The workplace today is very different from a decade ago, for employees hold in their mortal hands, the power to abolish all forms of their employer's prior success. We continually experience and read of a workplace filled with violence, drugs and theft. With this angst and anxiety in our workforce, it is becoming more important than ever that in-depth background checks be required for prospective employees.

Options for determining an applicant's "fitness" for duty could include the following background investigation:

• Work references
• Academic verification
• Credit checks
• Drug and alcohol screens
• Psychological profiling

In Holden v. Hotel Management Inc., a jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages to a man whose wife was murdered by a hotel employee. The hotel management company, against whom the claim was levied, failed to conduct pre-employment screening and reference checking that would have revealed the murderer's violent history. Traditionally, employer liability allows recovery for workers' wrongful and criminal acts when they occur on the job. Companies may also be liable for offenses committed when an employee is not "on the clock."

Employers are on firm legal ground as long as their investigation and inquiries comply with applicable laws, such as:

• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Equal Employment Opportunity Act
• Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

• Lower hiring costs
• Reduced turnover
• Protection of assets and the firm's name
• Shielding of employees, customers and the public from theft, violence, drugs and harassment

• Expense in checking criminal backgrounds
• Time spent in checking can cause loss of applicants
• Limited access to records
• Legal limits on use of records uncovered
• Inaccuracies such as mistaken identity can result in unfair or undesirable rejection of a quality candidate

Every company, regardless of size, should run applicant background checks. Thirty percent of new business failures are caused by employee theft or embezzlement. Internal theft is 15 times more prevalent than external theft. More than 2 million personal thefts happen annually in the workplace. Seven percent of rapes, 8 percent of robberies, and 16 percent of assaults occur at work. (Source: Society for Human Resource Management Fall 1999)

If companies still are not sure that pre-employment background checks are important, consider the nonsensical acts of workplace violence that have occurred in our own backyard. Incidents at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, MA where allegedly a co-worker murdered seven co-workers in one of the most horrific workplace acts of violence and in Bennington, VT where a disgruntled former employee returned to her former workplace and committed random acts of murder against her former co-workers. These employers now speak from a perspective the rest of us hope never to experience.

Gary R. Thornton, MBA, SPHR, CEBS, RPA, GBA is the Principal of Thornton & Associates, a human resources management consulting firm located in Scarborough, ME. He has more than 25 years’ experience in human resource management for both private and nonprofit organizations. He holds credentials as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), Retirement Plan Associate (RPA) and Group Benefit Associate (GBA). He currently serves as a Special Expertise Panel Member - Total Rewards, Compensation & Benefits for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). He has also held leadership roles in the Maine Employee Benefits Council and the Human Resources Association of Southern Maine. For more information about the information contained in this article, you may contact him at 207-885-9333 or email gthorn@ThorntonAndAssociates.net