Time Warner Contractor Arrested on Sexual Abuse Charges
Recently, in Oneonta, New York, a registered sex offender obtained a job with Sure Connect, a company who is a contractor for Time Warner. He allegedly assaulted a woman in her home on June 20th, 2008. The details of the story can be found here.
Backgrounds Online contacted Stan McGinnis, founder and CEO of Secure Signals International, a company who specializes in "theft of service, internal theft, loss prevention and account fraud solutions with bottom line impact" and who screens potential employees for many contractors of cable companies.
The following is Part 1 of our three part interview with Mr. McGinnis who gave us excellent insight into this industry:
"Comcast and Time Warner are using databases to run their checks as well as a variety of different people looking at the information that have little HR training who may not know what they're looking at on an application. They use the database service to run background checks because it's cost efficient, but it's not efficient in terms of ferreting out problem employees.
That is what we do so well. Secure Signals has almost a 100% perfect run rate of evaluating people and classifying them as high risk based on how we assess our information. If the company hires a person designated as high risk, I can tell you to almost 100% certainty that the employee won't make it six months. With high turnover in cable, they may spend between $6,000 and $8,000 on training. I'm eliminating that cost by telling you not to hire the person to begin with, I've saved you all that money in turnover costs. They don't use us because we're more expensive and databases are instant wherein it takes us three to four days to compile an accurate report. They are not willing to wait that time. They would want the information if they really knew how it works for them.
We are really good at taking the information we get from Backgrounds Online and putting it together to create a picture of what this person really looks like and how they run their life. If they don't run their life well, you shouldn't have any expectation that they are going to run your business very well."
Backgrounds Online contacted Stan McGinnis, founder and CEO of Secure Signals International, a company who specializes in "theft of service, internal theft, loss prevention and account fraud solutions with bottom line impact" and who screens potential employees for many contractors of cable companies.
The following is Part 1 of our three part interview with Mr. McGinnis who gave us excellent insight into this industry:
"Comcast and Time Warner are using databases to run their checks as well as a variety of different people looking at the information that have little HR training who may not know what they're looking at on an application. They use the database service to run background checks because it's cost efficient, but it's not efficient in terms of ferreting out problem employees.
That is what we do so well. Secure Signals has almost a 100% perfect run rate of evaluating people and classifying them as high risk based on how we assess our information. If the company hires a person designated as high risk, I can tell you to almost 100% certainty that the employee won't make it six months. With high turnover in cable, they may spend between $6,000 and $8,000 on training. I'm eliminating that cost by telling you not to hire the person to begin with, I've saved you all that money in turnover costs. They don't use us because we're more expensive and databases are instant wherein it takes us three to four days to compile an accurate report. They are not willing to wait that time. They would want the information if they really knew how it works for them.
We are really good at taking the information we get from Backgrounds Online and putting it together to create a picture of what this person really looks like and how they run their life. If they don't run their life well, you shouldn't have any expectation that they are going to run your business very well."
posted by JenWiehl at 2:20 PM
8 Comments:
That is a really good point: when you look at the cost of training a new person and all the time invested in them, why would you skimp investing in the hiring process?
I agree. It's crazy to think how much money a company would save based on that alone.
Companies have to realize that it's imperative that they screen potential and current employees. A good background check could help companies hire safe, reliable people.
It's worth the $100 to screen someone.
This helps explain the limitations of a databased search for pre-employment screening.
Just think how much money companies lose every year in order to save on $100 background checks. I bet it's in the tens of billions...
I can see why they might want to just rush the report and do it the quickest and cheapest way, but at the cost of training and the inaccurate info that is turning up in such searches, I am hoping more and more companies realize it is not worth the risk!
The thought that cable people who've come and gone out of my house - who've been around my family! - may be poorly background checked, or not checked at all...well, it totally scares me. Who has liability here? The contractor? Time Warner? I'm pretty curious to read the rest of this interview.
A company is being cost efficient when doing a thorough background check...by saving them money on training, theft, and lawsuits! That Time Warner contractor left themselves open to a huge lawsuit...a reputable company shouldn't send criminals into people's homes!
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