Transcript for Hiring Academy Interview with Sandra James, CEO, Private Eye

my name is valerie cornada i work with

genesis 10 a new journey ai

and we're here today to talk to sandra

james she's the ceo

of private eyes we're going to talk a

little bit today about

background checks the process that

background checks take

why it's important to have a good

background check

process both for you as a candidate and

for your potential employer

and a little bit about what we can do to

try to alleviate some of the problems

that can occur sometimes with background

checks okay so

good morning sandra thank you so much

for taking this time today

good morning belle thank you for

inviting me

um if you'd like why don't we take a

second and have you just introduce

yourself

and your company sure i'm sandra james

and i'm the ceo of private eyes

and we provide background checks to our

customers across the nation and our core

value

is making a safe workplace possible

awesome all right thank you so much i

think one of the things that we wanted

to talk today about was

getting a little bit of an overview

about why people

need to understand what a background

check is about

so my first question is going to be

could you talk just a little bit about

what background checks are and how they

are important to companies oh absolutely

so a background check

verifies that the candidate has the

credentials that they stated

so it's going to verify anything so it

could be a basic background check

that is doing criminal records a social

trace sex offender search

or it could be more in-depth that's

going to do license verification

um all of those original searches but

then employment and education

professional references uh credit report

depending on the position you're hiring

for

okay i i think one of the reasons why we

wanted to do this today

is that we're finding that more and more

people

entering the job market or maybe

changing positions for the first time in

a while

have not really come into contact with

background checks very often

sometimes there's a perception when we

talk to candidates that clients don't

actually run background checks they may

say they do

but then they don't actually get any

questions when they

are asked to accept a position today i

think we're finding that the majority of

clients

not only request background checks they

require it as a condition of employment

could you speak a little bit about why

our clients

have an expectation around background

checks today oh absolutely you know

my company's 22 years old and 22 years

ago

not every company was doing background

checks but today

with the every you know the violent acts

that have happened across america

whether it's in a school shooting or

whatever has happened

has really impacted businesses that they

want to make sure that they're hiring

the right people so that they can keep

their employees

their vendors their clients all safe and

so it's just

you know and our population is growing

right so

sometimes it used to be 22 years ago

you'd be like you know we don't have a

problem with background check we don't

need background checks we know everyone

we're hiring

well there's no way that you can know

everyone today even if you're a small

business you're still going to come

across people that you've never met

before

and so by doing a background check

you're verifying their credentials

and you're able to eliminate risk at

work

for everybody that's involved with your

business and so it's really become a

best practice

whether you have five employees or a

hundred thousand employees

most companies are doing some sort of a

background check today

okay and thank you for that i think key

to what you've said here

is that it mitigates risk yes it

mitigates risk on a number of levels

whether that risk is about violence

whether that risk is about financial

potential for financial criminal

behavior

all of those things are risk mitigators

that our clients are interested

in lowering by getting a background

check and so they've learned

over time that background checks results

in lower risk for them as a company and

it's become as you said something that

is a just a standard it's a requirement

today

so first thing that we want to make sure

that people understand is that

if you're being told in the beginning of

the process that you will need to

complete a background check

they're not kidding and if they tell you

that if you do not pass the background

check you will not receive an offer

again they're not kidding there's

there's not a lot of room for

negotiation about this there definitely

is not

room for you to say well you know i'm

just gonna put down what i think is

right and then we'll fix it in the mix

if your background check is not accurate

then you're perceived as

the potential for not being honest and

that honesty is something that's very

important to clients today again because

it mitigates risk for them

what do you think about that oh you know

i just agree val that is just

that's it's so important that you put

down that you're honest and that you put

down

what you what you do and you know what

whether it's you know something that you

mentioned when we talked before val is

someone might put a position where they

were paid cash

and then and that position doesn't need

to be on the background check because we

can't verify it

or if someone has an internship if they

weren't paid for it

they need to put that it was an unpaid

position so it's really

important that they're real you're

really clear

about what you put on your background

check and that we can verify it

you know there's some companies that

apply to an automated system

and if you don't put that employer on

there and we get it through an automated

system

that's another opportunity where it

might look like you falsified something

why did you omit something and that can

prevent you from getting the job of your

dreams

so you really want to make sure that the

information that you put on your

your background check is going to we're

going to be able to verify it and that

it's accurate and complete

that's just really important and you

know back to risk you know we have

customers who've used us

for 22 years and they've been able to

validate that they've had less

workers comp claims violent exit work

different

internal security cases that they had to

investigate

because they have a background screening

program you know i agree with you so

much on that

sandra and so one of the points that we

wanted to talk about today

was helping people understand a little

bit about how background checks

work so the process starts with a resume

and then it really begins when there is

offer but it starts with that resume

can you help us understand that oh yes

absolutely

so you know today what's a best practice

