Mark Background Check Made Easy

Mark background check

welcome everyone uh we're excited to introduce today's session background screening during uh coven 19 what changed and what stayed the same um today's session is brought to you by sterling back check um sterling backcheck is an identity background screening company um in canada and will provide today's content so um if you're not familiar with sterling backcheck we are leading provider of background screening and identity services in canada through our back check platform which is available in canada we offer um organizations services to help them create great and safe working environments and partner with our customers to introduce to them them to the background screening services for their organizations i'm hoping that you can utilize the chat as we're kind of going through that if you can hear us if there's anything that you need okay perfect all right so let me introduce today's presenters um we've got ian murray who is our regional sales direct director for sterling backcheck ian is based in our vancouver area and he is he's been with sterling for 10 years or 15 years sorry ann i don't have my notes he's been working in different capacities within the organization and is now or is um spare heading our some of our verticals and then we've got mark sword who is the vice president and global head of privacy mark is based in montreal but has a global purview within the organization and mark has been here for over 10 years as well and mark is based in our montreal office and i'm marina alicia from the director of marketing for sterling backtrack in canada all right so with all the content that we provide we always have to have a legal disclaimer that we are not a law firm anything that's provided here should not be construed as legal advice and we're simply providing it for advisory purposes so with that here's a quick agenda we have uh three main areas that we're going to cover we'll talk a little bit about what changed during code 19 and some of the things that happened to the background screening industry and then we'll talk about overview of current trends in canada when it comes to background screening uh and then mark will talk a little bit about legal considerations that you should have when you're providing when you're creating your own policies uh within your organizations all right so i'm going to turn it over to ian and i think the poll actually has been added so um we could do that in a couple of minutes so ian i'm going to turn it over to you talk a little bit about the current situation with covet and then we'll do our poll ian did ian freeze you might i'm sure he'll be back momentarily um all right okay well while ian is coming back i can talk a little bit at mark feel free to um to actually add any commentary as you um since you're familiar with this as well so i wanted to touch a little bit about um current landscape so sterling along with other organizations had a business continuity plan um enough yeah yeah what perfect timing for my internet to seemingly drop out all right i'm going to turn it over to you because i was going to cover your slides but you'll do much better job no problem yeah sorry i have no idea what happened there uh sorry so yeah across the country right now uh with the current landscape has changed a bit due to covet 19. uh many local police services have remained closed or have limited hours for non-essential services such as criminal record checks and fingerprinting and aside from the police services you may also find that in-person interviews are obviously not best practice these days for your organization in terms of id verification for the criminal record checks we have seen that canada post was deemed an essential service so if you were verifying people's id by directing them to the post office that has continued but some locations may have reduced hours of operation uh and that's true even in british columbia for myself i was actually just asked to get a criminal record check to help volunteer at my son's preschool and uh the police service is gradually reopening but i have to phone to to make an appointment i can't assume that the broader office hours are are carp launched for me to go in and get that done it's typically by appointment only so uh there are some limitations to keep an eye on there and so covet 19 has actually shown a light on uh these processes a bit so you know thankfully screening companies are largely 100 operational with employees working remotely as you can see with marina and mark and myself and our police partners are fully operational as well so results are being returned as usual i think we're a bit lucky in canada to be operating in that scenario some other countries are not 100 percent operational due to covet yet but criminal record checks with any any private background screening company in canada are pretty much uh uninterrupted uh the one thing i will comment on though where we've seen some changes is kovat 19 has shown a bit of a light on the rcmp's id verification process or their policy uh typically of course that there has been the capability to do this online uh by asking some credit questions pertaining to one's credit file we've seen that change though a bit so uh what the rcmp have done is they've acknowledged that uh obviously you don't want to be sending everyone out to a retailer like a post office or to meet with a hiring manager physically to verify id so they've temporarily relaxed the standard a little bit so some of this id verification can be facilitated digitally by a zoom and they're also looking at newer technologies to to verify id so the policy that's in place up until very recently was written about 10 or 15 years ago so it's quite dated and what we've seen is a bit of a movement