Establishing the Job-Relatedness of Criminal Convictions

Despite the prevalence of criminal record checks, many U.S. companies do not have well-developed processes for judgments about the job-relatedness of convictions, potentially excluding qualified candidates as well as exposing companies to legal liability. We discuss how the literature on job-relatedness evidence might inform how to establish policies regarding criminal records evaluations in hiring. We offer practical recommendations within the legal context of EEOC guidelines and discuss needed research on this topic.