Criminal Background Checks

marcial · August 2002

We are currently investigating the use of independent vendors to perform various criminal background checks on prospective employees. My question is does anyone out there currently use one of these agencies and be willing to share their companies guidelines? More specifically what crimes disqualify someone for employment? The setting is manufacturing and we have a very large campus with many shifts. What I am getting at is would you allow someone convicted of rape on your shop floor on a night shift or any shift for that matter. Some of the issues giving us particular trouble are rape, murder, burglary and child molestation. Thanks in advance!!!

Mel in CO · August 2002

I used to work in a manufacturing facility also and I frequently would run across situations such as you describe. We utilized a service called Avert, Inc. for our background checks however I think that they recently teamed up with ADP. Their web address is still [url]www.avert.com[/url]. Although their turn around time is about three days (which I know others will turn around information in 24 hours), I have found that they are reliable.

In situations that I would encounter a "hit" on a background check, I would first ascertain if the individual was convicted of the crime or not. If an individual was arrested for a crime but not convicted of the crime, then we would hire the individual for the simple fact that they were not convicted of the crime.

In other situations, it would really depend on the position that they were applying for. If I was hiring someone on the production line for a first shift position, and they had been convicted of child molestation, then we would hire the individual -- the reason being that they were not around and/or working with children. In rape cases, we handled the situation a bit differently. Normally we would decline an individual convicted of rape for any position within the organization, for any shift. The company that I worked for didn't have very clear-cut guidelines and we usually took each situation on a case-by-case basis.

Good Luck!!

glendolbrowder · August 2002

We currently use a company called Premier InfoSource to conduct our drug screens and criminal background checks. The turn around time is very good and the cost is quite reasonable. I suggest that you have a very clear policy on background checks and have the policy reviewed by an attorney. Most of the vendors will provide the necessary release forms that the candidate must sign giving authorization to conduct the check. These releases protect you and the vendor. I don't think there are any general, all inclusive guidelines/regulations etc. for disqualification for consideration for employment. Whether or not a person is disqualified for consideration would probably depend on the nature of your company's business and your company's policies.

Gillian · August 2002

The posts are correct in that the real determining factor is job relatedness. Some things are clear - a conviction for embezzlement is clearly a factor for a job involving handling money. Some are not job related and some are not clear. There have been cases where the length of time since the conviction and the serving of the time have been viewed as mitigating factors, assuming of course, that the person was positively rehabilitated. I think another factor to consider is the degree and quality of supervision that is present. Thinking of these things in light of violent crimes like rape or child molestation is tough because they are so repulsive. Many years ago I interviewed a murderer for a job in a factory. I found out when I inquired about his 25 year gap in employment history. I didn't hire him and still wonder whether that was really due to a lack of qualifications or my discomfort.

Criminal Background Checks

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