work.

The lazybones employee

This type of employee will come to work, do as little work as possible and complain all day long about how much work they do. This type of employee is generally unproductive and likes to spend a good part of the day socializing. This employee acts busy when the boss is around, but will go from cubicle to cubicle at the first opportunity.

Unskilled workers

Several kinds of employees can be categorized under unskilled employees. This employee will usually embellish his or her skills during an interview to land a job.

The lack of skill is readily apparent once this person is asked to perform the tasks in the position. Unfortunately by then they could have caused minor or very serious damage to a business, fellow employees, clients or patients.

Liars

Watch out for fake licenses, credentials, references and even bogus degrees from this employee. They are also known to outright steal someone else’s identity in order to get a job.

Criminal

Some job seekers with a criminal past will lie about it on their resume′or application.

These employees range from petty criminals to violent offenders. Regardless of the criminal record, an employer should be aware of this prior to making a job offer. Keep in mind that an employer is responsible for his or her employee’s behavior while on the clock.

Problematic employees

* The “Finagle’s Law” employee who is always the victim of an elaborate chain of events that prevents them from being at work on time, coming back from lunch on time and requires them to leave early.
* The “sufferer” who always works harder and longer than everyone else. This employee also refuses to take a lunch or a break because they just have so much work to do. This wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t spend half of their time letting everyone know how “overworked or busy” they are.
* The “saboteur” You can’t turn your back on this employee because she is eyeing your job. This employee makes it difficult for an employer to do their job because of the time, energy and effort involved in managing this employee.

If an award for the worst employee of the year were being given, any of these employees would easily receive it. Employers make sure you don’t end up with these “winners”.

The BP oil spill has certainly resulted in quite a mess that needs cleaning up. But, the mess goes much farther than the spill itself. At least one very serious legal issue has arisen as a result of a lack of pre-employment screening.

According to reports, one Rundy Charles Robertson, 41, a temporary worker hired to work on the oil spill cleanup, raped a coworker – a woman on the crew he was supervising. Turns out the victim was working side-by-side with a convicted sex offender.

Robertson, with a criminal record dating back to 1991, a 1996 conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and a 2003 conviction for cruelty to children, was hired by an employment firm contracted by an environmental firm working for BP to provide cleanup workers. Now, everyone’s playing “pass the buck.”

BP hired the Miller Environmental Group, who hired Aerotek, the staffing agency, to provide workers for the cleanup. Aerotek did not perform background checks on the employees it hired for the job. One witness even said that potential workers were applying for jobs with house-arrest collars on. Aerotek claims that it did not require background checks because they were not required in their contract with Miller. However, they did start requiring checks about three weeks after the fact, per Miller’s request.

Aerotek claims it is not responsible because it was only following the guidelines Miller required. BP claims they are not responsible because they entrusted Miller with the task. Is Miller responsible?

Ultimately, someone will be held legally and financially responsible for not performing background checks on individuals hired to work on the BP cleanup. Sure, Robertson, if convicted, will serve time for his crime.

But, neither a jail sentence for Robertson, nor reparations made by any or all of the companies involved will eliminate the fact that a woman has been brutalized.

A simple background check would have uncovered Robertson’s criminal history and excluded him from employment.

Who’s responsible?

As the economy slides closer to recession and the job market tightens, the inclination might be to inflate your credentials and your work experience in order to impress potential employers. If you’re feeling the pressure to pump up your profile, you’re not alone. Research shows when times get tough jobseekers are more inclined to exaggerate—or even outright lie.

RESUME FALSIFICATION
Accu-Screen, a leading employment background screening company that has been keeping records on resume falsification for 14 years, has noticed spikes correlate with economic downturns and weak labor markets. Currently, Accu-Screen is seeing an increase across the board of the most common incidences of lying on resumes.

The top seven resume lies, according to firm data, are:

• Job title (rank)
• Dates of employment
• Inflated salary
• Criminal records
• Education (e.g., bogus degrees or degrees from diploma mills)
• Professional license
• “Ghost” company (self-owned business)

STRETCHING THE TRUTH
Exactly how do jobseekers enhance their experience? Consider job titles as an example. There’s a tendency toward what Accu-Screen calls self-promotion.

In this case, self-promotion isn’t about marketing yourself, which is generally viewed as positive. Instead, self-promotion means something altogether different, as in bestowing bigger and better—and unearned—job titles.

