For the second year in a row, 78% of the organizations surveyed reported performing drug and alcohol tests on their workforce, an impressive increase from just [...]]]> Drug and alcohol testing continue to be a critical part of the hiring process for most employers, as found by HireRight’s recently released 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report.

For the second year in a row, 78% of the organizations surveyed reported performing drug and alcohol tests on their workforce, an impressive increase from just 69% in 2011. This strong year-over-year trend can likely be attributed to employers’ understanding of the serious and negative consequences of workplace drug use and abuse.

Employers Strengthening Drug-Free Workplace Policies
Most employers are focusing their drug testing efforts on job candidates—90% of respondents reported that applicants are subject to drug testing, just as they did the previous year. What is particularly interesting is that more organizations are requiring drug testing of current employees.

Source: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

This year, 71% of survey respondents indicated that current employees are subject to drug or alcohol testing, an increase of 5% over the previous year, and one that is potentially representative of strengthened initiatives to maintain drug-free workplaces.

The Report reveals, furthermore, that simply performing drug tests prior to a worker’s first day may not be enough for many employers.

Many organizations believe that conducting drug tests on a random drug screening basis and upon reasonable suspicion could further enhance the safety of their organizations. Since 2011, such testing has increased by 24% and 14%, respectively.

The most common type of drug test continues to be urine (95%), not surprising given its ease of test administration, relative cost-effectiveness, and acceptance by most subjects. The popularity of breath alcohol tests continues to grow, with a jump from 16% to 42% from 2011 to 2013.

Employers continue to use saliva-, blood-, and hair-based testing sparingly. Similar to last year, 91% of drug and alcohol tests are done in a collection lab, while 24% are done on-site.

Employers Reluctant to Accept Medical Marijuana
Marijuana continues to a debated topic for employers, as several states have approved its medical use. Additionally, in the November 2012 elections, the recreational use of marijuana was passed in two states. Still, federal law prohibits all types of use, and most employers are maintaining zero-tolerance policies for all types of marijuana.

The number of organizations that have a medical marijuana policy recognizing the differences between medical and unauthorized use has decreased slightly from 14% to 12% in the past year. This further shows that most organizations are reluctant to demonstrate acceptance of medical marijuana use.

Interestingly, those employers that have a medical marijuana policy are not necessarily accepting its use. These organizations are still taking adverse action against those who test positive for medical marijuana.

Data from 2013 show that 63% of respondents do so with job candidates and 56% do so with current employees. This further instills the fact that only a very minimal number of employers are actually approving the use of medical marijuana.

Free Report: Building a Safe and Productive Workplace

Discover the key benefits of drug testing, six best practices for implementing a program and how to choose a drug screening provider by downloading:

Building a Safe and Productive Workplace: How organizations are winning with drug screening best practices.

Download Now

With organizations still struggling with talent acquisition and retention, more are focusing on the applicant experience as one avenue to [...]]]> Employers responding to HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report survey reported that speed remains a central challenge for them in their background screening programs.

With organizations still struggling with talent acquisition and retention, more are focusing on the applicant experience as one avenue to help ensure the next great candidate becomes the next great employee.

This year’s data reveal that 71% of employers have taken steps over the previous year to improve the candidate experience. For organizations that employ more than 500 people, this statistic was even more marked, at 84%.

Source: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Employers’ concern with the applicant experience has likely not only grown in response to talent acquisition issues, but also to the astronomical ascent of social media.

Organizations are realizing that candidates can be vocal advocates or detractors of their brand, reaching out to vast online networks with stories of a positive or negative experience.

These shared experiences can not only influence the organization’s employment brand, but also perception of the overall organization.

Any member of that applicant’s social network represents a potential customer, employee or business partner.

It is no wonder, therefore, that improving overall time to hire is a crucial concern for today’s organizations—after all, no attractive applicant wants to be kept waiting a long time while a potential employer finalizes a background check, discusses other possible candidates with the hiring manager, or generally drags its feet on a hiring decision.

