Liana Simpson
Working with many employers we find that many employers hire by resume. They do not use a current, legally up to date job application.
Oops!
There are many reasons you must have a job application:
- Resumes are not legal documents. PERIOD
- Resumes have no statement of fact under penalty of perjury.
- Resumes give NO authorization to conduct a background investigation (reference checking)
- Resumes can be written by anyone and the National stats suggest that 25% of the information is false or highly conflated.
- If you were to hire from a resume only and later needed to file a claim to a bond company to recover from an embezzlement—likely you would lose your claim for not doing your due diligence.
- No PROFESSIONAL recruiter screens from a resume! Learn from the pros! We carry millions of dollars of insurance for your protection and we follow standards of practice. You can too!
Let’s talk about applications:
- Applications are legal documents but must be current and meet all rules and regulations.
- Applications have a required signature that the stated information is correct and true.
- Applications usually (should) have space for the authorization of background checks and any pre-employment physical screens.
- Applications can allow you to ask your own specific questions and get more information to help you screen properly and save time!
So WHAT is the BIG deal?
We have seen many instances where employers only hired with a resume only to find out later that the candidate provided false information. Employers were stuck and couldn’t fire based upon false statements as there was no promise to provide accurate information.
This presented a long and costly 3 yearlong termination dispute which cost the organization 3 years of administrative leave salary for an individual who had many false declarations AND was under indictment in other states. Finally that individual has been incarcerated in another State.
We have seen a case with an embezzlement. The employer only had a resume. The insurance company wouldn’t pay on the bond coverage due to the fact that there was no proof of due diligence without a signature stating that the facts presented were correct and true.
Recently we saw an application form that has an arbitration agreement attached. In California you cannot arbitrate worker rights away! This application had been scrutinized by an attorney.
Not all attorneys are labor law experts. In fact, few are.
Here are our recommendations:
- Have an application form that every person interviewed has completed. You may use resumes to screen in order to select folks to interview. But only for that purpose.
- Anything other than verifying employment is considered a Background Check. The privacy laws of California are very strict and you must have disclosure documents completed and signed by the candidate prior to conducting any reference checks or criminal checks or verifying legal status, etc.
- The costs for violating a person’s privacy are huge. The costs of a bad hire with no legal leg to stand on can literally put your business at serious risk.
We can help! For a nominal fee, you can have one of our HR experts review your hiring documents and bring them into compliance. Call Sequoia Personnel Services@ 445-8641 and ask for our Human Resource Consulting division! You will be put in touch with an industry expert who will come to your place of business and go over your documents and bring them into compliance and protect your company at the same time! AND best of all, the cost is minimal. We are committed to helping small businesses that cannot afford to have a full time HR expert on staff have these services available on an as needed basis. We know there is a huge need and we are ready to help you out! Get into compliance! You will be so glad that you made the decision to be a top notch employer.
And always remember, Sequoia Personnel is here to help guide you to the perfect hire, Every time! Guaranteed!
The information provided in this blog is intended for general information purposes only. Readers should seek the help of an HR professional for guidance on specific issues.
