We kept the offer - THANK GOODNESS. I had to call him though and explain that we were doing a probationary period. My CEO is a good person but kind of a hard ass, so I was just thankful not to have to rescind the offer. The probationary period will hopefully just be a formality. PP you are right- he had no idea this would show up on his record, and when he explained what happened I totally understand why now. I am going to talk with HR on Monday morning recommending that we do not send offers at all until background checks are done, or we should have a way of leaving the start date of the offer blank until after the check is done. Everybody deserves a second chance, I am so glad that I can sleep tonight knowing we did the right thing. whew!

He sounds like he deserves a chance! Hope it works out.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PPs. This is just a crappy situation. Now HR is saying that they need to check with our parent company to see if they have a company policy on the matter, which could take a couple days. Meanwhile the applicant has already given notice and is moving here. I have no idea WHY the applicant would accept the position and give notice so quickly knowing this was on their record and knowing his official acceptance was contingent on the background check. He should have told me this might show up, and I would have made him push the start date out until after the check was done and I checked into it. I actually pushed him to make his start date later but he wanted to start sooner, so of course I assumed that they were confident the background check would not be an issue. I guess he didn't think it would show up. I would like to hire the person but now I'm forced into this waiting game. frustrating.

I guess I'm sensitive to this because something similar happened to DH for a charge at 19 y.o. On his first orientation day at the new job, HR guy pulls him out of the meeting and sends him packing. They waited until the last minute to do the background check.

I know my previous employer delayed the checks all the time - I filled out the forms for the background check after I started.

Employers clearly have different levels of background checks, because most I've known of look only at convictions not at arrests. In your case, OP, this guy was not convicted, so in his head, he did not have a criminal record. Why are you surprised he took the offer and gave notice - what should he have done instead? I bet the offer was made with a specific start date, and the guy had to give his employer notice.

See what the EEOC has to say about using arrest records when making employment decisions. There is a difference between arrest and conviction and you have to tread more carefully with arrests. If your CEO says you can't hire, you should run it by an employment lawyer to better understand your risks in rescinding the offer.

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/arrest_records.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speak to a lawyer because you may well have a problem on your hands if he does not get hired and he's quit his current job and moved to take this one. He may have to contrive a claim against your company but the risk of him doing so is high since the stakes are high for him. Yes, this is a HUGE lesson learned about giving him an offer and not telling him not to quit his job, etc. This could be a big problem.

The OP told him that the offer was contingent upon a background check. It's really not her fault that it didn't come back clean.

Define clean. He has no convictions. Anyway, regardless of "fault", the reality is that this person has done big things (quitting job, arranging a move) relying on this job. If he doesn't get it, he may want to cause trouble.

Anonymous wrote:It's a risk depending on the type of job you are hiring them for. If they are a bookkeeper or handling money, I'd say don't hire them. Of course, you need to find another reason not to hire them because you cannot deny someone a job based on their record.

Of course you can! What an absolutely ridiculous statement. Where do you get your information that you feel confident enough to say it as if it were true??

Anonymous wrote:Speak to a lawyer because you may well have a problem on your hands if he does not get hired and he's quit his current job and moved to take this one. He may have to contrive a claim against your company but the risk of him doing so is high since the stakes are high for him. Yes, this is a HUGE lesson learned about giving him an offer and not telling him not to quit his job, etc. This could be a big problem.

The OP told him that the offer was contingent upon a background check. It's really not her fault that it didn't come back clean.

Speak to a lawyer because you may well have a problem on your hands if he does not get hired and he's quit his current job and moved to take this one. He may have to contrive a claim against your company but the risk of him doing so is high since the stakes are high for him. Yes, this is a HUGE lesson learned about giving him an offer and not telling him not to quit his job, etc. This could be a big problem.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think it's great that you and your CEO are supportive of this man who it sounds like is deserving of a chance. Can't your CEO override this inane HR policy? It's shameful to hold an arrest against a person from 7 years ago, ESPECIALLY when that person was acquitted.

My boss (another C level employee) is currently in a meeting to ask the CEO for his opinion on the matter. I am sitting here getting an ulcer. Every please do a dance or a prayer. Uggh. The CEO is pretty strict and harsh so I have no idea what is going to come out of this.

cb21 wrote:Definitely talk to a lawyer. By the way, looking up applicants on Facebook can expose you to a host of legal problems. For example, you now know the age of the applicant and that he/she has small children. What if you had found out that he/she is handicapped? Gay? Unmarried/married?

Those are all factors that you can not take into account when making a decision, but you now have access to. Legal minefield.

That's ridiculous. Just because you know doesn't mean you will make a hiring decision on a forbidden factor. There's nothing prohibited about knowing someone is married or has kids, or is gay or handicapped. If you weren't allowed to know then you could never conduct an in-person interview or even know the person's name because those might reveal their sex, ethnicity, race, whether they are married, and whether they are handicapped.

OP, I think it's great that you and your CEO are supportive of this man who it sounds like is deserving of a chance. Can't your CEO override this inane HR policy? It's shameful to hold an arrest against a person from 7 years ago, ESPECIALLY when that person was acquitted.

Anonymous wrote:That is crazy that he gave notice and has started moving before the background check is over. Does your company not warn people NOT to do this? DH just accepted a job with a new company and received the formal offer pending background check. He had no reason to think anything could have possibly come up (never been arrested, etc.) and still, he NEVER would have given notice before the check was complete. The company even told him not to do that.

I didn't force him to wait until the background check was done - this was a mistake on my part. I told him he could push it out as far as he needed and he was eager to start. This is a huge lesson learned for me. I am not HR - we have a small company and our HR department is sorely lacking. So I am sort of flying solo on this kind of stuff as a manager. Lesson learned uggh. I am praying that we can hire him.

That is crazy that he gave notice and has started moving before the background check is over. Does your company not warn people NOT to do this? DH just accepted a job with a new company and received the formal offer pending background check. He had no reason to think anything could have possibly come up (never been arrested, etc.) and still, he NEVER would have given notice before the check was complete. The company even told him not to do that.

This happened to my aunt, but it was an actual conviction from like 20 years ago, and similar to what you're talking about. She hired a lawyer to have it expunged and it moved along. But it was similar in that she had already given notice to her other job. It's nice though that your motivation seems to be to hire this person.

Thanks PPs. This is just a crappy situation. Now HR is saying that they need to check with our parent company to see if they have a company policy on the matter, which could take a couple days. Meanwhile the applicant has already given notice and is moving here. I have no idea WHY the applicant would accept the position and give notice so quickly knowing this was on their record and knowing his official acceptance was contingent on the background check. He should have told me this might show up, and I would have made him push the start date out until after the check was done and I checked into it. I actually pushed him to make his start date later but he wanted to start sooner, so of course I assumed that they were confident the background check would not be an issue. I guess he didn't think it would show up. I would like to hire the person but now I'm forced into this waiting game. frustrating.