How A Modern CRA Partners With Fama Technologies

A Q&A exploration with leading CRA Creative Services Inc. on how they leverage their social media screening partnership with Fama.

WHY A Q&A?

Rather than focusing on one particular use case or feature of the product suite, this eBook explores the relationship between Fama Technologies and one of their leading partners, Creative Services Inc.

Hear from the Creative Services team about why they chose (and continue to choose) Fama Technologies as a part of their technology stack to deliver on their mission of helping employers reduce risk and improve workplace safety and security.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA & WEB SCREENING?

“In the wake of highly publicized (and not so publicized) incidents where violence occurs, what’s one of the first things that happens? People go online and look to see what (and who) is associated with that individual. Often they also see red flags or indicators that there were issues before the incident occurred. I think some employers recognize that social media screening is another layer to guard against potential risk to the company and its employees just like traditional screening.

FROM A PRODUCT STANDPOINT, CSI FEELS THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS REALLY A VALUE ADD TO TRADITIONAL SCREENING OR EVEN EMPLOYMENT SCREENING (ONGOING MONITORING) FOR OUR CLIENTS.

Our comprehension of these issues results in our ability to develop screening tools and methodology targeted at identifying potential problems formulated to achieve the most meaningful and useful results. We are the front-runner in our field maintaining a strong commitment to shaping best practices and developing solutions, while providing our clients the most thorough, accurate and timely background investigations.”

WHAT ABOUT CLIENTS WHO HAVEN’T STARTED SOCIAL MEDIA SCREENING?

“Informed employers are interested in the whole person they’re hiring. That includes the individual’s physical and online persona. They really want to get an understanding of who will be working at that organization; a full 360-degree look. I might have a great interview with a prospective employer (Zoom or otherwise in the current COVID-19 state we are in), then, through tools like Fama, you can see that everything I told you in my interview matches up or is supported by my actions on social media.

To me, the hesitation - the people that we can’t push over the line - is due to their fear of privacy violations including their fear of not using the information correctly...the fear that they may potentially learn something that may not necessarily be negative but that it may not be totally in line with what the company feels like is appropriate. It’s just that little pause. And I think that’s where discussions have to get a lot deeper.”

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“THIS IS THE ROADBLOCK, THIS IS THE REASON WE HAVEN’T SEEN MASSIVE ADOPTION. YET.” - CREATIVE SERVICES

WHY NOT HIRE INTERNAL PEOPLE TO CONDUCT ONLINE AND SOCIAL SEARCHES?

“Let’s be honest. The people inside the building are doing it (social and web searches) anyway. But when it comes to decision making, if I’m a manager and I’m hiring this individual and I go on Google and I look them up or I go on their Facebook page (if they’re not private), I see this individual either: just celebrated their 50th birthday, has a breast cancer survivor logo, or has a religious symbol. These are all examples of protected classes. Do you really want that? And my discussion with folks is ‘look, once you’ve seen that, you can’t unsee it!’

And discovery will prove that you saw it. And so you’ve now opened the door for the opportunity for discrimination. It could be completely unrelated. You might not have hired that individual for a completely different reason but the fact that you looked and it’s discoverable, you’re there. So removing this aspect from decision makers is better than having them do it themselves.

Could you potentially have a group of people in an organization that all they do is social media searches? If you have that kind of budget, that's great. That’s true too for background checks. You can do your criminal searches.”

“YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THAT? OR DO YOU WANT TO HAVE THE EXPERTS THAT KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR: WHAT’S FCRA-RELATED, WHAT’S NOT? WHAT COULD BE A PROTECTED CLASS? WHAT’S NOT?”

WHY DO CLIENTS CHOOSE CREATIVE SERVICES?

“CSI has a long history of being a trusted partner. We don’t just provide background screening services - we do that, we do that really well. I would say we’re among the best in our industry. And that doesn’t change when we partner. We only partner with those companies that we feel match our high standard that we would require. 

Because we talk with our clients daily - every single day. We are more than just a ‘here we do your background checks.’ We get calls from clients on a myriad of issues. It may not be directly related to backgrounds or maybe it is. But they know that we have their best interest in mind.”

“WE MAINTAIN A STRONG COMMITMENT TO SHAPING BEST PRACTICES AND DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS, WHILE PROVIDING OUR CLIENTS THE MOST THOROUGH, ACCURATE AND TIMELY BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS.”

WHY DO CLIENTS CHOOSE FAMA TECHNOLOGIES?

“I think it’s just a requirement that you’re trying to be the omnichannel solution (as much as possible) in today’s environment. We’re trying to identify and incorporate partners into our process as best as possible with the least amount of friction so that we can solve a broader spectrum of business challenges for our clients - by adding social media screening, by adding drug screening, by working with occupational health providers and any other services providers that we’ve identified.

FROM A PRODUCT STANDPOINT, CSI FEELS THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS REALLY A VALUE ADD TO TRADITIONAL SCREENING OR EVEN EMPLOYMENT SCREENING (ONGOING MONITORING) FOR OUR CLIENTS.

We want to be positioned as the trusted business partner that our clients call when they have a pain point. And either ask us to identify a service or provider and bring them to the table to incorporate them into the business process, or identify a qualified referral from one of our trusted sources - we want to be positioned as that subject matter expert.”

ABOUT CREATIVE SERVICES

Since 1976, CSI has been a trusted partner in the development, implementation and monitoring of comprehensive background screening services for thousands of clients. During the business’ early years, CSI recognized the importance of using investigative technologies and addressing causation, prevention, and risk mitigation when hiring employees. What began as a small private investigation firm has evolved into a global, full-service employment screening and security consulting company serving corporate, government and higher education market sectors. We distinguished ourselves early as a pioneer in a newly emerging industry and today we continue to differentiate our business as a trusted advisor in the background screening industry through innovation and education.

She holds an Advanced Certification in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by the Professional Background Screening Association and is a certified analyst in the Predictive Index® (PI®) behavioral assessment suite. Kellie is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, United States Federal Court District of Massachusetts Bar as well as a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.

With almost 20 years of experience in background screening, Kellie is a proven professional that delivers innovative thinking and organizational excellence in the areas of employment screening and compliance. She is actively involved in both the Human Resource and background screening industries and participates in many industry associations including the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) and College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Kellie has also served as a Board Member on the Human Resources Council (HRC). As a subject matter expert, Kellie has provided numerous educational sessions and webinars at popular trade and industry associations as well as having published several articles including on the topic of social media in employment.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Sklar has served as Executive Advisor to the Executive Leadership team for Creative Services, Inc.

Mr. Sklar utilizes these business experiences to provide support to the Executive Team in the areas of: (i) business planning, (ii) program and project development, (iii) organizational development, and (iv) structuring client engagements. All of which is structured with the focus of providing an environment for the CSI staff to be inspired and provide unsurpassed service and support to clients.

Mr. Sklar attended Boston College and graduated University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA with a Bachelors in Business Administration majoring in Marketing.