The Fayetteville, Arkansas Public Library has a problem. For the last several months, the staff has been working on a policy that will protect members of the public, especially children, from predators while they’re at the library. How could anyone object to that?
Well, it depends on how you do things. The Northwest Arkansas News reports on a brouhaha over background checks for volunteers. Here’s the story.
First, the library ran unannounced criminal background checks on employees. The employees learned of the checks after the fact at a staff meeting.
Then, a rumor surfaced that the library was going to run criminal background checks on all of the few hundred library volunteers. In fact, no decision or recommendation had been made on that issue, but the combination of unannounced criminal checks on staff and possible background checks on volunteers sparked a number of volunteer resignations and letters to the Executive Director of the library and to the library board.
As a purely logical matter, checking out staff and volunteers at a place where children and other vulnerable people congregate seems like a good idea. So where did things go wrong? Here are some lessons you can learn from the Fayetteville library experience.
Lesson: unannounced background checks when you haven’t done them before are going to get people upset. Tell people you’ll be checking and why.
Lesson: You should have good reasons for checking on people and you should communicate those reasons. One objection to the idea of criminal background checks on all volunteers was that no judgment was made about which jobs require checks.
Lesson: If you mess up, own up to it. The library checked the background of all employees even though they had not yet decided on a policy of doing so.
The Executive Director said, “What happened was we were looking at the process of how to do it and it happened.” Nonsense. It didn’t just “happen.” Somebody had to set the process in motion.
Lesson: No matter how good your reason for running background checks and no matter how well you make your case, some people will still be offended. One volunteer stated her reason this way: “Maybe that’s because of my Southern upbringing. You don’t question a person’s character or truthfulness until you have a reason.”
In today’s world, we probably can’t do much to make that woman happy. But if you have solid reasons for your background checks and communicate the whys, hows, and whens you can avoid rousing the ire of most people.