The financial services company where I have worked for the past 20 years is doing background checks on all its employees and wants to know about any criminal activities. I'm an IT security analyst, and I have led a clean life, except for one incident in college, where I was arrested on charges of theft under $5. I received deferred adjudication and was cleared of the conviction, so only the arrest and the charge exists. Should I disclose it, and, if so, will having it in my employee record brand me as potentially dishonest? -- Jeff
Jeff: Let's be frank here. Isn't your real concern that you might lose your job if the company uncovers this incident? I suspect that in this era of increased scrutiny, many employees may be losing sleep over past actions they never want their companies to discover.
Most large companies screen employees carefully before they are hired by ordering background checks on them. The screeners look at criminal activity and whether the facts candidates put down on their job applications match what they really did. In your case, the company is doing the screenings after the fact, possibly to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which tightened corporate governance rules for public companies.
The act doesn't require companies to check every current employee's background. However, it does require internal control, which means identifying potential risks and taking steps to address them. Part of this is having up-to-date employee background checks, notes David E. Hardesty, a San Francisco certified public accountant who has written a guide to Sarbanes-Oxley for RIA, a New York-based information provider for tax professionals.
Your question is twofold: 1) Should you disclose the conviction because it happened so long ago and was erased from your record? and 2) if you do disclose it, will it harm your job?
As to the first concern, having a criminal record doesn't always mean an instant termination. But red flags do go up if the crime is related to the person's employment. In your case, theft and being involved in IT security aren't good bedmates.
The conviction of a crime doesn't necessarily eliminate a person from a job, says Rick Kurland, president of Employment Background Investigations Inc. in Owings Mills, Md. The crime must have a direct impact on the job they are performing.
Still, your crime was adjudicated, which usually means that the court will erase the conviction if you meet certain conditions, such as performing community service and not committing any other crime for a certain period of time. The incident also happened more than 20 years ago, and many counties keep criminal records going back only seven years. These two factors mean it might not show up during a screening, says Kurland. Because it happened 20 years ago and was adjudicated, chances are that it won't show up, he says.
But the tricky part is that you'll be in worse shape if you don't disclose the charge and it surfaces during the screening. You'll be caught lying on the background information form, which could lead to your dismissal. The theft might come up, and if he falsified the form, then the company would have reason to terminate him, says Kurland. That would be much worse.
You'll have to decide if you want to take that risk. Personally, I wouldn't, but this is your call, not mine.
As for the second issue, whether disclosing the theft will affect your employment, I called mutual-fund provider Vanguard Inc. in Valley Forge, Pa. Spokesman John Woerth says the issue of whether an employee committed a crime years ago rarely comes up at Vanguard because the firm conducts pretty extensive background checks before employees are hired. On an ongoing basis, the company's code of ethics requires employees to report any felony convictions, he says.
Woerth asked Vanguard HR executives about the company's policy for someone with your problem. They told him Vanguard would take into account whether a conviction occurred, how long ago it happened and the nature of the incident -- for instance, if it was part of a fraternity prank, says Woerth. In that case, it likely wouldn't be grounds for termination, he says. Kurland agrees.
If I was that gentleman, Kurland adds, I wouldn't worry about it, but I would be very upfront.
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Background Check a Source of Worry for This IT Pro 