What happens, though, if your candidate says the information in their background check is wrong?

Let’s look at how incorrect information could end up in a background screening report, how candidates can file a dispute and what the dispute process looks like.

How Does Wrong Information Get into a Background Check?

While a trusted consumer reporting agency (CRA) will work hard to make sure they only include accurate and legally permitted information in each background screening report, it’s possible that wrong or outdated information makes its way into a report.

How?

There are two primary reasons incorrect information ends up in background checks:

1. Data sources with inaccurate information
2. Human errors that occur when a report is being created

Inaccuracies in Records Often Start at the Data Source

A CRA relies on the accuracy of data provided to it by its data sources. If a data source has given incorrect data to a CRA, that bad information risks getting compiled into a background check report.

To understand why and how this happens, let’s look at how criminal records are created and shared.

Criminal records are supplied to CRAs by county, state and federal databases. These records are created in the county that a crime occurred. For example, if a person was charged with stealing a car in Cook County, the record for the crime will be created and stored in Cook County. It’s up to the county to maintain a complete, accurate and up-to-date record for the crime that occurred.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, records have inaccuracies because of human errors (like typos). Other times, the county may fail to update a record if a charge was dropped or changed.

What’s more, a county record isn’t supposed to only live in the county’s database. Every criminal record should be sent to the state and federal level. In reality, half of all criminal records never make their way to the NCIC, the federal criminal database. However, if inaccurate records held by the county are sent to the state and federal databases, the inaccuracies are now in those databases. And if a record was updated after initially being recorded — for example, if a charge was dropped — the county may fail to report the change to the state and federal databases. The result would be a criminal record that shouldn’t exist sitting in the state and federal databases.

(You can learn more about how we find data for different types of criminal background checks here.)

Mistakes Made During the Creation of a Report

Mistakes can be made by a CRA during the creation of a report, too. These are typically the result of human error.

Examples of mistakes a CRA could make include:

• Listing a charge multiple times
• Sharing information that’s not legally permitted to be included in a background check report
• Classifying a misdemeanor as a felony
• Listing records for someone else with the same name as the candidate

A trusted CRA like JDP works hard to eliminate these errors (as a result, we have a 99% + accuracy rate). Law requires any CRA that makes an error to investigate and fix it if they receive a consumer dispute.

Candidates Can Legally Dispute Background Check Findings

If your candidate finds an error in their report, they can file a dispute to have it investigated and fixed.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives individuals the right to file a free dispute if they believe their background check contains incorrect information.

As the FTC explains, if a consumer identifies “information in their file that is incomplete or incorrect, and reports it to the consumer reporting agency, the agency must investigate unless the dispute is frivolous.”

The FCRA requires the CRA to investigate and remove or correct any inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information within 30 days. Of course, if an investigation shows that the information, they initially reported was accurate, they may continue to report it.

How a Background Check Dispute Works

If your candidate thinks there is incorrect information in their report, your background check vendor will need to be alerted so they can research the contested information.

Your background check provider can give you information about how to kick this process off. At JDP, we let consumers file a dispute by filling out a form on our website.

Your candidate should provide as many details as possible to help with the investigation. For example, let’s say a criminal record turned up in a search for your candidate. However, the charges against them had been dropped two weeks after the record had been created. As a result, there shouldn’t have been any criminal record reported for them. There’s a chance that their record either wasn’t updated on the county level, or that the county update was never sent to state or federal courthouses, which is how the inaccurate information ended up in their report.

Having this additional context, your CRA will work with the source it got the information in question from to launch an investigation. During the dispute process, the CRA will have 30 days to:

1. Verify if the record is inaccurate
2. If it is inaccurate, find the correct information, and
3. Remove and update the candidate’s report to reflect the verified information.

The CRA will then share a corrected background screening report with the candidate and the organization that requested the background check (like their prospective employer).

The dispute process helps prevent individuals from being negatively impacted by inaccuracies in their background screening results. While most CRAs work hard to ensure the information they deliver is accurate, it’s possible for bad information to slip through the cracks — often for reasons outside of the CRA’s control. Your CRA should be more than happy to work with your candidate to investigate any disputed information and to make sure you have the best data to make hiring decisions with.

The post What to Do If a Candidate Disputes Their Background Check Results appeared first on JDP.

But is it enough to eliminate hiring bias?

What’s a Blind Resume Review?

A blind resume review (sometimes called blind recruitment) happens when personally identifiable information is removed from a job candidate’s resume prior to being reviewed by an employer.

Information that may be removed during this process can include:

• Names
• Gender
• Age
• Education history
• Years of job experience

The goal of blind resume reviews is to reduce both conscious and unconscious hiring bias. This bias most often impacts women, non-white applicants and older applicants. The idea is that if you don’t know information like a candidate’s name or how many years they’ve been in the workforce — which could give clues about their demographic information — you can’t make a biased decision about that candidate.

Just how pervasive is hiring bias?

• In 2015, the National Bureau of Economic Research sent over 40,000 fake job applications as part of research about age discrimination. They found that older female applicants were much less likely to receive an email or phone response requesting an interview or to learn more information than all other candidates.
• A Northwestern University, Harvard and Institute for Social Research in Norway study found that white applicants get 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans, and 24% more callbacks than Latinos.

More employers are becoming aware of these hiring biases and increasingly care about their workforce’s diversity. One reason diversity efforts are gaining traction has to do with research that found companies that are more gender diverse and companies that are racially and ethnically diverse outperform those that lack such diversity.

