Employment Screening Blog

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?

When I recently, and perhaps unwisely, signed up to do the Anthem Fight For Air Stair Climb in what may well be the tallest building in Colorado, the Republic Plaza in downtown Denver on February 28th, I was told it will be 1,098 stairs. I find myself asking, how long does it take to climb 1,098 stairs?

Like the rhetorical question of yester year asked us of the wise old owl, I think it is left to the unknown, left to feed the imagination, incalculable because the variances are so great.  If you are a science nerd, maybe you can come close by estimating distance, elevation, temperature, fitness…..Hhmmm.

But how does insanity factor into this? The true question is how stable must a person be to take on a task like this? And does this mental instability play into the time it takes to accomplish it? Hhhmmmm, another head scratcher.

In all seriousness, I chose to do the 56 floor stair climb because it supports a good cause – The American Lung Association. And I am grateful to have the lungs to do it.

At Info Cubic we are committed to community outreach. I feel lucky to be part of an organization that believes in giving back to the community. It is something I was raised with, and have continued to do my whole life. To have the opportunity for my philanthropic behavior to spill over into my work life is also something I am truly grateful for.

So, I’ll lace up my sneakers and hit the stairs. Still in the interim it goes round in my head, how long will this take? An hour? I’ve never done anything like this, 20 minutes?  What will slow me down? What will speed me up? I guess I’ll just continue pondering and wearing down my Tootsie Roll Tootsie pop one lick at a time ……

Stay tuned, the results will be posted in our next newsletter.

Info Cubic had a fantastic time exhibiting at the 2010 Colorado Human Resources Association Conference that was held this year at Mile High Invesco Field. 

It was great seeing some old friends and making many new ones and we look forward to returning in 2011.

Please join us in congratulating Info Cubic’s winner of the iPod Nano, Ms. Lori Palmer from the Arapahoe House – Congratulations Lori!

Interesting news from the wall street journal. I am glad we are here and can help.

U.S. job seekers are crashing into the worst employment market in years and background checks that reach deeper than ever into their pasts.

The result: a surge of people seeking to legally clear their criminal records.

In Michigan, state police estimate they’ll set aside 46% more convictions this year than last. Oregon is on track to set aside 33% more. Florida sealed and expunged nearly 15,000 criminal records in the fiscal year ended June 30, up 43% from the previous year. The courts of Cook County, which includes Chicago and nearby suburbs, received about 7,600 expungement requests in the year’s first three quarters, nearly double the pace from the year before.

Read more…

When Matthew Baken was offered a management internship with a construction company last winter, there was just one caveat: He had to pass a background check. No problem, thought the 26-year-old college student from Rogers.

He had no clue that a former boss would bring up an injury Baken suffered on the job two years earlier — information that is supposed to be private. The former employer told the screening company that Baken suffers from a preexisting back injury that is not work-related. That statement, which is contradicted by documents relating to Baken’s workers’ compensation claim in 2007, cost him the internship.

“I was mad because this is wrong,” Baken said. “I was wondering how it could even be in [the report].”Baken has been worried that the statement would show up in future background checks, possibly ruining his chances of getting a job in his field. He even considered whether it was worthwhile to stay in college.

Jenny O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industry, said workers’ compensation information is private. State law, she noted, allows individuals to take action against a former employer for purposely providing false and defamatory information and acting “with malicious intent” to harm the employee.“The employee may have a civil recourse against the employer for including that information,” O’Brien said.

Whistleblower contacted Baken’s former employer, Final Choice Builders Inc. of Monticello, which is run by Carrie and Scott Smieja. They declined to comment.

Surprised by background check’s content Baken was at a job site in January 2007 when he felt pain shoot down his leg. “It wasn’t going away and it was getting worse,” he said.A physical examination revealed several damaged discs, and the clinic classified the injury as work-related. It was the first time Baken was diagnosed with back problems. He went back to the job but was told not to lift more than 10 pounds or do other strenuous work that would reignite the problem, his medical records show. Final Choice Builders’ insurance company approved his workers’ compensation claim.