WHAT’S THE REASONING BEHIND JOB TITLE LIES?
Jobseekers typically inflate job titles in order to apply for more senior positions, with the thought that those positions offer more prestige and higher salaries. However, job titles aren’t only about status and income, at least from the employer side. Employers equate job titles with experience, skills, and, in some instances, credentials.

THINK IT DOESN’T MATTER ALL THAT MUCH?
Accu-Screen shares a well-publicized story, reported in The New York Times this summer, of a man who posed as a doctor and caused brain damage to a patient while administering anesthetic. It’s an extreme example, to be sure, but the potential for error exists in any job for which a person isn’t qualified.

Education is another area where people frequently lie. Jobseekers may claim to have gone to a school, usually a top-notch university, they never attended. In other instances, they are self-graduators; that is, they attended a particular school but never completed the degree requirements and nevertheless claim they have a degree.

Kevin Connell, CEO and founder of Accu-Screen, finds this lie particularly ironic because not all jobs require college degrees. “The message to job applicants is to, number one, find out what the position requires,” Connell says.

THE QUESTION HE RECOMMENDS ASKING IS: DOES IT NEED A DEGREE?
Even if a position requires a college degree and the jobseeker lacks the credential, Connell advises against falsification. He has seen many job offers rescinded—not for lack of college degrees, but because the applicants lied.

TEMPTED TO INFLATE
It’s very easy for companies to check employment history, educational background, and criminal history. What’s more, employers let jobseekers know they will be performing these background checks www.Check4Jobs.com Business Manager Claire Brown confirms that today a majority of employers perform background checks, and that notification is standard procedure.

STILL, MANY JOBSEEKERS ARE DISHONEST.
In fact, Accu-Screen finds resume falsification is a bigger problem than has been previously reported. According to the company’s data, 43 percent of all resumes and job applications contain falsifications. And it’s not only desperate jobseekers who fabricate experience and credentials. “I’ve seen applicants lie when they don’t have to,” Connell says.

WHY WOULD JOBSEEKERS DO THIS?
The intent is to set themselves apart from other applicants, says Connell. In addition, many jobseekers are able to rationalize the behavior. In the case of a college degree, for example, they tell themselves they plan to go back to school and graduate. Nevertheless, good intentions are not accomplishments. Resume falsifications are dishonest, Connell says, and grounds for disqualification.

THE FEAR FACTOR
Lying on a resume or job application carries risk. The most obvious one is that the lie will be uncovered and the jobseeker won’t be hired; or, if already hired, the employee will be dismissed.

But there’s another potential pitfall to being dishonest. Falsifying education, experience or skills means the person might not have what it takes to do the job.

Connell gives the example of customer service representatives. “I see people put themselves down as customer service manager or vice president of customer service,” he says. “If somebody says they’re a manager, there’s a belief [on the part of employers] they’ve gone through management training.”

It may seem harmless enough, but what happens if there’s a situation on the job that requires management expertise, like a sexual harassment charge? “If you don’t have training, you’re in a dangerous position,” Connell says, indicating there may be personal liability.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Instead of falsifying credentials, Connell recommends that jobseekers try to stand out in other ways to separate themselves from the competition. He says his company is hiring people right now, and he tells of how one applicant took the time to mail a handwritten thank-you note. “That’s the type of thing to separate yourself,” Connell says. “Do a little thing like that to make yourself stand out.”

He also recommends choosing resume writing services with caution, indicating there are a lot of bad ones out there.Regardless of who prepares the resume, he advises a jobseeker to be actively involved in the process. “Look at your resume and really scrutinize it,” Connell says.
Proofread for errors and content, but also determine what the document is saying. Put yourself in the employer’s position as you’re doing this. You want to make sure you’re zoning in with laser-target precision on the job you want, Connell says.

Which raises a major, often overlooked point with regard to resume falsification. Jobseekers, rather than lie about your experience and credentials, why not go after a job for which you’re actually qualified? What’s more, why not follow your passion?

If this means working your way up while finishing your education, so be it. Showing pursuit of education on a resume can be very attractive to a potential employer, and the hiring organization may even cover the cost of your education.

Connell recommends looking for a job in the most honest and forthright manner possible, and today this doesn’t only mean presenting yourself via resume or job application.

