Hiring Employees with Criminal Records

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Hiring Employees with Criminal Records

What would you do regarding candidates with criminal records if you owned your company?

Criminal records and job employability are two very closely related issues as a lot of people who have had a criminal record struggle to get a job in their every day life. Even though it is always a risk to employ people who have had a criminal record sometimes it requires that they be employed because the number of people available for such kind of jobs may not be enough. Therefore, if I owned a company, I would willingly accept people who have had a criminal record regardless of what crimes they and committed. This is because even though some of these people had been jailed for very serious crimes, they are able to change and be better people every with time. Most of them might be looking towards making amends and becoming good people. Therefore, I would consider them and remove the box that asks if a person had been involved in crime before. Through this, I would give them a second chance. However, their monitoring will also be strict, so that their history does not repeat itself and if it repeats itself it is noticed at very early stages.

Would you use the “box” to identify and exclude candidates with records if the law allows it in your city and state? Justify your decision.

Using the box means that the people applying for the job at my company are still segregated based on their criminal records and even though this is a precautionary measure to take, it is not entirely fair. Therefore, I would not use the box because using it can imply marking the people with criminal records as still criminals and this is not true. Another reason why I would not use the box is the fact that people should be given a second chance. When people are not given a second chance, they may even resort to criminal activities again because they believe that the society does not want to accept them and give them a chance to be better.

How would you justify the decision to not use criminal records in the hiring criteria? Justify your decision.

Using the record means not treating the criminals and other people as equals. This means that those who have a criminal record are treated with less attributes and are not seen as the best job candidates. This makes them look for jobs for so long without getting hired, this happens especially if the market is full of graduates who want to look for jobs while competing with people who have had a criminal record. Placing them second is also not fair since they have paid for the offenses they had done before and they are not the criminals they were before since jails are referred to as correctional facilities it means that they have been corrected and they are back to the society as new people. These new people ought to be given a fresh start and not judged by their former records. Therefore, hiring people with criminal records even though seen as a risky step might be a very good step towards success since most of these people are trying their best to prove to the society that they are good people and therefore hiring them means maximum productivity.

Would you take a middle-ground position and use criminal records in some way or to some extent? Explain how and why.

I would only use criminal records in situations whereby the people I have hired begin showing some signs of criminal activities within the work place. Therefore, using the criminal records would enable me to understand the specific employees better and look for ways to help them. However initially I would give them a fair and level ground for them to works and make themselves better, to prove to the world that they are good and reliable people.