While we commend organizations that use blind recruitment to combat hiring bias and work towards creating a level playing field for workers, it shouldn’t be the only anti-bias tactic employers use.

Why Your Blind Resume Review Isn’t Enough

While blind resume reviews are a good start, they’re just that: a start.

After you’ve picked out candidates using the blind review technique, you still have to meet them for an interview. And when you meet them, you’ll learn all the demographic information you worked so hard to avoid in the first place.

Don’t forget that your interview itself may be prone to bias. For example, if different candidates for the same job get asked different questions during their interviews, it’ll be harder to fairly compare them.

Additionally, people of all walks of life have biases that must be accounted for. As a result, there’s a risk for inherent bias when the interviewer’s gender, race or ethnicity, age or national origin differs from the candidates’. To complicate things even more, it’s possible for a person to be biased against people who share their demographics. For example, a woman could have an unconscious bias against women in tech. That could result in a female hiring manager believing a female candidate is less qualified for a job, even if the candidate is equally as qualified as her male counterparts.

Blind resume reviews remove bias from the first part of the hiring process — and stops there. While it’s a step in the right direction when it comes to giving diverse candidates a shot at jobs they’re qualified for, bias during the interview process can get in the way of making a fair hiring decision.

How Else Can You Reduce Hiring Bias?

Blind resume reviews alone won’t solve your hiring bias problem (in fact, you may never fully eliminate bias all of the time). Luckily, there are additional ways to help reduce the chance of bias influencing your hiring decisions. Below are a few additional anti-bias tactics that can be added to your hiring process.

• Improve your recruitment
  Remember that efforts to eliminate hiring bias and improve diversity actually start during recruitment. You can’t build a more diverse workplace if you don’t attract applicants who don’t match the current typical makeup of your workplace or industry. And it’s not enough to just have one diverse applicant: as one Harvard Business Review study found, if you only have one woman or racial minority in your pool of finalists, their odds of being hired are statistically zero. There are many ways to attract more diverse talent, including making strategic choices about where you advertise your job to including information about your organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusive work culture (should you have such a culture, of course) in your recruitment marketing and job postings.
• Remove unintentional gender bias from your job descriptions
  Rewrite your job descriptions to either remove gendered language or create a balance between masculine and feminine language, or language that’s often associated with one gender. Why does it matter? Job postings with predominately masculine language get fewer female job applicants than those that use predominately feminine language or those that have a balanced use of both masculine and feminine language.
  • Examples of masculine words include “active,” “decisive,” and “objective.”
  • Examples of feminine words include “honest,” “committed,” and “enthusiastic.”

  If you want to learn more about gendered language, check out the list of masculine and feminine words studied by researchers looking at their impact on job applicants.

  Need help finding gendered language in your job posting? Try running it through the Gender Decoder, a free tool that will find gender-coded language that could discourage women from applying for your position.

• Diversify your interviewers
  Have a diverse group of colleagues take part in interviews. This will help you consider more perspectives and have potential biases challenged when making a hiring decision. It may also help your candidate feel more comfortable during the interview process.
• Stick to the script
  Ask all candidates the same questions in the same order. Such a structured interview will make it easier to directly compare candidates’ answers and ensure that you give each candidate the same opportunity to prove their capabilities.

While reducing hiring bias will require you change your recruitment and interviewing processes, the payoffs — including above improved financial returns and happier employees — should justify your efforts.

The post What’s a Blind Resume Review? appeared first on JDP.

While the background check may be an easy and routine part of the hiring process for you, it’s not for your candidate. In fact, they may know nothing about the process — and that can cause headaches for everyone.

The good news? Proactive communication about the background screening process can go a long way with your candidates. Here’s why you should communicate with your candidates and what to tell them.

Why You Should Talk to Your Candidates About the Background Screening Process

Being proactive and transparent about the background screening process is beneficial for both you and your candidates.

Here’s why.

You’ll improve Your Candidates’ Experiences
Your candidate filled out an application, submitted their resume and nailed their interview (maybe even multiple times). At this point in the process, many will have gotten a conditional job offer, proving that all of their time and effort was worth it.

Make no mistake, though: they’re anxious to make this a done deal.

Even if your candidate has a perfectly clean background, the wait between submitting a background check and learning the results can feel like a lifetime — even if it’s really only a day or two.

Put yourself in their shoes and think about all the reasons this wait could be anxiety-inducing to your candidate. They may have been down on their luck and desperately need this job. Perhaps they need to give two weeks’ notice to their current employer the moment they get your official job offer and are anxiously waiting to find out when they can do it. Maybe they have another job offer on the table, and they need to make a decision — fast (did you know that 60% of candidates will continue talking to other employers while they wait for background screening results?).

Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a candidate to submit a background check and hear nothing from their prospective employer about what happens next. So, what else can they do except sit, obsessively refresh their email looking for a sign that they passed their background check, think about everything that could have gone wrong and wait?

No one wants to be stuck waiting, especially when the stakes are so high. Even if they end up getting the job, they won’t look back fondly on their experience.

If your candidate has had an otherwise positive hiring experience with your organization, this may put a small damper on their overall experience. If they’ve had a neutral or negative experience, this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It could even make them lose confidence in your organization, potentially causing them to decide they don’t want to work there.

Thankfully, being transparent about the process is a simple way to calm nerves and improve your candidate’s experience with your organization.

Why does this matter?

60% of job hunters say they’ve had a bad candidate experience. What’s more, 41% who’ve had a negative experience say they’ll no longer support that company — whether it’s by no longer purchasing their products or ending their relationship with the organization.

