Last week, an HR director called us about a candidate. “His resume is perfect,” she said. “Ten years of manufacturing experience, great references, exactly what we need. But…”
There’s always a but.
“He has a felony from eight years ago. I just don’t know if we can take that risk.”
I asked her a simple question: “What’s riskier, hiring someone whose past you can see, or continuing to burn through employees who quit after three months because you’re not willing to look beyond a checkbox?”
She didn’t have an answer. Most employers don’t.
Here’s what I’ve learned from placing thousands of people over the past 14 years: a criminal record tells you what someone did on their worst day.
It doesn’t tell you who they are on their best day. It doesn’t tell you if they’ll show up early, stay late, and become the kind of employee you build your team around.
The data backs this up, but you don’t need a research study to understand something pretty straightforward, people are more than their biggest mistake.
So let’s talk about what background checks actually reveal, what they hide, and why some of the most loyal employees in your industry are being filtered out before you ever meet them.
The Prevailing Myth vs. The Reality
The Myth: Employees with criminal backgrounds are unreliable, pose safety risks, and have lower job performance.
The Reality: Research consistently shows that employees with criminal records often demonstrate higher retention rates, stronger work ethic, and equal or better job performance compared to those without records.
According to a multi-year study tracking over 1,600 employees, workers with criminal backgrounds had 13% longer tenure than those without records.
At Mixed Staffing & Recruiting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we’ve witnessed this firsthand. Since 2012, 65% of our placements have been second-chance candidates, and our overall retention rate sits at 89%, nearly double the industry average of 45% for light industrial staffing.
The numbers don’t lie. What employers call “risky hires” are often the most loyal, motivated, and dependable members of their workforce.
What Background Checks Actually Reveal
Background checks serve an important purpose: they verify identity, confirm employment history, and flag serious safety concerns. But here’s what they don’t tell you:
- Why the offense occurred – Context matters. A shoplifting charge during financial hardship tells a different story than a pattern of theft.
- How long ago it happened – A conviction from 15 years ago has little predictive value for current behavior.
- What skills the person has developed since – Many returning citizens gain vocational training, complete education programs, and develop strong work ethics while rebuilding their lives.
- Their motivation level – People who’ve faced barriers to employment often bring unmatched determination when given an opportunity.
A background check is a snapshot of the past. Job performance is about the present and future. Conflating the two costs companies exceptional talent.
The Business Case for Hiring Beyond the Background Check
1. Higher Retention Rates
The most expensive problem in staffing isn’t finding people, it’s keeping them. The average cost of replacing an employee ranges from 50% to 200% of their annual salary. For a manufacturing worker earning $40,000 per year, that’s $20,000 to $80,000 per turnover event.
Second-chance employees demonstrate significantly higher retention. Why? Because they understand the value of the opportunity. When you’re one of the few employers willing to give someone a fair shot, they remember it. Loyalty isn’t bought, it’s earned through mutual respect and opportunity.
2. Untapped Talent Pool
Here’s a statistic that should change how you think about hiring: 1 in 3 American adults has some form of criminal record. That’s over 70 million people. If your hiring process automatically excludes them, you’ve just eliminated a third of the available workforce from consideration.
In an era when every industry claims to face a labor shortage, the solution isn’t to search harder for the same pool of candidates. It’s to look where others refuse to.
3. Tax Incentives and Financial Benefits
The federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) provides employers with tax credits of up to $9,600 per qualifying hire, including individuals with felony convictions, veterans, and long-term unemployment recipients. Most Michigan employers have never filed for this credit. That’s not a small oversight, it’s tens of thousands of dollars left on the table annually.
In addition to WOTC, many states offer additional incentives, including:
- Fidelity bonding for at-risk hires (free insurance coverage)
- On-the-job training reimbursements
- Tax credits for hiring returning citizens
These financial benefits exist because research proves what we’ve known for years: inclusive hiring works.
4. Improved Workplace Culture
When companies embrace second-chance hiring, they signal something important to their entire workforce: we value people, not just resumes. This creates a culture of empathy, resilience, and mutual respect.
Employees who work alongside second-chance hires report increased job satisfaction, stronger team cohesion, and pride in working for an employer who prioritizes inclusion over exclusion.
How to Conduct Fair and Effective Background Checks
If your organization is ready to move beyond reflexive rejection, here’s how to approach background checks fairly:
1. Adopt “Ban the Box” Practices
Remove the criminal history checkbox from initial applications. This ensures candidates are evaluated on qualifications first, not disqualified before anyone reads their resume. Over 37 states and 150+ cities have adopted Ban the Box policies, and research shows it significantly increases employment for individuals with records, without increasing workplace incidents.
2. Use Individualized Assessments
Federal guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recommend individualized assessments for candidates with criminal records. This means considering:
- The nature and gravity of the offense
- How much time has passed since the conviction
- The relevance of the offense to the job in question
A 10-year-old non-violent drug charge has no bearing on someone’s ability to work in manufacturing, logistics, or professional services. Treat it accordingly.
3. Be Transparent About What You’re Looking For
If certain convictions genuinely disqualify someone from a role (for example, financial crimes for accounting positions), state that clearly in the job posting. Transparency respects candidates’ time and allows them to self-select appropriately.
4. Provide a Chance to Explain
Before making a final decision, give candidates the opportunity to provide context. A conversation reveals far more than a background check report ever will. You might learn about rehabilitation efforts, skills gained, and why this person is ready to contribute meaningfully to your team.
Real-World Success: What Happens When Employers Say Yes
At Mixed Staffing, we placed a veteran with a felony record in a production role 18 months ago. The employer was hesitant, this was their first second-chance hire. Today, that “risky” candidate is training new employees and has been promoted to shift supervisor. He has the best attendance record on the floor.
We’ve seen this story repeat itself hundreds of times. The candidate told “you’re too difficult to place” by four other agencies, who we placed in 11 days and who just celebrated her one-year anniversary.
The single mother with three employment gaps and no transportation, who we helped with wraparound support and who’s now been employed for 22 months.
The returning citizen who described their record as “the thing that ruined everything,” who now calls it “the thing that led me to Mixed, which led me to everything.”
These aren’t exceptions. They’re the rule, when employers are willing to look.
What Background Checks Can’t Measure
A background check can tell you if someone made a mistake. It cannot tell you:
- If they’ve learned from it
- How hard they’re willing to work to rebuild their life
- What unique strengths they bring to your team
- Whether they’ll become your most loyal, dependable employee
The most important information about a candidate isn’t on a background report. It’s in the conversation you have with them, the effort they put into the application, and the way they show up on day one.
The Path Forward
Background checks aren’t going away, nor should they. Safety matters. Verification matters. But the way we use these tools must evolve.
The question isn’t “Should we conduct background checks?” It’s “How do we use this information fairly and wisely?”
Employers who learn to answer that question unlock access to a massive pool of overlooked talent. They reduce turnover, strengthen culture, and build teams that last. Most importantly, they change lives, and in doing so, they change their own organizations for the better.
The truth about background checks and employment performance is simple: One has very little to do with the other. Your best employee might be someone others dismissed without a second thought. The only way to find out is to give them a first chance.