“Protecting Your Business From Internal & External Threats” with Phil Sharkey of The Hire Authority

Jeffrey (1s):
Hello, everybody. And again, welcome back to Radio Entrepreneurs. And, you know, we consistently talk to try to tell our listeners and inform our listeners on what’s going on in the world of entrepreneurship. And you know, one of the biggest issues that I see daily, and we just spoke with Marc Z of Marc Z Legal Staffing is this whole problem with finding good staff and hiring good staff. And that’s why we always need to talk to Phil Sharkey and its president shark, or sheriff Sharkey to us of the president of The Hire Authority. Phil. I hope people are still doing their background checks in this economy yesterday. A client said to me, looking for someone at a certain level, if this person has a pulse and doesn’t carry knives and guns, we’re hiring them tomorrow.

Phil (50s):
Boy, Jeffrey, I’ve sort of been banging that drum myself, where I think the due diligence has slid down in this post or current still COVID world, we live in. And I get a lot of that from people. And I just can’t emphasize the importance of not letting your best practices slide and your hiring practices slide. And I understand that thought process, but that’s the type of thinking that will swap you a as we were just talking about weather conditions in this world, it’ll pull you under if you just bring in any person, because I’m seeing now, even when, since I started talking to Radio Entrepreneurs, it used to be 25% were fraudulent than 30 creeping up to this year. We just did a review 33% of our backgrounds and turning out fraudulent.

Phil (1m 33s):
And while that may not seem like a gigantic number, that’s 33% of people who realize a background check is going to be conducted out. If we just randomly grabbed people, as I often say, but three people apply. You look them in the eyes. You tell them you’re doing a thorough background check. They sign off on it. They give you their paper. They say, go ahead, Jeff and 33% come back fraudulent one out of three of the people who realize that you’re going to do the checks. So a that that thought process to be while I understand it, you know, the, the smart business person, the smart entrepreneurial realized that that’s not a, that’s a recipe for a disaster. Cause I I’m seeing it. I see it every day and we do six to 800 background checks a month down from a high of a thousand before COVID today, I was going to transition and talk a little bit about cybersecurity and background checks.

Phil (2m 20s):
I did some research and the us department of commerce stated that in 2018, they did a, a, a survey or they had an Institute to a check and is said that a global for the, the global average for a data breach is 3.8, 6 million breaking down to almost $150 per stolen record. So obviously cybersecurity is not my field. We have partners in that field. It’s a big, big industry today, big loss, but they suggested a four pronged attack how to protect yourself. One of which is control, who has access to your information, of course. And, and I recommend, I’m sure you do as well. Many of our, our partners in the cybersecurity world, the number two of a four point attack conducted background and security checks for all your employees.

Phil (3m 3s):
So that’s a thorough search should be conducted on all prospective employees or others who have computer access, including a full background check. So that’s where I come in. And it’s the number one crime today. Cybersecurity. Everybody’s worried about their identity, identity theft. And the number two on a four prong attack is to conduct a thorough background check to which I say, boy, let’s do that. You really have to today and not let those practices side. The one was I’m going to point to the us is, is we feel we’re the best and we’re very personable and easy to work with. And it’s a huge, huge point in today’s industry. So many of us have moved away from the personal contact and you need to get to know your screening companies.

Phil (3m 44s):
A lot of our competitors are these gigantic companies with portal systems where you’re dealing with a different account rep every other month. And they don’t know background screening, we know background screening. So that’s why I throw our hat in the ring to feel coast to coast for the best choice for people

Jeffrey (3m 59s):
I, I can, I do appreciate, and I give you the full endorsement that I know that your professional, what you do is you’re saying it’s shocking to me, how people are not screening people and what I see every day in terms of people promoting a false background, it’s, it’s chronic. And you know, you say 33%. I would say that I see probably more like 75%. And once I go on to let’s say LinkedIn or Facebook, and I start just doing basic checking, things just don’t add up. Or people just don’t have, you know, full history registered.

Jeffrey (4m 40s):
And it makes me wonder, and then people start telling me about their backgrounds and I’m thinking like, no, that couldn’t be it just doesn’t jive. Yeah. And you know, it’s just like anybody can say anything and that’s the problem. And since people are looking and people are looking for people, so they’re willing to hear anything because they want to hear it.

