According to Nick Fishman, Chief Marketing Officer of employeescreenIQ, “This partnership allows us to broaden our market share into the media and entertainment industries and work with greenlightjobs and their marquis client base. We are excited for the benefits this partnership brings to our mutual client base and the marketplace in general.”

According to a press release, the partnership will enable both companies to leverage existing business relationships and integrate the employment background checks process through greenlightjobs’ job board technology, and securely transport the necessary data from employeescreenIQ without duplicate data entry, allowing for greater efficiency and ultimately reducing a company’s overall time-to-fill metric.

“This partnership positions our companies competitively, offering unique products and services to our clients,” said Lisa Kaye, Founder & CEO, Greenlightjobs.com

Many smaller businesses that do conduct some form of background checks on potential employers do so themselves through public records, but this method can be time consuming. BackgroundNow.com has recently launched a new “DIY Search Tool” feature which will make looking into an applicant’s past more efficient and easier for those who do not wish to hire others to handle such matters.

This new feature will connect users directly to the federal government’s registry for all federal criminal, civil, bankruptcy and tax cases. The websites for various county courthouses, many of which offer free searches of criminal, civil and traffic court cases, can be accessed through this site The registry charges users 8-cents per search conducted, but the DIY background check feature on BackgroundNow.com is available free of charge.

Lee Hill, CEO of Informed Networks Corporation, which runs BackgroundNow.com, says that “there is quite a bit of secrecy and misunderstanding surrounding background checks. In part because it was long the domain of private investigators who kept the tricks of the trade to themselves. Also locating the correct source of information can be a complex matter.” He went on to say that “the DIY Search Tool gives access to information needed to get the job done.”

BackgroundNow’s new search feature may give employers access to all the records that are needed to conduct a background check internally, but its not foolproof. Although the federal databases used cover many jurisdictions in most states, they are still incomplete.

The search tool uses the most complete source of records in the country, the National Crime Information Center, which is managed by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services, but misdemeanors are rarely included in it. In many cases, county and even state records are never sent into the FBI. Although use of the DIY background check feature is free, monthly membership to the website is $9.95.

A large portion of employers are now conducting a type of background check that’s less formal and doesn’t cost a dime. All they need is a computer, a working internet connection, and a username. Then all the information they’d never be legally allowed to pry from your lips, or you’d be too smart to give, is at their fingertips. And many are giving them exactly what they don’t want.

With the rise in popularity of online social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, employers have found a completely legal way to look into your personal life. Quickly becoming one of the mot commonly used tools in a background check, these sites are giving hiring manager a good reason to toss stacks of resumes in the trashcan.

These sites allow employers to see everything from your sexual orientation to the drunk pictures from your last spring break. Since you’ve posted this information in a public domain, accessible to anyone signed on, you’ve given them the right to silently discriminate against you based on what they find.

But even if you’ve dedicated your own personal page to telling the world about your volunteer work with disadvantaged youth and how much you love working overtime, employers may still find a reason to disqualify you. Since a public profile often gives links to your friend’s pages, you aren’t really in complete control over what is posted about you. One click on your number two in your top eight and employers could end up seeing that racy photo from the only drunken night you’ve ever indulged in that your friend couldn’t resist putting out there for everyone to see.

Since employers have gotten plugged in and signed on to the newest net trends, it’s important for jobseekers to keep their profiles either professional and PG rate or private. By doing this you avoid having to reconstruct your site or having to waste time worrying what incriminating photo you’re college roommate decided to post.

After passing a background check and securing a job, you may have a boss who wishes to add you as a friend on one of the various social networking sites. In the end the decision to do so or not is your choice, but doesn’t having the option of deleting all possibly damaging content from your page before they see it beat losing out on your dream job over something your did in your off hours private life?

The enhancements made to this new version will help clients to virtually eliminate hiring mistakes. And, as the economy continues to slow and revenues shrink, more than ever, companies cannot afford costly hiring mistakes. One bad apple can ruin the culture, drive the good people out and seriously impact the bottom line.

