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Re: Previous employer contacts

Subject: Re: Previous employer contacts
From: Lisa Wright <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 07:55:19 -0700


I'm so very glad this came up. While I don't know the origin of this company's policies, I've been learning lately that the Sarbanes-Oxley act is going to have a pervasive effect on most employment. If they weren't already in place, employee background checks at public companies are going to become pervasive so that companies can demonstrate that they safeguard their assets, especially in the finance area, inventory, and, because of the access to sensitive data, IT. Of course, they can't just test people in those areas, so everyone must be tested. Auditors look at the overall HR environment from an entity level and this is one of the things they're looking for.

L. wrote:

SSN was a required field to successfully complete the
online application. They also demanded to perform drug
testing, a full criminal records check, educational
achievement check, and several other things that I
can't quite recall at the moment BEFORE they would
even consider you to be an official "applicant."

My current client requires this once the company decides they want the consultant. The extend a "conditional" offer and then you have to agree to the check. I agree that's much more reasonable.


While I don't have any skeletons in my closet, I am
quite tired of corporate America thinking that they
can OWN their employees.

There may be some of this attitude, but I think a lot of companies are being forced to require these checks.

While I have no illusions
that my declining the interview will change their
policy, I DO hope that they were shocked to find out
that I needed them LESS than they needed me.

I doubt it.

(Something I think employers lost track of long
ago...)

I'm not sure about that. I think companies know that they need good people (many of them, anyway). I'm starting to believe that a lot of them just don't exactly know how to go about keeping them, especially when business isn't going as planned. They're also fighting competing interests.

I think we as individuals need to assert our right to
privacy by not giving in to these demands. I can sure
understand that the temptation would be great to give
in if I were unemployed and had mouths to feed at
home.

This is a tough decision. It's going to come up more often. Like I said, most public companies are going to have to do this. Even private corporations and non-profits will probably start to swing this way as they become more impacted by SOX and the general atmosphere.

There's a bit of a
gamble everywhere you go these days; perhaps we should
as a society start to look back toward the PERSON
instead of the data sheet.

Screening before they've ever talked to the person seems like random drug testing in high school to me. Studies have shown that it's not cost effective to test the whole population, but "authorities" have said that they can, so they do, arguing "they would be doing drugs if we weren't!" Sigh.

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References:
Re: Previous employer contacts: From: L.

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