This can have a real impact on your business.

Take, for example, a study that found Virgin Media lost £4.4 million (over $5.3 million) in 2014 because of negative candidate experiences. Over 7,500 job candidates — who were also customers when they interviewed for a job — cancelled their subscription because of the bad taste the hiring experience left in their mouth.

While your organization may not be as large as Virgin Media, it’s easy to see how a poor candidate experience can be detrimental to your organization. Luckily, proactive communication is an easy way to help reduce the number of unhappy candidates.

You’ll Spend Less Time Answering Questions from Candidates
It’s easy to take your knowledge of the background screening process for granted when it’s a part of your normal hiring process. Unfortunately, that means it’s easy to forget that your candidates probably know nothing about how the process works.

Try to think about the things that are obvious to you, but are probably unknown to your candidate, like:

• How long it usually takes to complete a background check, and reasons it could take longer than normal
• How you’ll communicate their results with them
• What candidates can do if they believe the information in their background check is incorrect
• What happens after you complete the background check

Your candidates are nervous, and they don’t know what you know about the background screening process. So, what will many of them do?

They’ll reach out to you to learn about the process.

Don’t get us wrong: providing a point of contact that can offer helpful, speedy answers to questions that arise during the hiring process is a great way to offer a positive candidate experience.

However, you can save time for both you and your candidates by answering their questions before they even have to ask. Not only will this reduce your workload, but it’ll give your candidates confidence in the process and how your organization’s HR team communicates in general. The hiring process can offer a glimpse into what their experience will be like with HR once they join the organization, so being proactive and transparent early on can set a positive tone of things to come.

What to Tell Your Candidates About the Background Screening Process
We recommend sharing the following information in writing, either before they submit their information for the background check or immediately after they submit their information.

Here’s what you should include:

• How long it normally takes to complete a background check, and reasons that could cause it to take longer than normal. If your background checks are normally completed in one to four business days, we recommend erring on the side of sharing the longer normal turnaround time. For example, tell candidates that “background check results are normally completed within four business days.” This will be helpful to candidates that could become anxious if their background check isn’t completed within one or two days.Because there are legitimate reasons why a background check may take longer than normal, now is the time to explain what they are. For example, if you’re conducting reference checks and your candidate’s references haven’t yet picked up the phone, you’ll likely see a delay. Including information like this will help candidates understand why a delay could occur.
• How you’ll alert them once it’s completed. Will you email your candidates to let them know your background check results have come in? Will you call them? Set an expectation of how they’ll be alerted to the completion of their background check.
• How they’ll be able to view their report. Let candidates know how they’ll be able to see their background check report. Oftentimes, candidates will receive an email with a link to review their report at the same time they’re notified of its completion.
• What happens if they want to dispute information in their report. What if your candidate reviews their report and sees information they believe is incorrect? You must let them know they’re allowed to file a dispute, and who they can contact to start the process.
• What’s next? This is the one your candidates will care about most. Once you have the background check results, what happens next? Let them know about what to expect if the background check results are clear and if they return red flags.
  • If they have a conditional job offer that will become official if their background screening results come back clear, let them know who’ll contact them — and when — to complete the offer. For example, “If your background report comes back clear, our HR Manager will contact you within one business day to finalize your job offer.”
  • If you hadn’t sent a conditional job offer, but their background check shows no red flags, let them know what will happen next — whether it’s another interview, a skill-based test or a job offer. If a positive background check doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll give them an offer, but there are no other steps they must take, let them know that their background check results will be considered as you make your final decision. Be sure to give them a timeline of when they can expect to hear from you, one way or the other.
  • Finally, if the background check returns results that make them ineligible for the position, let them know you’ll contact them to share what information disqualified them and give them an opportunity to dispute the information.

All of this information can be shared in a short email to your candidates, so you don’t need to worry about spending a great deal of time crafting this message. It’s a small task that can yield positive results for both you and your candidate.

The post How to Communicate with Candidates During the Background Screening Process appeared first on JDP.

With background checks, though, you really can’t do them by yourself if you care about finding comprehensive and accurate information. Here’s why attempting to DIY a background check could cause big trouble for your organization.

Why Employers Shouldn’t Conduct Background Checks on Their Own

1. It’s time consuming to run a background check on your own

   Put simply, you’ll need to dedicate a lot of time to conducting a background screening on your own.If you think running a pre-employment background check just involves a quick Google search for “Jane Smith,” we have some bad news for you. Here’s what’s actually involved with running a background check:

   1. First, you have to collect a lot of information from your candidate, like their address history, Social Security number, previous employers and employment dates. Even though employers who run background checks independently aren’t required to get consent from candidates under the FCRA (background check providers, on other hand, are), we’d strongly recommend that you do.
   2. Next, check your state laws. Different states have different laws about what information can be used in background checks and when those checks can be conducted. Failing to comply with these laws can put you at risk for lawsuits.
   3. Next, you need to figure out where to go to find criminal records about the candidate. What national, state or county courthouses will have their criminal records? Well, it depends on where they live now and where they’ve lived in the past. (Oh, and don’t forget that some of these records can only be accessed in person — yes, even in 2019! — so you may have to take a trip to get all the information you want).Before you call it a closed case, you need to be certain that the information you found is for the right person. You’d be shocked at how easy it is to accidentally get records for someone also named Jane Smith who is not the Jane Smith you’re researching.
   4. Checking references? You may have to call previous employers multiple times before you can get them on the phone, so don’t forget to follow up if you don’t get through the first time.
   5. Looking at their social media profiles? Hopefully you won’t find any information that could cause you to make an illegal hiring decision, because once you see it in their timeline, you can’t unsee it.
   6. Now, compile all of your information into a report that doesn’t include any information that could cause a biased hiring decision (and don’t forget, you also can’t be influenced by any of the information you may have seen along that way that you weren’t supposed to).*

   *And this is to say nothing of the process for conducting a drug test, education verification or driver’s license check.