Phil (5m 1s):
It’s true. And somehow along the way, we came to a society where we’re so worried about infringing on someone’s rights and offending them by a background check. There’s no, there’s no offense saying at all, you are who you are. If you’re not as personal or the dishonest person, just like if I met you and I wanted to work for you and I’d say, hi, I’m Phil Sharkey. And guess what, Jeff, I’m lying to you. I’m lying today. So when push comes to shove, whenever you asked me to the receipts in the banks, did you lock the door? I’ve already shown you that, that I’m a liar. So it’s not that you’re infringing on my rights. It’s that we’ve become a society that accepts people in and want to back off. And it can’t be that way any longer. There there’s no infringement of rights. I’m not going through someone’s trash.

Phil (5m 42s):
As I did as a private investigator on a stakeout or a security situation, this is a job application with an application, a resume, and they’re signed released, and they just have to be honest. They don’t have to, to give

Jeffrey (5m 55s):
It the other way too often. My clients are spending too much money trying to get rid of the wrong people. And the expense of trying to get rid of the wrong people is so excessive and time consuming and disruptive to accompany one, rotten apple can ruin a barrel, not as easy as people think always at the expense of doing a background check upfront is nominal. It’s a little insurance policy. It’s the best insurance policy.

Phil (6m 29s):
It is. Our tagline is be proactive, not reactive. I many times I get a call from a small business and their office manager. They trust it for three years. They just found out, was lying from them. And then we do the background check and we found out that two or three years before they stole from their former employer as well.

Jeffrey (6m 46s):
We should change your tagline, your best recruiting insurance strategy.

Phil (6m 51s):
There’s no doubt about it. And it’s not a, and to be honest with you, and some people want to watch their, their, their monies today. All you have to do is announced to half the people that you do, a thorough background check. And most of those people like the 70% you mentioned, they’ll hit the bricks before you spend a dollar. So Phil,

Jeffrey (7m 6s):
Do you have one of your mind twisters for me today?

Phil (7m 10s):
I do. Dev speaking of what you mentioned, sort of more in your field about how people fabricate, what they say today, we’ll go with a big time celebrity. I’m not sure everybody will know, but we’re so much into food today. This is celebrity chef Robert Irvine, and in 2008, he was fired from his own television show on the food network. One was uncovered that he didn’t actually produce and design and build the world a couple of time, prince Charles and princess Diana’s wedding cake, which he claimed that he put out and all this literature and fabrication and everything had nothing to do with building that wedding cake. He did attend a school where it was made, and he actually did contribute by picking out some fruit for the cake, but his actual claim and everything, he put his, his branding on and his moniker on not true at all.

Phil (7m 53s):
So once again, there’s a person w which can easily be researched, which just has the gall and the audacity. You’ve got to file by the rules. I got a fly by the rules. He doesn’t have to, he can be totally, you know, marched to the beat of his own situation and make any claim he wants. So at least got fine.

Jeffrey (8m 13s):
I’ll make the cake, but he tried to eat it. So

Phil (8m 15s):
I didn’t see necessarily. Yes, he did.

Jeffrey (8m 18s):
So, Phil, since you are the best employment insurance policy, how would people find you to put their policy in place?

Phil (8m 27s):
Right on the web@ahigheroff.com? That’s H I R E a U T H R named shortens. And can also call us the old fashioned way. And you actually have a person will answer the phone for you. That’s at five eight, two three oh five nine one. We’re here. We’re ready. Background checks are quick three business days. It has to be detailed as we mentioned, but it’s also has to be very quick. So in three days you get your results and you can sort of feel secure moving forward that you got a person that, that you can bring into your, and

Jeffrey (8m 56s):
As a safe and productive employee for you all good. Well, I’m going to continue to talk to sheriff Sharkey every week, because I believe in hiring the right people and screening them upfront. I have never been known as an easy interviewer. I want to get, I don’t want to let certain people into my clients unless they really have earned the job and are going to do the job. It’s too dangerous to let the wrong people in. So Phil, I want to thank you for being on the show. We’re going to take a break. We’ll be back with you next week on Radio Entrepreneurs.