Reference Checks.ppt

Reference Checks Karen Huyler Lynn Budnik March 15, 2007 Why check references? recruiting orientation and training staff turnover lost productivity incompetence theft or business loss legal and administrative expense unfavorable publicity negligent hiring claims Why check references? Roughly 30% of job applicants misrepresent themselves on the employment application.* * /articles/background.htm Recent high-profile cases Jesse L. Burns, President of Edward Waters College, claimed to have an MBA and a doctorate. There was no record of Burns having earned a degree higher than a BS. When Burns lack of credentials became public, he was forced to resign.* */articlesection/ReferenceChecking.htm More high-profile cases Seymour Schlager was appointed Medical Director for Becton Dickinson despite having served six years in prison for the attempted murder of his wife. (NY Times, 9/9/01, Melody Petersen) In the last 2 years, coaches from Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, and UCLA were all fired for falsifying credentials. (Employment Action, Volume 5, Number 4, Fall 2002) Negligent Hiring Can you be held liable if you don’t check references? Yes. Negligent Hiring Negligent hiring lawsuits normally cost $50,000 to $250,000 to litigate. Employers lose 72% of those cases. The average jury plaintiff award in employment law cases is in excess of $1,000,000. * */InfoLink/Background/BackgroundScreening.aspx#Negligent Negligent hiring real-life situations A hospital was found negligent in hiring a kidney transplant coordinator who was unskilled in reading medical charts. As a result, a patient was given a cancerous kidney in a transplant, which resulted in his death.* */InfoLink/Background/BackgroundScreening.aspx#Lawsuits After a furniture store delivery person assaulted a customer while delivering furniture to her home, the furniture store owner was held liable for negligent hiring. If the company had conducted any background c