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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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Here are some of
the most common questions requested of APSCREEN.
Q: Why should our company use APSCREEN?
A: APSCREEN is the oldest, continuously operated
Factual Employment Screening firm in the U.S.
Since 1980, APSCREEN has provided consultation,
education and employment screening to thousands
of large, medium and small firms.
Our Founder, Thomas C. Lawson has been referred
to as one of the world’s foremost authorities on
the topic of Factual Employment Screening, and
is presently the Country’s most recognized
expert witness on matters of Improper Employment
Screening, and Fair Credit Reporting Act
compliance. (Source – The Complete Workplace
Violence Prevention Reporter, Gaming and
Wagering Business, Public Personnel Management)
Our firm is a 28-year-old company in a
ten-year-old industry.
Why wouldn’t your company use APSCREEN?
Q: How do you conduct your Criminal research?
A: Since 1980, APSCREEN has provided Criminal
searches on only one basis – hand-searched
records at the applicable jurisdiction(s) of
pertinence to the residence history of the
subject.
APSCREEN does not use database criminal checks,
nor do we subscribe to the term “on-site”
searches, since “on-site” is an industry term,
and not a true representation of the search you
will get. Only hand searches at the applicable
jurisdiction will reveal the true history of a
subject’s criminal convictions in a particular
jurisdiction.
Additionally, APSCREEN chooses to search all
applicable Court levels in the jurisdiction,
ensuring a complete report of a subject’s
conviction history, whether or not the subject
has been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or
federal crime.
Q: How does APSCREEN know where to look for
criminal convictions?
A: Good question! APSCREEN conducts an
extensive, thorough multi-step Candidate
Identification Process in order to fully and
thoroughly identify the candidate’s name, prior
address history, aliases, and so on. This ID
process is conducted in conjunction with
proprietary forms provided to our clients who
initiate the ID process. APSCREEN’s process is
to eliminate candidacy during the application
process in order to provide the employer with a
retaliation-proof method of screening out
undesirable candidates because of the omission
of material information pertaining to their
identity.
Instead of using a simple social security trace,
as most of our competitors use, APSCREEN has
compiled a proprietary assemblage of no less
than nine identification products (at a minimum)
in order to thoroughly identify the candidate.
It is no wonder that APSCREEN discovers omitted
information on approximately 60% of the
applications processed on a daily basis.
Q: Is APSCREEN compliant with all applicable
Privacy statutes?
A: APSCREEN is not only compliant with the
FACTA, FCRA; CCRRA, and G-L-B, but has extensive
published works on the topic. Our Founder, Tom
Lawson regularly speaks writes articles and
gives expert witness testimony on the topic.
APSCREEN not only provides it’s clients with
state-of-the art forms and procedures designed
to screen prospective employees, but is well
known in the Consumer Reporting Industry as
being on the cutting edge of forward-compliance,
a concept foreign to it’s competitors. APSCREEN
was getting signed consents from its clients
before most employment screening firms were in
business. We set the standard, and that is why
we continue to get re-certified.
Q: Why does APSCREEN take such a strong stand
against delivery of its Consumer Reports over
the public Internet?
A: Years ago, when the Internet was just
becoming known as a possible delivery method for
the credit reporting and information industries,
APSCREEN commissioned a study to determine it’s
viability in securing confidential and
proprietary information, which could be conveyed
in this new and exciting environment.
After extensive and exhaustive research,
APSCREEN determined that while the Internet was
seductive and provided a tremendous potential
for not only the delivery of information, but
also as an interactive advertising medium, it
lacked the key security features needed to
ensure confidential delivery of private,
Consumer information.
Simply put, and converse to the nay Sayers, the
problem lies not in either end of the
information chain, but in the middle, where the
information is “handed-off” to many data
“trunks” which, are, by their nature, the very
core of what makes up the Internet. It is in
these “hand-off” instances where the potential
for compromise of information security exists.
