As many of you know, Steve Brownstein is one of
the most senior players in the background screening industry,
a pioneer in international background screening and was the responsible
for the industry’s first conference held in Long Beach,
CA. This initial conference proved to be a landmark event for
the emerging background screening industry. It provided the first
forum for firms in the industry to start talking to each other
which laid the groundwork for the development of the association
now known as NAPBS. Once again Steve’s insight and strategic
vision has spawned what in years to come will surely be heralded
as another significant landmark event for the background screening
industry - the first international background screening conference.
The First Annual Background Screening Investigators Conference
in India held in Bangalore was a success in bringing together
background investigator firms in the emerging India marketplace.
With around 30 attendees their was keen interest in dialoguing
about what was going on in India and how to facilitate the continued
growth in this burgeoning market.
Les Rosen, chairman emeritus of the NAPBS, member
of the International Committee and President of ERSCheck was the
keynote speaker. He spoke on the importance of establishing industry
best practices to form the foundation for creating consistent
practices which businesses could expect. Les strongly encouraged
background screening firms in India to work together to raise
the bar on practices to foster the reputation of overall industry
and to forestall many foreign firms from setting up their own
internal background screening operations which would be to the
detriment of the overall industries growth.
Wayne Tollemache, VP First Advantage, Asia Pacific
Region, member of the NAPBS International Committee and Chairman,
Asia Pacific Sub-Committee spoke about emerging trends in the
region, some of the dynamics impacting the marketplace and the
state of background screening in several of the Asian countries.
Barry Nixon, President, PreemploymentDirectory.com
and Chairman, NAPBS International Committee spoke about “What
is Happening in the International Marketplace.” He shared
some of the recent results of the 2007 KPMG Industry survey which
were of keen interest to many of the Indian firms in attendance
and also discussed some of the similarities and differences with
the US market and the emerging marketplace of the United Kingdom
and India. He also discussed several noteworthy trends that are
impacting the international background screening industry such
as the increasing development of Industry Specific Databases to
track and report dishonest, discharged, debarred, decertified
employees, etc; the emerging role that quality standards are likely
to play in the industry and that business standards were inevitable
in the international marketplace. The only question is whether
firms in the industry will work together to create the standards
or whether they will be imposed by regulatory bodies.
Dennis Brownstein, VP Operations, Straightline
spoke about their Quality Control program and the impact it is
having on significantly improving the quality of their processing
of screening data to more than a 98% level of accuracy. Dennis
discussed in detail the application of statistical quality control
tools and total quality to background screening processes.
Steve Brownstein, President, Straigthline was
the final speaker and he gave a lively presentation on criminal
record checking in the world and dispelled many issues about being
able to get criminal records in many countries. He also emphasized
his ‘Can Do’ approach and how this has given him the
edge to succeed in getting records where others have not.
The final session was an open discussion which
proved to be quite lively with lots ideas being exchanged and
questions answered.
Overall, congratulations are in order for Steve
for having put together a very worthwhile conference that was
educational, offered insightful information and created a forum
for India’s background screening firms to dialogue about
common industry issues.
