Policy - Hiring Procedures

Moved to New Site

I am not a lawyer, taking legal information from a random blog is a stupid idea. You agree that I will not be held accountable for your bad decisions.

When your business grows beyond what you can you alone, you will need to hire a schmo to help you out. Before you even think about filing a want ad, you should create a hiring policy for your business. The policy you create should cover the legal, financial, and security aspects of bringing in a new employee.
The SBA has an excellent step by step Here. This post is assuming you have already read the SBA's page and will focus on security.

The following are some  recommendations to add to your hiring procedures to make it as secure as possible:

Interview Location:
If you run your business alone and you are going to be interviewing strangers the standard safety procedures should be taken when meeting any stranger.
Meet in a public place, i.e. restaurant, coffee shop.
Let a 3rd party know where and when you will be meeting the interviewee.

Education:
To verify a college education you can either request a transcript from the applicant or you can contact their college's registrar's office to verify degrees and attendance. The registrar's contact information will be available on their web site.

Drug Testing:
First of all know your drug testing laws, Here. Search for a local drug test provider and inquire about setting up a program for your business.

Citizenship
There is the regular I-9.pdf Check out the USCIS web site, here they offer the E-Verify program, How it works. And if you are interesting in sponsoring a work visa here is a brochure.

References:
Be sure to ask for references, if they give you only personal references, ask for business/supervisor.
If this is their first job, see if you can get someone from their extracurriculars or volunteer work.

NDAs and Eithics Policy:
If you have an NDA and/or ethics policy in place, be sure you have the candidate review  and sign in to it.

Sleuthing:
Check your applicants Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn accounts.
Do a web search for "First name last name town"
See if you can find their handle, name used online. Search with that to find less mainstream accounts created under the same name.
Search their email address to the same effect.
https://pipl.com/ can also grab some info, but I've never had much luck with it.

Criminal Background checks:
It is good to know if you are hiring a person with a violent criminal history. There are some free services below to aid you in your search.
Do know that there are laws that protect privacy. Here, Section 3 You should be aware of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), it has several statements that you should know about concerning how you can conduct your background test depending on the salary and the state you are in.

Here is an depository of links various states' information about  conducting public records searches.

Online Search
-------------------
Alaska - Here
Arizona - Here
Arkansas - Here
Connecticut - Here
Delaware - Here
Hawaii - Here
Idaho - Here
Illinois - Here (Not all counties are available)
Indiana - Here
Iowa - Here
Kentucky - Here
Louisiana - Here
Maryland - Here
Michigan - Here
Minnesota - Here
Mississippi - Here
Missouri - Here
New Jersey - Here
New Mexico - Here
New York - Here
North Carolina - Here
North Dakota - Here
Ohio - Here
Oklahoma - Here
Oregon - Here
Pennsylvania - Here
Rhode Island - Here
Tennessee - Here
Virginia - Here
Washington - Here
Wisconsin - Here

Find out if a person is on probation/in custody
-----------------------------------
VINE

Paid Online Search
----------------------
Alabama - Here for $9.99 per search or
    Here for a start up cost of $150 and a monthly fee.
Colorado -According to their site here: Here
     you must use this site: $7 a search: Here
Kansas - $1/search and $1/result Here
Maine - $30 a pop Here
Nebraska - $15 Here
South Carolina - $25 Here
Utah - Paid subscription Here
Vermont - $12.50 Here

Mail In Form
---------------
South Dakota - Here

Special Case
---------------
Massachusetts - only on specific computers Here
Nevada - (clark County only) Here
New Hampshire - some info, no full search available Here

Unkown/Didn't Find
--------------------
California
Florida
Georgia
Montana
Texas
West Virginia
Wyoming