KEEPING IT HONEST
Jobseekers now have online identities, thanks to business and social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook. Although some of these sites are designed to connect with friends, Connell advises jobseekers to still examine what they’re saying about themselves. “Up to two-thirds of hiring managers have googled applicants, and they’re looking at MySpace pages,” he says.

This brings up another potential stumbling block to employment. A hiring manager may find someone else with the same name and similar credentials online and, if that person’s background is questionable, disqualify you. Or, as Connell points out, in rare instances, someone may have created a fake profile of you online. A British businessman was recently the victim of a fake Facebook page that threatened his reputation. He ultimately sued for libel and won.

In other words, it’s not only the lies jobseekers tell about themselves that can hinder a job search. Due diligence with regard to potentially false associations and accusations is also required. The message for jobseekers, then, comes down to this: Your reputation is yours to control.

AND THAT JOB OPPORTUNITY YOU SEEK?
IT’S YOURS TO WIN—OR LOSE.

Article taken from http://www.onrec.com/news/embellishing_your_work_experience

Who are you allowing in your House?

Sue Weaver contacted a major department store to have her air ducts cleaned. She didn’t know they were sending a twice-convicted sex offender into her home–and that he would later rape and murder her.

Her sister started a nonprofit organization to raise awareness about this little-known danger. The Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E. was created to promote Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment:

Here are a few other victims, courtesy of the Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E. website:

• Dr. Kim Fang, a plastic surgeon, was murdered by ex-convict Mesa Kasem (and an accomplice) while working as a delivery man for an auction house. Kasem’s first conviction–for firearms offenses–was when he was 17. He was also a gang member. There was no background check.

• Melissa Danielle Jennings was murdered by the apartment complex maintenance man, Calvin Oliver–a convicted rapist. Oliver’s criminal record, spanning almost 20 years, included armed robbery, burglary, robbery by force and credit card fraud. At the time that he was hired by the apartment complex, TGM Ashley Lakes Inc., there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest on theft check charges. He is sentenced to life in prison for murder. There was no background check.

• Mary Ruth Bales, 80, was beaten to death in her home by an ex-convict, Wesley Purkey, who was working as a plumber. He had spent the last 25 years in prison for various violent felonies, including aggravated robbery, burglary, assault and kidnapping. There was no background check.

• Dr. Kerry Spooner-Dean, a pediatrician, was robbed and stabbed to death in her home by Jerrol Woods. When hired by America’s Best Carpet Care, Woods was on parole following a 12-year prison sentence for armed robbery. He had multiple robbery convictions dating back more than 30 years. He was convicted for life without parole. There was no background check.

• Ramona Jean Williamson was strangled to death by Fred Furnish, an employee of Tech Dry. After killing Mrs. Williamson, Furnish used her debit cards to withdraw money from her bank accounts. Furnish had several convictions in Kentucky and Indiana for theft, burglary, receiving stolen money by fraud, and assaulting a prison guard prior to being hired by Tech Dry. There was no background check.

• Terina Ferminick, a minister’s wife, was raped and stabbed to death in the rectory by carpet cleaner, Giles Nadey. He had two previous felony convictions. There was no background check.

We talked to Kevin Connell, founder and CEO of Accu-Screen, Inc., a background screening agency, and author of Background Checks for the Job: What Every Job Applicant, Employee and Employer Needs to Know About Them Right Now, for tips on keeping yourself and your family safe.

• Ask the company if they run criminal background checks on their employees. “Many times, they’ll say they’re bonded and insured,” he says. “But this just means you might get your money back if the employee steals something. It doesn’t mean they run a criminal background check.”

• If a company doesn’t run background checks, don’t do business with them. Otherwise, you could be unwittingly letting a criminal or murderer into your home. Criminals often use service jobs to find their next victims. Connell says that in prison, they often teach criminals trades like plumbing or duct-cleaning that will later bring them into people’s homes.

• It is always a good idea to have another adult in the house when any kind of service is being done. “Invite a friend or neighbor over for coffee, or make sure your husband is there,” says Connell. “If a lot of people are coming in and out, a criminal might be deterred.”

• Don’t think your children are going to protect you. “Attackers often threaten to harm the children if the woman doesn’t do what he wants,” Connell warns. “They use kids against you.”

• Do not hesitate to say “no” if you do not feel safe when the worker arrives. Tell the person an emergency has come up and you’ll have to reschedule.

Have you ever felt unsafe with a service worker in your home?