For the second year in a row, “getting timely screening results” and “reducing overall time to hire” were the top two most cited screening challenges, at 46% and 44%, respectively. This is consistent with 2012 data, in which these two challenges were named by 45% and 43% of respondents, respectively.

The Importance of Applicant Experience in Talent Acquisition

Learn the importance of the applicant experience and tips to help ensure a positive experience by downloading:

The Importance of Applicant Experience in Talent Acquisition

Download Now

As a result, it is no longer necessary to engage with a traditional outplacement firm to receive the host of benefits [...]]]> In the last ten years, the outplacement services industry has undergone a transformation from a high-cost model dependent on physical locations to one that is affordable, robust and rooted in an online platform.

As a result, it is no longer necessary to engage with a traditional outplacement firm to receive the host of benefits that an effective virtual outplacement solution can provider; moreover, modern online solutions can offer these at a fraction of the cost.

But while virtual outplacement services are quickly becoming the industry standard, their capabilities can vary dramatically. So what should be the top features that organizations should seek in an outplacement services solution?

Though cost is certainly top of mind for many organizations as they look for a virtual outplacement solution, ensuring that the selected outplacement services solution boasts some important features will mean that organizations are receiving the maximum amount of value.

The following list can help you identify the key features in a virtual outplacement solution that your transitioning employees can use to find a job fast:

1. Virtual capability that will allow access to tools and research from anywhere, at any time.
2. Affordable enough to be able to offer career transition services to everyone in the organization for at least six months—it’s difficult for anyone today to find a job in 30 days.
3. Technology that performs highly targeted job searches using rich data sources.
4. Targeted jobs are quickly pushed to users.
5. Leverage social networks, such as Facebook, to find job referrals for opportunities that provide a competitive edge.
6. A multi-step process to target new jobs, develop a resume, use social networking, and perfect interviewing skills to locate new careers efficiently.
7. In-depth skill assessment testing and analysis to help the user identify important values, temperament, interests, skills, and talents.
8. Training, preferably video, to improve interviewing skills.
9. Step-by-step resume preparation and review.
10. Optional one-on-one coaching from a highly trained and experienced career coach to provide personalized expertise.

Free Report: How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Discover 10 key attributes of an effective outplacement program by downloading:

How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Download Now

In an era where social media increasingly influences, and in some instances, [...]]]> The topic of social media remains top-of-mind for many employers. As adoption rates of social media continue to cross generational boundaries and new sites emerge, employers are struggling to remain ahead of the curve and better define how their organizations use social media.

In an era where social media increasingly influences, and in some instances, even dominates, both personal and professional environments, organizations must tackle some serious questions:

• How much access to social media should employees be granted on company systems? 
• Is social media a distraction, or does it help boost workplace productivity? 
• How much are organizations permitted to regulate what is written by their employees on social networking sites? 
• Can an employer take disciplinary action against a worker who posts unflattering comments about the organization on social media?

With regards to the last couple of questions, employers received some clarification via the National Labor Review Board’s (NLRB) recent decisions on social media policies in the workplace. For many employers, the NLRB’s guidance reversed much of the conservative approach many employers had taken about social media (i.e., prohibition of any negative portrayals of the employer on social media).

Source: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Federal Guidance Remains Absent for Social Media Use in Hiring
Unfortunately for talent management professionals, there has yet to be any such federal guidance on social media for a critical HR function like hiring. Therefore, employers are still not entirely certain about social media’s role in the process.

That said, a majority of employers do actively use social media as part of their recruiting function. In HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report, 54% of respondents indicated that they use social media for recruiting, with another 7% planning to do so.

The practice is even more entrenched at larger employers (500+ employees), with 73% utilizing social media sites for talent acquisition. The data indicate a slight growth from 2012, when 50% of respondents indicated they use social media for recruiting.

Employers Wary of Social Media Background Checks
When it comes to social media background screening, however, employers tend to be much more cautious. Only 14% of respondents to the survey reported that they use social media for background screening purposes, with 7% planning to do so. The numbers indicate a marginally declining year-over-year trend, since in 2012, 15% of employers were using social media for background screening and 9% were planning to do so.

