Hard Questions About Background Checks

I thought we had a good relationship with human resources...until the time came to implement a background check program.

By Anonymous

Page 2

Hard question #1: Do the circumstances of a crime matter?

The trouble started when the human resources department's selected project manager was the company's diversity manager. I respect individuals and their diverse backgrounds, but I didn't anticipate, for instance, a discussion that certain felonies might sometimes be acceptable.

Acceptable? For security professionals, it can be hard to see the patterns exhibited by felons and not link them to missing qualities like integrity. We see those who are found guilty of serious crimes as missing the necessary qualities to support trust. I had the idea that any felony might disqualify employment.

Others who are less exposed to rap sheets, however, seemed to view the crimes as possibly resulting from particular circumstances and, therefore, less likely to be repeated. Human resources wanted to pick small windows for applicable criminal findings, with the basic belief that people can change and should get another chance. I was made to feel like an insensitive and nonhuman security thug.

My group and I had some theories about why this was happening—the most likely one being that others in the group either identified with individuals who had records or felt guilty about having themselves committed a crime of some sort. I wasn't trying to judge anyone, but I did want to assist the company in deciding whether or not to extend a privilege (employment) to someone. I would offer examples that would get everyone to say, "Yes, that makes sense." But within minutes, the HR reps' common beliefs would reassert, and they would argue that a single bad decision (for example, felonious assault) doesn't always mean an engineer can't be a good engineer.

Hard question #2: How do you conduct a background investigation?

There are several methods for obtaining background information. They include:

typical employee screening and application verification process
county records check, based on a legal name or identifier, for criminal offenses
state criminal records check based on an identifier
state fingerprint check
multistate fingerprint check
national, FBI-conducted background check (where possible)

The beginning of the list is filled with flawed processes that provide only a limited amount of information. If you were found guilty of a felony, for example, what are the chances you would still live in or seek employment in the same county? Unfortunately, the methods at the beginning of the list are also the easier ones to execute.

I, like most security professionals, prefer the slightly more costly but more comprehensive state-based fingerprint check, in states where it is available. (The most comprehensive method—a national, FBI-conducted background check—is available only for specific jobs in regulated industries.) But human resources basically thought that any check would be good enough for the voluntary standards.