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'Tis the Season!
As we enter into this very busy time of year, of holidays and family, of year-end closing and new year planning, we wanted to send our best wishes to you, your organizaton and your family!
Occuscreen Holiday Hours are as follows:
November 29th and 30th - Closed
December 24 - Open with Early Close (6:00am - 1:00pm PST)
December 25 and 26th - Closed
December 31 - Open with Early Close (6:00am- 1:00pm PST)
January 1st - Closed
Phone: 888-833-5304
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For Our Clients:
New Feature on our Website!
HR Screening Help Desk
(State Restrictions and Best Practices)
Stay up-to-date on state laws that effect your hiring decisions! Occuscreen now offers an online compliance reference guide to assist our clients in keeping apprised of state restrictions, best practices, and practical tips, when reviewing background and tenant screening reports.
Find the information you need, when you need it, by clicking the link on our client web page!
Please note: This guide should not be considered legal advice
Please feel free to call customer service at 888-833-5304 if you have any questions.
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FBI DATABSE
Sounds like the gold standard, but is it really the best?
Since September 11th, 2001, the use of the FBI database has increased six fold in employee record searches. More and more employers are turning to the database for their screening needs. Admittedly, it sounds so good! It's the FBI... how can it not be the best source?
In response to recent proposed legislation that would allow employers to have access to the database, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) commissioned a survey to verify the accuracy of the database. The findings were quite a surprise! It seems the FBI is great at tracking fingerprints and arrest records, but not so great at completing the process and including convictions.
Overall, the survey found that the FBI database was incomplete and provided several erroneous records. There was a significant lack of identifiers to confirm the link between a criminal record and the actual applicant. Additionally, there were a large number of missed records. In an assessment of over 93,000 searches in Florida, the database missed 11.7% of the records that should have been found. Worse, 5.5% of the records that were captured were attributed to the wrong person.
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) report released in July 2013 found that as many as 600,000 of the nearly 17 million employment background checks the FBI processed in 2012 contained inaccurate information. You can read the report here.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires CRA's (Consumer Reporting Agencies), like Occuscreen, to use strict procedures in making sure the records provided are up-to-date and accurate. This involves confirmation from the source of the information, typically at the county courthouse level. While the information from database searches can be useful in a criminal background screen, relying solely on FBI database records can leave a report incomplete and unconfirmed. |
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Nicotine Testing and Affordable Healthcare
The Affordable Healthcare Act has made major changes to the healthcare market in the U.S. and has created more focus on prevention, including smoking cessation. According to the American Lung Association, "there is a great opportunity to incorporate tobacco cessation treatment as a key to preventing deadly disease and rapidly rising healthcare costs."
Cotinine (nicotine) testing is one way for employers to offer smoking cessation programs to help employees who would like to quit.
Occuscreen offers several options for Cotinine testing:
- Instant Oral Fluid (Saliva) Cotinine testing
- Addition of Cotinine to oral fluid drug screen panel
- Addition of Cotinine to urine drug screen panel
If you would like information or pricing on cotinine testing, please contact us at: 888-833-5304 or pamelam@occsucreen.com |
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Online Disclosure and Chain of Custody forms
Did you know Occuscreen can offer a paperless system for your Disclosure Authorization forms and/or your drug screen Custody and Control forms? An electronic process can streamline the onboarding of your applicants, and can reduce the "paper trail" in your screening process. Ask us about the options detailed below for online forms.
Online Disclosure and Release forms: Occuscreen's "Quick App" process allows you to email an electronic Disclosure and Release Form (via a secure link) to your applicant for online completion. Once the form is completed, an email alert is automatically sent so you can submit the order for processing.
Online Custody and Control Forms: Electronic drug testing forms can be created for employees using Quest or LabCorp collection sites. The forms can be forwarded to applicant's via email, eliminating the need for hard copies in office.
Please contact us for questions about these processes, and other options.
pamelam@occuscreen.com or 888-833-5304 |
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Please let us know if there are questions or areas of interest you would like us to address in future newsletters, or if you are interested in partnering
with Occuscreen for employment screening. |
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Sincerely,
Pamela Mack
Occuscreen
888-833-5304
pamelam@occuscreen.com |
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Thank you!
Most of our new business comes from referrals sent by our existing clients. We appreciate it and thank you for trusting us with your colleagues!
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