If you are looking for a job, you can expect that any potential employers are going to want a background check performed on you. Different potential employers will want to know different things about you. There are several reasons employers use background checks for pre-employment screening.

Employers need to be careful about who they hire since negligent hiring lawsuits are happening more often. If an employee's actions hurt another individual, the employer may be liable. Therefore, the employer will want to check your past for any red flags that might tell them you are a risk to their company. Hiring the wrong person can drain a company financially and harm the career of the hiring manager.

Recent happenings have increased the need for thorough pre-employment screening.

Almost every state has a law in place that anyone who works with children will need to undergo a background check. This has come about because of the countless cases of child abuse and child abduction. Employers must make sure children are safe.

The events of September 11, 2001 have increased the need of thorough screening and identity verification. New applicants and long-time employees are checked following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The professional and private lives of corporate employees, officers and directors are examined now more than ever since the collapse of Enron.

Resume fraud is on the rise. There have been numerous news reports on employees supplying false or inflated information in an effort to obtain a job they may not even be qualified for. Human resource professionals are aware that some resumes contain false information. Performing a background check on a potential employee can give them insight into whether a person is honest and trustworthy.

Criminal background checks are required in most states for certain jobs. For instance, background checks are required by law in almost every state when the job involves small children and the medical profession. Anyone working with the elderly will most likely will be subject to a background check.

The internet contains numerous databases containing millions of records of personal data. As the cost for these services drops, employers are finding that it makes more sense to perform background checks.

You may feel that you don't have anything to hide, and therefore, are not concerned. However, running a background check on yourself can reveal undesirable information. A detailed check might contain information that is irrelevant, isn't what it appears to be or just outright wrong. Some information may even be illegal to use when being considered for a job. Therefore, you may want to order your own background check so that you know what it contains and you will be prepared to face your potential employers. If it contains negative information, you may be able to explain what had happened.

Background checks are useful in many instances, such as when deciding whether to rent to an individual, or employ him, or in any other way to enter into a contract with him. A background check typically provides you with information on the person’s past residences, employment and whether he or she has a criminal record. Even if a background check does not show a conviction, when its information is different than what the person related to you, it is always a cause for concern. You likely do not want to rent your second house to an individual when the background check on him revealed that his last two employers were different from what you were told, for instance.

Lately, background checks have been found to be useful on an entirely new class: yourself and your business!

Because the economy is so poor, competition for work is very intense and consequently employers are more cautious in contracting with businesses. Due to that, it is a major plus if you can give the potential employer, regardless of occupation, a background check on you and your business showing no prior problems.

Another reason that getting a background check on your business is called for is that at times innocent errors will appear on it, just as they do on credit reports, bank statements and in the telephone book. You need to carefully read the background check you receive and take whatever action is needed to correct any serious errors on it.

Adding a clean background report to a bid is often the difference between getting the work and not getting it. Because background reports are easy to obtain and cost so little, all contractors, regardless of what field they are in, would be wise to obtain them when bidding on a job. Not only will the background report ensure the potential employer of your worth, it will also provide needed confidence that there is no reason to worry about workplace safety. Are you painter, carpet cleaner, computer technician, appliance installer, redecorator, roofer, house or office cleaner, to name just a few areas of practice? If so, take this simple step to enhancing your chances of getting work and obtain a contractor background check today.

Last week, a man who for years had been tops on a California city's Most Wanted list was arrested -- on a cruise ship. And he wasn't a passenger. As reported by the Oakland Tribune and USA Today's Cruise Log, Bulgarian Kaloyan Kaloyanov, who was wanted for a sexual assault case that took place in 2000, was working onboard Carnival Splendor as the manager of the ship's hair salon. He'd been working onboard cruise ships for several years, employed by Steiner Leisure, the company that manages the spas and salons on many cruise ships.

