Human Resources

Amanda Kramer

As sweet as that may sound, it could be potentially hazardous.

"I have failed to follow my own medicine and really regretted it," said Nydam, president of Career Momentum Inc., who called her company "a talent management firm" in Madison that advises both job seekers and employers. "I've found out later that they weren't a good fit. I had fallen in love because I just liked the person and I wasn't able to see them thoroughly." Nydam has been helping businesses learn to "hire right the first time" for more than 20 years. More frequent cases of identity theft, she said, have caused employers to perform better background and reference checks.

And there are a number of tactics employers can use to more thoroughly screen any kind of applicant ? from skilled-labor candidates to potential management personnel.

Begin by validating the reliability of the applicant through a third party that verifies Social Security numbers, she said. Most employers do not have the capacity to do this themselves, so she said it's important to have other organizations ? often Web-based ? do this for them.

Nydam said the next step is to call the person's past employers. There's a common misconception that former supervisors can give only dates of employment; however, Nydam said employers can give "documented facts." "For example, they can't say the person was a thief," Nydam said. "But they can say that 'cash was missing five times from the cash drawer.'" A company should also consider administering a personality and aptitude assessment. Nydam said this simple test ? done on paper or on the computer ? often helps employers identify whether the candidate and the company are "in sync" with one another.

During the final interview process, Nydam also recommends using a tactic called "behavioral interviewing." The interviewer, she said, gives the candidate examples of potential problems that may arise and asks them to show how they've handled similar problems in their last job.

Researching a job candidate can also include criminal or credit background checks. These, according to attorney Jennifer Mirus with the Boardman Law Firm in Madison, are more frequently used when the check pertains directly to the kind of job, particularly if a candidate is hoping to work in child care or health care. Credit checks are often used for applicants who would regularly handle money or finances.

Mirus said criminal background checks let an employer see if the person has ever been arrested or convicted of a crime. Mirus said that can be a good thing, but it can also be frustrating.

"One caveat about doing criminal background checks is that Wisconsin prohibits discrimination on the basis of an arrest or conviction record," she said.

Mirus said that means unless the arrest or conviction directly affects the type of job a person applies for, then the person is still eligible for the position.

For example, she said, it's smart to make sure an individual hired as hotel maintenance staff who has keys to each room does not have a sexual assault history.

However, if a person has an arrest for driving while intoxicated, he or she can't be turned down for that same hotel maintenance position.

"You can't say, 'Oops ? DWI ? I don't like that,'" she said.

Joan Provencher, human resources director for Group Health Cooperative, said her staff makes sure to thoroughly examine applicants and their references and frequently checks for criminal history, although the law does not require them to because GHC does not provide in-patient care.

Provencher said the standard GHC application includes a box where candidates check whether they've ever had an arrest or a conviction. This has posed some interesting outcomes, she said.

"What we find more often than not is that people are excluded because they lied on the application," she said. "It's important to ask the question and then follow up. I think people don't think we'll follow up." Bob Mohelnitzky, executive director of Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin, also has experience with the intricacies of the hiring process.

Mohelnitzky said Second Harvest hires about two new employees each year and takes candidate applications and reference checks very seriously.

"I think primarily history is the best predictor of the future," he said. "If you have a limited amount of time to do an interview and if you're allowed to check, you're going to get a much richer sense of who the person is and how they will fit into your organization."

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