Background Screening | Considering “Do-It-Yourself” Online Background Checks? Pt. 1

Background Screening | Considering “Do-It-Yourself” Online Background Checks? Pt. 1

Background Screening | Considering “Do-It-Yourself” Online Background Checks? Pt. 1

 

Background Screening |  As businesses become comfortable using the Internet to handle a variety of support functions, a surprising number and diverse sorts of “Do-It-Yourself” services have become available, including “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) online background checks.

While seemingly simple and affordable, such services present potential risks that could pose a threat to a businesses’ brand.

Here’s a brief list of considerations that could serve as a litmus test as to whether a DIY background check service or a more-conventional Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) is the best choice for you.

 

Will the search be wide and deep?

As with any type of research upon which your business may depend, background checks require thorough scrutiny of data sources.

Such research expends large amounts of both time and personnel resources. Take, for example, legal records used for criminal background checks.

In the United States, available data differs between federal, state, and municipal levels; for example, there are thousands of jurisdictions where pubic records can be obtained, and the manner for obtaining these records can vary from court to court.

So, depending on how many locations the candidate attended school, lived and worked, researchers may be faced with combing through records maintained in numerous locations.

CRAs typically enlist the aid of court runners since many jurisdictions require in-person representation to access their records.

How will the DIY service you’re considering deal with this complex and often inconsistent process?

Also, DIY services may merely aggregate information on a candidate based on readily-available online data, to include publicly available information contained in news stories and social media accounts.

Ask if that is the case because solely using and relying upon such information presents potential legal risks to an employer; the information may be on the wrong person, incorrect or out of date.

And making a hiring decision based on a candidate’s public online persona without ensuring the data is accurate and complete may be deemed prejudicial.

 

Will the results be accurate?

Regardless of how meticulous it is, each background check may yield confusing and erroneous findings.

And, as noted above, the information may not refer to the right candidate.

Even when handling such tasks using internal resources, companies can spend massive amounts of time trying to reconcile such data.

On the other hand, third-party providers bear the responsibility to compile information in an accurate manner for their clients. -HireRight

 

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!

Background Screening | Hiring a Marketing Expert Pt. 2

Background Screening | Hiring a Marketing Expert Pt. 2

Background Screening | Hiring a Marketing Expert Pt. 2

Background Screening | 3. Make sure they are proficient in digital marketing

You have to be aware of the current trends. The market is not the same as it was several years ago. Businesses and background screening are no longer chasing their customers down, but instead, they are designing strategies to attract them and engage them in their products and services. The digital era provides an abundance of opportunities for your business. Many of those can be used to expand and grow your business.

The team of marketing experts you are looking for should have the right knowledge. They should be able to understand social media marketing, PPC and SEO. The wider the skill set, the greater the chances that they will be able to design a unique marketing strategy for your specific business needs that will work well with all of your objectives.

A good digital marketing expert knows that mobile marketing has become the most important marketing factor. It has a great impact on how your website will be designed, what content you will be relying on, what is the desired user experience and in what ways your services and products will be promoted.

4. If they offer a free consulting gig, say yes!

It is important to understand that you should not be looking only for a skill set. The bond between you and the marketing expert should be more like a partnership. If you come by an agency or an expert that wants to provide a free consulting session, go for it. This is the best way to see and feel the relationship between you.

There is a big chance that there will be some differences when it comes to how you want to get things done. But, if you are speaking to an expert, they should hopefully have knowledgeable arguments and previous case studies to back up their suggestions.

During your free consulting session, you will find out if they have complete insight into your business philosophy and if they get the idea behind your products or services. And, what’s more important, you will hear how they think and what their approach to marketing is before you regret signing a contract.

5. Check out their website

This is a great way to check out any marketing expert or agency. We live in the internet era. In case some of the so called “experts” don’t have a website, you should take our advice and skip them. On the other hand, not all marketing experts and agencies that have a website are necessarily good ones.

Take your time to browse through their site. See what type of content they are using and what effect it has on you. You should be able to find content that explains how they address specific issues and problems related to marketing. There should also be a list of benefits they are offering prospective customers.

And, in the end, do you feel compelled to take action and contact them to find out more about their services and what they can do for employment screening services? If they are able to market and sell their own services, there is a good chance they will be able to successfully market and sell yours. -Recruit Loop

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!

