Author: Cynthia Low

With the economy showing some positive signs, many companies may be wondering whether it’s time to hire. According the recent Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey report, employment in Canada increased by 43,000 in January, unfortunately all in part time, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.3%. January marks the fourth employment gain in six months.

Robert Half offers signs that it may be time to bring in reinforcements. They include:

• Service levels are deteriorating. Perhaps your company has experienced an unusual increase in returned items and requests for refunds. Or customers may be complaining frequently about the way your staff treats them. Or perhaps you’ve noted that employees seem to be operating in a constant reactive mode, rather than anticipating and preventing problems the way they used to.
• Important but non-urgent projects are repeatedly deferred. Deliverables are chronically postponed, or projects are thrown off schedule because individuals or teams fail to complete their duties on time. You find yourself constantly revising due dates to accommodate unexpected complications.
• Your company has to take a pass on emerging opportunities. There are new products you would launch or new services you would offer – if only you had more workers. You’ve watched as competitors seize opportunities that you had to forego because you are short-staffed.
• Your firm can’t take on any more clients or customers. You’re beginning to have to turn away new business. Referrals from current customers and clients are piling up on your desk, awaiting follow-up.
• You’re doing low-level work. You spend most of your day dealing with urgent but unimportant matters, rather than focusing on strategic, big-picture issues. You find yourself stocking inventory, answering phones or refilling toner cartridges because your business is so short-handed.
• A single absence throws the entire team off schedule. You step in repeatedly to cover for staff members who are out sick or overloaded with work. You feel like you’re literally doing it all – from IT trouble-shooting and accounting to sales, customer service, order fulfillment and basic administrative duties.
• Your staff regularly works overtime to finish projects. If your team is on a constant first-name basis with the cleaning crew, it’s probably time to hire. Having people work long hours for extended periods of time isn’t ultimately sustainable.

For more information about Robert Half or about the results of the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey report in general, visit www.rhi.com.

Rochester, MI Jan 2010 – Negotiating a fair severance package is common when a person involuntarily leaves a company. What many people fail to realize, however, is it’s just as important to negotiate a fair professional reference for use in landing one’s next position.

This is one of the biggest blunders people make when they lose a job, according to Heidi Allison, president of Allison & Taylor, the nation’s leading reference checking and employment-verification firm.

“No matter how you leave a company, you need to know what your immediate past employer is going to say about you to prospective new ones,” Allison says. “People mistakenly think that all employers will simply verify your past employment, but this couldn’t be further from reality. In many cases, people talk more than they should when providing a reference.”

When negotiating a professional reference, a person needs to confirm if he or she is eligible for rehiring, what is the specific reason for losing the job and, if the employer will provide a reference, what exactly is going to be said? Like any negotiation, Allison recommends getting the answers to these questions in writing.

Job seekers also need to know who is going to be providing the professional reference, for it is not just what is said but how it is said. A reference’s voice inflection can tell a prospective employer a lot about a person’s true feelings.

“In many instances, it’s best for a human resources executive without emotional ties to a former employee to provide the reference,” Allison said. “The worst case is an emotional boss who one day may provide a favorable reference and the next day the opposite just because he or she may be having a bad day.” 

If there is a concern that a former boss may say something derogatory or untrue about a former employee when asked for a professional reference, the human resources department should be contacted to clarify the company’s reference policy.  

“Believe it or not, many managers don’t know the official reference policy of a company and inadvertently say too much,” Allison said. “Someone in human resources needs to remind them of the rules, which force former bosses to temper their comments.” 

In some cases, prospective employers who cannot reach a candidate’s professional references simply eliminate that person from contention.

“The interviewing and reference-checking process is all about impressions,” Allison explains. “What kind of impression do you think a candidate provides if a so-called professional reference refuses to acknowledge a candidate worked for them?  Not good.”

So, what is a job seeker to do if a former employer drops the ball, so to speak? According to Allison, one may have to hire an attorney to prompt the company to cooperate.

“A letter is sent on one’s behalf to the company, explaining that the candidate needs a job and asking them to provide a professional reference following set policies,” Allison says. “Most companies are sympathetic to a candidate’s efforts to find another position and then return the call from the prospective employer.”

An “official” letter of recommendation never replaces a professional reference verbally provided to a hiring manager, she stressed.

“Letters of recommendation really aren’t effective in today’s job market,” Allison says. “A candidate can work with the letter provider to assure the letter says all the right things so, in the minds of many hiring managers, they have little credibility no matter who it comes from.”

Rochester, MI Jan 2010 – Almost all of us can relate to the experience – when filling out a job application you are asked to sign a consent form, authorizing a prospective employer to conduct a background check on you.

Your life – including credit history, credit scores, driving record, etc. – has become an open book, with much that you once deemed private now accessible to many. More ominous still, any inaccuracies – of which you may not even be aware – could be undermining your efforts to land new employment.

What “must know” information do you need to ensure your background check is an employment tool and not a hindrance?

First, you should be aware that a prospective employer must gain your written permission in order to conduct a background check associated with your employment application. And if they wish to communicate with your associates, neighbors or friends, they will need you to sign off on what is known as an investigative consumer report.

What’s included in an employee background check? The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets the standards for screening for employment. At a minimum, a background check will verify your social security number. However, employers are generally seeking additional data on employment history, educational credentials, credit history and possible criminal background.

While there are obvious privacy concerns related to such requests, employers (arguably) have at least some justification in their need-to-know efforts. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer rights organization, areas of employer inquiry and concern might include:

• False or misleading data offered by job applicants, e.g., fictitious employment or educational credentials
• Negligent hiring lawsuits brought against an employer as the result of an employee causing harm to others
• Federal and state legal requirements for certain positions, e.g., those related to contact with children or the elderly
• Fallout from corporate scandals

Please note there is information that cannot be disclosed in a background check. An example is school records, which are confidential and cannot be released without the consent of the student.

Although you cannot be discriminated against because you filed for bankruptcy, note that bankruptcies are a matter of public record and it will show up on a background check.

The laws regarding criminal history vary by state. Some states don’t allow questions pertaining to arrests or convictions beyond a certain point in the past. Others only allow consideration of criminal history for certain employment positions. This information does typically appear on a complete background check.

Also, employers cannot request medical records and are not allowed to make hiring decisions based on an applicant’s disability. They may only inquire about your ability to perform a certain job.

So, What Are Your Next Steps?

The best way to prepare for a background check is to be proactively aware of any potentially damaging information that an employer might find. Consider using a reputable third party to obtain an exhaustive background check on yourself. For example, the report generated by background and reference-checking experts Allison & Taylor (www.allisontaylor.com) evaluates over 30 different categories in your background history.

If you find false data about yourself in your background check, there is a written process for having such data removed. Contact the nearest Consumer Reporting Agency for details of this process.

Equally important, ensure that your resume and job applications are truthful and accurate. Even if you land the job with a falsified resume, it’s not worth its being uncovered at some later point and ruining your employment history.

Know that if you are ultimately not hired as the result of information contained within a background check report, the employer must offer you a disclosure that includes a copy of both your report and your rights. They must also serve you notice that they have decided not to hire you and inform you of the name and location of the nearest Consumer Reporting Agency, as well as information on how to proceed in disputing the report (should you choose to do so).

In summary, it pays to conduct your own due diligence in accessing and potentially acting upon the same data that an employer accesses about you. The career you save may be your own. For further information visit www.AllisonTaylor.com.