Over the next five months, Baken went to physical therapy every week, but he quit his job in June 2007 to pursue a degree in construction management at North Hennepin Community College. He wanted to avoid the kind of physical labor that caused his back and leg pain.

In February, Baken was thrilled when he was offered an internship with a construction firm. But as the scheduled April start of the internship approached, the would-be employer told Baken there were some concerns about the background check. After getting a copy, Baken was stunned to see that Final Choice Builders had reported that he “claimed an existing back injury was work related.”

“I thought this was on my permanent record,” Baken said. “I didn’t know what to do.”After Baken inquired, the construction company told him the job offer was off the table because the firm didn’t “have time to dig in and get to the bottom” of the situation.

Kevin Spang, CEO of Verified Credentials, Inc., the Lakeville company that ran the background check on Baken, said his company must verify any disputed information under federal law.

“If they cannot provide [documentation] to me, it is immediately extracted from the report, never to be seen again,” Spang said. “At that point, a new report is immediately sent to the employer.” Spang said information for background checks is never reused.

Baken didn’t know he had a right to dispute the background check until he was informed by Whistleblower. He plans to get his information corrected and maybe even reapply at the construction company.

“Life’s a learning experience,” he said. “You have to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. All I wanted was my chance to get it right.”

By LORA PABST, Star Tribune

Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/54024942.html?page=2&c=y

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A University employee, working as a computer specialist with access to student Social Security numbers, continued to work in the Registrar’s Office for almost a year despite facing a felony theft by deception charge that in April resulted in a guilty plea yielding a 10-year prison term.

William Ora Mullen accepted a plea deal on April 28, the same day he submitted his letter of resignation to the University.

But, it was not until May 6, nearly a week after the plea and 10 months after he was originally charged, that the University learned the details behind Mullen’s sudden resignation. Mullen informed the Office of Legal Affairs of his guilty plea, and within hours Registrar Rebecca Macon removed his access to University servers and databases, and had all passwords changed.

“When he notified us [of the conviction], we took him out of the office and we were done with him,” Tom Jackson, vice president of Public Affairs, told The Red & Black. “According to Rebecca Macon he used some vacation hours but was not in the office once he reported the violation.”

At that point, the University was in scramble mode. Mullen was given half sick days on May 6 and 8 and full sick days on May 11 and 12. On May 7, Macon accepted Mullen’s vague resignation letter.

In it, Mullen wrote “this decision is unfortunately not of my own choosing and is necessary considering my current situation.”

On May 12, what was to be his final day working at the University, he reported to Habersham County Detention Center to begin serving his sentence.

***

By all accounts, Bill Mullen was a model citizen at his previous job, the Cornelia-based Habersham Metal Products. He was an IT manager responsible for managing the company’s servers, purchasing and strategic planning. But according to Habersham County Superior Court documents, he was accused of using a fictitious online company called Rappaccini-Ga. to obtain payments by “deceitful means” from Habersham Metal starting in August 2005.

According to the court documents obtained by The Red & Black, Mullen sold the company’s products and fraudulent or useless software licensing agreements to Rappaccini-Ga. from Aug. 1, 2005 to March 31, 2008.

“He misappropriated property and misappropriated funds during his employment,” Habersham County District Attorney Brian M. Rickman said in a statement. Court records said the case involved “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

During a raid of Mullen’s home in July 2008, police seized motor vehicles, guns, computer equipment and even a forklift. Among the vehicles seized were an older model Jaguar, a Pontiac Fiero, a Ford Taurus SHO and a GMC pickup truck.

When Mullen applied to the University in February 2008 to be an IT Professional Specialist, court documents state he was still in the midst of deceiving Habersham Metal. On his University job application, Mullen asked UGA officials not to contact Habersham Metal as a reference.

According to Jackson, “two different people [at Habersham Metal] were contacted and they answered numerous questions and one of the questions we always ask is, ‘is he eligible for rehire’ and they both answered ‘yes.’”

Derek Stapleton, Mullen’s supervisor at Habersham Metal, refused to comment when contacted by The Red & Black and referred all questions to a statement issued by Rickman.

Mullen was hired as IT manager in the Registrar’s Office on March 5, 2008.