is that most of the time the candidate

will get a link

and they'll fill the information out for

their background check and it'll have

all the compliancy forms

and if you've given a resume to the

recruiter that you're working with or

the hr person

you need to make sure that your resume

is in line with what you imp

you complete for the background check so

you want the two documents to match

and why would you want the documents to

match because if you're looking at a

vowel

then you're going to say why is this

information

not consistent and it looks again like

you're falsifying the information

and you might not have meant to

intentionally but you just thought

that's not important i'm going to leave

it off

if if it's on the resume you need to

make sure it's aligned with what you

complete on the background check

even if the background screening company

doesn't get a copy of your resume

we're going to complete everything that

we need to based on the package that

your

the client requests from us and then we

might find something that's not aligned

with what's on your resume

but the person you gave the resume to

that you started the process with

at the company that you really want the

job with they're going to compare the

two documents

the background check that's complete and

the resume so the two

have to be they have to be the same so

it's really important that you take the

time

and you know i had somebody tell me

today well i haven't updated my resume

for a long time and so that should i

just send it to you

and the answer really is no you should

take the time to update it

so that it can be the same as what we

verify on your background check

so you know some people are moving fast

and think well just put my resume out

there

that's not really going to help you in

the long run because you might get the

job offer

but then they might not be able to keep

it because something doesn't line up and

it looks like you intentionally

falsified something even if you didn't

and so

the documents have to match up it's so

important val

okay perfect and the third leg of that

stool

all right is the actual source of truth

documents that you as the background

check company provider

are using to verify that the information

on the background check authorization

form

is correct so the three legs of the

stool are your information that's on

your resume

the information that you submit in the

background check authorization form

and the verifiable records that the

background check company

goes to check in order to confirm and

verify

exactly okay and so the verifiable

documents that we use is we're going to

actually go to your employer

and verify the dates of employment that

you had were going to verify the date

that you graduated

so you know that graduation is something

that somebody just said to me today well

i i put on my resume that i graduated

but i'm not

done i have to go back and get a credit

i walked and i got the

you know but i'm not done i still need a

credit or i need an internship

then don't put you have a degree because

we're not going to be able to verify it

and so you know it's really important

that the information is accurate again

with employment

if the dates are not accurate on the

employment and it could be

that you put you can't remember in 2017

if you started in may or september

if you put may and it's off three months

or six months you may not get the job

because there again

it looks like a falsification so we call

it a discrepancy

whenever there's a discrepancy on the

report report it could be dates and time

it could be that you said you have a

diploma and you do not those are things

that will have a company typically not

hire you oh absolutely and i want to

state for the record here i just want to

be clear here

it never pays to state that you have a

degree that you do not have

yes a falsified education

is not just i said i had a degree and i

didn't

it is i said i had a bachelor's degree

in computer science but i've really got

ba in liberal arts it's the same thing

to the background check company it is

a discrepancy that can cost you the

position

right exactly you need to be accurate

and any time that you are concerned that

maybe

the type of degree that you have or the

fact that you actually were only one

internship away from getting your

diploma but you actually didn't get your

diploma

talk to your recruiter about those

things up front they can have those

types of conversations with your

potential employer up front

it's when you don't tell them and they

find out through the background check

process

that you are very likely to lose your

position or lose the opportunity

and you know what you value you're so

right i just think that it's so

important and i think we need to let

candidates know

because i don't think that it's always

intentional that somebody

does this that causes a discrepancy but

it does such a bummer when they don't

get the job that they have the offer for

sometimes they've already given notice

at their other job or their they didn't

have a job and they were so excited to

start it

and then they offered kids gets you they

you can't do it you can't hire them

so i just think it's so important that

candidates know

these details it's so important so that

they can make sure that they do get the

job of their dreams

completely agree and that's one of the

reasons why we are creating this video

just a quick video to try to help people

understand number one background checks

are real

they are not something that somebody

says just to make sure you tell them the

truth they are real

number two they are a pattern of

matching the information on your resume

to the information that you submit in

the background check authorization form

to the verifiable records that the back

that the background check company

uses to verify the next is

just an understanding of if there is a

problem when something goes wrong

what can people do what are the types of

what are the most common errors that

people

have in their background checks and what

can they do about them

well since we're talking about education

i think that's a good thing to use as an

example

occasionally we'll verify with the

school that someone doesn't have a

degree

and then they'll contact us and say but

i do have a degree i can send you a copy

of my diploma

when they do that then we would send it

to the school and verify it

it's a legitimate document you know with

today's technology

anyone can create a document so know

that the background check company is

going to

verify any document that you receive but

that's something that can be done

dates of discrepancy unemployment i

really want to add that sometimes

someone might say i worked for linkedin

and then we call linkedin and they don't

