Do You Really Know Your Contractors? The Hard Evidence for Contractor Screening and Employment Background Check Searches

With faster access to billions of records worldwide, you'd think that companies would at least attempt to run an employment background check and/or verification search on a contractor, supplier, or vendor. These partnerships are, after all, major sources of lifeblood to both sides. If that's the case, it's hard to make sense of alarming statistics, like the whopping 90% of American companies that neglect to run contractor screening and criminal checks on these partners.

That means only one out of ten do their homework. Contractors are the Achilles heel of a company's supply chain and pose the greatest risk because they have the least oversight. Companies need to understand that they cannot ignore that risk because it carries large monetary consequences if they do.

At best, the other 'nine companies' provide limited legal wording in their contracts to replace any contractor screening initiatives. But, in a series of landmark decisions, the US court system decided this was not enough - hiring companies must be held accountable for actions of employees, contractors, vendors, and suppliers that are on the company's dime. Yes, that means if you hire a man convicted in his past of aggravated assault and you fail to run an employment background check and he subsequently attacks a co-worker or a client, you can be legally responsible for his actions.

In the past, the contractor, vendor, or supplier could feign credibility, and it normally worked. With recent employment background check legislation, this is no longer true. And the fact of the matter is that with all the millions in payouts your company will be forced to remit to victims of your contractor's negligent actions, you could have paid for just as many background and contractor screening checks. With fast, effective hiring and workforce solutions now available, ensuring greater safety and security is a simple process; you can choose online safety training for new hires, order badges to prevent breaches, or run contractor screening and verification checks to reduce instances of resume fraud.

The Trucker Incident. With just two months' experience, long-haul truck driver Kristin Arciszewski was hired by Georgia-based AKJ Enterprises Inc. (owned by C. H. Worldwide Inc.). Carrying a load of cable reels on a tight schedule, Arciszewski was in a hurry to drop the items off at their intended location. Eyewitness accounts mention Arciszewski re-entering the highway a bit too quickly and without properly signaling. After crossing the median from her northbound lane into the southbound lane, she struck Winford Jones, another trucker, head-on. Arciszewski died in the accident while Jones suffered multiple injuries from the collision.

Jones subsequently filed a personal injury suit, and US District Judge Glen E. Conrad found that, in the Jones v. C. H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. case, Arciszewski's company was indeed at fault for "negligent hiring of an independent contractor (1)." Furthermore, the court determined that as she was a new driver for the company, "inexperience might have also been a contributing factor" to the accident. The claim was settled for $756,231, or about the cost of 18,906 contractor screening and employment background check searches.

Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Lawsuits. Neglect to perform rigorous contractor screening and you may face huge liabilities, safety issues, and lawsuit after lawsuit.
It's best to weed out trouble beforehand. But if it's so cheap, why don't companies run even the most basic of contractor screening or employment background check searches on their vendors or suppliers? It's likely a low-bid scenario and perhaps an attempt to get the cheapest labor available. Just remember - you can't rely on a carefully worded contract to save you.

Avoid Negligent Hiring. In the long run, an employment background check could save you millions. In the short run, it's just a good idea. For virtually little, you can secure your company's assets and put your fears to rest with routine contractor screening. Before signing any contracts with your newest vendor, make sure you perform a criminal and employment background check, credential and/or license verification, immigration status (if applicable), and, for jobs with considerable money responsibilities, a credit history check and report on every employee that will be dealing with your assets.

Sources

1. Blbva.com/blog/2008/06/27/company-liable-for-trucker's-'negligent-hiring'/

Rate Article

Related Videos
Play Video Checking In After a Free Mammogram	Play Video How to Check for References	Play Video C-T Scan to Check for Lung Cancer	Play Video Nintendo DSi Unboxing	Play Video Cancer Vixen Herself on Why Free Mammograms Matter

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Outsourcing" article category.

People interested in the above article "Do You Really Know Your Contractors? The Hard Evidence for Contractor Screening and Employment Background Check Searches" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

 

How Answering Services Helps You To Succeed?

An answering service is like a virtual assistance for a BPO company. It is an inbound call center service that helps you to handle calls in variety of ways. An effective and accurate answering service can save time and costs.

Business Process Outsourcing- A Viable Option For Companies

Business process outsourcing has many added benefits and most of the companies are opting for it. With rising cost of manpower and instant pressure to be on the top, major companies prefer to outsource their services to a call center.

How Call Center Services Can Help You?

Today call center services have contributed towards the success of company. If you are looking to outsource your non-core business functions then call centers are the best options.

How To Find The Right BPO Partner?

Business process outsourcing essentially means long- term contract of non core business functions to BPO service provider. This is not only cost effective but helps to increase the shareholder value. A BPO service provider operates and manages the call center services on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business process outsourcing has proved to be extremely helpful in optimizing business performance and attainment of value creation.

The Uses of Structural Steel Detailing

Structural steel detailing creates detailed drawings for steel erectors and fabricators, including drawings, plans, estimates, reports and other necessary documents for the erection and manufacture of steel members. A lot of different varieties of steel members are included in structural steel detailing, including steel handrails, columns, braces, trusses, metal decking, stairs, beams and even stairs.

Some Call Center Support Now Includes Advanced Reports

Most of the times using a call center to handle incoming calls means a lot of reports that are somewhat useful but require sifting through a great deal of information. Some centers are using newer technology that allows for real time report updates and flexible parameters.

Four Keys to Offshoring Business Analysis

Conventional wisdom holds that business analysis is one of the few software development activities not well suited for offshoring. This article argues that it can be done successfully by following four key steps and can improve productivity and quality of offshore teams by co-locating BAs with developers and testers.