Forgetting for make a job offer contingent?

Lisa In Iowa

We require that all job offers be made contingent upon a successful criminal background check and for those that have access to cash are subject to a credit check. One of our supervisors hired an employee, and had him start, but she did not make the offer contingent upon the check. Upon realizing it, she had him complete the forms and we ran the checks. The criminal check came back clear, but the credit score fell way below our hiring criteria. In the past, for those that fall under the criteria, we allow them to explain (as in limited situations we have made exceptions if the score is low due to a medical situation, divorce, or extreme outstanding circumstance, and the applicant is showing positive steps to correct the situation). Upon receiving the low score, we asked for an explanation from this applicant, and have received it. The explanation does not really fall into our exception criteria; are we able to terminate the employee's employment because he did not pass the check even though the supervisor did not make a contingent job offer?

This supervisor realizes she made a mistake, and we will also address that situation, however I wondered if any of you could shed some light on this situation?

Thanks!

LindaS

If you have a valid business reason for requiring EEs to have a minimum credit score you are fine with not hiring someone who falls below it but I am concerned regarding the exceptions you have made to this policy/practice. You either have a valid business requirement for this or you do not. This is not something you can make exceptions for and still defend should you run into a complaint.

I think the first thing you need to do is STOP making exceptions. Next, since this EE is working for you you have no choice but to keep her since you have admitted to making exceptions in the past, as long as she is meeting the job requirements.

Pattie

Making a job offer contingent on the outcome of background/reference checking is quite different than actually bringing the person on board and starting work. I often make the offer contingent on the background/reference checking -- however, I do not allow the potential new employee to begin work until the background check is complete and it is clear.

I don't feel that you're in a position to let this person go, especially if they're doing the job as expected. It was ultimately the employer's mistake, not just the supervisor's, and I think you'd be opening yourself up to more of an issue. If you have a probationary period, this would definitely be the time to utilize it, if the employee is not legitimately producing as any new hire would be expected to. And I agree with the other post -- if you've made exceptions in the past, I think you'd be hard-pressed to say you can't make an exception this time.

ACU Frank

I would add that probably 70% of the companies using credit checks as contingencies have no legitimate cause to do so...

FunHRBanker

We also run criminal and credit checks on our potential employees. We too have made exceptions in the past with a "good" explanation of the situation. More often than not, we do not hire the people with repeated late payments and collections. It depends on the position we are looking to hire for also.

dlail

I would be interested in the policies regarding credit score impact of a low credit score and work performance. Poor money management doesn't make someone automatically more likely to thieve.

Does anyone else have a policy that uses credit score for credit checks?