Far and away, Facebook is the most popular site for employers using social media for background screening, with 83% incorporating it into their employment screening process. LinkedIn (68%) and Google+ (32%) were the second and third most popular sites, respectively.

At least part of this reluctance is not just due to the lack of clear regulatory or case law guidance on the practice, but can also be attributed to employers wanting to steer clear of thorny issues like discrimination and invasions of privacy.

Given these concerns, HireRight asked the employers who were using social media as part of their background screening effort if they have a company policy to govern the process. Fewer than one-fourth (24%) of respondents indicated they do—a concerning statistic.

Without any guidelines governing how social media background screening is conducted, what information can be used in the hiring decision, and how to verify information, organizations risk exposing themselves to a variety of potential liabilities and may be inappropriately limiting their candidate pool based on subjective criteria.

Free Report: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Discover tips for developing strategic objectives, related policies, and practical management of employment screening programs by downloading:

HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Download Now

More than half of employers from the world’s ten largest economies reported that they have experienced a employers are still challenged with acquiring qualified talent, as evidenced in a recent CareerBuilder survey.

More than half of employers from the world’s ten largest economies reported that they have experienced a bad hire. In the United States, the rates are even higher: two out of three U.S. employers reported making a hire that ended up not meeting expectations, or was a poor fit for the position.

Emerging economies, like China, India, Brazil, and Russia, had greater incidences of bad hires, with rates near 90 percent.

The impact of a poor hire can reverberate throughout the organization and can be costly. In the United States, 27 percent of employers reported that the cost of a bad hire exceeded $50,000.

Other costs of a bad hire cited by respondents to the survey include:

Source: CareerBuilder, May 2013

While many employers have been affected by a bad hire, an effective background screening program can help employers better identify poor job candidates, allowing them to focus efforts on recruiting the most suitable applicants.

According to the HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report, 55 percent of respondents cite an improved quality of hire as the top benefit of conducting employment screening. Reduced turnover and improved reputation are additional benefits that employers achieve through background screening.

Free Report: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Discover tips for developing strategic objectives, related policies, and practical management of employment screening programs by downloading:

HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Download Now

These virtual offerings include individualized coaching sessions, self-guided training modules, online assessments, video training, tailored job searches, resume development and editing, and much more.

So, for those organizations that [...]]]> Once given solely to transitioning executives and other high-profile exiting employees, outplacement services are now being offered to employees at all levels of an organization. This shift is driven primarily by evolving infrastructures within the outplacement industry, which have made these services much more affordable and easier to access.

So, for those organizations that are interested in outplacement services for everyone, what are the key characteristics you need to look for in selecting the right provider?

1. Does the provider offer a suite of virtual services, or does it rely on a brick-and-mortar location?
With advances in modern technology, a wide range of outplacement services can now be provided online, like video coaching, counseling, resume critique, job search skills development, and self-assessment.

These virtual services supersede the need for a traditional office location, and mean that transitioning employees can access them anytime, from anywhere. Additionally, new technologies can easily and cost-effectively aggregate, mine and deliver large amounts of data, like job openings, to job seekers.

2. How effective is the outplacement services provider?
Many organizations gauge the effectiveness of their outplacement services provider by how quickly former employees are able to find a new job. If quick transitions are your primary goal, this metric can help you determine how successful a provider is.

One critical question to ask is whether the outplacement program provides the right tools and process to help your former employees find a new job. Another useful tool for assessing the effectiveness of a provider is direct feedback from current plan participants – are they receiving the support and leads they need to find their next opportunity?

Program length is another key determinant of a provider’s effectiveness – often, such programs expire after 30 days, not enough time for someone to find a new job.

3. How much does it cost for outplacement services?
With advances in technology, costs for outplacement services are typically much, much more affordable than they have been historically.

For this reason, many employers are eager to offer such programs to all transitioning employees, rather than extending them only to executives and other high-profile individuals, which can help engender goodwill from former workers, positive sentiments from existing staff, upbeat social networking feedback, and reduced unemployment costs. As you’re doing your due diligence, ask each outplacement services provider to provide a detailed quote for six months of service at a minimum.