   Are you breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about how much time and work you’ll need to put into doing all of this yourself? Because we are.

   The truth is that a lot of work goes into conducting a legal, comprehensive background check. A trusted, FCRA-compliant consumer reporting agency (CRA) like JDP can do it quickly because they have access to a lot of resources that individuals don’t:

   • A team of experienced background checkers who can simultaneously work on a screening
   • Knowledge of what data sources to check to find different types of information (more on that in our next section)
   • If you work with a CRA like JDP, a network of court runners who can visit any court in the country to look for information
   • An understanding of national, state, and local background screening laws
   • The ability to make sure the data you see doesn’t contain any candidate information that’s illegal to use in the hiring process
   • A streamlined and time-tested process that lets them do all of this quickly and accurately

2. You won’t find all the information you need

   If you’re running a background check, it’s probably because you care about learning a candidate’s complete background. Unfortunately, that’ll be very difficult if you conduct an independent background check.Why?

   CRAs have access to tons of data sources and tools that let them easily find up-to-date records about a candidate. As an individual, you may not have access to or know about many of these sources. For example, it’s actually illegal for a civilian to access the National Crime Information Center database, the FBI’s criminal database.

   Additionally, some sources — like local court houses — only let you view records if you visit in person. That’s a huge problem if you want to look up records for a candidate who just moved to your city from the other side of the country; the price of a background check from a third party would be far less than the cost of your plane ticket to visit that one court house. (If you want to learn more about the different ways criminal records are collected from courthouses, click here.)

   Could you just skip finding records from that location? Sure. But if you aren’t willing to find all records associated with your candidate, you could end up hiring someone with a criminal record without knowing it (and put you at risk for negligent hiring lawsuits).

   Ask yourself: what’s the benefit of background checking if you don’t learn a candidate’s entire history?

3. You’ll open yourself up to lawsuits

   If you’re conducting background checks on your own — and especially if you background check candidates’ social media profiles on your own — there’s a good chance you’ll run into information that’s prohibited from being used while making a hiring decision, like information about a disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation or religion.If you decide not to hire a candidate and they suspect bias may be at play, it will be much harder to defend your organization in a lawsuit if you conducted the background check yourself. That’s because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces laws that employers must follow to protect applicant and employees from discrimination. The EEOC says that “it’s illegal to check the background of applicants and employees when that decision is based on a person’s race, national origin, color, sex, religion, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), or age (40 or older). For example, asking only people of a certain race about their financial histories or criminal records is evidence of discrimination.”

   When you work with a reputable CRA for a social media screening or any other background check, they won’t share any illegal information that could cause a hiring bias (the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires it!). Even if there really was no bias in your hiring decision, it’s difficult to prove a lack of bias if you came across this information during your DIY search.

   Additionally, you could increase your risk for negligent hiring lawsuits. These happen when an individual is harmed by an employee that an employer knew — or should have known — had a background that made them a risk. For example, a nursing home would be liable if they hired an employee with a history of assault, who then harmed residents at the facility. A thorough background check would have found that information, but it’s possible it could be missed if the nursing home attempted to do their own screenings.

   While we appreciate the can-do spirit of an employer who wants to conduct background checks independently, the risk and time involved — not to mention the limited scope and accuracy of information found — aren’t worth it. Instead, choose a trusted, FCRA-compliant CRA, like JDP. They’ll be able to quickly and easily get all of the information you need about a candidate, while reducing your chances of litigation.

The post Can Employers Run Background Checks Without a Background Screening Company? appeared first on JDP.

Here’s what you need to know about the drug tests and background checks that can help keep people in these jobs safe.

What’s a Safety-Sensitive Job?

“A safety-sensitive position is a job or position where the employee holding this position has the responsibility for their own safety or other people’s safety,” US Legal explains. “It would be particularly dangerous if such an employee is using drugs or alcohol while on the job. An employee has to have a clear mind while occupying such positions.”

You can probably imagine dozens of different jobs that fall within that definition. Here’s just a handful of examples of safety-sensitive positions:

• Truck Drivers
• Emergency Medical Technicians
• Pilots
• Power Plant Field Employees
• Pipefitters
• Pharmacists
• Mechanics
• Bricklayers
• Engineers

Your state may define what types of positions are safety-sensitive. For example, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act considers jobs where duties include direct child care to be safety-sensitive.

Some agencies, like the Department of Transportation, clearly outline what positions are safety-sensitive. However, determining what roles are safety-sensitive can sometimes be left up to an employer.

If you’re trying to determine if a role is safety-sensitive, consider what physical harm could be done if an employee in each role at your organization were to do their job after using cocaine. While your social media manager could publish brand-damaging social media posts, it’s unlikely that tweeting-while-high would put anyone’s life or physical safety at risk. You can easily picture what could go wrong, though, if a neurosurgeon performed brain surgery while under the influence.

How to Drug Test People for Safety-Sensitive Jobs

Drug testing is critical for keeping safety-sensitive positions, well, safe.

Because the Department of Transportation clearly outlines its drug testing policies for safety-sensitive positions, their standards are a great reference point — even if your organization doesn’t have to comply with their testing standards.

