Screening Your Workers and Volunteers

Church choir leader pleads not guilty to sexual assault of 15-year-old
Insurers to Pay $50M in Settlement Over Abuse at Boarding School
Group home resident was sexually abused and beaten by staff, lawsuit states
Former pastor accused of sexually assaulting child at day camp
Camper secretly took pictures, videos of kids in bathroom
Daycare worker charged with 9 counts of felony child abuse

Organizations continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons related to sexual abuse of children. While the effects of sexual misconduct can devastate the victim and the victim’s family, the damage does not stop there. Just one incident of sexual misconduct can destroy the trust, credibility and reputation of an organization for years. Adding further pain to an incident of sexual abuse or molestation are the legal costs of a lawsuit, which can ruin an organization financially.

Tragic incidents such as this emphasize the vital importance of screening the employees and volunteers who work with the children and vulnerable adults your organization serves. While we often think of “screening” as analogous to running a criminal background check, screening is a broader concept that includes several additional elements.

First, prospective workers and volunteers should complete an application form that produces information about their work and volunteer history, prior experience with children and references including any criminal history to the extent allowed by law.

For volunteers, consider instituting a waiting period, in which the individual is required to be involved in your organization for at least six months before being allowed to work in a trusted position with children. This period of time can serve as a deterrent to those seeking quick and easy access to children, while also allowing the organization time to get to know the individual and evaluate their suitability for working with minors.

Next, contact references listed on the application and document your communication with them. Ideally, these will be institutional references where the individual has worked or volunteered with children in the past, rather than personal or family references.

Lastly, criminal background checks are a best practice. While they are not a magic bullet and will not catch all offenders, background checks serve at least three purposes:

Serves as a deterrent to sexual predators or others with significant criminal histories who might otherwise attempt to access children or vulnerable adults.
Reveals criminal convictions in a person’s past that might not be uncovered any other way.
Demonstrates initiative in selecting the persons who will be placed in a position of trust within your organization.

GuideOne policyholders can receive discounts on background checks.

Background checks and reference checks go hand-in-hand in revealing information about the prospective worker. For example, an individual with a clean criminal record who was removed from a position at another organization due to boundary issues would not be identified through the background check process alone. Likewise, an individual with multiple criminal convictions who had performed admirably at another organization would not be detected by a reference check alone.

Organizations should exercise great caution in giving a second chance to individuals with past incidents of misconduct or other inappropriate behavior. While the concepts of forgiveness and redemption may resonate with leaders, a subsequent incident by the individual involving a child would not only cause tremendous harm to the victim but would also have devastating consequences for the organization given its knowledge of the previous bad acts.

Learn more about abuse prevention including sample policies and procedures, monitoring and oversight tools, and discounted online training for GuideOne policyholders here.

Screening Your Workers and Volunteers

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