April 2023 Summaries

Checkr is a company that aims to provide fair chance hiring practices, enabling employers to hire individuals with criminal records without bias. The company's mission is to build a fairer future by designing technology to create opportunities for all. Fair Chance Month is celebrated in April, which promotes advocacy for justice-impacted individuals and brings change to hiring practices nationwide. Checkr's platform empowers customers to hire fairly and open their candidate pools to nontraditional talent. The company has implemented various features, such as Assess, Candidate Stories, and the Fair Chance Dashboard, to help employers make fair chance hiring decisions. By breaking down barriers, Checkr helps justice-impacted individuals access employment opportunities, reducing recidivism rates and creating positive social change.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that governs how companies order and consider information contained in consumer reports, including background or credit checks. The FCRA promotes accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information, providing candidates with rights such as consent before a background check, access to their report, and the ability to dispute errors. Employers must provide written disclosure of intent to conduct a background check, obtain authorization from candidates, review results, and offer opportunities for correction. The FCRA also impacts background checks by requiring employers to consider EEOC guidelines and follow state or local Ban the Box laws when evaluating arrest and conviction records. Additionally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal laws against workplace discrimination based on various protected classes, recommending a "nature-time-nature" test to assess individualized assessments of criminal history. Employers can simplify compliance with Checkr's platform, which provides tools for managing regional regulations and FCRA-trained support to mitigate risk while fostering equitable recruitment practices.

Checkr provides efficient, user-friendly background checks that deliver 95% of reports within 1 hour, making it easier for HR teams to review results and hire faster and fairer. A Checkr report status indicates the current state of the screening process, with statuses including Invitation Sent, Pending, Suspended, Canceled, Clear, Consider, and Dispute. The background check report includes various components such as candidate information, post-hire safety, report information, health screening appointment, and background report, which shows which searches were conducted. Checkr's technology uses machine learning to quickly categorize criminal charges, reducing manual review time by 70%. The platform also features built-in workflows for adverse actions and enables candidates to share additional context through Candidate Stories. By using Checkr, employers can streamline their screening and review process while promoting fair chance hiring.

Fair Chance Month is a nationwide movement launched in 2017 to acknowledge the importance of supporting justice-impacted individuals with reentry, and April marks its anniversary as well as the federal Second Chance Act signed into law in 2008. Many individuals face significant stigma when seeking employment after incarceration, and fair chance hiring benefits both candidates and employers by providing a more inclusive and diverse workforce. Checkr empowers fairer decision-making through technology that helps employers evaluate candidates using objective data, and its products allow customers to remove irrelevant records and focus on what's important. By adopting fair chance hiring practices, organizations can create a safer and more just society, reduce recidivism rates, and unlock the full potential of justice-impacted individuals.