Businesses often conduct criminal background check on employees and sometimes on customers for diverse reasons. The reasons could be adherence to global, national or state law requirements, risk mitigation of bad hiring or compliance with company regulations. Indeed, it is alarming when your potential candidate is found out to have a criminal record. So it is a deal breaker for the hiring company? A criminal record does not mean the individual is a criminal. Then how do you ensure a criminal is not employed into critical roles?

There are a few key factors that determine whether or not a criminal can be considered for employment or not and how you can stay compliant with state and federal verification laws. If someone is found to have a negative past, the first step is to update yourself on the important legal matters that can take a company to the court

Your focus area should be compliance with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and anti-discrimination laws. At the same time, individual assessments are extremely relevant as they just help to reconsider candidates based not on their criminal records alone. Also,  adverse action is a process required by the FCRA when you find a criminal record that will disqualify a candidate from employment.

Under FCRA, employers have to give candidates’ notice informing them that they might be rejected based on the verification results .The final resort is to consider when a candidate has a criminal record and providing him/her an opportunity to dispute the findings of background screening.

Many companies adopt background screening policies that define the convictions that disqualifies a candidate occupying a few positions. As a rule of thumb, qualifications based on criminal history should be position-specific, and not be a “blanket policy one.

Points to keep in mind, before you consider someone with a criminal background

1.The nature of the job sought

2.The nature and gravity of the offense of which the candidate was convicted of

3.Time that has lapsed since the conviction

4.Facts and circumstances surrounding the offense found out

5.Number of past convictions

6.Age at time of conviction An employer can choose to take decisions independently based on the criminal record check and offer a position to the potential candidate! To know more, schedule an appointment with our expert today.

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