Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,268, Conducting Employee Background Checks.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,268.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to eslpodcom and take a look at our ESL podcast store with additional courses in business, daily and cultural English.
This episode is a dialogue between Vanessa and Daniel about investigating the history of someone you may want to hire to work at your company.
Let's get started.
I can't wait until the new employees start work.
We need the help.
It won't be for a while.
Background checks have to be done first.
Background checks?
Are those really necessary?
You'd be surprised.
We've been burned before.
We don't want to hire anyone with prior instances of negligence or anyone else who has been involved in a corporate scandal.
Sometimes we even get people with fraudulent credentials.
Isn't a background check kind of invasive?
What do they check for?
A criminal record?
Yes, but that's just the beginning.
Investigators check driving records, credit reports, school transcripts, sex offender lists and much more.
I had no idea.
When someone runs your social security number, all kinds of things come up.
Investigators also check court records and medical records.
That's amazing!
On top of all that, they often speak with past employers and character references.
And the new hires are okay with the company doing this kind of invasive background check?
You were?
Me?
You mean they ran a background check on me before I was hired?
You bet.
So they know all about... What?
Forget it.
Today's episode is called Conducting Employee Background Checks.
To conduct C-O-N-D-U-C-T, here it means to do, to carry out a certain action.
The action here relates to employees.
An employee is someone who works for a company.
The person who owns the company is called the employer, and the person who works for the employer is the employee.
Vanessa begins by saying, I can't wait until the new employees start work.
We need help.
I can't wait means I am looking forward to.
I am hoping this time will come soon.
Danielle says it won't be for a while, meaning it will take some time.
It won't happen right away.
He explains background checks have to be done first.
A background B-A-C-K-G-R-O-U-N-D check is an investigation of someone's past, of what they have done in the past, especially making sure this person hasn't committed any crimes, hasn't been arrested by the police or hasn't done anything that would make the company not want to hire that person or make that person an employee.
Vanessa says, background checks?
Are those really necessary?
Danielle responds, you'd be surprised.
Meaning, yes, you would be surprised or it would surprise you to know how necessary they are.
He explains, we've been burned before.
To be burned means b-u-r-n-e-d here means to have a bad experience, especially because you've trusted someone.
If you trust someone to help you or if you trust someone with some money, you give someone some money, thinking that person is going to give it back to you, and then that person leaves with your money.
We would say you were burned.
You trusted a person and that person did not do what he said he would do.
Danielle says, we don't want to hire anyone with prior instances of negligence.
N-E-G-L-I-G-E-N-C-E Negligence is not taking care of something the way you are supposed to.
Negligence is when you don't want to do something wrong, but you're not very careful.
And because you're not careful, something bad happens.
Danielle talks about not wanting to hire anyone with prior P-R-I-O-R instances of negligence.
Prior instances just means things that happened in the past.
The word prior means before now or in the past.
Instances just mean specific cases or times when certain things happened.
Daniel says they also don't want to hire anyone who's been involved in a corporate scandal.
Corporate, C-O-R-P-O-R-A-T-E, refers to a corporation or a large company.
A scandal.
S-C-A-N-D-A-L is when someone does something wrong and it becomes public, and And then people start talking about it, giving the company perhaps, a bad reputation.
Daniel's company doesn't want to hire anyone who has been involved in a corporate scandal.
Sometimes he continues.
We even get people with fraudulent credentials.
Fraudulent F-R-A-U-D-U-L-E-N-T means false or not real.
Credentials C-R-E-D-E-N-T-I-A-L-S are Things that show or demonstrate that you are qualified to do something.
Credentials might include a certificate that shows you know how to do a certain job, or a degree from a university or some other proof that you are capable of doing what you say you are able to do.
Vanessa asks, isn't a background check kind of or somewhat invasive?
I N V A S I V E.
Invasive means finding out information about someone that you don't really need to know or you shouldn't know.
Invasive is sometimes defined as violating someone's privacy.
P-R-I-V-A-C-Y.
Privacy refers to things that are yours, that belong to you or that are about you, that no one else has a right to know.
Vanessa says, what do they check for?
A criminal record?
A criminal record is proof that you have been arrested by the police, that you have broken the law and that you have been found guilty.
In other words, the judge or the court said, yes, you committed or did this crime.
Daniel says, yes, they check for a criminal record, but that's just the beginnings.
Investigators, people who look at someone's background, check or look at driving records, credit reports, school transcripts, sex offender lists, and much more.
