Offices often have to deal with disgruntled employees or employees who are living a double life. Unfortunately, every once in a while a disgruntled employee or an employee with unknown or hidden background will actually be hired. The new era of social media and interaction on the Internet has magnified the severity of the outbursts from disgruntled employees and can affect an office atmosphere. The line has to be drawn when such behavior disturbs office productivity and causes tension between employees. The examples included below are from real-life employees who were outed and caught on social networking sites. It stresses the importance of a criminal background check and pre employment screening on every potential employee!

1. Buckingham Palace Guardsman Cameron Reilly isn’t Kate Middleton’s biggest fan and was quickly fired after his Facebook post leaked through to the entire public. He posted: “Hur and william drove past me on Friday n all a got was a wave while she looked the opposite way from me, stupid stuck up cow am I not good enough for them!” With open comments like the one above, is not hard to imagine what happened next.

2. After tweeting jokes about the disaster in Japan, Gilbert Gottfried was fired from his job as the Aflac duck voice. Although the jokes were from his Twitter account, Japan notified the company and they quickly released him as they deal with 75% of Japan’s business and tried to respect the devastation occurring in the country.

3. A burlesque dancer who went by the name Professor Shimmy had her identity revealed over some performances posted on You Tube and was fired from her job for her after-hour activities. According to new reports, she was an associate professor at John F. Kennedy University and the University was not impressed with her burlesque hobby believing it would hinder her credibility as a professor. In March, she sued the university over firing her.

4. In a place where smoking is banned on campus, the last person you’d expect to break the rules would be the school principal. However, that was just what happened when the Principal of Central High School in Providence, Rhode Island, decided to smoke on campus. A student snapped a shot of her smoking and posted it to his Web site. He then proceeded to pass out flyers all around campus urging other students to visit his site and view the picture. Little did he know that by doing this he’d be granted several days off from school (what a punishment)! Once the local news caught wind of what happened, the student’s suspension was stopped.

Many and most employees seem to be honest, upstanding citizens but their personal lives and activities can speak more about them than anything else. Discover what your employees are doing in their spare time and from now on hire only potential employees with clean records.

Conducting criminal background checks has become very important in the hiring process, especially with the current emphasis on security and safety we are experiencing around the world. Pre-employment screening is designed to help employers decide who NOT to hire. A criminal record investigation can help employers prevent the statistical certainty that a person with a serious criminal record will be hired and commit a crime against the employer, a fellow employee or a client. According to the Department of Justice, one in every 37 adults, have been incarcerated at one time and the recidivism rate is 67 percent within three years of release from prison.

Negligent hiring lawsuits continue to rise each year. If the actions of an employee cause harm to someone while on the job, the employer can be held liable. With child abuse and child abductions frequently showing up on the news, most states have passed laws requiring companies who work with children to check a potential employee’s criminal background as a condition of employment.

Hiring a professional background screening company can help avoid dangerous and costly hiring mistakes. It can help avoid some these scenarios:

• Sue Weaver contacted a major department store to have her air ducts cleaned. The store sent a twice convicted sex offender into her home. The man later raped and murdered the woman. No background check was performed on the employee.

• When David Taitte was convicted of raping a woman whom he had delivered a pizza, jurors in Omaha, NE, decide that the TK Pizza (owned by Domino’s Pizza) where he worked was negligent and awarded the victim $175,000. The employee was jailed just 4 months before he was hired for allegedly stalking another woman. Domino’s hired Taitte despite the criminal record because a criminal records check was never conducted.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 33 percent of businesses fail due to employee theft. The Bureau of Justice states that workplace violence accounts for 18 percent of all violent crimes. Under the legal umbrella of negligent hiring an employer has a duty to protect their employees, clients and the public from injuries caused by employees whom the employer “should have known” pose a risk of harm to other people.

Employers will probably find that conducting pre-employment criminal background checks will enable them to hire employees who are trustworthy and have better attendance and productivity, making their company a better overall place to work.

