We will look at the specific items that should be included in an employment application later in this chapter. Suffice to say, an effective employment application will provide a great deal of information on any prospective employee, either directly from the form itself or from research that can be conducted based upon information contained within the form. To use one obvious example of the information available from an application, an organizational trait many companies will look for in a candidate is if that individual has the necessary experience and expertise in the specific subject area related to the particular position in question. This information is easy to determine from information contained in the employment application to include the candidate’s previous positions, education, and years working in related jobs and fields. The employment application can also be used to determine some fairly subjective character traits by using some forethought during the development of your organization’s specific application form. For example, if communication skills are a characteristic deemed necessary for any potential employees, your organization can ensure the application form includes sections that require a prospective employee to demonstrate their writing skills, such as having the individual complete a short essay on a subject relevant to the position, or by including several sections that require the candidate to answer questions in complete sentences and paragraphs rather than by simply checking a box. In this manner, your organization can use the form to better assess that potential employee’s ability to communicate, rather than by simply reading bullets in one’s résumé that state their exceptional communication skills with no real proof of this ability. This is only one example of a trait that can be determined through some innovative use of an employment application form. By using this document to its fullest potential, it can help to better determine if an applicant meets your organization’s key traits and requirements and can provide you with a better perspective on that individual’s ability to fit in with your company prior to the taking it to the next step—the potential candidate’s interview.

Because of the interactive nature of the interview and the advantage of meeting a candidate face-to-face, many of the desired traits and characteristics an organization has designated and identified as important can be ascertained during this meeting. The interview provides one of the best opportunities to determine whether an individual meets your team’s characteristics and traits based not only upon the verbal responses of the candidate, but also form the nonverbal communication you can see during the interview. A potential candidate’s body language, pauses in response, and eye contact can provide a great deal of information on what that individual is like and how they would fit into your organization.

We will cover the specifics of what needs to be included with any good background investigation later in this chapter; however, we will touch on this process since it is the last method we will discuss that assists in determining if an individual would fit in with your organizational traits and characteristics. Background investigations provide a great deal of information on a potential employee to include basic information such as name, address, and phone number. In addition to this information however, a good background investigation will typically go much deeper than this, as it should include several other items of interest:

A completed employment application is the single most important information-gathering tool in the pre-employment screening process, and should be accomplished and reviewed prior to any other actions with a prospective employee. At a minimum, applications should request and obtain the following information:

As discussed in Section 8.1.2.3, the purpose of the employment background investigation is to identify individuals who may be a risk in regard to employee theft, lawsuits, or losses to the company, and prevent these actions before they even occur. Conducting a background investigation on all potential employees verifies the accuracy and completeness of an applicant’s statements, develops additional relevant information on the candidate, and determines the individual’s suitability for employment.

The employment application, along with the background investigation, should typically be the primary sources of information to assess if a candidate should be offered an interview. This is in conflict with the process many organizations use. Instead, many companies conduct the interview and then accomplish a background check only on their top candidate(s). This divergence from the process of offering interviews based upon information from the employment application and background investigation is normally due to the cost of conducting background checks. Although cost may deter many companies from accomplishing the background check prior to offering an interview (and in many cases, from accomplishing the background check at all); it should be emphasized that the background check should precede the interview because it not only can filter out many poor candidates, but it can also alleviate problems that can occur later, as we will discuss.

Finding and designating one individual within your organization, or a small cadre of individuals, who has the experience and necessary traits to conduct a thorough investigation, is a necessary first step that should be accomplished in order to accomplish employee investigations. Without this step, it is impossible to conduct a thorough and proper investigation without a trained and qualified individual. Many organizations will wait to designate an individual to conduct an investigation until an incident has occurred—this is normally not a good idea, as the selected employee may not have any training or qualifications to conduct an investigation and, because of the last-minute notice, definitely will not be prepared to accomplish a thorough investigation. By designating specific individuals to accomplish investigations within your organization prior to their occurrence, you will lessen any potential issues that could occur due to an inadequate or improper investigation.

There is a variety of information that can be useful to an investigator during the course of any investigation, and investigators must be aware of where to obtain this information. In order to obtain this information, they should constantly develop sources and become aware of available resources so that they can quickly and accurately obtain information on individuals involved in the investigation or the incident in question. These resources can include any reference material that is relevant to your company’s industry and workforce, or sources that provide personal information on individuals. Many of these reference materials can be found in such obvious locations as the public library or local newspapers and magazines, whereas other useful information pursuant to the investigation can be obtained from informants who are known to provide reliable information based upon the investigator’s knowledge and development of these sources. Table 8.2 provides a list of many different sources that can provide information and material relevant to many different types of investigations—although this list is not complete, it provides a starting point for your organization’s investigative team to begin to develop their own information sources.

