Juvenile Records Negatively Impact Mock‐Hiring Decisions: An Examination of the Mismatch Between Record Disclosure and Background Check

Background checking (BC) is a process of verifying job-related information provided by job applicants. The use of recommended BC methods and practices was investigated through a survey of companies. On average, employers used five BC methods and 15 BC practices. Companies tend to perform the same BC across all types of positions. Forty-seven percent of companies outsourced BC. Several factors influenced BC such as the size of the company, outsourcing, who is responsible for BC, perceived effectiveness and the amount of time spent on BC. Practices to handle criminal convictions, arrests and inconsistencies during BC are identified. The implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.

14 - Pre-Employment Screening

In recent years we have seen a growing attention to the issue of background checks. Research on pre-employment inquires suggests that job candidates engage in extensive misrepresentation of academic and work credentials listed on resumes and job applications. An employer who fails to perform a thorough background check on a prospective employee may be vulnerable to the charges of negligent hiring or employment discrimination. Based on a review of the scientific and professional literature in human resource management, we defined expected management practices in background checking including the need to understand the job requirements, methods of background checks, the extensiveness of the background checks, the role of the application forms, and the use of interviews. Recent legal cases are also included to illustrate what practices are or are not defensible.

Research Summary The rapid increase in the nation's incarceration rate over the past decade has raised questions about how to reintegrate a growing number of ex‐offenders successfully. Employment has been shown to be an important factor in reintegration, especially for men over the age of 27 years who characterize most individuals released from prison. This article explores this question using unique establishment‐level data collected in Los Angeles in 2001. On average, we replicate the now‐common finding that employer‐initiated criminal background checks are negatively related to the hiring of ex‐offenders. However, this negative effect is less than complete. The effect is strongly negative for those employers that are legally required to perform background checks, which is not surprising because these legal requirements to perform checks are paired with legal prohibitions against hiring ex‐offenders. However, some employers seem to perform checks to gain additional information about ex‐offenders (and thus hire more ex‐offenders than other employers), and checking seems to have no effect on hiring ex‐offenders for those employers not legally required to perform checks. Policy Implications One public policy initiative that has received considerable attention is to deny employers access to criminal history record information, which includes movements to “ban the box” that inquires about criminal history information on job applications. The assumption underlying this movement is that knowledge of ex‐offender status leads directly to a refusal to hire. The results of this analysis show that policy initiatives aimed at restricting background checks, particularly for those firms not legally required to perform checks, may not have the desired consequences of increasing ex‐offender employment. This result is consistent with an alternative view that some employers care about the characteristics of the criminal history record and use information about criminal history in a more nuanced, nondiscrete way.

The MMPI-2 is often used for screening job applicants when public safety or security are at risk. Inherent in such applications is concern for profile validity and test defensiveness. In this study, we examine the impact of revised instructions on profile validity for a group of job applicants who initially produced invalid profiles. Participants were 271 male applicants for airline pilot positions. Of these, 72 produced invalid defensive MMPI-2 profiles during preemployment screening. The MMPI-2 was readministered to these applicants with instructions informing them of validity scales and instructing them to respond in a more open, honest manner. Comparisons were made between valid and invalid profiles for initial administrations and between valid and invalid profiles at readministration. Some clinical scales were more elevated for valid, nondefensive profiles. Most content scales showed more elevation for valid profiles, and 12% of the applicants who were retested produced significant elevations on the content scales. Profiles were similar to those produced by employed pilots of a previous study.

