Boxed Into a Corner: The Fight to Ban Employers from Boxing out Deserving Job Applicants on the Basis of Criminal Record

Employee Background Verification: The Cross-Referencing Effect

International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) ◽

10.19030/iber.v5i11.3519 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 5 (11) ◽

Author(s):

Carole Bonanni ◽

Dean Drysdale ◽

Andrea Hughes ◽

Patrick Doyle

Keyword(s):

Screening Tool ◽

Job Applicants ◽

Screening Tools ◽

Criminal Record ◽

Employment Screening ◽

The Cross ◽

Credit Bureau

Pre-employment screening has increased in recent years. This paper examines the effects of four pre-employment screening tools (reference interviews, criminal record checks, credit bureau investigations, and education verifications) in identifying negative indicators about job applicants. More specifically this investigation identifies, for a Canadian organization, the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered by each screening tool as well as the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered through the use of combinations of screening tools. The percentages have been found to be in line with the data already available for American organizations. The main contribution of this research however is to show that when various screening tools are used in conjunction they have a greater potential to uncover applicants negative histories through a synergistic process termed cross-referencing. The results indicate that cross-referencing increases the rate at which negative indicators are found in reference interviews by up to 10%.

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Self-Promoting and Modest Job Applicants in Different Cultures

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000034 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 70-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Marianne Schmid Mast ◽

Denise Frauendorfer ◽

Laurence Popovic

Keyword(s):

Cultural Background ◽

Job Applicants ◽

Presentation Style ◽

Interview Situation ◽

French Speaking ◽

Different Cultures

The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of the recruiter’s cultural background on the evaluation of a job applicant’s presentation style (self-promoting or modest) in an interview situation. We expected that recruiters from cultures that value self-promotion (e.g., Canada) will be more inclined to hire self-promoting as compared to modest applicants and that recruiters from cultures that value modesty (e.g., Switzerland) will be less inclined to hire self-promoting applicants than recruiters from cultures that value self-promotion. We therefore investigated 44 native French speaking recruiters from Switzerland and 40 native French speaking recruiters from Canada who judged either a self-promoting or a modest videotaped applicant in terms of hireability. Results confirmed that Canadian recruiters were more inclined to hire self-promoting compared to modest applicants and that Canadian recruiters were more inclined than Swiss recruiters to hire self-promoting applicants. Also, we showed that self-promotion was related to a higher intention to hire because self-promoting applicants are perceived as being competent.

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