Employment Research Services has evolved rapidly over its business life. Beginning in 1992 as a small local office of a national franchising organization, it has now matured into an independently owned and managed company that transacts business, serves clients and conducts searches nationwide in all 3199 counties.
Directed by a highly experienced business professional with over 30 years experience in labor relations and personnel management, and staffed with HR and IT professionals, the company over the past five years in particular has grown at a compound annual rate exceeding 25%. No longer associated with its original organization, this operation has substantially increased and enhanced its services beyond the five that were originally offered. Profits generated have consistently been plowed back into the business to facilitate growth and diversification. Employment Research Services has used five basic management principles to achieve their conspicuous growth.
Service Quality
- reports have consistently flowed to clients in the times promised. In a
recent client survey, nearly 40% of who responded which in is an amazingly
high reply, over 92% of its customers responded that ERS's service meets or
exceeds their expectations.
Prices
- have been kept consistent and competitive. Employment Research Services continues to offer to beat any competitive price offered for the same
quality of service.
Service Expansion
- services have been expanded to meet client needs as laws have changed and
the self-provided information available to customers has deteriorated. There
are few other companies that offer the number of employee qualification systems
and services as are offered in the company's Shurhire Employment Suite protocol.
Technology
Application - ownership has invested heavily in updating their equipment
and software to stay ahead of the leading edge of information retrieval and
management. There has been IT partnerships formed that permit the company
to offer expertise and knowledge to their clients offered by only the largest
providers in the industry.
Knowledge
- the partners and staff have continually undergone retraining to stay knowledgeable
in all aspects of the industry. Contributing professionals from several disciplines
are available to help apply technology to the customer base.
The employment screening industry has itself matured over the past 10 years and more information has been made available as a result of the commercial publication of huge databases. The challenge for the provider of professionally provided background services has been to filter those various sources to comply with the mandate of Federal & State laws which is to use only the most accurate and most timely information for employment making decisions. Federal law as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets the precedent for the accuracy and timeliness standard, and unfortunately, many employers do not understand the meaning of the law. The FCRA stipulates, and said stipulation has been incorporated into many State labor codes, that when researching persons for employment purposes, the employer is only permitted to use THE MOST CURRENT AND THE MOST ACCURATE RECORDS when dealing with public records.
There have been opinion letters written both at the Federal and at the State level asserting that most data based on criminal repositories do not comply with this requirement. There are dozens of sites on the Internet that now provide criminal histories that come from questionable databases. From others the promised turnaround time is so short as to make them problematic as to compliance. Conversely, selective sites are provided by highly competent and ethical organizations that do comply completely with all applicable laws. The proper choice is the question left up to the employer to determine because they are the one who is ultimately responsible. What can an employer do to protect themselves from unprofessional providers? Here are some suggestions;
- Before selecting the provider speak to them and question them closely on both their knowledge of the industry and on the source of their information. Ask them if they are manually searching records at their source which is the ultimate test for timelines and accuracy.
- If records are being returned in less than two to three days on a consistent basis, their source is very likely a database. Therefore, check turnaround times.
- Ask if you will be billed for County fees. Certain counties such as Los Angeles in California, and most of the Counties in both Missouri and New York plus many others always charge a fee to look up records for a searcher. Not billing them to the customer opens those records up to questions.
- Ask for a sample report and check the bottom of it. If it does not say that the above report comes from sources that are deemed to be reliable and/or timely, they might well be questionable. Having that statement, or one like it, could well shift the blame for any negligence in the event of a suit AWAY from the employer to the provider if indeed untimely data base information is used and found to be inaccurate.
Since many if not most employers have little experience in judging the legality of the information provided by a third party, it has become extremely important for them to reach out to identify reputable search firms. Reputable organizations will work closely with their clients to help them use legal systems and obtain legal reports on a consistent basis. Penalties for being out of compliance should the employer be sued or prosecuted are onerous!
Employment Research Services has been at the forefront in meeting their obligations in this regard. For information specifically developed by them to help an employer judge whether the provider is legal, Click Here,to have a meaningful brochure sent to you.
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