The study discussed in this article used a correlational design to examine the discrepancies among employers' employability ratings of hypothetical job applicants with different disability statuses. A survey packet was mailed to a random sample of 1,000 employers selected from a national membership list of human resources professionals. The survey included a standardized measure for rating employers' impressions of job applicants' employability with respect to 22 key employment-related traits. Employers were asked to rate the job applicants' suitability for employment in a hypothetical administrative assistant position. Findings show that job applicants without a disability received the highest mean employability ratings. Job applicants with an acquired brain injury were rated substantially the same as those with schizophrenia. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed. Key words: disability; employers; employability; job applicants Research has shown that pre-interview application materials strongly influence employers' perceptions of the job interview, and ultimately, hiring decisions (Howard & Ferris, 1996; Macan & Dipboye, 1994; Macan & Hayes, 1995; Marchioro & Bartels, 1994). Employers evaluate job applicants' employment-related traits, such as motivation, performance, reliability, and effectiveness, in making their hiring decisions (Christman & Slaten, 1991; Moriarity, Walls, & McLaughlin, 1988). Considered together, these traits indicate the job applicant's perceived level of employability. The research on employer perceptions of the employability of job applicants with disabilities has yielded mixed results and presents an ambiguous picture. Whereas some studies found that employers rated job applicants with disabilities more employable than applicants without disabilities (for example, Christman & Slaten, 1991; Nordstrom, Huffaker, & Williams, 1998), other studies found that employers rated job applicants with disabilities as less employable (for example, Bordieri, Drehmer, & Taricone, 1990; Drehmer & Bordieri, 1985; Millington, Szymanski, & Hanley-Maxwell, 1994). To add to the ambiguity of the picture, different types of disabilities were associated with different employability ratings. Physical disabilities generally received the most favorable employability ratings compared with other disability types (for example, Fuqua, Rathbun, & Gade, 1984; Threlkeld & DeJong, 1982), whereas psychiatric disabilities were viewed least favorably (for example, Bordieri, Drehmer & Taylor, 1997; Drehmer & Bordieri, 1985). Consistent with employer perceptions, people with psychiatric disabilities also appear to face the greatest employment discrimination (Garske & Stewart, 1999; West & Parent, 1995). The employment picture for individuals with disabilities overall is consistent and negative. It is estimated that only about 29 percent of people with disabilities are employed, compared with 79 percent of the general population (National Organization on Disabilities [NOD]/Harris, 1998). Nearly 10 percent of U.S. citizens between ages 21 and 64 have a severe disability (McNeil, 1997; NOD/Harris). Among people with severe disabilities of various kinds, only 10 percent are integrated into the U.S. work force (Baer, Martonyl, Simmons, Flexer, & Goebel, 1994; Black & Meyer, 1992; Noble, 1998). Moreover, many people with severe disabilities who manage to secure employment are underpaid and underemployed (Baer et al.; Mergenhagen, 1997; NOD/Harris; Wehman & Kregel, 1994). People with disabilities constitute the most financially disadvantaged minority group and are deprived of the many psychosocial benefits of employment (Hahn, 1988; Kopels, 1995). The high unemployment rate of people with disabilities has sometimes been attributed to characteristics of the job applicant, such as poor job search skills, poor work histories, or poor work habits (Adelman & Vogel, 1993; Johnson, Greenwood, & Schriner, 1988). …

Ban the Box (BTB) laws are an anti-discrimination policy intended to promote employment for persons with criminal records. However, research on law and organizations shows that firms often fail to comply with legal directives or engage in symbolic compliance that fails to alter day-to-day business practices. We consider whether BTB contributed to attitudinal or behavioral shifts among hiring managers and changes in job applications. We analyze a unique set of in-depth interviews (N = 30) and entry-level job applications (N = 305) collected from the same workplaces in 2008 and 2016, assessing the impact of state BTB legislation. We find: (1) that one in five organizations were noncompliant, with noncompliance twice as likely among employers who discriminated against applicants with criminal records pre-BTB and that widespread lack of knowledge and lack of enforcement of BTB appears to affect noncompliance; (2) organizations maintained considerable continuity in hiring practices and attitudes between 2008 and 2016, regardless of personnel changes and statewide implementation of BTB; and (3) post-BTB, strong warnings about criminal background checks at later stages of the hiring process emerged as an alternative source of gatekeeping. These findings contribute to the law and organizations literature by highlighting the importance of enforcement and limits of law for combating discrimination.

Ban-the-Box (BTB) legislation, which bans employers from asking about criminal history records on the initial job application, is arguably the most prominent policy arising from the prisoner reentry movement. BTB policies assume: 1) most employers ask about criminal records, and 2) inquiries occur at the application stage. However, we lack reliable information about the validity of these assumptions or about public attitudes towards criminal background checks, which limits our understanding of the potential scope of this innovative policy. Using survey data from a national probability sample, we estimate that in the past year, over 31 million U.S. adults were asked about a criminal record on a job application. According to our survey, virtually all of the criminal record inquiries occurred at the application stage, highlighting the potential of BTB. However, we also found that the public is sharply divided on whether to prevent employers from asking on applications, as per BTB.