As a result, more and more companies are seeking innovative solutions to improve their candidate selection process. Interviews, resumes, background checks and traditional personality tests fall short when it comes to revealing the candidate’s true personality.

That’s where Candidate Insight comes in. The solution reveals hundreds of hidden personality traits, most of which have never been available to employers prior to hiring.

“Imagine the benefit of knowing, with ninety-five percent accuracy, that the candidate a client is about to make an offer to is argumentative, dishonest, moody and inflexible?” Ryan Vener, Written Inc.’s vice president, queried. “We can even tell clients if the candidate is violent. No other hiring tool or other personality assessment even comes close to our accuracy and insight.”

In their research, Written Inc. discovered that traditional handwriting analysis was too simplistic when examining the relationship between characteristics and traits. The one-to-one relationship that’s often used – for example crossing a “t” this way means “x” – resulted in ambiguous and inaccurate results. Written Inc. found that a person’s handwriting, or as they refer to it – “written body language” – is far more complex and requires technology to get it right.

This newest version of Candidate Insight incorporates artificial intelligence and a sophisticated relational database that keeps track of these complex relationships.

Candidate Insight is fast and easy to administer. Job applicants are simply asked to copy two short paragraphs onto a form that is then faxed to Written, Inc. The company’s handwriting specialists analyze the samples with the aid of a software application. The reports are then uploaded as a PDF file to a secure web site where clients can access them directly.

Business consultant and sales training guru, Patrick Cahill of MAC Venture Group in New York City, advises all of his clients to use Candidate Insight.

“After reviewing the numbers, we found that eighty-seven percent of our clients had made a serious hiring mistake in the last two years,” Cahill explained. “We estimated the average cost to each client to be upwards of $300,000. By adding this simple and inexpensive tool to their hiring process, they’ve virtually eliminated these hiring mistakes.”

“employeescreen University is pioneering. It’s an interactive learning tool designed specifically for human resource, risk-management and security professionals. Visitors to the Web site will have the opportunity to learn how to enhance their background-screening procedures with best practices, as well as obtain important information that affects their use of background checks. We are proud to offer this one-of-a-kind, free service,” said Nick Fishman, employeescreenIQ chief marketing officer and executive vice president.

Jason Morris, chief operating officer and president, added, “This learning resource is just another piece of our mission: to offer objective, intelligent and smarter background screening information to our clients and other interested professionals.”

employeescreen University went live at midnight on March 12. The site features employeescreenIQ’s free newsletter “The Verifier,” relevant employment screening news compiled from international sources, U.S. legislative news updates, industry white papers, background-screening media resources, industry research, upcoming industry events, and a background-screening blog, that updated daily by the employeescreenIQ leadership team.

Additional features, including online community-building tools, article commenting, Webinars and podcasts, will be added to employeescreen University in the coming months. Features also will be created and added from user requests and suggestions, making employeescreen University’s future truly driven by its users.

“There is simply too little innovation in the employment space that effectively connects with companies in a meaningful way,” said Joel Cheesman, author of the popular industry blog Cheezhead.com. “Not only is employeescreen University progressive, but it also speaks to the heart of an industry clamoring for useful knowledge delivered in a convenient, unfettered manner. It represents a positive step forward for a market that truly needs it.”

Although this new, interactive learning resource takes its name from its parent company, employeescreen University is designed to offer objective and educational background-screening information. As the first free educational resource of its kind, employeescreen University was created to become a primary resource for human resource, risk management and security professionals searching for any information regarding background-screening best practices.

“For individuals involved in the hiring process, it’s imperative to know the latest news as it relates to employee screening,” said Mike Sanky, publisher of BRB Publications, the nation’s premier publisher of sourcebooks used for locating public records. “employeescreen University not only provides news updates, but also an array of comprehensive learning tools for hiring professionals of all disciplines and experience levels.”