towards uh adopting newer technologies to facilitate this so uh whether you're working with us or another company or just just sort of new to the market altogether uh it's good to ask questions about what options are available to you as as there are some new technologies coming in that can help make this a bit easier so you don't have to direct people out into public if you don't feel comfortable with that before i move on from kovan and the impact on the industry the last thing i'll probably touch on aside from criminal record checks is the verification services uh over the last few months we have seen some delays as a lot of education institutions were shut down it made verifying this information a little bit tougher so that was one area that did see some impact however we have seen some improvements to that recently as a lot of the schools are beginning to reopen there are more staff there that are able and willing to verify this information for us that is a fluid situation however again drawing from personal experience here in british columbia they had just announced about a month ago that schools are reopening in full in the fall uh but that didn't really sit well with the teachers unions and a lot of parents uh because there wasn't a lot of structure or framework around it and just yesterday the province here in bc announced that school's not going to start in the first week of september so uh everyone's basically taking it day by day but uh in terms of background screening uh it's it's pretty much back to normal from a verification standpoint as well but there might be the odd the odd country where things are still locked down or at reduced capacity great um so it looks like our poll is actually working is okay so before we actually uh move on to the current trends um there's a question in in the polls what does your background screening program look like right now so if you don't mind filling out uh the poll right now and we'll take a look at the results and while you're doing that i also wanted to encourage everyone to put your questions in the chat as we're going through the content we should have a few minutes at the end to address them all right i think their results have slowed down so it looks like about 63 percent have criminal record checks and references um there are um about 25 with crim references global so a whole slew of services um and only one vote for not knowing what a background screening program is so that's good so ian what do you think about that i i always love this poll it's always good to see what everyone else is doing uh it sounds um pretty consistent with what with what we see from a lot of a lot of professional organizations uh uh and this slide's actually good a good segue the poll i should say is a good segue to our next slide so what we see across the industry is not necessarily representative of what you do but at least what you do what many of you do with us so uh we do see that the criminal record checks are far and away the most popular screening service that uh that we have uh but that that's also because of the the nature of the industries that we work with so we do work with a you know cross-section of uh you know manufacturing retail finance you name it uh but some of those uh industries like the gig economy not for profits licensing bodies a lot of them pretty much just do criminal record checks and don't do uh references or or checking various credentials uh but this is a good sense of what we see day to day uh and so if you don't mind going to the next slide marine i can add a little bit of color to that and share some of the trends thanks so yeah as i mentioned criminal record checks really are the most popular for the reasons i just mentioned uh we do see that social media screening is really on the rise i know it's been a hot button topic for probably about 10 years now and thankfully i think we've moved past the days where hiring managers would ask for your facebook password to try to get in and have a peek at what you're up to i mean that just sounds terrible now but that message needed to be shared quite a bit 10 years ago as i'm sure mark can attest but third-party screening companies are able to assist with social media screening and just looking at the footprint that your potential hires are putting out there in the world so that is really picking up steam what's on the decline is often credit checks so about 10 or 15 years ago these used to be done fairly pervasively on a lot of new hires but i think uh a much more reasonable approach is to only do them when necessary uh mark will touch on that uh standard a bit more in the next few minutes but uh we've seen them decline quite a in in volume quite a bit uh they're largely just used for financial positions now or people that have access to personal information uh no longer are they being used for for most new hires uh and lastly again the traditional employment screening we do typically see uh broader packages done for those where they're verifying education previous employment and references but also of course our industry can help out with uh with global screening as well and so that international component is really picking up and i want to take the next couple minutes sharing a quick story with you about best practice in terms of global screening do you mind uh moving forward to the next slide thanks so much one of the trends that we've seen is it's obviously quite reasonable for an organization to want to establish a global background screening policy but what we've seen is it's difficult to have a uniform standard across every country that you may have offices located in so there was a tech company based in vancouver that i was working with that wanted to establish this sort of global policy but one of the uh challenges