Employers that ignore applicants with criminal records may be violating Title VII and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission standards, according to experts at a recent Society for Human Resource Management Employment Law & Legislative Conference.
Additionally, ban-the-box laws, which make it illegal for certain employers to ask on job applications about criminal history, are being enacted in a number of jurisdictions. Even employers that aren’t currently subject to such laws may wish to voluntarily consider banning the box. At one employer, Dave’s Killer Bread, people with felony convictions were found to have slightly better performance than their counterparts in terms of attendance, policy and behavior problems, along with comparable turnover numbers.
