ForumsManaging Employees and HR

No, my lawyer did not say that is was not ok to do background checks. I never asked him.

If I wasn't an optimistic person, I would never have gone into business for myself with the little resources I had (maybe it was craziness). I refuse to live in a state of constant fear. Fear of what about the guy walking down the street with the long jacket on, fear of the guy cutting my grass, fear of the guy delivering my supplies, fear of everyone else. If you want to do background checks on every person you come into contact with, why not be like Howard Hughes and hole in a hotel. Or live in a monastery with no outside interaction. I don't do that because I believe in the goodness of people. I believe that nobody is bad until they show it to someone. I will not live in fear. I can get into some really heavy philosophy here but I don't want to get that deep.

I have worked and ran restaurants for my employers in some of the worst parts of town. I am not of the same heritage as the area that I worked in, so I stuck out. I earned the respect of the people around my neighborhood by treating them as human beings. Being fair when they did wrong. some of the things I dealt with were people having sex in the restrooms, shooting drugs in the restroom and dumpster area, people having fights in the parking lot and so on. I have had people threaten me, my wife and my dogs with harm because I fired a person after the third write up for the same offense. I have had people flatten all of the tires on my vehicle with a knife because I wouldn't allow them to enter my restaurant when they had no shirt on. I have dealt with stuff. But the more people I meet from all over the globe, I know that there are good people everywhere. That's the people I deal with.

I have hired employees from prison halfway houses. These same people needed a re-start in life. doing this I was able to help a little over half of the ones that I hired get better jobs once they had a work history. did it go smooth? Heck no! But in the end it was worth it. As for the ones that I had to let go of, most went back to jail and I have had a couple come back another time for a job again and told them no. I give you one chance, you blow it good bye. I did help them try to get a job somewhere else. And it does make me feel good when they come back and say thanks.

Jim

Very interesting topic. I am in the insurance business but I place a lot of my problem clients (poor management/HR duties, struggling financially, lots of lost time and workers' comp claims) with a professional employer organization (PEO) that does background checks, drug tests and pre employment physicals for all employees and new hires (they are all new hires when you enter into an employee leasing agreement). Many of these companies are small construction or manufacturing firms, towing companies, trucking companies, 24 hour restaurant chains like Denny's or IHOP, fast food chains...

From experience I will tell you that the easiest way to avoid employee issues is to not hire employees with issues. Background checks, drug tests and pre employment physicals avoid employees with issues. People with problems simply don't apply to work for you when you screen them. I have seen dozens of companies change for the better when they get control of their hiring practices.

Hi Sandy!

I see your point that we have to be sure on the peoplr who we work with, it's kinda unfair on the other hand for the people who wants to be given a chance. I mean if you had a record once or twice and was for some time now and you can see he is eager for work, still the chance is rejected because of this background check.

Everybody is allowed for their second chances, maybe the man started the violence in the report but what would be the story behind? maybe he was provoked..

Yes, situations need to be considered. I am a nursing graduate and I've learned in my study that when it comes to personality, it is much affected by the persons childhood. If we say a person is molesting a child, there is a big chance that he was also molested. Therapy or Rehabilitation is necessary after his first offense.

My point is, there is also a second chance for this type of person, but it is very very risky, there is no other treatment for this things except for rehabilitation, consider his rehabilitation and his progress there, not just because he had this record.

In this world, I believe there are only few that are like you, who employed x-convicts and I salute you for that. i mean some businesses give high regards on background checks, if you had an offense definitely you're diqualified, I do hope there will be more people like you. ex-convicts, ex-rehabs have lost their self worth while experiencing those things they did, they still need to see that they are still human and functional..