Debt Collectors do good work
Against popular opinion, Third Party Debt Collectors benefit the community in several ways. While the "bad apples" of our industry get the most press, the PA Collectors Association is one of the most active in our national association of American Collectors Association International, making sure our members are being fair and ethical to consumers and following the laws in reporting the debts.
PA Collection Agencies returned $2.4 Billion to companies that were owed money. In these tough economic times, how many of those companies might have gone out of business without the use of a collection agency to recover unpaid invoices for the services they provided?
PA Collection Agencies employ over 13,000 people with a payroll of over $439M. These same agencies have a Local/State Tax Impact of $45M and a Federal Tax Impact of $42M.
On a national level the numbers expand to $55 Billion recovered for businesses, over 302K employees, Local/State Tax impact of $1 Billion and a Federal Tax impact of $970M. Not to mention over $85M in charitable contributions and over 650,000 employee volunteer hours.
If you need assitance with your Account Receivables, contact an agency that is a member of the PA Collectors Association or ACA to ensure professional and ethical debt collection. We dislike the agencies who give our industry a bad name as much as anyone.
Steve Gohn, President
Use of Convictions when hiring
Especially for our Employment Screening clients, I wanted to share some important information from PA Law and a recent article by James Baker of the York County Manufacturer's Association when using Criminal Convictions as part of your hiring process and/or denying employment.
In a January 11, 2012 Press Release the EEOC announced that "using arrest and conviction records to deny employment can be illegal if it's irrelevant to the job." The agency says that such blanket policies can limit job opportunities to minorities with higher arrest and conviction rates than whites.
A December 2010 article by James Baker states the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) had proposed that it intends to treat an employer's rejection of an African-American or Hispanic applicant because of his or her criminal record as presumptive evidence that the employer is discriminating against the applicant in violation with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
The PHRC has since take the position that "without proof of business necessity, an employer's use of arrest records to disqualify applicants is unlawful. An employer must be able to show that inquiry into conviction is substantially related to an applicants suitability to perform major job duties. Conviction records should be cause of rejection only if their number, nature or recentness would cause the applicant to be unsuitable for the position."
Whether you are using an Employment Screening vendor to search for convictions or doing the searches with your own internal staff or resources, this is only meant to give you as much data as possible to make the most informed hiring decision. Please consult your own legal counsel to develop your internal policy on when to use conviction data appropriately.
Happy hiring
Steve Gohn, President
New Year and New Website with New Services
Welcome to the new and improved website for CBY Systems Inc. Whether you are an existing client or visiting for the first time, CBY offers more services than most people realize. We are an 85 year old full service Consumer Reporting Agency. Even if you use us for just one service, there are probably other services you can use as well in order to run your business more effectively.
Coming up in 2012...
Our Employment Screening clients can take advantage of our Applicant Tracking System to help with onboarding and electronic I-9 monitoring.
Our Debt Collection Department is working on online submission to send in your accounts.
Ask about pulling Business Credit Reports on your commercial clients or how to pull personal credit reports if you sell directly to individual consumers.
We offer a new Tenant Scorecard for landlords who previously could not have access to full credit reports due to working from their home or other credentialing issues.
Thank you for your business and for reading our blog. Check back for industry updates, system upgrades and general motivational topics.
Sincerely,
Steven H. Gohn, President