Pre-employment screening has increased in recent years. This paper examines the effects of four pre-employment screening tools (reference interviews, criminal record checks, credit bureau investigations, and education verifications) in identifying negative indicators about job applicants. More specifically this investigation identifies, for a Canadian organization, the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered by each screening tool as well as the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered through the use of combinations of screening tools. The percentages have been found to be in line with the data already available for American organizations. The main contribution of this research however is to show that when various screening tools are used in conjunction they have a greater potential to uncover applicants negative histories through a synergistic process termed cross-referencing. The results indicate that cross-referencing increases the rate at which negative indicators are found in reference interviews by up to 10%.

The effectiveness of pre-employment screening in improving hiring quality at Dabster Consulting Pvt. Ltd. in Bangalore is examined in this research paper. Companies are using pre-employment screening more and more to make sure they hire applicants who best fit their roles and company culture as the demand for top talent rises in the competitive labour market. To determine their effect on hiring decisions and employee performance, the study looks at a variety of screening techniques, such as skill evaluations, personality tests, and background checks. To analyse the research used a T- Test and correlation as a statistical tool. Employees and HR professionals were surveyed and interviewed to gather information about their experiences with the screening procedure and its results. According to the results, pre-employment screening considerably raises the Caliber of hires by lowering attrition, improving job performance, and guaranteeing a better organizational culture fit. Keywords: Pre-Employment Screening, Hiring Quality, Background check, Skill Assessments, Personality Checks.

PurposeReviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsEmployers are using social networking sites to do background checks on employees and job applicants. Whether or not this is ethical or unacceptable, people posting information about themselves on the internet should be aware of potential consequences.Practical implicationsProvides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Chapter 7 - Legal issues

Incongruent skills and experiences in online labor market

Criminal background checks are increasingly being incorporated into hiring decisions by employers. Although originally uncompromising—almost anyone with a criminal record could be denied employment—court rulings and policy changes have forced criminal background checks to become more nuanced. One motivation for allowing more individuals with criminal records to work is to decrease recidivism and encourage desistance. In this article, we estimate the causal impact of receiving a clearance to work on subsequent arrests for individuals with criminal records who have been provisionally hired to work in certain nonlicensed health‐care jobs in New York State (N = 6,648). We employ an instrumental variable approach based on a substantive understanding of the state‐mandated criminal background check process. We examine age‐graded effects within this group of motivated individuals and differential effects by sex in the rapidly growing health‐care industry, which is typically dominated by women. Our estimated local average treatment effect indicates a 2.2‐percentage‐point decrease in the likelihood of a subsequent arrest in 1 year and a 4.2‐percentage‐point decrease over 3 years. We find meaningful variations by sex; men are 8.4 percentage points less likely to be arrested over the 3‐year period when cleared compared with a 2.4‐percentage‐point (and nonsignificant) effect for women. Older women in particular are driving the nonsignificant results for women.

Response distortion (RD), or faking, among job applicants completing personality inventories has been a concern for selection specialists. In a field study using the NEO Personality Inventory, Revised, the authors show that RD is significantly greater among job applicants than among job incumbents, that there are significant individual differences in RD, and that RD among job applicants can have a significant effect on who is hired. These results are discussed in the context of recent studies suggesting that RD has little effect on the predictive validity of personality inventories. The authors conclude that future research, rather than focusing on predictive validity, should focus instead on the effect of RD on construct validity and hiring decisions. Personality assessment as a preemployment screening procedure is receiving renewed interest from researchers and practitioners. A number of quantitative reviews have demonstrated that personality inventories can be useful predictors of job performance, particularly if specific, job-relevant personality constructs are used to predict specific criteria (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hough, Eaton, Dunnette, Kamp, & McCloy, 1990; Ones, Viswesvaran, & Schmidt, 1993; Tett, Jackson, & Rothstein, 1991). These findings have led to a resurgence of interest in personality testing as an employee-selection tool. Yet this trend is not without controversy. One major debate concerns the effect of response distortion on personality inventory scores. What is clear from the existing research is that people completing personality inventories