We’re spotlighting the issues and topics that impact the hiring process, candidate experience, background screening and new methodologies to ensure you are getting the best work force the long term. Sterling Risq operates throughout Asia from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Philippines and More…
CV fraud is common, but is a distinct lack of shame about it on the rise?
RISQ Group’s CEO Nick Roberts recently examined the issue at a breakfast briefing in Sydney. One of the most striking examples he covered, the case of Melissa Howard, a candidate for Florida statehouse representative, is worth following up.
Howard padded her CV with a qualification she did not earn and when challenged took the extraordinary step of doctoring a diploma and sitting with her mom for a photo (seen above) with the diploma for all to see –an apparent effort to silence her critics.
When this did not work after the University called her on the lie, she withdrew from the race, and in the latest twist has now been required to do community service. What’s noteworthy is the seeming lack of shame and egregiousness of the behaviour. Does this point to what could be a wider trend in CV fraud that we all need to pay attention to?
An excerpt from the story is here:
The Lakewood Ranch former candidate will perform community service after lying about having graduated from Miami University.
Former District 73 state House candidate Melissa Howard has reached a deal with prosecutors in the misdemeanor fraud case stemming from her fake college diploma and will perform 25 hours of community service.
Howard signed the deferred prosecution agreement Friday. Under the terms of Howard’s probation she must perform her community service within the next two months, not violate any laws, “not use intoxicants to excess,” maintain “stable, lawful employment” or be enrolled in an education program and pay certain court costs, among other requirements.
The arrangement is standard for defendants accused of a misdemeanor who do not have a criminal record. If Howard completes the terms of her 90-day probation she will not formally be charged with a crime.
“We believe that this sanction holds Mrs. Howard accountable for her actions,” said Darlene Ragoonanan, the misdemeanor and juvenile division chief in Manatee County for the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2018-09-14-at-9.23.30-am.png398641Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-09-14 06:57:472021-07-23 13:25:25Where’s the shame. A new trend in CV Fraud?
What place does social media have in our assessment of potential employees? The temptation to see behind a name is great, to find the “real” person hiding beneath the facade.
Whether we like it or not, all of us are increasingly living out our lives online. As the world around us becomes increasingly driven by digital technology, we find ourselves having to create a digital identity to utilise the services available to us. The downside of this is that we’re all being asked to risk a certain level of privacy when we divulge information about ourselves to third parties.
This debate about what is and isn’t public information has hit the headlines in recent months, with Mark Zuckerberg having to explain how Cambridge Analytica was able to farm the Facebook data of millions of individuals out to corporations and political parties. It’s against this backdrop that we need to examine the use of social media for pre-screening applicants.
As we’ve pointed out previously, there’s no hard and fast overall rule about checking the social media accounts of candidates if they’re publicly visible, but there are a number of legal risks and issues involved. There are certain types of information that can’t be legally considered in a hiring context, and this is the information you’d expect to protect individuals against discrimination – religion, marital status or ethnicity, for example. Moreover, the reality is that you can not unsee what you have seen and this can put you into tricky territory when it comes to hiring.
Because it’s almost impossible to view a Facebook account without gleaning some of this information, simply looking at a Facebook page during pre-screening can leave the process open to legal issues. Even if an employer doesn’t take any of this information into consideration, it’s very difficult to legally prove that certain types of information haven’t affected a particular decision.
Another consideration is the effect that social media screening will have on your employer brand. The war for talent continues unabated, so any hiring practice that potential applicants find abhorrent could have detrimental effects on your ability to find the best people. When an applicant submits their application, and is told their social media profiles could be considered during the screening process, you might find that many applicants simply don’t follow through.
One study asked 175 students to apply for a research position, and then told half of the students that their social media profiles had been screened for professionalism. These students were far more likely to report the selection procedure as being unfair, and found the employing organisation much less attractive. Combining this with other research that indicates that employees who feel they’ve been treated unfairly are much less likely to accept a job offer, and more likely to quit, and we can see why it’s so important not to use practices that create a feeling of unfairness.
LinkedIn profiles provide a happy medium for employers and applicants, as they’re considered publicly available information about an applicant’s employment history and experience. Some application processes even offer the option of using a LinkedIn profile to pre-fill forms. In the professional world, LinkedIn is seen as being the new repository of CVs and resumes.
