Tips On How to Minimize Risks Associated With Staff Hiring

  • 03/01/06

Educational institutions are well aware that their staff is what makes their campuses unique. Hiring the perfect maintenance person for that position is always a challenge, in addition to managing employee turnover. Society has witnessed the growth of employee liability, with issues such as employee theft and workplace violence. How can you trust that the candidates in front of you are who they say they are? Background screening should have a part in your hiring strategy.

Industry reports show that over 33 percent of job applicants misrepresent themselves regarding their work history, 31 percent misrepresent their educational credentials or professional licenses and nine percent of all applicants have some type of criminal record.

“An average company spends typically $7,000 to $10,000 per hire when you consider the cost of recruiting, hiring, training and turnover of employees,” said Jim Collins, vice president and general manager of LexisNexis Screening Solutions.“Organizations — especially educational institutions — have an obligation to know who they are hiring to protect their students, employees and overall reputation.”

One of the biggest issues around hiring in any organization, including custodians and maintenance staff, is the use of contractors. Often employers are very diligent about conducting background screening of employees but not so much with temporaries, vendors and contractors. They are often done blindly, through an agency or other company. Following are several tips on how to have more transparency in candidate background checks during recruitment.

• Ask for references, and call those references.
• Develop questions that will assess the experience of a candidate specific to your needs. For example,“Tell me about your custodial experience at other colleges or educational facilities?” Ask about how they handled specific situations, such as working with other custodians, and how they would handle specific scenarios.
• OHSA recommends a strong Violence in the Workplace prevention plan; California’s OSHA requires it. Beyond the disruption to the workplace and production, negligent hiring suits cost business $800,000 per suit according to Littler Mendelson, one of the leading labor law firms in the United States.
• Conduct a background check with a company that has background check solutions. Don't shortcut this step by relying on free Internet search sites that may not return reliable information on John Smith, or accurate information on the wrong John Smith.
• Background screening technologies provide quick, easy, accurate and affordable reports, sometimes in a matter of seconds. These programs can be accessed through most Web browsers so that you can verify that the person you are interviewing is who they say they are.

Featured

  • Missouri State University Debuts Construction Education Center

    Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., recently opened a new 10,000-square-foot addition and renovation to support the School of Construction, Design, and Project Management, according to university news. The Construction Education Success Center, built onto the existing Kemper Hall, provides academic space for the school’s construction managers and cost $9.6 million.

  • How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

    When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.

  • Extron, CENTEGIX Partner for Comprehensive School Security Solution

    Professional audiovisual solutions provider Extron recently announced a partnership with CENTEGIX, which provides rapid incident response technology, to integrate two of their top products in the name of school safety.

  • North Dakota State University Completes Music School Renovation

    North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., recently announced that construction on the Challey School of Music has finished, according to a news release. The university partnered with Foss Architecture & Interiors for design and Kraus-Anderson for construction services, and construction began in July 2024.