Employees at DOT agencies who hold safety-sensitive positions must pass a 5 panel urine drug test. This panel tests for the following substances:

• Marijuana metabolites/THC
• Cocaine metabolites
• Amphetamines (including methamphetamine, MDMA)
• Opiates (including codeine, heroin (6-AM), morphine)
• Phencyclidine (PCP)

Additionally, a breath or salvia alcohol test may be conducted. These are most often conducted when there’s reasonable cause to believe an employee is intoxicated or immediately after an accident, though an employer may test it any scenario that they would also drug test during.

DOT drug tests can be conducted at various times throughout an individual’s pre-employment and employment:

• Pre-employment
• Reasonable suspicion/cause
• Random
• Post-accident
• Return-to-duty
• Follow-up

Frequent drug tests serve as both a deterrent (an employee may think twice about getting high if they know they won’t be hired or could lose their job if they get drug tested) and proof of wrongdoing (if an employee were to cause an accident while they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol).

To learn more about DOT drug testing, check out our guide for employers here.

If you aren’t required to abide by a specific drug testing standard (like DOT’s), you may have more flexibility about which drugs to screen for. While some organizations are backing away from including marijuana in drug testing (due to its legalization in some states), they are not removing it from their safety-sensitive job drug testing. While marijuana is becoming more accepted, and even medically-prescribed, it still poses a real threat when it’s influencing a person behind a wheel, operating heavy machinery or otherwise performing potentially dangerous activities.

How to Background Check People for Safety-Sensitive Jobs

Drug tests are only one part of a comprehensive safety plan.

Your employees need to have the proper qualifications to conduct their jobs, too. Besides a pre-employment background check, which you should conduct to find criminal records that could potentially disqualify a candidate, you should also run a professional verification check.

A verification check will confirm your candidate has the proper qualifications — like professional licenses and certifications — to do their job. Below are examples of what employers may use a verification check to learn.

• An employer hiring a truck driver will need to confirm they have a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) and a safe driving history, as reported by the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS).
• An employer hiring a pilot will need to check for a pilot’s license, a safe Accident & Incident record and satisfactory PRIA pilot employment records.
• An employer hiring a doctor will need to confirm the candidate has a medical degree and a medical license. Additionally, they must confirm the candidate isn’t listed on any debarment or disciplinary action lists, like those from OIG, SAM, FDA, DEA, Tricare, National Abuse Registry, Medicaid Inspector General or equivalent or a states’ Attorneys General.

Of course, not all safety-sensitive jobs require a professional license. Even if there’s no certification for the position you’re hiring, you can still conduct a professional reference check to learn whether a candidate’s experience may better qualify them for the job. A professional reference check involves reaching out to a candidate’s previous employers to confirm their employment and gather any other information about their time there, like whether they adequately performed their duties and if they had a history of safety.

What Happens if You Don’t Drug Test or Background Check Candidates and Employees in Safety-Sensitive Jobs?

The most immediate reason to drug test and background check the people working in safety-sensitive positions is to reduce the likelihood of harmful accidents. Qualified and sober workers are less likely to make mistakes on the job. The result is fewer workplace accidents (or deaths) that harm your employees or the public.

The other reason is that your organization may be penalized for failing to take appropriate precautionary measures to maintain a safe workplace.

While the specific penalizations will vary based on the incident, the outcome and the industry, employer punishment can include fines, suspension and disbarment. For example, an employer who is supposed to adhere to DOT regulations could be fined thousands of dollars for failing to implement a drug & alcohol testing program or for failing to conduct random drug tests.

Your organization could also be liable for accidents that occur because of intoxicated or unqualified employees. For example, you may have to pay damages if one of your driver’s worked while drunk, causing a deadly car accident.

Even if you don’t have any lawsuits or expensive penalties stemming from employee use of drugs or alcohol, your worker’s compensation premiums will be higher when you don’t follow proper drug testing and background screening protocol. That’s because safer employees result in fewer claims. Luckily, some states offer drug-free workplace credits or discounts — typically 5%—on worker’s compensation insurance for drug-free workplaces.

If your organization employs people in safety-sensitive positions, it’s critical that you implement proper drug testing and background checks. If you need help creating a program that works for you, JDP can help. Contact us to learn more about our drug testing and background screening services.

The post What Drug Tests and Background Checks Should I Conduct for Safety-Sensitive Jobs? appeared first on JDP.

Startups, advertising and tech companies are a few types of organizations not only more likely to have lax alcohol policies, but to make alcohol available for employees during the work day. In Chicago alone, 184 startups explicitly market beer-on-tap as an employee perk.

While having a drink at the office may improve employee morale or foster a sense of community between coworkers, your organization should weigh the potential repercussions of encouraging a drinking culture in your office.

The Risks of Letting Employees Drink at the Office

Drinking at work can be a fun and stress-reducing activity for some of your staff, but it comes along with a lot of risks.

Bad Employee Behavior
For some people, it doesn’t take much alcohol to go from a mild-manner professional to an unseemly drunk.

Bad behavior employee that results from drinking on the job should be a top concern for HR professionals. From inappropriate language and offensive jokes to sexual harassment and physical altercations, don’t be surprised if drinking on the job results in the same behavior you may find at a bar.

Not all of your employees will behave poorly after the office beer cart rolls around. However, one incident stemming from a beer supplied by your organization could result in you needing to reprimand or even terminate an employee — not to mention any legal trouble that could be caused.