However, using LinkedIn isn’t a perfect process, as there is still a level of bias that can creep in based on the use of photos and other identifying information on a profile. If an automated pre-screening process can simply crawl a LinkedIn profile to check the accuracy of information provided by an applicant, without considering profile photos, gender, marital status or race, the screening process could be considered a fair and reasonable use of a social media profile.
It’s a brave new world when it comes to data privacy and social media, but that doesn’t mean organisations have any excuse for behaving unethically during the pre-screening process. The best approach is up to each individual organisation, but it should be noted that there are significant downsides for a business using social media for screening, including legal risks and potential damage to your employer brand.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2000px-Alias_logo.svg-1200x1200.png12001200Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-09-11 06:55:552021-07-23 13:25:34Corporate stalking: should we be using social media to pre-screen employees?
When we think about data theft, we usually imagine highly trained hackers who make millions out of stealing and monetising our valuable business data. We also picture hacktivists who seek notoriety out of bringing down websites and ransoming stolen data. The reality is much simpler, and in turn more worrying, because it’s the people on our payroll that pose the biggest risk to the loss of sensitive business data –and it’s not just an Edward Snowden that you need to worry about.
Unfortunately, every organisation has at least one insider threat with the potential to cause significant damage to their business. According to the Verizon’s most recent Data Breach Investigations Report, the most common scenario at 60% of insider breaches involves an end-user leaving with data in the hope of converting it to cash somewhere down the line. In 71% of cases, personal information and medical records are targeted for financial crimes, such as identity theft or tax-return fraud, and occasionally just for gossip value.
While these insider threats can be intentionally malicious, most of the time they’re just careless. A recent survey by Imperva revealed that 79% of individuals believe their organisation doesn’t have data removal policies for when an employee departs, and 85% say they often store business data in home computers or personal mobile devices.
Heathrow International Airport found out how dangerous this level of carelessness can be when a USB was found on the streets of London with all the airport’s security data. From early reports, it appears likely that the USB drive was accidentally dropped by someone with genuine access to it or deliberately dropped by someone with bad intel.
With such clear and present risks, how do we possibly protect ourselves against the people we’re supposed to trust?
Before you hire an employee
One thing we know about human behaviour is that it tends to repeat itself. If an individual has been let go from a previous position for careless, unethical, or malicious breaches of sensitive data, a robust prescreening and background check will almost always reveal this to potential new employers. Your best bet for avoiding the worst-case scenarios of insider breaches is to avoid hiring an individual with a history of this kind of behaviour.
You should also develop a clear policy for data access privileges for your employees so they understand from day one their responsibilities for keeping your sensitive business data safe, and the ramifications of any careless or malicious misuse of that data.
After you hire an employee
In the age of machine learning and AI, security systems now have the ability to monitor user access to internal business data to spot anomalies and prevent careless or malicious behaviour. In much the same way the bank will monitor spending patterns to pick out fraudulent transactions, a contemporary security solution should be able to establish a baseline of user access behaviour so that anything untoward stands out.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Edward-Snowden-FOPF-2014.jpg717600Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-09-04 06:51:292021-07-23 13:25:43Why your own employees are more dangerous than hackers
Ghosting the job interview is in the news. What is ghosting exactly? Basically it’s a frustrating procession of no shows of candidates and it may be strong employment numbers driving it. The following CNN story does a great job of exploring the issue.
It’s worth being aware of the ghosting trend. What can you do about it in the near-term if you’re dealing with it –well, that part’s not so clear. Read the excerpt here:
Chandra Kill had scheduled face-to-face interviews with 21 candidates to fill some job openings at her employment screening firm. Only 11 showed up.
“About half flaked out,” said Kill. “They seem so excited and interested, and then they don’t show up or call and you are left wondering what happened. A year or two ago it wasn’t like this.”
“We are in a unique situation where there has definitely been a shift in the employment world as far as supply and demand,” said Susie Willingham, director of talent acquisition at CareHere, a health care company.
“We are all fishing from the same pond and people have choices now and have the opportunity to really explore different positions and roles and levels of compensation. And with that choice, you have people changing their minds midstream — it can be very frustrating.”
She estimated that approximately 1 in 10 candidates aren’t showing up for interviews, and that no-shows are more common among lower level roles.
Have you “lied” about the languages you know on your CV? Exaggeration of language ability is pretty common, but can it ever cross the line? Came across this gem on the BBC and needed to share. Here’s an excerpt:
Several years ago, Facebook started allowing users to add ‘languages spoken’ to their profiles.