they ran into is they they figured much like the majority of their operations being in canada in the u.s that they would want to perform criminal record checks on every new hire because that's pretty much the standard in those regions but they also had a team of developers in ireland and uh they ran into some roadblocks there because the prevailing policy in ireland is that a criminal record check should not be used to influence a hiring decision unless you're working in a very sensitive environment perhaps you're aiming to become a doctor a nurse a teacher those are really the only areas that they want to be weighing one's criminal past into an employment decision so they had a bit of a conundrum they couldn't apply this policy globally because they couldn't screen their staff in ireland so that was the first uh you know important uh thing to keep in mind that you do want to have it tailored tailored country by country and perhaps one of the more uh salacious or noteworthy examples of that came up with another organization that that we've been working with for quite some time so it uh it was a sporting body that was uh typically screening canadian coaches and in that case their policy was typically to ask the coach to go to the local police or to come to us and obtain a background check and to share it with them so this is the guidance they typically offered all of their candidates regardless of where they were located within the world and so this one organization had a coach from texas and they gave him that same guidance please go and get a check from the local authorities and this fellow had done that and then shared the check with them and everything seemed to be fine it was clear but some people at that organization began googling this coach and found some some terrible news articles suggesting that this person had been arrested and convicted of a lot of sexual offenses in fact the offenses were that he was having sex with underage students that he was responsible for obviously this gave him quite a scare they reached out to us and asked you know we asked this person to get a criminal record check it says that he's clear and it's from the authorities why you know why we can't make sense of this uh why would there be these articles that clearly look like it's him but the check said otherwise and it's an important lesson that we that we sort of walk them through which is that the way that criminal record checks are done in the us is quite different than they're done in canada so if you direct someone to their local police in canada whether it's ottawa or toronto or vancouver or halifax by and large you'll receive the same type of criminal record check but that contains the same information it'll be a comprehensive nationwide search in the us however they'll ask you to run a social security number trace first to find out where you've lived and that's the way that most screening companies do it but in this case what this individual had done is he had moved to new mexico and he had just gone to authorities in new mexico and obtained a check which had the new mexican authorities you know name and logo on the letterhead but there's a false sense of confidence there that check was only saying that he didn't have a record in new mexico five years ago he had that record that was a mile long in texas so that was a very eye-opening experience for that sport organization thankfully once they've worked with us and we'd explained the nuances of screening between canada and the us they ran the appropriate searches and verified that all that horrible news they googled and found was was actually correct so uh it's an important reminder that not all countries perform screening in the same way uh we're quite lucky in canada that there's a consolidated database that can gather most this for you uh but in the us it's done very piecemeal and certainly every country is quite a bit different so i wanted to share that with you and uh pass it back to you marina cnn so mark i'm gonna turn it over to you to talk about legal considerations first thank you very much um and thanks everyone for joining our session much appreciated i'm going to do a quick overview of some of the legal considerations uh in canada and i think you know the the topic of the day for a lot of people is covet 19 and and how things have changed um this piece is really more an exercise in how things have stayed the same um there's not there hasn't been a change in compliance requirements and the law still applies uh in spite of the pandemic but what we've seen is that a lot of organizations have had a change in their workflow a change in their um you know in the workload and have used this opportunity to review their policies and procedures and just take a fresh look and it's always a good time to take a fresh look at your screening policy and make sure that it meets your needs that it's compliant and and that you thought about all the the relevant compliance considerations rather than just doing what it has always been done so i'll do a quick overview of canadian laws but i think to to what ian was was talking about just a moment ago um i want to caution everyone that canadian rules about background screening do not apply elsewhere they don't extend uh when you're screening for your own employees in other countries so to the extent that you're just hiring in canada this this guidance is good but as soon as you have if you're you know responsible for a global screening policy and you're hiring people for your office in ireland your office in the united states um then then different rules will apply and having a good background screener screening partner in place will help navigate that and and help make sure that you you have a you know a sense of where to look for for information