How did a wanted criminal get a job onboard a cruise ship? The story made us wonder just how cruise lines, and the companies that hire for them, screen candidates for onboard jobs (as well as onshore ones, as in the case of the cruise line employee who used information about cruise passengers to rob their homes while they were away). It's extremely important to travelers that the people who go into their cabins to clean while they're onshore or the counselors looking after their children in the kids' clubs do not have past histories of theft, abusive behavior or other criminal activities.

We contacted Steiner, as well as a few cruise lines, to find out about their hiring practices. Here's what we learned:

Background checks are an essential part of the hiring process. "Carnival conducts background checks for all shipboard and shoreside personnel," Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher tells us. "Background checks on all non-U.S. shipboard personnel are conducted by agencies in the candidates' home country and a certified criminal history document for the country of origin is required." Glenn Fusfield, chief operating officer of Steiner Leisure, says that every job applicant for an onboard position is required to supply a police record and background check with official seals -- the company can tell when the documents are faked.

"If there's record of a prior arrest or a conviction, we handle that on an individual basis," says Fusfield. "In some cases, the candidate would automatically be disqualified. But it might be that they have something lingering from their past that won't interfere with their current job, or the people have moved on." He maintains that Kaloyanov had a "clean and perfect" background check from his home country when Steiner hired him.

The cruise line or hiring company is not the only organization to run background checks. "The U.S. State Department oversees the issuance of seamen's visas to foreign nationals who sail with ships into U.S. ports," says Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara Club Cruises. "Therefore the U.S. embassy in the crewmember's country of origin conducts background checks in connection with the issuance of seamen's visas." In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs checks on ships' manifests, which include all crewmembers onboard, each time a ship enters and leaves U.S. ports. Other countries have similar practices. So even if the hiring agency misses a red flag, the government is looking out for wanted persons entering the country on cruise ships.

And what if a crewmember has a clean record, but gets in trouble after being hired? Says Martinez, "Any crew dismissed from employment for Royal Caribbean for violation of our zero-tolerance policies is not eligible for re-hire with our company."

Given all these checks and screenings, it's surprising that a wanted criminal like Kaloyanov cruised undetected for years, but it also indicates that his case is highly unusual.

 

Embezzler's tax credit prompts changes

State: Conduct company officers' background checks

Updated: Thursday, 18 Mar 2010, 6:46 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 18 Mar 2010, 12:40 PM EDT

• By Tony Tagliavia

A biology professor charged in the killings of three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville was initially a suspect in a 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor and killed her brother in 1986 after firing a shotgun 3 times.

Amy Bishop Anderson and her husband, Jim, were questioned after a package containing two pipe bombs was sent to the Newton, Massachusetts, home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, a Harvard professor and a doctor at Children's Hospital Boston, the Globe said, citing a law enforcement official. At the time, Anderson was working as a postdoctoral fellow in the hospital's human biochemistry lab.

Anderson is charged with capital murder in the Friday shooting deaths, making her eligible for the death penalty in Alabama. Authorities said she was attending a faculty meeting in a university building when she brandished a gun and shot six colleagues, killing three.

The mother of four was arrested as she was leaving the building, Huntsville Police Chief Henry Reyes said Saturday. A 9 mm handgun was recovered from the second floor of the building after the shootings Friday.

On Saturday, it was revealed that in 1986, Anderson, then 19, shot her brother to death in Braintree, Massachusetts. Authorities determined after an investigation that the shooting was accidental.

But Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier said Saturday, "It is a far different story, I believe, than what was reported back then. I cannot tell you what the thought process was behind our releasing her at the time."

Anderson's husband, Jim, told CNN on Monday that federal investigators had gathered a dozen subjects in the attempted bombing, but "there were never any suspects. Never anyone charged, never anyone arrested."

"Then five years later, we got a letter from the ATF saying, 'You are in the clear,' " he said, referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sylvia Fluckiger, a lab technician who worked with Anderson at the time, told The Boston Globe on Sunday that Anderson had a dispute with Rosenberg shortly before the bomb incident.

Fluckiger told CNN affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston, "Police interviewed her, and she told me about it. I really wondered if she may have had, you know, some more knowledge, although I'm not accusing her of anything."