Background Screening | How to Get Away With Managing Millennials

Background Screening | How to Get Away With Managing Millennials

Background Screening | How to Get Away With Managing Millennials

 

Background Screening | Did you know that 75% of millennials have a profile on at least one social media network? That’s quite a lot, especially when you consider there are almost 80 million millennials residing within the US alone.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that as many as 55% of them will post at least one selfie every week. And on average – millennials spend at least an hour per week to get that perfect selfie. That’s a full hour of some high quality self-admiration.

Speaking from the perspective of a millennial – yes, it is evident that we can be a little bit egotistic, to say the least. But what is even more important – we can be quite helpful around the workplace.

In fact, one of the positive aspects millennials can be proud of is the fact that we are a generation that is actively engaged in everything that concerns us. So while some of us are saving the planet as we speak, others are mastering technologies that are shaping the future! This means that we’re not all that spoiled as most of the members of Gen X believe, and probably all of the Baby Boomers firmly accept as an absolute truth.

However, managing members of Generation Y (the millennials) can be a somewhat tedious task. Dealing with delicate personalities with high expectations and no patience can really cause a lot of disturbance in the workplace.

So what are millennials expecting from their bosses? What motivates them, and how can you keep them engaged in their work?

Let’s start with the basics and see what type of a boss millennials respect.

Be a leader, not a manager

Taking the high stand and insisting on establishing an authority over your millennial workers is a fast lane to nowhere. An average millennial will probably smile to your face and then quit without any notice when they find a better job.

However, if you want to keep them around, know that they are looking for leaders, not bosses.

What is the difference? Leaders coach their teams, they identify themselves with their workers and are dedicated to developing individuals and their unique skill-sets instead of labelling their employees.

If you are looking for a way to keep them interested in their job (because they will most probably expect from you to do so), here are a few tips that you should have in mind:

  1. They need to feel valued;
  2. They need to have confidence in your leadership;
  3. They have to actually like what they do;
  4. They want to progress at work; and
  5. They want to be appreciated as individuals, not referred to as if they are nothing more than a number.

According to Barnum Financial Group, 60% of millennials need to feel like their work actually matters. They want their opinion to be valued and they want their work to be fulfilling and to actually have a purpose. However, nurturing them isn’t enough. When they arrive at the office, believe it or not, they want to feel like they are home. – Recruit Loop

 

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!

 

Background Screening | 6 Step Checklist to Crafting the Perfect Job Description

Background Screening | 6 Step Checklist to Crafting the Perfect Job Description

Background Screening | 6 Step Checklist to Crafting the Perfect Job Description

 

Background Screening | I’ll never forget the time I was sitting opposite a client taking a brief for a new position in her team and when I asked her if she had a position description she literally scribbled a few bullet points on to aPost-It note and handed it to me across the table.

Was she serious?

Apparently so.

I should also point out that the all too common “We’re hoping to create the job around the best candidate depending on their previous experience” never really cut it with me either.

So here’s a step-by-step job description checklist for any business owner or hiring manager thinking about bringing somebody new into their team.

Free Guide: This article outlines how to write a job description that is clear, concise and accurately defines the role – in 5 simple steps. Download Now!

1. You can’t not write a job description

It’s not uncommon for an employer to know that they definitely need to bring somebody new into their business, but to not have carefully thought out exactly what it is that the new team member will be doing.

We’ve written about this previously. This is a dangerous way to start. From experience, the very first thing a candidate thinks if their potential new employer (or recruiter for that matter) can’t provide them with a detailed job description is either that the job doesn’t exist, or that the company doesn’t really care much about their employees.

Not a great impression to make.

Similarly no employer wants to hear a team member say, “Sorry but that’s not in my job description”. Every manager wants staff happy to go beyond the call of duty. However the “call of duty” still needs to be documented in some way.

2. The position title must be a true reflection of the role

Don’t make a job title too vague or ‘creative’. You will just confuse people or perhaps even put them off.

Internally you might decide to call your receptionist the “Director of First Impressions”, but on a job description that you share with a candidate during an interview it should still make reference to “Receptionist”.

Here are a few examples of real job titles I have seen on job descriptions that required some ‘translation’ before they really made sense to the relevant candidates.