about other countries so to start i think the most notable um rule to be concerned [Applause] effects is uh privacy laws um there in canada there there there is a federal privacy law pipita um in the private sector there are also public sector privacy laws in every jurisdiction and a number of provinces have their own private sector privacy laws there's a few of them listed on the screen here um pipita is federal it doesn't necessarily cover employees pivotal applies to employee data and applicant data in the federal sector so so uh businesses that are federally regulated but provincially employee data is generally regulated under provincial privacy laws if they exist alberta dc and quebec have long-standing provincial privacy laws manitoba has one that is not yet in force and other provinces don't necessarily in the private sector have privacy laws that protect employees but all that all that said having good privacy practices and following good privacy principles is a good idea everywhere because employees expect it uh the principles of privacy laws i'll just go through them quickly because i think it's important to understand the principles but we you know don't have time to to dig into all the details but the bottom line is that you know it's important to give notice to individuals that you're going to be collecting their data what data you'll collect and get their consent for that collection in employment it's not always strictly necessary to get consent but having that signature helps back you up if anyone complains that you collected their data after the fact and also minimizing data ensuring that you only collect what you need and that's really relevant in background screening when you're deciding which types of background checks to request ian was talking about credit and criminal and references and the various different types of background checks um the the goal uh when complying with privacy principles is to ensure that you're only collecting the data that you need to make a decision um and then of course individual rights ensuring that um that people have a right to ask questions about what data is being collected uh understand what's going to be done with that data where it's going and have that have access to it after the fact so in canada candidates almost universally there may be some rare exceptions but almost universally canadian job applicants or people undergoing background checks have a right to see a copy of their background check report with some exceptions so beyond privacy laws and um you can actually stay on that slide if you don't mind marina the previous one constitution federal laws just want to touch on um human rights law so this is also really important and as hr professionals i think we're all very aware of the need and the requirement not to discriminate illegally these human rights laws across the country at the federal and provincial level very important to understand them and make sure that you understand when you're collecting information that might be protected and that you're avoiding discrimination based on that information so there's i've you know noted the canadian human rights act that applies again to federal employers listed on this slide the protected categories and then on the next slide um they i've pulled out a couple of examples of provincial laws um that so in every province and territory has a human rights law but everyone is a little bit different so it's important to understand in the province or provinces where you operate what types of information are protected is it possible you'll get those in the application or background screening process and how will you ensure that you don't discriminate on that basis and there's a number of ways to do that and having a good screening policy is a is a good way to start um there are also some exceptions though um and if you want to move to the next slide marina then the um uh there are circumstances where you can where there is a bona fide occupational requirement where you must discriminate on some basis there are also some exceptions for special interest organizations if you serve a religious group or you serve the interests of a protected class your organization may be able to discriminate positively on that basis so it's important to know what the exceptions are if you do need to rely on them and if you um if you you know where you think there is an exception you also have to consider reasonable accommodation um and that's uh if you want to move to the next slide the employer when any time an employer is um thinks that they need to discriminate on the basis of a protected characteristic under a human rights law the employer is held to the standard of having to accommodate that person to the point of undue hardship so if if it is an undue hardship for the employer to bring that person on board because of their protected characteristic which could be their age could be their disability it could be a religion could be various other things um the employer must take it to the must go to a great length to accommodate that person and only if it causes a safety issue or really massive costs or other things that would constitute a due and undo hardship can you then discriminate against that person i very quickly unconscious of the time but very quickly want to touch on criminal records and human rights laws because this is something that is frequently misunderstood around the country and it's very important to understand what as an employer what your obligations are when collecting criminal history information um first of all criminal record information is not protected under human rights laws in every jurisdiction in canada it's protected only in some and most canadian jurisdictions protect pardoned criminal history and so employers have to