How do I Conduct a Kiwanis Background Check?

This is a great question if you are involved with Kiwanis International. SafeHiring Solutions and Kiwanis have a great relationship that allows the two to work hand-in-hand to get the best available background checks.  Our question is: Are you wanting to open a background screening account for your club, or are you needing to complete a background check as an individual within a club? Either way, we can accommodate you.

The answer to both of these questions can be found here.  If you click on this link, it will take you straight to the Kiwanis page on SafeHiring Solution’s website.  On that page, there are two separate links.  The first link is for setting up a new account for an entire Kiwanis club.  The second link is for individuals who were asked to complete a background check by their Kiwanis club.  This link will take you straight to the Kiwanis International login page, and you can go through there to complete the background check.

Because of the relationship between Kiwanis International and SafeHiring Solutions, this is an easy process for either a new club account or an individual background check!

Creating a Volunteer Background Screening Consortium

As an active member of a community do you ever get the feeling that you are nickel-and-dimed when trying to volunteer for multiple organizations? One organization requires an “X” background check while another one requires a “Y” background check ?

Have you ever turned down the opportunity to volunteer because you’ve already paid for two separate background checks, and you are unwilling to pay for, or to go thru the hassle, for yet another one within the SAME community? As an organization, have you lost quality potential volunteers for this very reason?  

If you answered, “Yes,” to any of the above questions, there is a solution that can make volunteering seamless between organizations within your community. It will also allow multiple organizations to maximize the availability of volunteers within a community without creating a monetary or  management nightmare.

SafeHiring has developed a solution using our background services plus our SafeVisitor software that remedies these problems for an entire community. The solution is for similar organizations to create a Volunteer Consortium. What is a consortium? Well, it’s just a fancy word to describe an agreement among groups to accomplish something that is beyond the resources of any single member of the group. In this case, that would be vetting and tracking all the available approved volunteers within a community.

What is needed for an effective Volunteer Consortium?

• Groups to participate

• Agreement on background check criteria

• Consensus on who will vet the volunteer applications

At first, you might think that getting all the groups in your community to agree to participate in a consortium is difficult . . . and you would be correct. It can be challenging; therefore,you wouldn’t want to begin building your consortium with too many groups. As the old saying goes, “Don’t try to eat the whole elephant!” You could start with just a couple of organizations that you know share many of the same volunteers. You might want to assign one of the organizations to vet all the volunteers, or have a company like SafeHiring Solutions do that for you. There is no need for each organization to vet because of the guidelines agreed upon and shared by all groups.

At SafeHiring Solutions we have the consortium model already working in Indiana. We provide a link through our SafeVisitor volunteer management software for a volunteer to apply. Once they have submitted their application, their background check is performed, and vetted by SafeHiring. When approved, the checks are available to be viewed within SafeVisitor by all participating organizations. That volunteer is now available to every organization in the consortium within SafeVisitor. Depending on the groups involved, that means a parent volunteer at school can also be approved for coaching a sport or volunteering at a local church, festival, etc. Since everyone in the consortium has agreed to the conditions for volunteers, there is no need for additional vetting or cost, regardless of which organization in the consortium they are volunteering for.

We have found that once a consortium is started, local non-participating organizations soon express interest in becoming participants. They find it’s a very easy way to manage their volunteer pool within their community. They can be confident that each person has been fully vetted, and there is no need for additional applications or cost to the volunteer. They are ready to go!

If you would like to learn more about how Safe Hiring Solutions and SafeVisitor can help you to manage your volunteers, you can click HERE to sign up for a webinar to learn more about SafeVisitor.

Do Visitor Management Systems Integrate with Comprehensive Background Checks?

Are you looking for a visitor management system?  One of the most critical components for securing your organization is knowing exactly who it is that is walking through your doors.  A clipboard and self-disclosure signature might work for the majority of honest visitors to your buildings, but it will not stop someone bent on gaining access for nefarious reasons.

An Internet search for ‘visitor management software’, will show that all providers claim to provide background checks, but the term ‘background check’ has no standard definition or requirements.

I have audited thousands of background-screening programs and have found the term ‘background check’ defined as a ‘driving history’ or a‘ sex offender registry check’.  A driving history gives you a slight glimpse into their driving history and any crimes related to driving, but each state varies in how far back this search extends.

The same principles apply to a ‘sex offender registry check’.  I have owned Safe Hiring Solutions for thirteen years and we have conducted over 100,000 background checks a year, and I will tell you that a ‘sex offender registry’ is NEVER a quality background-screening program.  Sex offender data is highly inaccurate and incomplete. 

So when you are researching a visitor management system, ask what they include in a background check.  99.9% of the time that will be some level of a sex offender check and possibly an internal client-created exclusion list that includes individuals not allowed on their property.

We had a client switch to our SafeVisitor system a few months ago, and they were under the impression that their prior visitor management system was conducting a state-wide criminal background check on their volunteers before they entered a building and at each ensuing visit.

It was discovered that they had used this system -one of the largest in the school market arena- for several years with thousands of volunteers being allowed entry into their 10 school buildings and they had only been receiving a sex offender registry check.  The risk management problem is:

·         Someone convicted of a sex offense but not required to register as a sex offender would not show on this type of check.

·         Violent felons could have been wandering their hallways as volunteers with none the wiser. 

·         The lack of transparency by this visitor management system put thousands of students and teachers at risk. 

So understanding the definition and components of a comprehensive background check is critical.  Otherwise, you might be operating with a false sense of security thinking that your visitors have been properly vetted.

SafeVisitor visitor management system is the only visitor management system I am aware of that conducts comprehensive background checks on visitors.  We are integrated with Safe Hiring Solutions, our sister background-screening firm, who is a recognized global leader in background checks.

SafeVisitor allows you to define your different types and levels of visitors and match that up with an appropriate level background check which can range from nothing for a temporary visitor to a national criminal background check for a vendor or volunteer.

You can even manage your current employees, their background re-checks and logging them in an out as they visit different areas or buildings in your organization.

And you can define how frequently you require a new background check and have the flexibility to make this unique for each registration type.  For example, a volunteer might be required to have a background check every 3 years but a sensitive contractor might be required to have an annual background check.

The key to selecting the right visitor management system is understanding the role that background checks play in the security of your organization. 

Would you like to learn more about SafeVisitor?  Join us for our free webinar that we host each Thursday.  Click here to register.