If you are an employer, your task is not limited to finding competent people who can deliver a good job. You are also responsible for hiring people who can maintain harmony in the workplace, socially interact well with their coworkers, and generally not pose a threat to the safety of both clients and employees. Thus, you should look beyond character references, transcripts of records, certificates of employment. You better take a look whether or not criminal records exist for an applicant.

The existence of criminal records alone should not be the sole reason to decline an applicant. Equal opportunity should be practiced in the workplace; besides, ex-convicts who have fully rehabilitated while in prison deserve a second chance. But that’s exactly what you need to look for—an assurance that the applicant who has criminal records already turned over a new leaf and put his criminal life behind him. You can also check his criminal records for documentations of mental instability. The last thing you want to happen is hiring a person who is capable of running amok at the slightest trigger.

However, in this dangerous world, hardened criminals lurk everywhere. If you do not pay much attention on criminal records, you may be hiring a repeat offender of a certain crime without even knowing. For example, if the applicant happens to be involved in several sexual harassment cases and this detail escaped your knowledge because you didn’t review his criminal records, how can you ensure the safety of your female employees? Also, how will you be able to protect your company’s finances if you hired an accountant with a record of fraud and tax manipulation, which you didn’t know of because you didn’t check if he has criminal records?

Criminal records are generally available to the public so there’s really no excuse for you not to go over them with each applicant you have in your roster. More recent criminal records are on the internet so you’ll have an easier time accessing them. Some sites even offer free access to criminal records, but if you are serious about doing a criminal background check, it’s more advisable for you to go for paid access to criminal records. With paid access, you are assured that you only get the latest, most updated, and complete criminal records. Free access sites, on the other hand, are not very reliable because the criminal records in their databases are not religiously updated. In this situation (and in most cases), you do get what you pay for.

Fees to paid access sites are often reasonable, so it’s really a minimal expense on the part of your company to spend on them in order to gain access to criminal records. Consider having access to criminal records an investment because after all, the people in your company are your greatest resources. You only want the best to be part of your team, and in order to achieve that, you have to be really careful and thorough during the selection process.


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