have a really good reason if they're going to ask for information about a criminal record that's pardoned but that information is really hard to get your hands on so most employers are never going to see it there are a few jurisdictions most notably dc quebec newfoundland labrador prince edward island and the yukon where uh there there is a prohibition or there's a rules in the human rights law um limiting employers ability to discriminate based on a criminal record however they do not it is not an absolute blanket protection employers are absolutely allowed to ask for criminal history criminal record checks and the the obligation though on the employer is to only make an adverse decision if the criminal record is related to the position so on the screen right now and i'll you know i think everyone can take this will take this away and and keep this as a reference because i think it's really important is the test that was set out in abc court case from many decades ago around what questions an employer needs to ask when determining whether a criminal record is relevant and it really does need to be an individual assessment in those in those jurisdictions where there are protections in human rights laws you do need to um to consider each employee on on the merits and on the basis of the role they'll be they'll be filling um and then there's a the next slide is really just a brief overview of how of what what rights employees or or candidates have if they believe their rights have not been respected there are regulatory bodies that that can assess these complaints people can make civil claims against an employer if they feel that their human rights or their privacy rights have not been respected so it can get costly and complicated to respond when um you know when someone feels that their rights have not been respected so all the more reason to have a good policy in place to ensure that you're protecting people's privacy and their um and their uh their human rights um so just very briefly on the next um the next slide um we can actually right i thought we had one more slide in there but that's okay um a uh all just to sort of sum up what i was getting at the uh having a documented background screening policy easily it should show what the purpose is of your program how the process works what types of checks are being are being run and why um and the process for evaluating the results and that helps protect your organization and make sure that you do everything consistently and uh and it gives you some documentation in case someone does make a complaint to show that you have put together a compliant policy and running that policy by legal counsel is of course key i know we are almost at time so maybe one more minute ian to be conscious of time for the session and if you do have questions again just put them in the chat for sure yeah i think the three of us will hang around a little bit past the session just in just in case you do have any questions and certainly we can connect via the networking option later on as well just to put a bow on uh if i can on what mark was saying earlier uh regarding that bc court test and how to apply this i thought i'd very quickly provide a quick uh case study or scenario uh that i came across with uh with the company uh last year so we received a call from an organization that didn't have a background screening policy in place yet uh but they had an incident of theft where one of their customers had complained that an employee that had attended their home had stolen some jewelry and so the organization wished to investigate it uh but part of their investigation uh was a bit misguided they wanted to run a criminal record check on the individual to see if they had a criminal past and to mark's point it is so important to have a background screening policy laid out ahead of time to ensure that you're performing the right searches for the right position that you're not discriminating against an individual so you're applying the same standard across everyone with that role and that the screening makes sense for that role so i i walked them through that a bit and said look you can't really cherry pick one person and ask them to go get a check uh if you've got thousands of people in that role and and what is that check going to tell you how are you going to act upon that information if you find out that they have a conviction from 20 years ago is that relevant does it matter what offense it is if it's a drunk driving offense from 20 years ago how does that help you with your investigation even if it's theft how does that help you with your investigation it doesn't mean that they committed this offense i mean yeah by common sense it may be more likely that they're prone to that but it's not really helping you out so uh when we walk them through all the scenarios of how regardless of what the outcome of the search is even if it's advisable privacy wise human rights wise to do it it's not giving you any actionable intelligence it's far better that you maybe could have avoided the scenario by screening pre-hire so it was a very helpful exercise or helpful lesson to walk through with that customer and they've since established a proper background screening policy to ensure they don't fall in any of these pitfalls back to you marina great thank you well we are at time um i did put in the chat that you know we have an extended version of this content available on our website so if you're interested in getting more information please visit our website under the webinars you'll be able to get a lot more thank you so much for joining this session we are going to be available throughout the event so feel free to ping myself or ian and we hope everyone enjoyed this thank you thanks everyone enjoy the rest of the event you