Plastics Recruiter - "Criminal Background"

My name is Dan Regovich and I am a Plastics Recruiter.

There is a very good posting on the SRHM (Society for Human Resources Management) website in their library about reference checking and deciding to hire ex-offenders (Focus on Compliance, Consistency When Deciding Whether to Hire Ex-Offenders). Some of the key points the article does point out deal with the steps that should be taken to analyze criminal records on a candidate.

The first thing a company needs to be aware of are the guidelines and restrictions that may be mandated by the government on hiring offenders – particularly if your candidate is going to be working in the health care, education, security or finance industries. There may also be mandates on how criminal records are retrieved in these sectors, or where it is acceptable to pull records from (such as state records, FBI, or government databases). Some industries may even require continuous periodic post-hire checks to be conducted as well.

So now you have familiarized yourself with the industry standard and you run a candidate through the process and there are criminal records. What is the next step? The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act has set guidelines about using the information for pre-employment, and many states have their own statutes that will allow access or restrict access to these records. For instance, some states will not allow you to consider first time offender records or misdemeanor records, or the use of criminal records convictions when they do not relate to the job being applied for. Hawaii does not allow criminal records to even be considered until post-offer and does not allow the criminal questions to even be asked. Does your candidate fall in to one of these categories?

Another consideration is how relevant is the criminal record to the position being applied for? When you are looking at criminal records, think of the crime and how it compares to the position applied for and the duties that position has to assume. Can the criminal conviction be detrimental to that position? Is a misdemeanor charge of underage drinking 3 years ago relevant to the position? Is the Driving Under the Influence (DUI) conviction 6 months ago relevant (if you are going to provide a company car and insure the car and driver?).

Last, but certainly not least, remember there are 2 sides to every story. Was the candidate open and honest with you about a conviction?

Companies need to have a policy and guidelines established that outlines criminal records and job candidates – or even criminal records and employees. Having consistent policies that are enforced consistently in relation to criminal records will help fight against discrimination claims. And remember, if you decide not to hire a candidate based on a background check, follow the Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action disclosures to keep compliant under the FCRA.

Plastics Recruiter

Dan Regovich - Plastics Recruiter - Formerly with RSI Recruiter Solutions International
AJ Augur Group, LLC
440-357-7600
www.ajaugur.com
dregovich@ajaugur.com