围绕工作场所背景调查的讨论通常集中在员工背景调查上。雇主必须对全职员工和兼职员工进行审查，对于学校和学区来说，“员工背景审查”是一个涵盖教师、管理人员、体育教练和大多数其他教职员工的类别。这些职位代表学校的优先领域，因为这些员工与学生相处的时间最多。然而，对于背景调查而言，包括承包商也很重要，他们可能在组织内扮演自己的关键角色，但很少接受与全职或兼职员工相同级别的审查。
为什么承包商和供应商筛选很重要
企业和组织使用承包商或供应商的原因有很多。他们可能需要填补人员短缺，例如 通过人员配备机构 或“临时工”。他们可能会聘请自由职业者来完成一次性项目。他们可以通过专门从事特定任务或服务的外部公司与工人签订合同。原因不胜枚举，而且随着零工经济的扩张，这种情况只会越来越长。
这些工人与全职员工有着根本的不同。他们经常临时工作，甚至可能不是专门为相关雇主工作。企业通过在税收和员工福利等领域不考虑临时工或承包商“员工”而获得某些优势。
承包商仍然拥有许多与全职和兼职工人相同的特权。他们与该公司的品牌、资产、客户和员工合作。他们充当该公司的代言人，因此，他们面临与任何员工一样的疏忽招聘诉讼、法律责任和声誉损害的风险。阅读 我们关于承包商和供应商背景调查的白皮书 ，了解为什么审查临时人员如此重要。
承包商和学校
承包商背景审查在教育环境中是一个特别高风险的事情。承包商可以在一所学校扮演多种角色。大多数学区不在内部管理交通，而是将这些服务外包给公交公司。一些学校与清洁公司签订了清洁服务合同。许多课后计划由承包商或承包商公司运营。
学校承包商背景调查存在多个头条新闻。2019 年春季，华盛顿特区东北部的一所蒙台梭利学校未能对在其课前和课后项目中工作的承包商进行背景调查。这名 21 岁的男子在学校聘请的一家公司工作，负责运营这些项目。那家公司——跳板教育——没有审查过他的记录。该男子被指控 与一名 13 岁学生发生性行为不端，这导致 DC 公立学校与 Springboard Education 断绝关系，并对自己的承包商筛选政策进行审查和修改。
在某些情况下，学区面临着一个艰难的困境：对每个人进行背景调查，对所有员工和承包商保持高标准，或者放宽要求以吸引工人担任难以填补的职位。在全国范围内，对于通常是承包商的公交车司机来说，这种困境一直是一个特别大的问题。威斯康星州 和 特拉华州等州的学区和校车公司 对这些司机保持深入的背景调查要求——但在失业率低的充满活力的就业经济中，对公共汽车司机工作的兴趣通常具有挑战性和压力低薪——是最低限度的。
通过要求针对吸毒、犯罪历史和驾驶记录危险信号进行背景调查，学校和巴士公司正在取消或吓跑许多可能愿意接受这些工作的人。这些政策在保护学生安全方面发挥了作用，但同时也给全国学区带来了公交车司机短缺和学生交通问题。
尽管面临挑战，承包商背景调查在确保学生在学校、上学途中和学校赞助计划中的安全方面发挥着至关重要的作用。 单击此处开始为您的学校制定承包商和供应商筛选策略。
Why Contractor and Vendor Screenings Matter
There are many reasons why businesses and organizations utilize contractors or vendors. They may need to fill staffing shortages, such as through staffing agencies or “temps.” They may hire freelancers to complete one-off projects. They may contract workers through outside companies that specialize in specific tasks or services. The list of reasons goes on, and it’s only getting longer as the gig economy expands.
These workers are fundamentally different from full-time employees. They often work temporarily and might not even work exclusively for the employer in question. Businesses gain certain advantages by not considering temps or contractors “employees” in areas ranging from taxation to employee benefits.
Contractors still have many of the same privileges as full-time and part-time workers. They work with that company’s brand, assets, customers, and employees. They act as a face of that company, and as such, they pose the very same risks of negligent hiring lawsuits, legal liability, and reputational damage as any employee. Read our white paper about contractor and vendor background checks to learn why vetting temporary personnel is so important.
Contractors and Schools
Contractor background screening is an especially high-stakes matter in an educational environment. Contractors can play several roles at a school. Most school districts don’t manage transportation in-house but rather contract those services out to busing companies. Some schools contract with cleaning companies for their janitorial services. Many after-school programs are run by contractors or contractor firms.
There have been multiple headline-making issues with contractor background checks in schools. In the spring of 2019, a Montessori school in northeast Washington D.C. failed to conduct a background check on a contractor working at its before- and after-school programs. The 21-year-old man was working with a company that the school had hired to run these programs. That company—Springboard Education—had no record of having vetted him. The man was accused of sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old student, which led D.C. Public Schools to cut ties with Springboard Education and launch a review and revamp of its own policies for contractor screening.
In some cases, school districts are left with a tough dilemma: conduct background checks on everyone and retain high standards for all employees and contractors or loosen requirements to attract workers to tough-to-fill roles. Nationally, this dilemma has been an especially large problem for bus drivers, who are typically contractors. School districts and school bus companies in states such as Wisconsin and Delaware maintain in-depth background check requirements for these drivers—but in a vibrant job economy with low unemployment rates, the amount of interest in bus driver jobs—which are typically challenging and stressful with low pay—is minimal.
By requiring background checks that target drug use, criminal history, and driving record red flags, schools and bus companies are disqualifying or scaring away many of the individuals who might have been willing to take these jobs. Such policies are doing their job of keeping students safe, but they are also bringing about bus driver shortages and student transportation problems at school districts nationwide.
Despite their challenges, contractor background checks play an essential role in keeping students safe at school, on the way to school, and in school-sponsored programs. Click here to start building a contractor and vendor screening strategy for your school.
