Innovative Background Investigation Tool Added to IPAT Arsenal
December, 2009
IPAT has joined forces with LESI® (Law Enforcement Services, Inc.) to distribute onlinePHQ® in the United States and Canada.
onlinePHQ is a secure, web-based questionnaire that gathers and organizes life history data from law enforcement, security, public safety, and criminal justice applicants. The collected data is analyzed for critical items which predict selection or training failure, future disciplinary and performance difficulties, and/or job termination. In addition to the Critical Items Report, onlinePHQ generates four additional specialized life history reports that focus, and thus streamline, applicant background investigations. Utilizing the five reports together enables departments to: 1) identify the most promising candidates, 2) prioritize the applicant pool, and 3) expedite the background investigation process.
Developed by Dr. Michael Cuttler, Director of LESI, onlinePHQ has several meaningful competitive advantages over other background investigation tools. Dr. Cuttler explains, "Because the questionnaire is taken online, the questions can be administered adaptively. How a person answers certain questions determines whether additional questions are asked on that subject later in the questionnaire. These additional probes help to minimize evasive and incomplete answers. In addition, once onlinePHQ is completed by an applicant, the LESI database is searched. If onlinePHQ was previously completed by the applicant, the current data is compared to the previously submitted onlinePHQ data, and each discrepancy is highlighted for follow-up by the background investigator."
Stephen P. Griffin, Psy.D., IPAT's Chief Psychologist, Public Safety and Security Services, highlights the most important aspect of onlinePHQ, particularly in this tight economy, "In addition to the obvious benefit of obtaining consistent, detailed background information from each applicant, onlinePHQ cuts the number of hours needed for a background investigation by guiding investigators to the areas that need further exploration."
Additional information can be found on this website:
Or, contact the IPAT Customer Service team at custserv@ipat.com, 217-352-4739, or 800-225-4728. |