During any investigation, it is normal that evidence pursuant to the incident will need to be collected. In conjunction with obtaining information from the necessary resources throughout the course of an investigation, the investigator must also ensure they know the proper procedures when collecting, handling, and storing any evidence relevant to the issues at hand.

It is critical that the investigator obtain as much information from other persons who were eyewitnesses as possible; in order to determine the circumstances and facts surrounding the incident they are investigating and one of the best methods to obtain this information is through interviews. A trained investigator will typically interview all individuals who are believed to have information regarding the incident in question and then obtain additional names of other eyewitnesses or potential suspects over the course of their initial interviews. It is not unusual for an investigator to conduct multiple interviews with key eyewitnesses based upon subsequent information they may obtain over the course of their investigation. In order to ensure that they can completely explain the incident, a thorough investigator will continue to conduct interviews until they are satisfied they have knowledge of all the facts and can successfully close the case.

The objective of any investigation report is to provide a professional, accurate, detailed, and easy-to-understand account of the events that took place based upon information obtained over the course of interviews and the investigator’s personal observations. This account should be compiled into an investigation report that should always include the five W’s and one H: the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. The report should concentrate on the facts and report, in chronological order, the correct sequence of events as they occurred, based upon the information obtained during the course of the investigation.

Sexual harassment, or unwelcome sexual advances, is defined by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as “any requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature” [3]. Prior to any incident within this area, every company should establish a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy and post the policy to ensure that employees are aware that sexual harassment will be promptly investigated. Furthermore, employees should be made aware that assistance in sexual harassment investigations will not be subjected to any form of retaliation and all matters regarding the case will be kept confidential. Along with the definition listed above, the EEOC has two defined conditions of sexual harassment [4]:

Employee theft accounts for billions of dollars of loss for businesses every year. Typically, theft is more prevalent at smaller and medium-sized businesses because these organizations have less supervision and rely more on the employees’ trustworthiness, which in turn allows individual employees greater freedom of movement than at large companies with well-established bureaucracies.

Unlike external theft, which can normally be identified to management and company employees fairly quickly, internal theft, or embezzlement, is stealthy and can go undetected for long periods of time. Embezzlement occurs when someone holds a position of trust and misappropriates money or converts company merchandise for personal use or advantage. Many of the actions that help to deter employee theft can also assist in deterring and detecting embezzlement.

Fraud can be defined as improperly obtaining an asset or item by providing false information. Both theft and embezzlement are considered fraud, so many of the considerations and mitigating actions from these threats can also be used and applied to mitigate the potential for fraud. In addition to simple theft and embezzlement, other types of fraud include: corporate fraud, computer fraud, medical fraud, theft of intellectual property rights or counterfeiting, financial fraud, credit card fraud, economic fraud, personal injury and vehicular accidents, and fraudulent disability claims.

Employee absenteeism is a subtle form of theft that costs businesses millions of dollars each year. Although closer supervision is one of the first responses many organizations will consider when minimizing absenteeism, other more effective methods can include:

Improper use of alcohol and drugs in the workplace can create significant costs to businesses due to lost work and inefficiencies sustained by the affected employee. Although it can be difficult to clearly identify employee drug abuse, a supervisor may consider this issue if an employee exhibits absenteeism or attendance problems from work, financial problems, trouble with local law enforcement or arrest, relationship issues with other employees, or unusual circumstances surrounding accidents at work. Physical symptoms of drug abuse may include trembling hands, sallow skin, wan cheeks, runny nose and eyes, and dilation of the pupils.

Gambling addiction can take the employee away from their job because of the lure of dice, cards, horse and dog betting, and other games of chance. In addition, any employees suffering from gambling addiction can become higher risks to attempt theft or embezzlement because of the financial strain they continually place themselves under.

This Act bans discrimination against applicants who are at least 40 years old on the basis of age.

The ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against a “qualified individual with a disability.” An individual with a qualified disability is one who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of an assigned position.

The Consumer Protection Act prohibits the following:

This Department of Justice Order prohibits a criminal justice agency from confirming or denying the existence of criminal history data for employment purposes.

The EPPA restricts the use of lie detectors by most-private sector employers in applicant screening. Exceptions allowing administration of lie-detector tests include:

The NLRA prohibits discrimination in hiring based on union affiliations. Furthermore, this Act ensures employees with the following rights:

This Act prohibits private individuals and employers from intercepting wire or oral communications.