One thing became abundantly clear: I had, apparently, been living a life populated with polyglots.
All at once, everyone I knew started claiming to be multilingual – despite the fact that I had never heard these people mutter even a word of a foreign language before. (My favourites were the people who said they spoke both US English and UK English.)
This trend doesn’t end with Facebook profiles either. The embellishment seeps into the workplace, surfacing when people apply for jobs. On LinkedIn and in job applications, many people don’t think twice about slapping down a greatly exaggerated foreign language ability.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/lying-1562272_960_720-1.jpg720960Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-08-22 06:47:022021-07-23 13:26:05Are You “Lying” About Your Languages on your CV?
Do you ever think of the on-demand workforce? New advances in digital technology are making traditional workplaces a thing of the past. While many workers now have the option to work remotely outside of their office, many businesses are beginning to adjust their workforce models to take advantage of a more agile contingent approach.
According to research by IDC, the mobile worker population is now made up of more than 1.3 billion people, which is 37.2% of the global workforce. Meanwhile, contingent workers now make up 20% of the Australian workforce, as freelancers, consultants, and contractors continue to take the place of full-time employees.
Massive growth.
The massive growth in the on-demand workforce is giving organisations greater agility but they need to be aware of the risks. The recent case of a rogue contractor in Queensland illustrates the worst-case scenario for a small business. When a small trade business trusted the contractor with a work truck and a company credit card, he stole the truck and racked up a $23,000 bill at Bunnings. To make matters worse, Bunnings then claimed the business owner was liable for all of the transactions.
The lesson here is clear – regardless of whether you consider a contractor, freelancer or consultant one of your employees in the technical sense, by law they are your responsibility. That’s why employers need to investigate and understand how they plan on adapting their recruitment, and in particular their screening processes, to reflect the changes brought about by the on demand workforce.
We know that the shift in the global workforce is being reflected by many employers reducing their screening practices. But there needs to be a realisation that the matter how you classify an individual on your own books, they are a representative of your brand, so they’re just as capable of causing significant damage as one of your own employees. In fact, well-known businesses that rely on a contingent workforce such as Uber and Lyft have suffered some of their biggest PR disasters due to negligent and criminal behaviour by their contractors.
Application of standards.
Also important to remember is that employers need to apply the same standards to a position that will be filled by a nontraditional worker, or else they could be subject to allegations of biased treatment of contractors over full-time employees – a potential minefield considering Australia’s industrial relations legislation still prioritises traditional employment contracts.
Ultimately though, employers need to remember that background screening of on-demand workers is a mandatory part of their due diligence. In the years to come, many precedents will be set for cases of negligence where organisations haven’t exercised reasonable care in determining if a contractor or freelancer is unfit for the position.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/linkedin.jpg720960Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-08-21 06:45:082021-07-23 13:26:11How Do you Manage The Risks of an On-Demand Workforce?
Background checks matter. Here’s why. There’s no shortage of cases in recent years of individual employees causing massive brand damage to their employers’ business. Currently, the Royal Banking Commission in Australia is once again throwing the spotlight onto poor corporate governance and the expected cavalcade of detrimental outcomes. While senior leaders continue to fall on their sword and share prices begin to slide, all of us are examining how we can use these cases as a lesson for our own corporate brand.
One side-effect of these widely publicised governance failures is that it allows forward-thinking organisations to carve out a market position as an ethical and governance best practice leader. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, reputation accounts for up to 75% of a company’s value. Research from Real Business also shows that corporate governance, including perceptions of fairness, ethics and transparency, now accounts for 17.2% of a company’s overall reputation, second only to perceptions of their actual products and services.
So, how do we go about creating a positive perception of our corporate governance? Obviously, good corporate governance is the first place to start, as our business’ reputation is developed slowly and steadily over a number of years. Put simply, there are no shortcuts in building your reputation.
What we can do, however, is be more transparent about the processes and practices behind our corporate governance (background checks play a role here). It’s easy to pay lip service to “consistently excellent levels of ethical behaviour”, but any cynic who reads that on your websites and shareholder reports will know that it only takes one rotten apple to prove otherwise.
