InfoLink Screening Services, Inc.

Dinosaurs once meant danger to man, if not instant death. More recently, man began hunting dinosaurs, at least their remains, and modern museums of natural history now provide a safe environment for kids and “dinosaurs” in fossil form to interact.

While dinosaurs are no longer the threat, other dangers remain. The safety and security associated with museums may be taken for granted by visitors and even employees, but it is never so for those who manage museum security or provide it.

One such person is Brenda Rushforth who came to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Foundation in 1997 as its VP of Human Resources. Rushforth brought with her eighteen years of experience in both corporations and non-profits. Her mandate was to expand the museum’s HR capabilities and one of her most important contributions was to be the implementation of a completely new background screening program for all foundation employees.

The Foundation of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the organization responsible by contract for managing the Natural History Museum itself as well as two other facilities; the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits and William S. Hart Ranch Museum. The foundation employs three hundred workers, while an additional forty work directly for the county.

The Museum of Natural History itself is a world-class research and educational facility. It is the third largest of its kind in the U.S., based on physical size, number of employees and the size of its collection--33 million artifacts ranging in size from towering skeletons to tiny amber-encased insects.

UNIQUE SCREENING REQUIREMENTS

A museum foundation has very distinct challenges for any screening program to meet:

INTERNATIONAL SCOPE: The museum recruits staff internationally and is a destination for visitors from around the globe.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS: School groups visit the museum on a regular basis, plus the museum has two traveling exhibitions, "Sea" and "Earth" which tour area schools.
SEASONALITY: Visits peak during summers and holidays, bringing a need for substantial part-time and seasonal help.
SOCIAL VENUE: The museum facility hosts after-hours functions which range from weddings and fund raising events to visits from prominent dignitaries including Prince Charles.

KEY OBJECTIVES

Ms. Rushforth strongly believes in the moral obligation of human resource professionals to create a safe environment. "When you are hosting the public and particularly children," states Rushforth, "safety is a top priority. Beyond that you have normal concerns for the staff as well as safeguarding the organization from liability."

Foundation employees have contact with the public and children both during museum hours and at after-hours functions. It was therefore important that there be no sexual offenders on staff, or anyone with a violent criminal history.

The fact that the museum's mobile exhibits traveled from school to school imposed a requirement to check on the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle) records of those driving the exhibits. It was further decided to check driving records on an ongoing basis to ensure that a safe driving record was maintained.

Those who hire know applicants often "embellish" their educational background. However, in a group devoted to research, specific degrees and their authenticity assume even greater importance. As applicants reference degrees from across the country and internationally, the organization must have a comparable means to verify educational history.

Despite the fact that the museum's staff fluctuates with part-time and seasonal workers, Rushforth nevertheless felt background screening to be a necessity for all hires. Cost was also part of the management decision and a concern, but Rushforth was able to formulate an estimated budget based on the number of applicants processed in a typical year and the average cost of a screening package.

A PROVIDER TO MEET THE NEED

With an array of needs and limited manpower, Rushforth quickly realized her screening needs would best be handled by outsourcing. To implement the program, she selected InfoLink Screening Services, Inc., headquartered in Chatsworth, California.

"I chose InfoLink for several reasons," she recalls. "I recognized Barry Nadell, the President/CEO of InfoLink, as an expert in the field from his talks at national conventions and local human resource meetings. InfoLink is a company with years of experience and national stature, so I was confident it could verify the employment and educational backgrounds of our applicants from across the country."

A primary consideration was that InfoLink offered sexual offender identification without any time restriction. "Both InfoLink and other companies offered the capability of doing criminal checks," Rushforth recalls, “but this approach would have been much less satisfactory, as there are difficulties to getting complete information.”

For instance, California limits reporting of criminal convictions to seven years from the date of conviction, parole or release from prison, unless a position entails a salary of $75,000 or more*. Additionally, California has no statewide repository of criminal information. Criminal records are accessed by county, a factor that requires knowing an applicant’s counties of residence. Even so, crimes could be committed by an applicant outside his or her county of residence and not be recorded there.

The sexual offender databanks accessed by InfoLink did not have such restrictions.

IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAM

The museum foundation implemented a background-screening package that was customized to meet its needs. The package included verification of educational and previous employment references, DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) report, Social Security verification, criminal background check and checks against the state databases for sexual offenders.

Early on some applicants were hired with a contingency for satisfactory screening results. However, enough came back negative that the procedure was eliminated. Now, no one gets hired until their background screening is completed.

PROGRAM RESULTS

The program soon produced visible results. "I think it was apparent we were getting a higher caliber of employee," states Rushforth, "especially in terms of education. There have also been negatives reports, of course, and using the forms provided by InfoLink, we follow the exact legal procedures for addressing those situations. If a person has lied on their application, that alone is grounds for denying employment."

The screening process brought ancillary benefits to several applicants who found they had been victims of identity theft. The screening process disclosed that the identities of these applicants had been stolen and used to obtain credit cards that were negatively affecting their credit reports.

"Another result of the new screening procedure" notes Rushforth, "has been to impresses our managers with the importance of their interviews and the need to ask the questions they really need answered. I always tell them 'You wouldn't get married after a fifteen minute interview, so why hire that way?'"

*California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act; Code Section 1786.18 (a)(7) and (d)(2).