A background check, at least in some places in the United States, or by some companies, could involve looking at things such as your driving record.
This would be a report of whether you have ever speeded or have ever broken any traffic laws and been punished for it.
It might also involve credit reports.
A credit report shows how much money you have borrowed or whether you pay your credit cards on time, whether you have had any bankruptcies, that is, if you've been unable to pay your bills in the past.
A background check might also include school transcripts.
A transcript.
T-R-A-N-S-C-R-I-P-T is a record of all the classes or courses you took in school and what grade you got in those classes.
A sex offender.
O-F-F-E-N-D-E-R list is a list of people living in a particular area who have been arrested and found guilty in the past of some sex crime, such as rape or having sex with someone who is not legally of age.
In many places in the US the government keeps a list of where sex offenders live and they are required, after they get out of jail, to tell the government where they are living, and people can look at these lists and see if those people are living near you.
I should mention that all of these things, such as driving records, credit reports, school transcripts, but not sex offender lists, would require your permission.
So if you were going to work for a company, you would give the company permission.
You would say, yes, I say it's okay for you to look at all of these different records.
Typically, the companies can't look at these things unless they ask you first and you say yes.
Sex offender lists are different.
Those are public information.
Vanessa said she had no idea, meaning she didn't realize.
This is what a background check could involve.
Danielle continues, Investigators also check court records and medical records.
Your social security number is a nine-digit number or nine numbers assigned or given to each citizen of the United States that is used to identify you.
Technically it's supposed to be so that you can get benefits when you are old and retire or need help from the government.
But in effect it's a number that every US citizen, and even some non-citizens, are given to identify them.
And you are asked for that number by the government or by companies in order to identify you.
Danielle refers to running someone's social security number.
To run here means simply to put that number into a computer to get information about a person.
When you do that, according to Daniel, all kinds of things come up.
In other words, you can learn a lot about a person depending on which database or which source of information you use.
He says investigators can also check court records and medical records.
Court records are reports about what an individual has done.
In terms of the law, if the person has been arrested, or if a person has tried to sue another person to get money from another person because the other person hasn't paid him, and so forth.
Anything involving the government and the court system, judges and so forth.
Most of that information is public information, except when it involves children who are not yet of legal age, who are less than 18 years old.
Medical records refer, of course, to what your doctor knows about you, things that happen in a hospital, and so forth.
Medical records are private again unless typically, you give permission for someone to look at them.
Vanessa says, that's amazing.
She's surprised at all of the things these background checks can learn about you.
Daniel says, on top of all that, meaning in addition...
They often speak with past employers and character references.
They here refers to the investigators.
They may talk to the people you used to work for, as well as some friends and family who would be character references.
A character, C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R, reference, R-E-F-E-R-E-N-C-E, is someone who has known you for a long time and can say if you are a good person morally or ethically, for example.
For certain government jobs that involve security.
You may have family members or friends who are interviewed by the government to make sure you're not a spy or that you are trustworthy and reliable.
Vanessa says She's asking if the people who are going to be hired by the company, who are going to be employees, are okay with the company doing all of these checks.
Daniel says, you were.
Vanessa is surprised.
She's surprised to learn that the company ran a background check on her.
She says, you mean they ran a background check on me before I was hired?
Danielle says, you bet.
You bet is an informal way of saying yes, absolutely.
That is correct.
Vanessa says, so they know all about, she's about to tell us perhaps something secret.
And Danielle says, what?
He wants to know what Vanessa is going to tell him.
And she says, forget it, meaning don't worry about it or I don't want to tell you anymore.
Obviously, she has perhaps some secret that the background check didn't find.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I can't wait until the new employees start work.
We need the help.
It won't be for a while.
Background checks have to be done first.
Background checks?
Are those really necessary?
You'd be surprised.
We've been burned before.
We don't want to hire anyone with prior instances of negligence or anyone else who has been involved in a corporate scandal.
Sometimes we even get people with fraudulent credentials.
Isn't a background check kind of invasive?
What do they check for?
A criminal record?
Yes, but that's just the beginning.
Investigators check driving records, credit reports, school transcripts, sex offender lists and much more.
I had no idea.
When someone runs your social security number, all kinds of things come up.
Investigators also check court records and medical records.
That's amazing.
On top of all that, they often speak with past employers and character references.
And the new hires are okay with a company doing this kind of invasive background check?
You were.
Me?
You mean they ran a background check on me before I was hired?
You bet.
So they know all about... What?
Forget it.
Our scripts are written by someone of the highest character, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
