Discovering criminal convictions of employees -- what can we do?

Our Florida company of 200+ employees is about to implement a formal pre-employment screening process which will include checking criminal conviction records on full-time employees and driving records on all employees who are required to drive as part of their job, full or part-time. Our plan is to start immediately screening applicants. We also plan to check records of existing employees. What course of action can/should we take if the results come back negative?

Rita Risser's Response:

One question that needs to be addressed even before you screen applicants is whether you will include all criminal convictions, or just certain categories, and whether you will have some time limit on it (e.g. last five years). There may be state law limits on what types of convictions you can legally consider, and if so, I don't know what those are.

As for current employees, I think you should first notify them of your intention to search, then have them fill out a short form in which they are asked to reveal any convictions or driving record problems. If someone falsifies that information, that is a pretty good grounds for termination, since it shows that they currently have falsified company records.

If you have a long-term, good employee with an old, relatively minor criminal conviction on their record, it doesn't seem fair to fire them. However, if you don't fire them, you also couldn't fire a poorly performing employee with such a record.

The main things to keep in mind are fairness and consistency among employees. I think you can disqualify applicants for things that you do not disqualify employees for, since the employees have a good track record with you.

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