Guest editorial by: Geoffrey S. Sheldon and Brian P. Walter In 1997, the California Supreme Court gave public employers a green light to test job applicants for drugs and alcohol in Loder v. City of Glendale, 14 Cal.4th 846 [59 Cal.Rptr.2d 696] (1997). The Court held that suspicionless drug and alcohol testing of job applicants…

Guest editorial by: Jennifer Gladstone  It seems like every single week we are announcing another state or jurisdiction adding or broadening their “Ban the Box” policies. They each have a slightly different name, and the details about which employers are included vary, but one by one, municipalities are being swept up in the ban the…

It’s a well understood fact that the United States’ population has the highest incarceration rate of any nation. More than 68 million Americans have some sort of criminal history and when it comes to getting employed, many face hurdles that prevent them from being hired and assimilating back into society.  While several states have seven…

Many state legislators have already banned the use of credit checks in employment decisions, barring select positions. The reason being is that credit checks provide an insight into an applicant’s life that most employers simply do not need for employment reasons. It creeps over the boundary into an invasion of privacy that quite plainly isn’t…

When searching for an employment background screening company, it’s important to find an organization that places a priority on both answering client’s questions and informing them on the important subject matter at a moment’s notice.  Even with a company that can send newsletters and updates to its clients, having the option of phoning the organization…

Are academic verifications really necessary? If an applicant can show a physical copy of their diploma doesn’t that mean they graduated? Well, it could, but that shouldn’t count for anything. With the rise of diploma mills, institutions which can simulate a variety of different, unique and most importantly fraudulent degrees from institutions across the country,…

Drug screening plays a crucial part in hiring for around 70% of all organizations that bring on new employees and it’s no wonder why. Individuals whom abuse drugs are prone to behavior that can jeopardize a business’s efficiency and efficacy in their day-to-day operations. Having an employee whom obtains a DUI, is arrested for drug…

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Taleo and HireList, to name a couple, create a platform to simply categorically sort through applicants. Instead of sorting through applicants one by one, looking through application after application, seeing unqualified candidate after candidate; ATSs remove that burden to fine the most qualified individuals instantly. ATSs are becoming more and…