Pre-Employment Background Checks Can Reveal Skeletons Hidden in Applications, Resumes...
San Diego Business Journal, April 2007, By Pat Broderick
Listen up San Diego employers. Here are a few cautionary tales from the crypt that are bound to send chills up your business’ spines.
A biotech company in Torrey Pines was suffering a series of thefts involving its computer hardware.
"There was no evidence to go on," recalled Gordon Schmidt, president of the Carlsbad-based private investigation firm, Palomar Investigative Group, Inc. "We knew it was probably happening at night, so we put surveillance on the building for a few days."
And then, during the wee hours of the night, his investigators cracked the case.
"Our investigator documented the nighttime security supervisor loading his trunk with brand-new HP printers,” said Schmidt, who then ordered a background check on the guard.
"We found out he had a $10,000 warrant out for burglary," Schmidt recalled. "Talk about a breakdown in the system and the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing. He had no business working anywhere as a security guard."
Want more?
Consider this local applicant for a job fighting fires. A background check showed that he had recently been cited for tossing a cigarette out of his car window.
"We thought this was pretty ironic," said Schmidt.
Then there was the case of a fellow who had applied for a job with one of Schmidt’s clients, who works with children in the entertainment industry. The applicant was a registered sex offender.
Most companies that engage in employee background checks have their own stash of horror stories to tell, but those businesses actually ordered the screenings. What about those that don't?
"Pedophiles look for work," said Robert Mather, Chief Executive Officer of Redding-based Pre-employ.com Inc., MyBackgroundCheck.com and Past-Employ.com, "very few employers will knowingly hire a child molester."
But, Mather said, he encounters children’s sports leagues all the time that don’t run background checks on volunteers.