If you watch this space and read the news, you might think that everyone is ramping up their use of background checks in hiring. You’d be wrong. An example of someone who’s resisting the trend is Steve Mangan, general manager of Indiana Memorial Union Dining Services at Indiana University.
In a story titled, “Hiring practices might ‘burn’ IMU Dining Services,” the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) tells us that Dining Services is one of the few university departments that doesn’t do background checks on everyone. Mangan and his supervisors do background checks when the law or university policies mandate it. That means they check the criminal history of anyone who handles money, takes inventory or serves in a supervisory role.
Mangan isn’t worried about hiring a convicted felon or two. According to the paper, “he has done just that on multiple occasions – both knowingly and unknowingly.”
For me that’s really scary. Hiring decisions should be made on the basis of qualifications and fitness. You may choose to hire someone with a criminal past, but that should be a conscious decision after weighing all factors.
Another thing that’s scary is that Dining Services isn’t doing background checks because of the cost. I would ask: “Compared to what?”
Saving money on background checks is great, right up to the time an employee lifts money from the till or attacks someone else. It seems like a cost saving right up till the moment you get sued.
Personally, I’d want to err on the side of caution. What about you?
What do you propose? That no felon should ever have a job? I am about fed up with that attitude. I have a felony from 16 years ago, and I can hardly find a job at all. Even though I have a Masters and have serve 8 years in the military. What is my family supposed to do?
I’m with Edward. I don’t have a felony but a misdeanor. With all this scare mongering, the County Govt is getting ready to fire me and another 11 people in my department although we have years and sometimes decades of service to the county and by all accounts, great employees. We made a mistake in the past, we paid for it and became productive contributors to society. Now we’re unwanted and having bleak chances for other employment.
Let’s increase the social injustice because your little mind is scared because someone made a mistake. get ready for the real costs by throwing all these people to the wolves. Then they’ll be real criminals in order to survive.
Predatory politicians have made the word “felony” a cliche. 1 in 31 adults (over 7 million Americans) were under penal control in 2008. You can see the rise here: http://www.accidentalfelons.com/servicesEconomy.php and it looks like what it is, a jet gaining altitude at almost 45 degrees. Real felons exist, true enough, they are about 20 percent of the group if that. The rest of the countries felons are citizens who do not meet the criteria of a criminal. By historical definition, a criminal is a person who “intentionally” preys on another person or their property.” I am branded a violent felon. I carry that brand, not because I attacked anyone, but because I am a stepping stone on a predatory politician’s path to building a political resume for himself. There are likely thousands of other residents just like me who have been “disappeared” by locking them behind prison wall. Felon = cliche = everyone is a target. Read about it. Educate yourself. Change your attitude.