Legal Consequences for Your Company
We hope it goes without saying, but first and foremost you should make sure there aren’t any laws prohibiting on-the-job alcohol consumption for your industry or specific positions at your organization. For example, if you have employees who drive a delivery truck, they can’t participate in your office happy hour before making deliveries.

Another legal consideration is whether social host liability laws apply in your area. Social host liability laws hold social hosts liable for alcohol-related deaths and injuries that result from a person being encouraged or allowed to drink excessively. These laws could consider an employer who supplied too many drinks to an employee who then killed someone in a car accident while driving home from the office, responsible.

Social host liability laws apply to guests of all ages exist in the following states:

• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Hawaii
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Missouri
• New Jersey
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Discomfort for Non-Drinkers
Even if your employees maintain their professionalism while drinking at work, your workday happy hour may sour some of your staff’s moods.

Drinking on the job — when employees drink and behave responsibly — can be a great opportunity for colleagues to bond.

But what about those who don’t drink?

Employees who don’t drink may feel excluded from these opportunities to get to know their colleagues in a more relaxed setting. Sometimes, they may even feel their inability to take part in company drinking can prevent them from building the relationships that can advance their career.

Additionally, you may have employees working hard to stay sober as they fight alcohol addiction. Your office beer tap may make it incredibly difficult for these people to maintain sobriety. If alcoholic addiction is an issue for any of your employees, consider that they may find employment elsewhere to avoid relapsing.

Of course, there are other reasons why your employees may not drink, like being on medication that doesn’t allow them to consume alcohol, being pregnant or having religious beliefs that prohibit drinking.

It doesn’t matter why an employee would choose not to drink. If your office drinking culture excludes some employees, makes them feel uncomfortable or puts them in harm’s way, it will harm the morale of at least some of your employees.

If alcohol-fueled events are frequent at your organization, consider hosting additional, alcohol-free social events. These can give non-drinkers an opportunity to get to know their colleagues in an environment where everyone is sober.

How Can Employers Reduce Liability When Employees Drink at Work?

If you still want to allow drinking on the job, but want to reduce the chances it turns into more of a headache than it’s worth, consider taking the following steps:

1. Communicate All Office Drinking Rules Clearly and Frequently
   Make sure your employees know what is and isn’t ok when it comes to alcohol consumption at work. Outline what actions will be taken against employees who violate rules. In addition to including this in your employee handbook, consider posting signs in the office and occasionally sending an email reminding all employees of alcohol policies.
2. Set Limits on When and How Much Employees Can Drink
   Make your office happy hour an actual hour. For example, designate 4pm – 5pm as the only acceptable times for employees to be drinking at work. If they want to continue drinking after 5pm, they’ll need to head somewhere else.
3. Provide Food
   It’s the end of the day, and it’s been hours since lunch. Your team is probably drinking on an empty stomach and feeling the effects of even a single beer quicker than normal. Provide some snacks for them to munch on while sipping their drinks to help slow down their buzz.
4. Have Non-Alcoholic Options for Non-Drinkers
   Consider having soda, sparkling water, coffee and/or tea available during your happy hours so that non-drinkers can enjoy a beverage along with their drinking colleagues.
5. Make Sure Your Employees Get Home Safely
   We all want our staff to get home safely, so don’t let your employees get behind the wheel after drinking. Allow your employees to expense a rideshare or cab ride home if they’ve been drinking to avoid dangerous and deadly accidents.
6. Check Your Company’s Insurance Policy
   Your commercial general liability insurance may cover host liquor liability. This insurance covers businesses who have incidental exposure to alcohol (as opposed to a business, like a bar, that sells alcohol). If your insurance doesn’t protect your organization from liabilities related to alcohol consumption, talk to your insurance provider about getting appropriate coverage.

While it’s not impossible to create a safer and more responsible drinking culture at your office, it requires effort and will never be without risk. Whether drinking at your office is a rare occasion or you have a keg available every day, it’s your responsibility to make sure your employees’ consumption won’t come at the cost of anyone’s safety, morale or career.

The post Drinking at Work: Is This Popular Perk Worth the Risk? appeared first on JDP.

Employers must take care to fully comply with DOT drug testing regulations. Here’s what you need to know about DOT drug testing.

Why Does DOT Require Drug Tests?

DOT drug regulations and tests are designed to protect workers, their colleagues and the traveling public.

Employees in safety-sensitive jobs outlined in DOT regulations — those that have the potential to impact both their own safety and the safety of the public — must comply with drug testing. That’s because employees who operate or are responsible for vehicles or heavy machinery while under the influence pose a threat to the safety and life of themselves and the people around their vehicles/machinery. DOT drug tests allow employers to identify job applicants and employees unfit to work due to substance use.

Lives are saved by prohibiting drug and alcohol use and intoxication while on the job.

Who Has to Take DOT Drug Tests?

Anyone designated by DOT regulations as a safety-sensitive employee must adhere to DOT drug regulations and take part in drug testing. This includes:

Aviation

• Flight crews
• Flight attendants
• Flight instructors
• Air traffic controllers
• Aircraft dispatchers
• Aircraft maintenance and preventative maintenance staff
• Ground security coordinators
• Aviation screeners

Commercial Motor Carriers

• Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) holders who operate Commercial Motor Vehicles weighing 26,001 lbs. or more
• Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) holders who operate a vehicle that carries 16 or more passengers (including the driver)
• Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) holders who are required to display a DOT placard in the transit of hazardous materials

Maritime

• Crewmembers operating a commercial vessel

Pipeline

• Operations
• Maintenance
• Emergency response personnel

Railroad

• Hours of Service Act personnel
• Engine & train personnel
• Signal service dispatcher
• Train dispatchers

Transit

• Vehicle operators
• Controllers
• Mechanics
• Armed security

What Rules Does DOT Require Safety-Sensitive Employees Follow?

