Comments on: Feeling dissected by pre-employment screening software

By: Jared Callahan

Jared Callahan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:10:04 +0000

As a member of the background screening industry, I understand your frustration. Our firm, Employment Screening Resources (www.ESRcheck.com ), uses software that takes a user about 10 minutes to fill out. It only asks those questions that are strictly necessary for the screening your employer wants. It also transfers information already put into an ATS, if the ATS is able to send it. Also, all work is done in US, and not sent offshore so your privacy and data protection is much greater. You may want to suggest that the employer look at other systems, such as http://www.esrcheck.com/Applicant_Generated_Reports.php

By: GetaLife

GetaLife — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:30:55 +0000

By the way, crederity is apparently a firm that operates out of India according to their web site. Do you really want your personal data sent beyond US privacy laws where it is well known that there is very little data protection? Did you happen to see the latest BBC undercover operation where it was easy to buy information stolen from an India call center. Do you really think a US citizen can call the Bangalore police department and get help? Over 120 US screening firms have taken the pledge NOT to send your data offshore. I appreciate that certain things can be done off shore, but sending your social security number, date of birth and other information out of the US is not something anyone should risk. Sure, ID theft can happen in the US, but at least there are resources and recourses available here. Job applcaints shold tell employers that they will NOT apply ot any job that uses a screening firm that sends data to India.

By: GetaLife

GetaLife — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:09:09 +0000

Sorry, but if it takes someone 80 minutes to fill out that type of software, they probably should not be hired. Are you seriously telling me that you had trouble with any of these questions. These were questions about your life. The references are people you know. Facts should be much easier to write then fiction, which is the point of getting this information. I realize that we now have the Entitlement Generation coming through the ranks, but the idea that having to fill out a form in exchange for getting a job is so cumbersome is absurd. You were asking these people to give you an income. With 10% unemployment rate, lots of people would happy to fill out that form. I also assume from your post that if you were filling out a form to be screened, you must have been a finalist. Here is the sad news–the world does not owe you a job or anything else. If you need to actually reveal information about yourself in order to get a job that is called life.

By: Anthony Mathias

Anthony Mathias — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:49:52 +0000

Sarah, It is a real pain to enter all the details again and again when we are repetitively using the system. I am from the pre employment screening and I think one of the products that is really easy to use is from Crederity (www.crederity.com) . I have been really impressed by the user friendliness and robustness of their Employee Lifecycle Management Suite. They even give an option to import the details from Linkedin. May be you should tell your future employer to try it out.

All the best for landing This job

Cheerz
Anthony

By: OneGreatSmile

OneGreatSmile — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:47:50 +0000

I always put “To Be disclosed when we meet” in the reference query and $1 in the salary box, to show that I didn’t ‘miss’ the question, but clearly it shows that I didn’t want to leave it blank but also did not want to answer. I don’t think anyone would ever call a $1 salary a lie. At least I eliminated myself without disclosing anything I didn’t want to. That information is not vital to whether I’m right for the job, it’s just plain intrusive.

And if an employer has to ‘weed out’ that many people, and applicants are just bytes on a server, how satisfied would an employee be when they’re treated similarly once they actually work there? Maddening. But in the long run, probably for the better. It’s just a royal pain to have to do all that work to get yourself booted rather than noticed. Ugh.