The News Tribune website has a revealing article that states that not all employees working for fairgrounds are screened properly before being hired. This fact is particularly surprising because these locations attract kids of all ages and it can be worrisome if a dangerous sexual predator manages to secure a job in such a place. The article, which closely follows the Washington State Fair, noted the danger that sex offenders pose and how a poor background screening system can jeopardize unsuspecting parents, children and other patrons to the fairs:
“Sex offenders hired for fair jobs dealing with children isn’t a new problem, Engle said. About three to five sex offenders on average are fired from the fair each year for falsifying information on their applications.
Scott Engle, a Puyallup police spokesman said there’s no perfect way to pinpoint offenders, but the best practice is screening anyone who’s in close contact with children.
“We’re never going to catch every single (sex offender) 100 percent of the time, because you have those folks who are deceptive,” he said.
Initially, Engle was skeptical of the fair’s alleged random background screening checks. “It is ideal to check all ride operators”, he said.
“But the process as he understands it now is a good start”, he said.
Hiring the wrong kind of people, or sex offenders in this job, is always bad for business. Ending up with a previously identified dangerous individual working on this type job, creates liability risks for both the owner/operator and all the people associated to the fair in general, or to a particular ride. It pays to have a mandatory and efficient method of background screening all employees to avoid any potential tragedies. Businesses that want to ensure safety and security should coordinate with an employment background screening service like The Accu-Facts Company, to establish and execute a hiring program to minimize all types of hiring risks, but it must be consistently applied every event.
There’s more to a background check than just assessing an applicant’s performance in his/her previous jobs, as every hiring manager knows. A comprehensive background check would include tasks (but isn’t limited to) such as an applicant’s past criminal history and conviction records, the driving history for the subject, or if there is a history showing abuse of drugs, alcohol or domestic violence. All the individual screening tasks must be quantified and executed for every applicant.
Owners and human resource personnel can enlist a screening service provider to help perform national and local background checks on potential employees. The process can be simple and fast, but it must be very thorough at the same time. Use of an online employment screening system, can help expedite the screening process. Businesses can’t place people in this type environment, without a very careful review of each person, the process must be FCRA compliant, and the established background screening program should be as comprehensive as possible to mitigate hiring risks.
(Article Excerpt and Image From Not all fair workers undergo background checks, The News Tribune, September 19, 2013)