We have recently reviewed the IRSG and
credit-reporting industry’s recommended
Internet-Security firewall provider “TRU-SECURE”
and were not satisfied with the level of
security it provides at the $15,000 per year
level (required), and have, once again elected
to avoid this delivery medium until we can be
convinced that the private, confidential and
protected Consumer information we deal in is
safe from prying eyes, hands, and computer
hackers.
The icing on the cake is the expert-witness case
we have been recently retained to testify in
which concerns a Florida-based employment
screening firm which conveyed Consumer Reports
to an end-user which was intercepted, and from
which the interception resulted in identity
theft from no less than two unwitting job
applicants. To date, the known losses exceed
$200,000, with no end in sight.
Just so you know, both the employment screener,
and the end-user have at this time been deemed
fully culpable as co-conspirators by the Florida
Court.
Q: OK, APSCREEN, then why do most of the new
purveyors deal on the Internet, and if it is so
bad, why do they seem to be getting the lion’s
share of the employment screening business?
A: First of all, we are not convinced that the
Internet is the primary basis for the lion’s
share of the employment screening business.
Secondly, we cannot speak to our competition’s
willingness to take risks with Consumer
information, and their client’s liability
concerning the fastest growing crime in U.S.
history (Identity theft).
We are only saying that, APSCREEN is not
convinced that the public Internet is a secure
delivery medium, so we choose not to deliver our
reports over it, or receive confidential
consumer identity information through it.
Believe us when we tell you that we want to, but
we will not sacrifice our client’s exposure, and
a Consumer’s privacy in order to be
“competitive”, especially when our chosen
delivery method, fax-in/fax-back is so
effective, and provides levels of compliance,
which the Internet simply cannot match.
Do you think we’re crazy? Do you think we don’t
want to use the Web? OF COURSE WE DO, WE JUST
DON’T THINK IT IS SECURE YET, SO WE SIMPLY USE
IT AS AN ADVERTISING TOOL.
We are constantly studying the problem, and when
we believe that the Internet is secure, you’ll
see the neatest interactive employment screening
website on the planet!
Q: Why is APSCREEN seemingly more costly than
it’s competitors?
A: APSCREEN is actually about one-half of the
price of our nearest LEGITIMATE competitors’
“apples-to-apples” product, which makes us the
least expensive game in town.
In truth, the employment screening business is
filled with mystery, which we will dispel right
now.
First, there are two kinds of screening firms:
1. Marketing firms 97%
2. True Employment Screeners 3%
Marketing firms are usually found in the low end
of the price spectrum, between $18 to $40 for
everything under the Sun. The term “index dates”
are foreign to them.
True employment screeners are firms, which tell
the truth about what you are getting in very
simple terms, and charge accordingly.
There is a big disparity in these two
industries, and be careful, because the
marketing firms are interested in only two
things YOUR MONEY, and CHEAP INFORMATION.
If you really analyze an employment screening
report, you will see that it is made up of
modules of information, which, when compiled
properly give a clear view into the way in which
a person conducts his or her life outside of the
workplace.
This “view” is important, because think tanks
like the Rand Corporation, and Stanford Research
Institute have confirmed through numerous
studies “…that people behave on the job, mostly
in the way they behave off of the job, once they
have settled in…” (Rand, 1982, SRI, 1987).
This, of course, forms much of the basis for the
need for employment screening, along with the
perceived need by an employer to curtail
possible negligent hiring by creating a safe
workplace, ultimately by hiring non-criminals.
This is not rocket science. An employer must
know the candidate’s identity, his or her
financial attitudes. Driving habits, and
criminal history, as well as whether or not he
or she has been truthful in the presentation of
prior employment and education information.
Worker’s Compensation records are a foolish
endeavor because they are neither complete,
accurate, or a true indication of a person’s
veracity as to a claim, not to mention, the only
Worker’s Compensation information available in
the public records are appeals not the claim
history, so what do you really get upon which
you will base your decision? – JUNK!
So with this knowledge, how do you determine
good screening versus bad screening?
