Survey: Majority of Criminal Background Checks Mishandled

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finger touching virtual social-network screen According to a new survey, although most U.S. companies’ human resources personnel believe criminal background checking is handled appropriately, data shows it’s more likely that this part of the hiring process isn’t being handled correctly.

The survey, by consulting firm PeopleG2, polled nearly 1,500 HR executives who worked at firms of 25,000 employees or more. The results showed that 94 percent of the executives said “their firms are in compliance with 2012 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines on how to handle the question of a job candidate’s criminal background.”

Yet, 72 percent of respondents revealed that they ask job applicants about criminal history in applications even though 2012 EEOC guidelines were designed to reverse the procedure.

“Most companies are still unaware that questions about criminal history on job applications can be discriminatory and that communication about criminal history should arise as an open dialog much later in the decision-making stage of hiring,” said PeopleG2’s founder and CEO Chris Dryer.

Other findings include:

  •  72 percent of HR executives said their company does criminal background checks when hiring
  • 80 percent reported that they believed the EEOC guidelines were fair to the job candidate
  • 63 percent said they believed the EEOC guidelines were fair to the employer

By Shala Marks