“[Mullen] was in charge of the servers and he did have access to everything on those servers, which included [student] Social Security numbers,” Jackson said.

When asked if he was concerned about the possibility Mullen may have copied Social Security numbers, Jackson said there was no immediate evidence indicating any wrongdoing while Mullen was employed by the University.

“The University has run two audits – one by IT and one by internal auditing – looking at what was on the servers, as well as purchases to make sure our inventory was right and the purchases had been done in the proper manner and we found no problems with that,” Jackson said. “All I can say is that we have no reason to believe he accessed them. We have no evidence to believe that he did.”

And for nearly three years, Habersham Metal didn’t either.

***

On July 23, 2008, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Habersham County Police executed a search warrant of Mullen’s Mount Airy home and the next day placed him under arrest. He was released on bond the following day. The University was unaware of his incarceration, as 2008 documents show Mullen took sick days on July 24, 25 and 28.

Mullen also took a sick day on April 28, the day he pled guilty to felony theft by deception.

An August 2008 evaluation revealed his work performance was affected.

Two weeks following Mullen’s arrest, Associate Registrar Rosemary Segreti made note of his overall performance, which she checked “meets expectations.”

“Bill is a valued employee of the office,” she wrote. “He is responsive to needs of the office. He has good work ethic and gets along with everyone. … if it weren’t for the recent unreliabilty of Bill’s attendance and perceptions by staff of unresponsiveness, this rating would probably be exceeds [expectations].”

Three months later, he was in trouble again, this time with the University. NBC Universal sent a letter to the University’s Enterprise Information Technology Services stating a copyright infringement associated with Mullen’s access to the UGA Network was discovered. Mullen was accused of illegally downloading a movie trailer of “Flash of Genius” from the BitTorrent Web site mininova.org. Mullen apologized, but was found in violation of the University’s Code of Conduct and suspended for three days without pay.

In a letter from Segreti to Mullen informing him of his suspension, she wrote, “[Mullen] has been reminded that as a staff member in a position of trust he is to serve as a pristine example for staff with regards to following the University’s Use of Computers Policy.”

Yet when asked whether Mullen was in a position of trust, Jackson responded: “No, he’s not. Not by our definitions.”

***

On Jan. 1, 2008, the University became the final institution in the University System of Georgia to implement background checks on new employees and to require employees to self-report arrests and convictions.

The policy requires all employees and most non-student employees to report an arrest within 72 hours and a conviction within 24 hours to the OLA. Mullen violated both of those stipulations. The University did a background check on Mullen before he started work in 2008, but the check was done four months before he was charged.

But even after he reported his conviction and impending jail sentence, he was not sent home, according to his personnel file.

On the day he reported the violation, May 6, he was given the afternoon off, but worked May 7.

In an e-mail from Macon to Mullen on May 6, she wrote, “… [E]ffective immediately, you cannot have access to any databases. [Associate Registrar] Rosemary [Segreti] is removing all access at this time and changing all passwords to our servers and databases. There are other duties you be able to perform until your last day on May 12, 2009.”

When asked to comment, Macon referred The Red & Black to Jackson to make all comments regarding Mullen.

In an e-mail dated May 7, Arthur Leed, associate director for Legal Affairs, wrote he would “certainly have no problem with sending [Mullen] home.”

Of Mullen’s 10-year sentence, two years will be served behind bars and the remaining eight years may be served on probation. He cannot contact Habersham Metal, and is ordered to pay restitution – which is yet to be determined.

Mullen wasn’t the first felon found to work at the University.

Cecil Fore III, a former associate professor and graduate coordinator in the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education, was fired Oct. 24 after the OLA learned he lied on his application. In 1991, Fore was convicted on multiple counts of second-degree sodomy and one count of second-degree sexual abuse against three special education students in junior high schools in Montgomery, Ala., according to court documents. When Fore was hired, UGA did not conduct background checks.

He served time in an Alabama prison from 1991 to 1993. Yet Fore’s curriculum vitae stated he taught special education in Alabama schools from 1979 to 1992.

While a case such as Fore’s would be caught in a background check, cases such as Mullen’s are more difficult to uncover. Jackson said a number of employees have reported arrests, and it would be difficult to find out about arrests outside the Athens-Clarke County area.