Rosenberg was opening a package delivered to his home while he was away on vacation, but he saw wires and a cylinder inside and called police, the Globe reported.

"She was the suspect early on," the law enforcement official, who the Globe said had knowledge of the case, told the newspaper of Anderson. She allegedly was concerned that she was going to receive a negative evaluation from Rosenberg, the official said.

Jim Anderson told The New York Times the December 1986 death of his wife's brother, Seth, was accidental. He declined to comment when CNN asked him about the shooting Monday.

Frazier, however, said Saturday that an official involved in the case and still working for Braintree police told him that the teen had shot her brother during an argument. She fired a shot in her bedroom without hitting anyone, then argued with her brother and shot him, he said.

She fled the home after the shooting and was arrested after pointing a weapon at a vehicle near the house in an unsuccessful attempt to get the driver to stop. During the booking process, then-Chief John Polio called and told the officers to release her, Frazier said. He added her mother was then a member of the Braintree Personnel Board.

Reached by CNN, Polio, now 87 and retired, denied calling in that order, saying detectives told him the shooting appeared accidental and it was determined Anderson should be released to her mother. He said any link between Anderson's release and her mother's position on the board was "laughable."

Anderson's mother, Judith, did not answer her door Monday. Reached by telephone, she told CNN, "We're very distraught," and declined further comment.

A December 8, 1986, article in The Boston Globe said Anderson asked her mother how to unload a round from a 12-gauge shotgun and accidentally shot her brother while she was handling the weapon. The article cited Polio as the source.

The state police report on the incident, released Sunday by the office of Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Massachusetts, is similar to the Globe's account. Delahunt was district attorney at the time; staffers said he was in the Middle East on Sunday and unable to comment on the case.

The 1986 report said Braintree police told state police investigators "indications were that Amy Bishop had been attempting to manipulate the shotgun and had subsequently brought the gun downstairs in an attempt to gain assistance from her mother in disarming the weapon" when it went off, shooting her brother in the chest.

In a December 17, 1986, interview, Anderson told authorities she "thought it would be a good idea if she learned how to load the shotgun in the house," according to the state police report. The young woman told police she was concerned for her own safety after the family home was broken into, although she previously had been afraid of the gun.

She said she got the gun and loaded shells into it, but was unable to get them out. Anderson said that while she was attempting to unload the weapon on her bed, it went off. She then took it downstairs to ask for help in unloading it, where the shooting occurred.

The police report said both Anderson and her mother said the shooting was accidental. Her mother told police she did not hear the earlier shot in her daughter's bedroom and "believed the house was relatively well soundproofed and that such a discharge would not necessarily be heard on another floor of the house."

Frazier said police records of the incident are missing. But Polio said, "There was no cover-up. Absolutely no cover-up and no missing records. The records were all there when I left. Where they went in the last 22 years and two police chiefs subsequent, I don't know."

Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan said Sunday that a review will commence to locate all materials associated with the shooting.

Anderson, who is known to students as Dr. Bishop, had been working at the University of Alabama in Huntsville since 2003 and was up for tenure, according to spokesman Ray Garner. However, authorities wouldn't discuss possible motives or whether the issue of tenure may have played a role in the shooting.

Garner said the university gives teachers six years to get tenure. Those who do not get it are terminated, he said.

Jim Anderson told CNN on Monday that his wife had been denied tenure and had appealed that decision and won, but she was still fighting to be granted tenure. She was frustrated with "the process," he said.

He told CNN earlier his wife had an attorney but would not say who it was, and he described her as a good teacher. He said Monday his wife wrote three novels, "medical thrillers." The couple does not own a gun, he said.

He said he last saw his wife briefly on Friday morning before she left for class. He said she was "loving, got along with everybody."

The family, he said, is devastated, and in "shock, bewilderment, wondering why."

He told the Times the pipe bomb incident is "one thing from the past I hoped would not be dredged up."