4. Are service levels flexible and/or modularized to allow all levels of employees to utilize them?
Some outplacement service providers have a single program offering that only benefits one employee type, usually an executive. Look for options such as one-on-one coaching, self-guided training and assessment, video training, and other services that appeal to different employee types.

Choose an outplacement firm that offers a program that meets the needs of all levels of your employees.

Free Report: How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Discover 10 key attributes of an effective outplacement program by downloading:

How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Download Now

In fact, 97% of the organizations responding to [...]]]> Employment screening is a critical component of most organizations’ hiring programs, seeing as background screening produces a wealth of benefits: promoting a better quality of hire, helping employers comply with state and federal legislation, mitigating a wide range of workplace risks, and protecting their hard-earned reputation.

In fact, 97% of the organizations responding to HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report survey reported they are performing some type of background screening. While employers today are certainly insulating themselves from multiple risks through background screening, their responses reveal some critical gaps in their programs.

Current Employees Could Pose a Risk
One area in which employers are leaving themselves vulnerable is with their current employees. Fewer than half (47%) of respondents are re-screening employees after hire. For many organizations, performing background checks on current employees is an effective risk mitigation measure.

After all, even after hire, employees could be convicted of crimes about which you as an employer would want to know. For example, an employee with driving responsibilities could be found guilty of driving while intoxicated – probably an important fact of which any employer would want to be aware.

Employees with International Ties
Another area in which employers are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk is screening domestic employees who have lived, worked, or studied outside of the country in which they’re based. Nearly a third (31%) of survey respondents don’t verify the educational or employment experience of their U.S.-based candidates.

This background screening gap exists despite organizations’ active recruitment of candidates with global experience; 55% of respondents recruit such candidates. A background screening program that verifies foreign experience will help these employers ensure their applicants have the qualifications they’re seeking.

In some cases, verifying a candidate’s foreign history can also help uncover criminal record information and assist the employer in making a more educated hiring decision.

Source: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Contingent Workers often Overlooked
Yet another critical potential gap in many employers’ background screening programs centers on how they handle their extended workforce, which includes such non-permanent employees as temporary workers, contractors and volunteers.

Of the employers responding to the survey who utilize an extended workforce, 32% do not conduct any sort of background checks on these individuals.

While these workers don’t constitute part of the permanent payroll, they nevertheless can have access to data, facilities, customers, and assets. In this respect, they can pose a threat to your organization.

Many Employers Making Gains
While these gaps can present significant risk opportunities for employers, the good news is that some of the numbers show an improvement from the previous year’s data.

In 2012, only 34% of employers reported re-screening employees after hire, representing a 13% increase for this year. Another process improvement is with extended workforce screening. Last year, 35% of employers utilizing these types of non-employees didn’t perform background checks on these individuals; the data from 2013 show a 3% improvement.

Free Report: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Discover tips for developing strategic objectives, related policies, and practical management of employment screening programs by downloading:

HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Download Now

Therefore, organizations had to be judicious as to how they invested [...]]]> Traditionally, organizations have provided outplacement services mainly to executives and some mid-level managers. After all, such services, which relied heavily on a brick and mortar location and face-to-face interactions with career professionals, could cost into the tens of thousands of dollars per employee.

Therefore, organizations had to be judicious as to how they invested this budget, usually choosing to allocate it to helping those former employees that had a high profile or extensive professional networks where bad word-of-mouth could be devastating.

Yet, as the dynamics of workforce mobility have changed over the years – certainly more people change jobs more often – and the infrastructure of career outplacement services have evolved, relying more on technology and virtual networking, employers have begun to consider the advantages of providing such services to all transitioning employees, even entry-level workers.

Some of these benefits include:

1. Feelings of altruism. In many cases, employees are transitioning from your organization are doing so because of forces totally beyond their control, like a reduction in force.

Helping them manage a difficult period in their lives and locate their next career opportunity can promote positive energies and underscore your organizational values. In fact, in a recent survey of HR professionals, one of the top reasons cited for providing outplacement services is that it is “the right thing to do.”