  • Dream Fulfiller = Financial Services Consultant
  • Creative Guru = Creative Writer
  • Web Wizard = Web Developer
  • Office Dynamo = Office All-rounder
  • Sales Ninja = Salesperson

A good job title will have the following qualities:

  • It accurately reflects the nature of the job and the duties being performed
  • It does not exaggerate the importance of the role
  • It is free of gender or age implications
  • It is generic enough that it can be compared to similar jobs in the industry for the purposes of equity in pay and conditions
  • It is self-explanatory for recruitment purposes (in most online job searches, the job title is the main keyword searched). -Recruit Loop

 

 

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 2

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 2

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 2

Background Screening |  3. Remove “references available upon request.” Employers take it for granted that you’ll provide references when they ask for them, so there’s no need to announce it up front. This is a convention left over from another time. No employer is going to reject you for including it, but it takes up space better used for something else and, like an objective, it makes your résumé feel dated.

4. Kill the sales-iness in your approach. Job-search advice used to center around tactics that today come across as uncomfortably aggressive to most employers. For instance:

  • Including a line in your cover letter that you’ll call in a week to schedule an interview. (You’re not the one who decides whether to schedule an interview; once you’ve expressed interest by applying, the ball is in the employer’s court.)
  • Sending cookies or chocolate to the hiring manager, the person doing the background screening or other gimmicks designed to get your résumé noticed. (You’ll come across as if you don’t understand professional boundaries, and as if you don’t think your qualifications stand on their own merit. Plus, fewer people these days accept food from strangers, so it’s likely your food gift will end up in the trash.)
  • Overnighting your résumé to the hiring manager to make it stand out. Pick up any job-search guide from a decade ago, and you’ll find this advice still in it. But these days, you’re more likely to look like someone who doesn’t follow directions – and worse, your materials might not be considered at all, because you didn’t enter them into the company’s electronic application system.

5. Don’t “pound the pavement.” You might hear from your parents or people who haven’t job searched in a long time that you should show up at the companies you want to work for and drop off your résumé in person. But with the exception of a small handful of employers who specifically request this, this is no longer done and will come across as naive and annoying to most employers. Instead, most job searches these days are done online primarily – looking at online listings, emailing résumés and cover letters, filling out electronic applications and networking on sites like LinkedIn. Of course, you should still connect with your network in person, but the concept of “pounding the pavement” looking for a job has mostly died off. -US News

 

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 1

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 1

Background Screening | 5 Ways to Modernize Your Job Search Pt. 1

 

Background Screening | It’s time to give your job search a tuneup.

If you’re still following job-search advice from a decade or more ago, chances are good that you’re inadvertently sabotaging your own chances of getting hired. And if you think you’re too young to fall into that trap, think again: It’s not just workers with decades of experience who fall for this – even 20 somethings fall victim, because they’re relying on outdated job-advice guides, parents who don’t realize that hiring conventions have changed, or even college career centers that haven’t updated their knowledge for the way things work today.

Here are five ways to modernize your job search to compete in 2014.

1. Remove the objective from your résumé. Yes, you may have learned years ago that every résumé should start with an objective, but that advice has long been outdated. Objectives now make your résumé look out-of-touch with modern conventions. What’s more, objectives are about what you want, rather than about what the employer wants – and at the initial stage of the hiring process, employers are much more concerned with what skills and experience you can offer than with your hopes and dreams. Plus, most objectives sound stilted and generic anyway. It’s been a long time since one did a job candidate any favors.

After you remove the objective, replace it with a profile section – a few sentences or bullet points that highlight who you are as a candidate and what sets you apart. Done well, these can serve as overall framing for your candidacy, explaining to employers the key facts you want them to know about you. In fact, profile sections have gained so much popularity that résumés without them are starting to look a little bare.

2. Don’t list jobs from two decades ago. Jobs you held that long ago are unlikely tostrengthen your candidacy today, and they can date you and your experience. If you’ve had an impressive career over the last 15 years, why waste space talking about more junior roles you held well before that? Remember: A résumé is a marketing document, not a comprehensive listing of everything you’ve ever done. -US News

Learn what ESA can do for you! Call 866-830-3724 to discuss background screening services or complete the form on www.esascreening.com now!