Records Review: Clarification on criminal records Every county differs in the way in which it reports felonies and misdemeanors, sometimes making it very difficult for our county-level researchers to determine if the final outcome of an offense was a misdemeanor or a felony. Just because a charge starts out as a felony offense does not always mean that the subject will be convicted of a felony, or even of the same offense that they were charged with. There are a lot of instances in which the charges are pled down to misdemeanors. Adding more confusion to the mix, the “rules” that each state has set on what determines an offense as a felony or a misdemeanor differs, as well. For instance, in the State of Georgia any theft charge that has a dollar figure of over $1000 is a felony; however, in the State of Tennessee that dollar figure has been set at $500. For these reasons, and many more, Applications Researchers® will denote what the charge began as and if it was pled down to a lesser offense or bound over to the Grand Jury as a felony-level offense. On our reports: - If an applicant / employee has no criminal record, then the check-boxes next to Misdemeanor and Felony will be checked with a corresponding NO, indicating that no record was found. - If an applicant / employee has criminal record information, then the check-boxes next to Misdemeanor and Felony will be checked with a corresponding YES next to the appropriate offense level as of the date of filing. For instance, if a record was found that was originally a Felony, then the box next to Felony will say YES, even if the offense was pled down to a misdemeanor. If that is the case, then the details section of that specific offense will indicate to what level (if available) of misdemeanor the case was pled down. - If there is a YES next to Misdemeanor or Felony, that does not imply that the applicant / employee was convicted of either. It only indicates that they have a charge / offense which was originally listed as a Misdemeanor or Felony. We find that this eliminates the element of confusion with our clients and helps to provide all information necessary to make a good hiring decision where the criminal records are concerned. We are only as good as the information that we receive from our county courthouses and can only report what they supply to us. For that reason, if the records at the courthouse do not denote that a felony offense was pled down to a misdemeanor, then we cannot relay that information to our clients. If you have any questions regarding these reports, please feel free to call us before making a hiring decision. Service Review: AppEVAL™, ZipALERT®, ZipALERT®+ AppEVAL™ - Earlier this year Applications Researchers® introduced a new service, the AppEVAL™. This service is an online applicant values assessment which measures the following: · Judgment Capacity – Broad, global information on the basic judgment capacity of individuals and groups in three areas. · Task / Personal Judgment – A clear articulation of thirty different and highly practical aspects of judgment. · Professional / Personal Balance – Insight into six key areas of work and personal balance. · Perspective – The capacity of a person to make both quantitative and qualitative judgments, and the relative balance of these two types of judgment in the “lens” or “perspective” that a person brings to work and life. These measures are based on 7 critical areas of concern: 1. Task Orientation 2. Problem Solving 3. Morale 4. Attitude 5. Work Ethic 6. Difficult People 7. Following Directions Please note than an organization, within its own application processes, needs to be careful to fully understand the skill set competencies of a candidate. The indicators will help an organization understand how these skill set competencies will be utilized effectively. These scores will clearly indicate the quality of behaviors and attitudes that a person will bring to the workplace. Be aware that lower scores for the seven indicators in the critical areas above are desirable when interpreting the range of scales in this assessment. In connection with Q2HR Workforce Solutions (Hartman Value Profile), Application Researchers® offers three customized reports based on this profile; the Basic Workforce Assessment, the Expanded Workforce Assessment and the Executive Workforce Assessment. The Basic report is a designed to give efficient and effective information about a candidate’s performance capacity in the seven critical areas of concern listed above. Each of these areas will have a distinct impact on job performance, interaction with others – especially dealing with difficult people – personal attitude, and morale. The Expanded report includes the Basic report, as well as measurements critical to a management-level position: (1) observation and assessment skills, (2) balance between personal and professional life, (3) the value placed on career, (4) motivational factors, (5) how decisions are made, (6) areas of greatest success probability, and (7) sample interview questions. The Executive report includes the Expanded report, as well as measurements critical to an executive-level position: (1) ability to see “big picture” and be a visionary, (2) knowing when to focus and when to multi-task, (3) excellent communication skills, (4) conscious of all factors that require consideration, (5) capacity to evaluate and understand, (6) strength of judgment, (7) innovative nature, (8) implications for risk management, (9) the intensity of affect after an event, and (10) excellence in serving others If you are a current client, here’s how it works: 1. Enter request for service into Zip24AR®. 2. Client receives e-mail with link to assessment to provide to applicant. 3. Applicant ranks two lists of 18 items in order according to their value. 4. Immediately upon submission, client receives e-mail with link to report. Note: If you are not a current client, contact Application Researchers® to establish an account. You may send an inquiry e-mail to info@applicationresearchers.com. If you should have any questions regarding this new service, please feel free to call our office anytime at 423-265-6035. ... ZipALERT® - In our quest to provide comprehensive, accurate and efficient background investigations, on January 2nd, 2006, Application Researchers® presented the ZipALERT® service. This value added service was automatically added to every full background check ordered through our system and was provided free of charge. It provides data that has been gathered by multiple national sources. We run the person’s social security number through the databases and the report will provide you with an address history. From the report, you are able to determine if there are any potential areas of concern that need to be included in the services we provide. For example: the databases may indicate that an individual matching your applicant’s verifiers reported living in Los Angeles, which is not a court jurisdiction we would have known to check based on where the applicant reported as a place where he/she lived or worked; as a result, you will have the opportunity to request a criminal background check from that county to ascertain if your applicant has a criminal record. ... ZipALERT®+ - This service is just a step up from the ZipALERT®. It includes the address history, but we also run the individuals name through a national criminal database. This database is not comprehensive or 100% accurate, but we do find offenses listed there in jurisdictions that weren’t originally included in the listing of requested services. This will provide you with the chance to request a county level check in that jurisdiction to ascertain if you applicant is disqualified from consideration. The fee for this services is $4.00. Note – Application Researchers® does not guarantee the accuracy of the ZipALERT® or the ZipALERT®+ since both services are provided using a third-party database.   Process Review: Scheduling drug screens There are several ways in which companies can schedule pre-employment, random, reasonable suspicion and post-accident drug screens for job candidates and current employees. Application Researchers® has an account with Quest Diagnostics and has locations set up to collect urine specimens all over the country. If there is no Quest location within 15 miles, then we have a preferred third-party location set up to collect the specimens. We have certain chain of custody forms that must either be on file at the location or physically carried to the site by the applicant/employee in order for the site to process the screening. Option 1: Have your applicants/employees call our office to schedule their drug screen. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will instruct the person to take the drug screen within 48 hours of contacting us. We do this to ensure that certain drugs do not have time to exit the person’s system before the screening. We will schedule the individual for the drug screen and provide all instructions necessary. The location to which we send the individual will have the chain of custody forms on file. Option 2: We will provide your company with the instructions and necessary forms; and you, in turn, will provide those to your applicants and employees. The authorized user of our online reporting tool, Zip24AR®, will log onto the system using their secure user name and password and add the drug screen service to the request. By adding the service, we will know that the person has been given the proper instructions and can be expecting the results. We find that this method is often more efficient because you can be sure of the exact date and time the individual was to go for their drug screen and can be assured that he/she will have all of the correct paperwork in order to get the specimen processed. We also provide onsite random testing. There is a fee for this service depending on the location of the facility and the number of specimens taken. Please contact our office for additional information regarding this service.