To mitigate these concerns, it’s worth letting your stakeholders know about the lengths your business is going to in order to attract and retain a highly ethical workforce. So, can background checks save your corporate brand? In a word, yes. A major reputational safeguard is your pre-employment screening processes, as these can outline the steps your business is undertaking to ensure that unethical, and potentially criminal applicants aren’t slipping through the cracks.
Background checks stand behind good process. If a particular individual is exposed for negligent, unethical or criminal behaviour while employed by your business, one of the first steps your business can take is to highlight your pre-employment screening processes. If those screening processes have been carried out in full, and the employee has been given the right level of ethical and conduct training, you can respond to media reports on the front foot by illustrating that best practice corporate governance procedures were followed. While this doesn’t give you an automatic free pass, it will greatly reduce the potential brand damage your company could suffer.
By partnering with a world-leading pre-employment screening provider, you can be sure that the recruitment processes you publicise are of the highest quality in your marketplace. This provides shareholders with a greater sense of security in your governance practices, while also being an essential component of your brand position for customers. On top of that, a robust and stringent recruitment process indicates to potential applicants that you’re serious about hiring the best, making you an employer of choice and influence.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Nick-Roberts-on-ABC-Radio-National-mp3-image.jpg600600Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-08-14 06:43:282021-07-23 13:28:19Can background checks save your corporate brand?
For companies challenged by a reputational crisis, there is good news –the path to better days starts with people.
It’s worth sharing a recent story from Business Insider Australia on big changes happening at Commonwealth Bank, where a series of public issues has challenged its image. Its new CEO, Matt Comyn, is rolling up his sleeves and building recovery on simplifying structures, getting back to basics and, above all, relying on people to build a solid future. It is precisely because of this dependence on people that it is so important that best practice employment screening be front of mind.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Matt Comyn, the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth, has taken a key step on the path to restoring the reputation of Australia’s biggest bank, announcing six appointments and changes to the Executive Leadership Team.
The restructure is the second announcement today in his simplification of the bank, bringing the CBA back to its core banking businesses. He earlier outlined plans to demerge the bank’s wealth management and mortgage broking businesses.
He says the new team members bring a strong mix of deep experience in banking, risk management, digital transformation and cultural change leadership.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2017-06-26-at-2.33.45-pm-e1498451957664.png493821Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-06-28 06:35:572023-02-22 16:24:28Reputational Turnarounds Rely on People
We are always on the lookout for ways to improve employee happiness, engagement and productivity –this article from Fast Company fits the bill. One thing to note is a key feature behind our screening methodology is also a key element in what supports employee happiness: trust. It turns out that finding ways to build trust is probably far more effective than more direct approaches to “happiness”.
When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow,” his career–and the entire culture of Silicon Valley–took a sharp turn.
Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organization. Happiness became his job.
Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a startup, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role.
The role remains popular today. There are more than 1,000 chief happiness officers listed on jobs website LinkedIn. But a closer look at what really makes employees happy shows that lots of companies are going about it the wrong way. But once Google did it, employee happiness became a key metric, and other organizations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.
AI is moving very quickly and so is the rise of biometrics. What do you know about AI and facial recognition? We are seeing the combination of the two across a range of industries including human resources and employment screening. It’s worth sharing this article from The NY Times that takes a close look at the risks inherent in putting too much faith in these systems when it comes to assessing human beings. For example, facial recognition and the evaluation of physical gestures can actually lead not only to erroneous conclusions but to prejudiced ones.
Here’s an excerpt from the story.
When I was a college student using A.I.-powered facial detection software for a coding project, the robot I programmed couldn’t detect my dark-skinned face. I had to borrow my white roommate’s face to finish the assignment. Later, working on another project as a graduate student at the M.I.T. Media Lab, I resorted to wearing awhite mask to have my presence recognized.
My experience is a reminder that artificial intelligence, often heralded for its potential to change the world, can actually reinforce bias and exclusion, even when it’s used in the most well-intended ways.
A.I. systems are shaped by the priorities and prejudices — conscious and unconscious — of the people who design them, a phenomenon that I refer to as “the coded gaze.” Research has shown that automated systems that are used to inform decisions about sentencing produce results that are biased against black people and that those used forselecting the targets of online advertising can discriminate based on race and gender.
https://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Cool-facial-recongition-image-e1529725394224.jpg454852Timhttps://www.sterlingrisq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/sterling-risq-logo-1.pngTim2018-06-22 06:31:562021-07-23 13:28:45Are AI and Facial Recognition A Risk In Hiring