DOT outlines strict rules about the use of drugs and alcohol among safety-sensitive employees. Here’s what it prohibits these employees from doing:

• Cannot use or possess alcohol or any illicit drug while assigned to perform safety-sensitive functions or actually performing safety-sensitive functions.
• Cannot report for service, or remain on duty if they:
  • Are under the influence or impaired by alcohol
  • Have a blood alcohol concentration .04 or greater; (with a blood alcohol concentration of .02 to .039, some regulations do not permit employees to continue working until their next regularly scheduled duty period)
  • Have used any illicit drug

• Cannot use alcohol within 4 hours (8 hours for flight crew members and
  flight attendants) of reporting for service or after receiving notice to report.
• Cannot report for duty or remain on duty when using any controlled substance unless used pursuant to the instructions of an authorized medical practitioner.
• Cannot refuse to submit to any test for alcohol or controlled substances.
• Cannot refuse to submit to any test by adulterating or substituting their specimen.

When Can Employers Conduct a DOT Drug Test?

Employers complying with DOT regulations may perform a DOT drug test in several scenarios, ranging from pre-employment to post-accident. Some of these tests are preventative and are used to prevent employees under the influence from operating vehicles or heavy machinery. Others are reactionary, proving whether drugs or alcohol played a role in a workplace accident.

• Pre-employment: All new hires must take a drug test before they can begin performing safety-sensitive functions.
• Reasonable suspicion/cause: A drug test will be administered if a supervisor reasonably suspects — based on observation — that an employee is under the influence.
• Random: A drug test will be given to an employee chosen by a true random selection process, where each employee has an equal chance of being selected for testing. The percentage of employees chosen for random testing varies by agency. You can view DOT’s random testing rates here.
• Post-accident: Employees involved in work accidents that meet specific DOT agency criteria will be required to take a drug test to determine if they were under the influence at the time of the accident.
• Return-to-duty: Employees that have broken DOT drug and alcohol rules must be re-tested before returning to work.
• Follow-up: Follow-up testing is required for employees who have violated DOT regulations in the past.

What Drugs Does a DOT Drug Test Look For?

DOT drug tests use a 5-panel test that screens urine samples for the following substances:

• Marijuana metabolites/THC
• Cocaine metabolites
• Amphetamines (including methamphetamine, MDMA)
• Opiates (including codeine, heroin (6-AM), morphine)
• Phencyclidine (PCP)

It’s important to note that the DOT does not make an exception for legal users of medical marijuana. All marijuana use — even when legal and prescribed by a doctor — is prohibited under DOT regulations.

What Happens During a DOT Drug Test?

Here’s how a DOT drug test works:

1. A job candidate or employee will be notified that they must submit a drug test. This notification will tell them the reason for the test (whether it’s a pre-employment test, random, etc.).
2. Upon notification, the individual must immediately report to the collection site to conduct the test.
3. At the collection site, the individual will provide at least 45 ml of urine.
4. The individual will then watch the specimen collector check the urine temperature, pour the sample into two bottles and then seal the bottles.
5. The sample is sent to a lab for analysis.
6. The lab then sends the results to a Medical Review Officer (MRO), who determines if — in the case of a positive result — there are any legitimate medical reasons for a positive result. They may review the individual’s medical records, schedule an interview with the patient, or request that they receive a physical exam to make a final determination.
7. Results are shared with the employers.

Do You Have to Fire an Employee If They Fail a DOT Drug Test?

DOT does not regulate or make recommendations regarding termination or any other employment action. Every employer will responsible for determining the appropriate steps to take in the case of a failed drug test.

What Happens if Employers Aren’t DOT Compliant?

Employers who do not follow these regulations face financial and operational penalties. Exact penalties differ per agency, but fines range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to financial penalties, employers failing to meet DOT compliance risk suspension or debarment.

DOT drug testing can be difficult, confusing and time-consuming. Need some help conducting tests and managing the drug testing process? Consider working with a DOT drug testing provider like JDP. You can learn more about how we help organizations in the transportation industry with drug tests and background screening here.

The post What Employers Need to Know About Department of Transportation (DOT) Drug Tests appeared first on JDP.

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It can be tricky enough to keep up with ever-changing drug regulations, especially with marijuana legalization on the rise. If your company has employees in multiple states, staying compliant can be downright confusing.

Whether you have offices in multiple states, one office with additional remote employees or have an entirely remote staff, it’s important to be mindful of how you execute drug tests.

Which State’s Drug Testing Laws Must You Follow When You Have Employees in Different States?

Generally speaking, employers must abide by the laws of the state each employee works in.

For example, let’s say your entire staff is located in New York, except for one employee who lives and works in Georgia. You’ll adhere to New York’s drug testing and employment laws for employees in New York. However, you must follow Georgia’s laws when drug testing your employee who works in Georgia.

The more states you have employees in, the more state drug testing laws you must be familiar with. Don’t forget that cities and counties may have additional laws you’ll need to adhere to, as well.

Does this make drug testing more complicated? Yes.

Does it make it impossible? Absolutely not.

Let’s look at some considerations to keep in mind when developing a drug testing policy that works for all of your employees — no matter where in the U.S. they may work from.