PRESS RELEASE:

Sue Weaver

Complimentary presentation and interview to take place during National Safety and Security Week for business owners, hiring managers and consumers on the topic “De-Mystifying Background Checks: What Every Person, Family and Business Needs to Know Right Now”

Tampa, FL /  August 24, 2009 — AccuScreen Inc., an employment background screening firm, will host a free Webinar presentation and interview with Lucia Bone, Executive Director of The Sue Weaver CAUSE, Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment at 3:00 PM Eastern, Wednesday August 26, 2009.

The topic of the presentation and interview will be “De-Mystifying Background Checks” a message for both businesses and consumers, which will focus on the importance of background checks on contractors and employees who enter people’s homes to perform routine home improvement and maintenance tasks.

“Many consumers have a false sense of security when they see that a home repair or service company is bonded and insured,” according to Kevin Connell, CEO and Founder of AccuScreen, will moderate the Webinar and interview Ms. Bone.

“Those designations do not speak to the safety precautions taken in the hiring process,” adds Connell. “The CAUSE Certification, which includes a comprehensive criminal background check, provides consumers with the reassurance they need before engaging a local service provider and inviting them into their home or onto their property.”

The Sue Weaver CAUSE launched the CAUSE Certification on August 27, 2008 on the anniversary of the death of Sue Weaver who was raped and beaten to death in her suburban Orlando, Florida home on August 27, 2001. Six months prior to her death, Sue had contracted with a major department store to have the air ducts in her home cleaned. One of the two men sent to perform the work was a twice-convicted sex offender on parole who later returned to rape and murder Sue Weaver.

The CAUSE Certification is a program designed to better protect consumers and employers by offering a means of hiring safer employees, contractors and subcontractors. Annual criminal background checks are required on all employees, contractors and subcontractors before becoming CAUSE Certified.

AccuScreen, Inc. and The Sue Weaver CAUSE are promoting this as part of the United We Serve Readiness for Safety and Security Week, August 24-30 aimed at supporting the efforts of those involved in disaster preparedness and crime prevention.

“The background screening principles we will discuss in the interview are applicable to employers in all industries, so we invite everyone to join in this important discussion” says AccuScreen’s Connell.

All employers and interested consumers are encouraged to register to attend this complimentary event by calling AccuScreen, Inc on 1-800-689-2228 or going online at http://www.accuscreen.com.

Visit www.sueweavercause.org to learn how to protect yourself, your business, and your family when it comes to hiring employees, contractors and subcontractors. To learn more about criminal background checks, visit www.accuscreen.com.

About The Sue Weaver Cause

The Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E., Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization brings awareness and education to consumers and employers regarding the necessity of criminal background checks on all service employees, contractors and subcontractors hired to work in or near clients’ homes.

About C.A.U.S.E. Certification

The Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment (C.A.U.S.E.) Certification campaign was launched August 27, 2008 as a nationwide consumer safety campaign to identify companies who perform criminal background checks on workers sent into consumers’ homes. The launch date marked the seven year anniversary of the death of Sue Weaver, who was raped and beaten to death in her suburban Orlando home by a worker sent to her home to clean her air ducts. Although he was a twice-convicted sex offender on parole, the company did not do a background check before hiring him. For more information on C.A.U.S.E. Certification please contact The Sue Weaver CAUSE at 877-450-5812 or email certification@sueweavercause.org

About AccuScreen Inc.

Since 1994, AccuScreen, Inc. (http://www.accuscreen.com) has been an industry pioneer, leader and expert in employment background screening, tenant screening, nanny screening and date screening, specializing in criminal background checks. Its reports are delivered to companies across the world with turnaround times from Instant to no more than 72 hours. CEO Kevin G. Connell founded the company with a burning desire that companies hire the right people from the start, resulting in greater cost control and better safety in the workplace. Mr. Connell also served as a Founding Director of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), and is a frequent Radio and Television Guest, appearing on ABC and Fox. Kevin also serves as a national speaker and expert in negligent hiring, resume fraud, employee theft, and embezzlement.