This is a pretty divisive issue with regards to recidivism and personal rights. As I see it:
For employers:
- They are looking out for their own asses. That's the reason why these background check companies exist in the first place. If there wasn't a liability that could potentially fall on the business from someone they hired, then this industry wouldn't be as big as it is.
- If everything was 100% transparent in the hiring process, there would probably be way more criticism from lots of other things. Prior crime convictions aside, there's many reasons a candidate might be arbitrarily overlooked. Maybe the business searched for their social media accounts and didn't like what they saw. Maybe the person is ugly. Maybe the hiring manager has a negative opinion about their education history or what part of town they live in. Who knows. If they know what the laws are, they can also figure out how to get around them while still seeming compliant.
- They do not give a shit about giving someone a second chance. They are not Make a Wish and thinking they are doing a solid to someone out of prison trying to get back on their feet. I would believe it if most applications submitted with the "prior criminal convictions" box checked are automatically filtered out of the applicant pool. The potential risk is just not worth the reward for the employers, which is why they choose to use services like checkr.
- If the employer does keep applicants with prior convictions, they are probably going to lowball the candidate to hire them at a discount for the position, knowing the candidate has slim options with little leverage.
- I don't see small businesses (outside of ones working with children, the government, or similar such instances) using a background check service as much as larger corporations that make lots of hires. The cost of multiple candidate background checks mounts quickly, so the business will likely only a background check on 1-2 people at most, probably after multiple interviews and at least 1 in-person communication.
For employees/candidates:
- It's like a shitty butterfly effect, where a mistake you paid for continually rains on your parade the rest of your life. There are no "fresh starts".
- Knowing that most employers will throw your application in the trash if you have a criminal record, therefore limiting your own chances to try to improve yourself and be a contributing member of society, there is basically an incentive to lie on the application for the sake of just hoping the business won't find out. Essentially, by lying you reason to yourself you have more to gain than to lose. (Aside: Perhaps this is not the best kind of behavior to enforce for a person that just had to reconcile with their shitty behavior in prison).
- Can we trust the companies behind the background checks? Their incentive is to profit, so they are not looking out for the people their services impact as much as the services their customers are buying.
- How can peoples' rights to privacy and confidentiality be restored? This requires a lot of discussion and legislation to make a meaningful impact. These background check companies will not go down without putting up a lobbying fight.
For employers:
- They are looking out for their own asses. That's the reason why these background check companies exist in the first place. If there wasn't a liability that could potentially fall on the business from someone they hired, then this industry wouldn't be as big as it is.
- If everything was 100% transparent in the hiring process, there would probably be way more criticism from lots of other things. Prior crime convictions aside, there's many reasons a candidate might be arbitrarily overlooked. Maybe the business searched for their social media accounts and didn't like what they saw. Maybe the person is ugly. Maybe the hiring manager has a negative opinion about their education history or what part of town they live in. Who knows. If they know what the laws are, they can also figure out how to get around them while still seeming compliant.
- They do not give a shit about giving someone a second chance. They are not Make a Wish and thinking they are doing a solid to someone out of prison trying to get back on their feet. I would believe it if most applications submitted with the "prior criminal convictions" box checked are automatically filtered out of the applicant pool. The potential risk is just not worth the reward for the employers, which is why they choose to use services like checkr.
- If the employer does keep applicants with prior convictions, they are probably going to lowball the candidate to hire them at a discount for the position, knowing the candidate has slim options with little leverage.
- I don't see small businesses (outside of ones working with children, the government, or similar such instances) using a background check service as much as larger corporations that make lots of hires. The cost of multiple candidate background checks mounts quickly, so the business will likely only a background check on 1-2 people at most, probably after multiple interviews and at least 1 in-person communication.
For employees/candidates:
- It's like a shitty butterfly effect, where a mistake you paid for continually rains on your parade the rest of your life. There are no "fresh starts".
- Knowing that most employers will throw your application in the trash if you have a criminal record, therefore limiting your own chances to try to improve yourself and be a contributing member of society, there is basically an incentive to lie on the application for the sake of just hoping the business won't find out. Essentially, by lying you reason to yourself you have more to gain than to lose. (Aside: Perhaps this is not the best kind of behavior to enforce for a person that just had to reconcile with their shitty behavior in prison).
- Can we trust the companies behind the background checks? Their incentive is to profit, so they are not looking out for the people their services impact as much as the services their customers are buying.
- How can peoples' rights to privacy and confidentiality be restored? This requires a lot of discussion and legislation to make a meaningful impact. These background check companies will not go down without putting up a lobbying fight.