have them but it's because they

worked for maybe genesis 10 at linkedin

right

and so you have to be clear and tell us

if it was through

a different agency because linkedin

won't actually have that record

even though you were there but you were

through genesis 10 right

so i think that's really important as

well now um

and so but if that's the case and and we

say we didn't we verified that linkedin

you never worked there

you could contact the background

screening company and we would re-verify

who you worked for at that time and we

could say on the report

that they worked for genesis 10 at

linkedin and i'm just using that as an

example of course

but i think that's really important

because we see that a lot today

with a lot of people working as contract

employees or temp employees and that

kind of thing

we do see that a lot where they put

where they actually worked but that

wasn't who they got their paycheck from

and i think that's an important detail

um you know if there's anything that

comes up

regarding anything on a criminal record

or anything

any kind of discrepancy or dispute that

you have on your background check

you can always contact the company that

completed the background check

and they should within a short period of

time correct whatever's there and if

they can't correct it and they re-verify

it and it's accurate

then they still have to let you know we

do it by the phone

and in writing both to let them know if

a change was made and then we would

update the client as well

and we would communicate it to the

client that there was a change so it is

possible

to fix something if something does go

wrong but it depends on what it is

if it's something that we can't verify

the report would remain the same

i think that's an important point as

well is that the background check

results

are unchangeable right you can go back

you can dispute them

you can dispute a criminal record

you can dispute a driving record you can

dispute a credit check you can dispute

these things

but it takes time to do and in the

interim

the employer will not hire you because

what they have in front of them is a

background check

form that states issues that are out of

compliance for them

exactly and that's so well said val

is that it's the compliance of each

company each company

has a policy around what they can hire

what criteria they're going to hire for

and what they're not

and so it depends on the company and so

everyone's compliance

depending on what their industry is

might be different you know

if you're if you're hiring a doctor you

certainly want to make sure that they

have the credentials of a doctor

right i mean any of us that we're going

to have an operation would want to know

that that doctor was verified before he

came to that hospital or to that medical

center right

so that we know we're getting the best

care we would want that for ourselves or

for anyone in our family right

so that's why we do background checks is

we want to make sure all the credentials

are accurate

and so it's really up to you as the

consumer or the candidate

to make sure that your information is

complete

perfect and so one of the things that

we're we do here

and that will be available to anybody

that's watching this video

is a document called a resume

application worksheet

and it works the same way as a

vaccination or an immunization record

it is something that we strongly

recommend that you fill out one time

take the time to memorialize

your addresses your past addresses your

employment

call your former employers and ask them

what do you have as the record of my

start date and my end date and then put

it in this document

get your transcripts and get the exact

name of your degree

the type of the degree the year that it

was conferred

and add that memorialize that into this

document

and then any time that you send out a

resume

or complete a background check

authorization form you go to that

original document

and use that same information over and

over again

one of the things that we want to share

with people here today is that

we want everybody to get hired you want

everybody to get hired

that we want and one of the things that

you can do for yourself

is create competitive advantage by

having a thoughtful accurate resume

that matches your background check

authorization form

and that you know matches the verifiable

documents that the background check

company is going to review once you have

created that for yourself

you've put yourself ahead of the pack

artificial intelligence

keyword searches they are not going to

weed you out because there aren't

discrepancies in your resume

you've now made yourself stand out as a

candidate

who is hirable and companies don't

really want to spend a lot of time on

candidates that they then will not be

able to hire

they want to work with candidates that

they will be able to complete the

process with successfully

and one of the ways that you can ensure

that is to just make sure your data is

accurate

yes and you know what val i really love

the document that you your company

created

i think that it's so helpful for the

candidate to know that they can have

this i mean

just like you know if you got vaccinated

you're gonna have your card if you're

going to travel

out of the country someone's probably

going to ask for it at some point right

i mean it could we don't know what's

going to happen with that but with this

resume sheet that you have that has the

information on it

once you take the time to put it on this

document

and i don't know why someone didn't

think of it before i think it's such a

great idea

i mean once you put your information on

here and you have this document and you

keep it you can keep it on your phone

you can keep it on your pc

wherever you need it but then you just

pull back to that whenever you're going

to change your position

or apply for a new position you have the

dates the same

all the time then every background check

you have

you know some companies might do a

background check to promote someone

or if you you transition or if they get

acquired you might have a background

check done on you so there's many

reasons you might have a background

check done in your future

but you always have the information be

accurate and you won't have to go

digging for it

so i think your your sheet is just an

amazing idea

i love it okay well we

we think it's great too we want to help

people get jobs and we think over the

next 12 18 months

it is going to be a crazy hiring market

right now so

anything that people can do to put

themselves out in front with something

as simple as this

we hope would be very helpful sandra we

thank you so much for your time today

it's been a pleasure talking to you it's

a pleasure to be here thank you very

much val and have a great day