Benefits April 23, 2008

Employee Criminal Screening Increasingly Used by Employers

April 23, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Employment screening of criminal record convictions increased from 8.5% in 2005 to 9.1% in 2006 and 9.5% in 2007, according to the annual Hit Ratio Report, released by the Background Screening division of Kroll, a risk consulting firm.
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A Kroll news release said the construction, automotive, and retail industry segments had the highest criminal record hit ratios, while education had the lowest. The Hit Ratio report found food services criminal red flags grew from 12.1% in 2006 to 13.4% in 2007, and manufacturing criminal red flags grew from 11.6% to 12.6%.

The release said employers are conducting more thorough, multi-jurisdictional background checks on the individuals they hire and are screening a greater population of their staff, including temporary employees, vendors, and consultants. In addition, companies are looking to overseas job markets, which makes pre-employment screening more complex.

Last year Kroll attributed the increase in red-flag alerts to more sophisticated screening technology (See Employers Taking a Harder Line with Employee Screening ).

Visit www.kroll.com/about/library/hit_ratio to view the full 2007 Hit Ratio Report and Industry Analysis.

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