How to Stimulate the Economy and Create Jobs

With the recent recession and all the hard times of many American's, there has been a lot of movement by local states and the EEOC to ban credit checks for employment purposes.   Statistically, credit checks are not used very often for the mass number of background checks performed.   In fact, only 13% of  companies  perform credit checks on all their applicants.  

Also, there is no correlating data that suggest a bad credit score is an indication that someone will steal from the company.   That being said, I am still shocked that the average person doesn't realize that employee theft is a serious problem.
Consider statistics from the American Society of Employers:

• Businesses lose 20% of every dollar to employee theft.
• 20% of employees are aware of fraud at their companies (including theft of office items, false claims of hours worked, and inflated expense accounts).
• The average time it takes for an employer to catch a fraud scheme is 18 months.
• 55% of perpetrators are managers.
• 44% of workers say their companies could do more to reduce fraud.
• The U.S. Retail Industry loses $53.6 Billion a year due to employee theft.
• 60% of companies have staff trained to deal with fraud and ethics issues (up from 30% in 2000).

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that 75% of all employees steal at least once, and that half of these steal again and again. The Chamber also reports that one of every three business failures are the direct result of employee theft.

Also, 30% of businesses fail due to employee theft.   This is a serious problem for our economy and jobs. In fact, most small companies do not perform  employment screening.  Background Screening could stop a lot of loses and improve business and hiring. Imagine if those 30% of businesses continued to operate and hired employees. 

Massachusetts Bars Employers from Requesting Criminal History from Applicants

Massachusetts becomes the second state to bar both the public and private employers from requesting applicants to disclose criminal history information.    Effective November 4, 2010, both public and private employers from requesting that job applicants disclose criminal history information on an initial job application (also known as “Ban the Box” legislation). 

Massachusetts follows Hawaii, who in 1998 was the first state to prohibit employers from inquiring about an individuals criminal record.  However, unlike Hawaii, Massachusetts  does not prohibit an employer from questioning an applicant about a criminal record during the interview process or requesting a pre-offer background screening;(though inquiries about arrests that do not lead to a conviction or inquiries about certain misdemeanors such as public drunkenness, simple assault, minor traffic violations and disturbing the peace are prohibited).

The Massachusetts law does provide for two important exceptions to the prohibition requesting applicants disclose criminal records on job applications.  An employer may request criminal record information on a job application if:  (1)  the applicant is applying for a position for which a federal or state law or regulation creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification based on a conviction of certain criminal offenses; or (2) the employer is subject to an obligation under a federal or state regulation to not employ a person who has been convicted of certain offenses.The employer can still perform employment screening.

Should you have any questions about this legislation,you may contact  us at 770-649-8282 or email Aly.Sharp@s2verify.com