Welcome to C-Screen. I’m Chris, and together with my business partner, Tom, we created C-Screen.org. Tom and I are business consultants specializing in Human Resources and Risk Management, and between us, have about 60 years of experience in this field. If we are chatting at a cocktail party, most people understand “Human Resources” pretty readily, but I’ve found that the term “Risk Management” doesn’t always translate as easily to people outside the industry. This is how I describe what I do: I am a professional pessimist. I walk into your business and figure out how and where your company may lose money. Unfortunately, I am usually helping companies protect themselves from their NEXT loss.
What do I mean?
We worked with a company a couple of years ago that had an incident of employee theft. They were a subcontractor and had possession of their client’s property. Long story short, an employee of the business stole almost $300,000 worth of their client’s property. The employee had a criminal record, but wasn’t adequately screened. We aren’t talking about a huge company here, but they had clearly outgrown the small-time operation that they were when they put their hiring policies into place, and a crook preyed upon them. What could be worse? Well, an employee theft policy would have insured them against this kind of loss, but they didn’t have one. They had outgrown their insurance coverage, too. The policy premium for this coverage would have cost them about $3,000 a year (maybe less with a thorough screening process in place). They were busy making money, like you might expect. They didn’t realize they needed us until the damage was done, and the loss of the client’s property almost put them under. The worst part: this company sent their employees into people’s HOMES. It could have been so much worse.
Why did we think this up?
One day I was leaving a client visit at a long-term care facility after what I can only describe as one of the most disturbing meetings I had ever attended in my career up until this point. It involved a nurse aid assaulting and sexually abusing a 90 year old resident. No employee background checks at all, no employee drug screens at all, and incidents that, up until that point, seemed unlikely to occur: 1) In civilized society; and 2) in a supervised setting. Again, I’m going to remind you of something I said earlier—I AM A PROFESSIONAL PESSIMIST. As I was walking to my car, I marveled at the fact that they boasted a census of 100% (for those not up on the nursing home lingo, they were 100% occupied). I thought about my own parents. I thought about my mom living 1400 miles away. “WHO would ever put their loved one there, knowing that they will hire ANYONE?” And then it hit me: Nobody knows they will hire anyone. We should do something about that. For everyone’s benefit.
With that, we came up with C-Screen. We can help businesses. We can help consumers. We can even help job seekers. So, as we launch C-Screen.org, I should tell you right now: I DO NOT believe that a criminal record or substance abuse problem should make a candidate unemployable. I DO, however, think that the employer needs to be aware, and tailor job responsibilities based on that knowledge. We are advocating one concept for everyone: KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH.
