Person A h
as a problem. She has to hire a specific number of people this year. Many of these jobs are not highly paid, but all of them must be performed well. Finding enough qualified applicants is a challenge.
Person A is not alone. Nationwide, the number of qualified job applicants currently isn’t growing fast enough to keep up with the employers’ needs. The last thing employers need is artificial barriers to hiring qualified applicants.
But that is what they have. Many people in today’s job market have criminal records. Some of these people have committed serious crimes. Others have committed only minor offenses. A few have not committed any crime at all; they were found not guilty of the charge for which they were arrested or are victims of identity theft. The FBI estimates that 50 percent of its criminal records contain errors. No HR professional wants to hire a person with DUI convictions to drive a vehicle or someone convicted of child abuse to work in a school. But disqualifying every applicant with a criminal record for every job is unnecessary.