“Unless you are going to run a Google-arrest reports over the entire employee database, it would be virtually impossible,” Jackson said. “We have local police records but if it happens in a distant place, we may or may not be aware of it. Clearly he lied to the University about what was going on. Most times we are aware, and most times people do report [arrests]. We have had people report felony arrests and convictions.

“In general, you trust people when you are hiring them, you do the best background check that you can, through previous employers, but someone determined to be dishonest can get around the system at times.”

Source: http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2009/07/09/News/Uga-Employee.Kept.Working.Despite.Facing.Felony.Theft.Charge-3751016.shtml

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When a Brazilian nanny started moving from house to house, stealing checks from her Westchester, N.Y., and Greenwich employers, and even showing up at a local day care to pick up a child after having been fired, Greenwich police put a stop to her crime spree.

But police said the criminal nanny is a prime example of how residents need to protect themselves when hiring an in-house employee, particularly one in charge of watching children.

“She bounced from job to job, and along the way she committed a crime at each stop,” said Detective Pasquale Iorfino. “When you allow someone into your house, you should know who they are.”

Police arrested the nanny, 27-year-old Fernanda Bender-Puhl, in mid-May after her alleged life of crime finally caught up to her.

Police said Bender-Puhl came here from Brazil on a work permit and aced her interviews at various homes, where she worked as a live-in nanny. Her interviews were so good, most families never bothered to check her references, police said. That is how Bender-Puhl was able to get away with allegedly stealing sensitive financial information from those she worked for. In one instance, police said the nanny cashed forged checks with a value of $16,000.

Police were first tipped off to Bender-Puhl when she showed up at a Greenwich day care in early May attempting to pick up the child of a couple who had let her go eight months before. Iorfino said the teacher called the child’s parents, who live in Westchester, N.Y., who then called police.

“We don’t know what her intentions were,” said Iorfino. “I can only think of two, which is an abduction, or to facilitate intimidation for a possible extortion plot.”

After the daycare incident, police got a warrant for Bender-Puhl’s arrest and, when they looked into her activities further, they realized she was working as a nanny for a Cos Cob family. When they arrived at the home, Iorfino said she immediately admitted that not only had she tried to illegally pick up the child, she also had stolen money from several victims.

Bender-Puhl was charged with breach of peace for the day care incident on May 11. After searching her employer’s residence in Cos Cob, police were able to charge Bender-Puhl with first-degree larceny, eight counts of third-degree forgery and eight counts of fraudulent use of an ATM card on May 20.

She is being held at the York Correctional Institute in Niantic on $25,000 bond. Bender-Puhl’s public defender declined comment on her case.

Iorfino said while criminal behavior in a nanny is not very common, it does happen. As a result, police said it is vitally important for people to thoroughly investigate prospective employees.

Steve Lampert is the founder of an Los Angeles-based Web site Enannysource.com, which conducts background checks for prospective nannies. In seven years of conducting more than 400,000 background checks, Lampert said Bender-Puhl’s story is all too common.

“This whole scenario is far from unheard of, and it’s very preventable,” said Lampert. “The most important part of hiring a nanny is that interview and screening process.”

Lampert said it’s important to have a prospective nanny fill out a thorough form detailing a work history so families can fact-check by calling references and ensuring they are legitimate. Reference checks are even more important than running a criminal history check, Lampert said, because more often than not a nanny will not have a criminal history.

“The number of nannies that have criminal records is really low” said Lampert. “In this particular case, even if they had done a criminal history check, they wouldn’t have found anything, and that would have given the family a false sense of security.”

Iorfino added that if a nanny is dismissed, it is important to make sure the child’s school is aware they are no longer authorized to pick them up.

“You can’t take things at face value,” said Iorfino.

Iorfino said Bender-Puhl is a prime example of how a family can be duped.

“The consistent statement was that Bender-Puhl interviewed extremely well,” he said. “They believed what they were seeing instead of doing a thorough investigation. She knew what to say, how to say it and when to say it, and fooled everyone.”

 By: Debra Friedman

Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12496985?source=most_emailed

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