Odds are that a great many restaurant owners have decided against performing background screens on prospective employees.
The most common reason is probably due to the cost of thorough employee background checks. Particularly in a restaurant segment like quick service, turnover is often extremely high, easily exceeding 100 percent each year. In addition, we’ve heard owners say that their prospective employee pool is small enough already for these relatively low-wage positions, and instituting background checks would possibly eliminate some candidates, further reducing the size of that pool.
If you’ve decided against background checks for your restaurant, just be aware of your potential risks. For example, your new employee may have a theft problem, steal from you, your customers and even other employees. Or, given the close quarters in many kitchens, hiring an employee with anger management issues may result in bodily injury to coworkers. But there are also a number of caveats for the restaurant owner who chooses to conduct background screenings. First, this should probably not be a “Do it Yourself” process. Perfunctory screenings using public database searches will only pick up issues that may have been reported by a specific jurisdiction. At a minimum, this should be expanded to state and county searches. There are a great many reporting agencies, varying by geographic area, what they cover and the degree of detail they provide, so it can become quite complicated.
Next and even more significant is that there are a number of regulations governing the use of data provided through background screenings. Some of the most important are those of the Fair Credit Reporting Act relating to pre-notification of individuals being screened and notification of proposed adverse action (such as non-selection) in writing.
Recently, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced The Equal Employment for All Act, which would prohibit employers from requiring potential employees to disclose their credit history as part of the job application process, and would stop employers from disqualifying employees based on poor credit rating. The bill makes an exception, however, for national security jobs. Also recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidelines related to the rejection of job applicants because of credit history or criminal backgrounds, stating that these may create a discriminatory impact based on race and national origin. Employers are expected to exercise conservative judgment in determining whether hiring decisions meet these guidelines.
We know you didn’t get into the restaurant business to become an expert on background screenings and how to interpret these regulations and guidelines. Our advice to you is if you decide employee background checks are important, that you consider using a third party organization that specializes in this field and can help you avoid non-compliance and the adverse selection minefields.