2. Improved employee morale. For existing employees, there is a level of comfort in knowing that your organization provides effective outplacement services for all employees. Such an investment in their long-term career trajectories can boost feelings of optimism and improve overall employee morale.

3. Insulation from legal action. Transitioning employees who do not receive outplacement services to “soften the blow” and help them find their next job may be more likely to initiate a lawsuit against your organization, perhaps for wrongful termination or for another related issue.

Employees who do receive these kinds of services may feel better about your organization and less inclined to seek revenge in a court of law.

4. Brand protection and promotion. Unfettered access to social media by a disgruntled former employee can do untold damage to your organization’s brand. Such former employees can post scathing remarks on well-read sites like Twitter, Glassdoor and Facebook – in some cases, they can even do this anonymously.

Moreover, their networks and readership don’t just represent potential employees – they are all your potential customers as well.

5. Investment in potential future employees. In those instances where a reduction in force has led you to have to let go of an employee who has a bright future ahead of him or her, facilitating their transition with outplacement services can help build goodwill and promote your employment brand.

Therefore, when your organization is in a place to add new headcount again, you have not burned any bridges with high-potential individuals with experience in your industry, and that former employee may consider a new career opportunity with you.

For all of these reasons, employers today should consider offering outplacement services to all transitioned employees, regardless of position. Doing so can offer your organization a number of key benefits and strengthen your overall employment brand.

Free Report: How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Discover 10 key attributes of an effective outplacement program by downloading:

How to Improve Outplacement with Intelligent Social Networking

Download Now

For these 97% of respondents, background screening produces clear, easily identifiable benefits. [...]]]> Employment screening has evolved to a near ubiquitous place in the landscape of the U.S. workplace, with almost every organization polled by HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report survey reporting that it has some sort of background screening program in place.

For these 97% of respondents, background screening produces clear, easily identifiable benefits. In fact, employers taking the survey indicated, on average, 2.4 benefits that a background screening program has brought to their organization.

Furthermore, more than 40% of respondents noted that they had historically experienced a workplace incident that could have been prevented via an employment screening program.

Source: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Employers Credit Employment Screening for Improvements in Quality of Hire
The top benefit is, once again as it was in 2012, an “improved quality of hire”. This top benefit dovetails nicely with the ongoing struggles with talent acquisition and retention that were reported by respondents, for the second year in a row, as their foremost business challenge.

Even in the face of a weak job market, employers are still struggling with this function, likely due to a deficit of qualified applicants for open positions. Background screening helps these employers ensure that candidates are qualified for the jobs they’re seeking.

This is especially important, given that two-thirds of respondents reported uncovering an applicant who lied on his or her resume. Employment screening also helps improve quality of hire by eliminating individuals from consideration who are unsuitable for hiring for the open position, given specific, related red flags in their histories.

Reductions in Risk
Many other cited benefits of background screening center on the risk mitigation rewards such a program can bring to an organization.

The second most named benefit is “improved safety and security”, demonstrating that employers see a direct correlation between employment background checks and the safer working environment they can engender. Other critical risk management benefits cited by respondents include reductions in negligent hiring risks, illicit drug use, workplace accidents and violence, and employee theft.

Employers named “improved regulatory compliance” as the third top benefit of conducting employment screening. With respondents’ continued concerns over compliance (it held the #2 spot for top business challenge of 2013), a robust and effective background screening program that is regularly re-evaluated in light of an evolving regulatory framework can help assuage some of these anxieties.

Nevertheless, employers will need to remain vigilant as laws and regulations that affect the hiring process continue to change.

Full Report Available
In addition to these benefits, HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report explores other key issues, trends, and underlying business drivers affecting background screening programs.

Now in its sixth year, the Report also focuses on these programs, exploring both policy and practices. The 2013 Report is based on survey results from more than 1,600 respondents, including human resource (HR), security, and other management professionals in a wide range of industries and organization sizes.

Free Report: HireRight 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Discover tips for developing strategic objectives, related policies, and practical management of employment screening programs by downloading:

HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report

Download Now