How Do Different State Drug Testing Laws Impact Employer Drug Testing Policies?

Laws regarding drug use and testing — and an employer’s right to reject candidates or fire employees for drug use — differ from state to state (and sometimes even city to city).

While these laws change frequently — especially as marijuana legalization becomes more common — there are a few things to consider no matter what the laws are where you and your employees are based out of:

Safety-Sensitive and Healthcare Positions May Be Subject to Federal Law
Private companies with safety-sensitive positions may be subject to federal drug testing laws. Safety-sensitive jobs, like those that involve driving vehicles or operating heavy machinery, are typically required to have a drug-free policy. Healthcare workers, who may impact the health and safety of patients, may also be subject to federal drug testing laws.

The Department of Transportation (DOT), for example, requires all industries it oversees to conduct random drug testing for employees with safety-sensitive positions.

Unless you or your employee’s state has determined that these regulations violate state law, you’ll need to adhere to them.

Medical Marijuana Can Make Drug-Free Workplace Policies Complicated
Although more than half of states now allow use of medical marijuana, the rules regarding how its use impacts employment varies.

Some states, like Illinois and New York, provide employment protections for medical marijuana users. However, states including California and Colorado don’t protect medical marijuana users in the workplace. Employers in those states can reject applicants and fire employees for testing positive on drug tests.

If you have employees in a state with legalized medical marijuana and also have safety-sensitive positions, be sure to check state laws regarding hiring these legal marijuana uses for safety-sensitive jobs so as not to accidentally violate any laws.

Do you have a drug-free workplace policy but also employ staff in states that protect employees who use legal medical marijuana? You must tailor your policy for employees in those states to follow the state laws protecting protected medical marijuana users. You’ll still be able to hold them accountable if they test positive for other illegal substances.

Random Drug Testing Isn’t Legal Everywhere
While pre-employment drug testing is generally legal across the country, some states have laws specifying how random drug testing must be conducted. Some even outright prohibit it.

For example, California law says that “drug testing existing employees without any individualized suspicion is generally considered an unreasonable search, unless the employee is in a highly safety or security sensitive position or covered by federal laws requiring random drug testing.”

In Maine, random drug testing is only permitted if:

1) authorized by a collective bargaining agreement

2) the employee works in a position that would create an unreasonable threat to health or safety; or

3) the employer has 50 or more employees who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the policy was developed in conjunction with an employee committee, and the employees chosen for testing are selected by an outside person.”

If random drug testing is part of your company’s policy, you’ll need to study up on whether each employee’s state permits random testing and if there are any specific conditions tied to how those tests are conducted.

Compliance and Consistency When Drug Testing Employees in Different States

To recap: besides meeting any federal requirements your organization or specific employees may be subject to, you must comply with laws in each of the states each of your employees work in.

Your goal should always be to have consistent screening and testing standards for every employee, no matter their location. Staying compliant and consistent will be most difficult for employers with drug-free workplace policies. You may, for example, be bound to provide reasonable accommodations for protected legal medical marijuana users in some states, even if your state hasn’t legalized medical marijuana and your drug policy prohibits all forms of marijuana use for employers in your state.

With ever-changing drug and drug testing laws, one of the best ways to stay compliant is to find a drug testing provider that can help you keep up with legislation impacting the states your employees work in.

The post How to Create a Compliant Multistate Drug Testing Policy appeared first on JDP.

While your employees probably don’t get a final say in whether you hire people with criminal histories, their opinions are certainly important when it comes to things like employee morale and retention. So, are employees warming up to the idea of working with people with a record?

Employees’ Attitudes About Working with People with Criminal Histories

According to a recent survey conducted by SHRM, the answer is yes — depending on the type of conviction a person had.

The survey, which polled about 1,000 people across the U.S., found almost 75% would be comfortable working for an employer knowing that some of their colleagues had nonviolent criminal records.

That number dropped drastically when asked about violent criminal records. Only about 33% of those surveyed would be comfortable working with colleagues who had violent backgrounds.

These results show employees are generally willing to give people a second chance but may not be as accepting if they think the candidate might put them in harm’s way.

Why Should You Consider Hiring Someone with A Criminal Background?

If you’re one of the many employers considering opening up their employment opportunities to those with criminal records, you might wonder if it’s really worth it.

The truth is there are plenty of great reasons to hire someone with a rougher background. Aside from the potential feel-good effects of giving someone a second chance, there are programs in place to help reduce the risk of hiring former convicts (like insurance bonds offered by the U.S. government) and even provide financial benefits (like salary reimbursements and tax credits). You can learn more about these and other benefits here.

Even if You Hire Candidates with Criminal Histories, Background Checks are Still Important

Even though there are a lot of great reasons to consider hiring former criminals, it’s still critical to do your research. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know — and you need to know your candidate’s background, even if you’re more than happy to hire someone with a criminal past.

A thorough background check will alert you to each candidate’s full criminal history — critical for determining the level of risk your organization can tolerate.

For example, if a background check finds that your candidate is a sex offender and your organization works with kids, they should be disqualified from working at your company. However, if you find your candidate was charged with possessing marijuana, your organizational risk is significantly lower. While that information could cause you to reconsider if they are qualified for a safety-sensitive position, you might discover you’re okay with that risk — or have another non-safety-sensitive position that they could excel in.

No matter how open your employees are to the idea of hiring people with criminal records or what your hiring risk tolerance is, you should always make hiring decisions using thorough, verified information.

The post Are Your Employees Comfortable Working Alongside People with Criminal Records? appeared first on JDP.

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