Posted by Tommy Donofrio.
According to Forbes, Koch Industries, Inc. in Wichita, Kansas is one of the largest private companies in the United States. It employs in excess of 60,000 workers largely in manufacturing. As such, the company’s decision to remove the criminal history question from their job application is newsworthy. Their objective is to “give ex-felons and others with criminal records a better shot at employment.” Koch thereby joins the “ban the box” movement which wants employers to wait until prospective applicants have been interviewed or have been given job offers before inquiring about their criminal background. With a company as large as Koch embracing such a policy, it suggests that this idea may gain momentum.
Mark Holden, Koch’s general counsel and senior vice president, asks, “Do we want to be judged for the rest of our life for something that happened on our worst day?” Certainly not, but research by the National Employment Law Project estimates that somewhere close to 70 million Americans have a criminal offense that will show up on a routine employment background check. Armed with this information, these job seekers are consistently being locked out of the market. Delaying the criminal question until applicants have been evaluated based on their qualifications will give these individuals a chance at securing a position. As Koch Industries, Inc. sees it, “ban the box” is a fair-chance hiring policy that should be adopted to aid the criminal justice system. Currently, federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit automatically banning the hiring of an individual with a criminal record. Disclosing criminal information later in the interview process fosters the application of the federal laws.
To date, 6 states, Washington D.C. and 11 cities have adopted these fair-chance hiring policies.
Tommy is a business administration major with a concentration in management at Montclair State University, Class of 2017.