Well, first you need to know just how thoroughly
the firm will identify the candidate. Like one
credit report, one or two social security traces
cannot tell the whole story.
Next, why would you only want one employment
credit report, when government agencies like the
Federal Tenant Screening
Loan Board requires reports from all three
credit bureaus before it makes a decision to
loan money on a secured mortgage? The only
reason they cite in their regulations is because
ONE CREDIT REPORT DOES NOT TELL THE COMPLETE
FINANCIAL STORY.
Of course, a driving history is important, not
only because of possible DUIs and other heinous
driving acts, but what about a candidate having
a suspended or revoked license? How will he or
she get to work? Will they drive their car, and
get into an accident on company time, and be
later determined by Plaintiff’s Counsel to be an
Agent of the Company?
And Criminal. How can you be sure that the
candidate has no conviction history if you don’t
go to the absolute source of the records, the
Clerk of the applicable Court? Few are aware
that database criminal checks are purveyed at
the wholesale level and are not designed to be
anything more than a lead generator, not a
decisional tool. Why do you think they are so
inexpensive? BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT GETTING THE
WHOLE STORY!
Employment and Education verifications are
predictable, and not complicated. Either you get
the information, or you don’t, so this is not a
gauge of a competent screener, and with the
limitations placed upon verification departments
these days, it’s a wonder anything is conveyed.
Q: Why are there so many employment-screening
firms out there, I saw over 20+ vendors at the
last SHRM conference?
A: Why not? It’s an easy business to get into
and it is profitable. In fact, a person can be
in the employment screening business in their
living room, since just about everything they
will need to resell to you is available to them
over the Internet, or several “on-line” type of
information (database) purveyors. Problem is,
you never know where the information is really
coming from, do you?
Q: OK, how do I know where APSCREEN gets its
information?
A: Simple. As a member of many national and
worldwide professional
research and investigative organizations,
APSCREEN is readily accountable, and is known to
conduct research not only by it’s clients, but
also by it’s sources, located at every Court in
the land. As Charter members of the Public
Record Provider Network, and long standing
members of the National Public Record Research
Association, we are in the Courts, daily
searching other records, so criminal records are
a natural for us to research. We also research
criminal records for other firms who don’t want
to, or don’t have the resources to search them
themselves. For us, research is easier than
compilation, so we elect to research, not
compile.
Also, since no database compilation is ever 100%
complete, when migrated into a centralized data
format, we only see problems with databases,
because, anything less than 100% is incomplete,
which results in an incompetent search.
Additionally, APSCREEN, as a Bureau-Certified
Consumer Reporting Agency has direct
relationships with all 50 state’s Motor Vehicle
Departments, and all three major credit bureaus,
as well as over 900 other repository-based
providers for identity reports, and other
information types such as UCC searches,
litigation histories, etc.
Well known Labor Lawyer Lee Paterson once told
our Founder: “Your best selling point, Tom, is
to tell your prospective customers that you’ve
never been sued”
Q: How can APSCREEN provide such a high level of
quality, at admittedly, half of the price of its
nearest competitor?
A: Buying power. We buy Credit reports at
sometimes one-third of the market rate because
we are a licensed credit bureau, and because we
have been buying these reports for 26 years.
We also buy our driving histories at a fraction
of our competitors, and when buying criminal
records, we only use fellow PRRN, or NPRRA
research firms which all discount to each other
because we are an Industry Cooperative.
We also establish a national norm for pricing,
which affords the customer an anticipated cost
for all of their reports, rather than an
unpredictable cost structure, which is hard to
budget for. Simply put, this means that we have
an average price for criminal checks, which
could be high in some areas, and low in other
areas. This means that the customer benefits
from average pricing, rather than area-sensitive
pricing. When you have thousands of clients in
all parts of the Country, the offsets exist for
available profit for us, no matter where we do
the research. A big client base benefits all of
the clients, equally.
Q: How about Customer Service? Do you pamper
your customers, or treat them like Sheep, with
low-paid telephone clerks.
A: We let our customers answer that question,
just ask us for a reference!
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