Q: We’ve contracted with a vendor to provide our criminal background screening reports during this year’s faculty hiring season. Our question now, is who should view the results—and how do we decide who “passes” or “fails”?
A: We commend you on putting this into place prior to the start of hiring season. Setting up policies and processes in the “calmness of day” (i.e., before you need to use them) always lends itself to more thoughtful, well-considered practices. We would encourage you to go one step further and now establish criteria and guidelines for judging the screening results. We recommend that the Head and the leadership team confer on the standards, along the lines of the sample shown below. Once the general “matrix” is agreed upon, then the process can be narrowed considerably (to protect the privacy and confidentiality of all concerned). When finalist candidates are selected and background reports are ordered, the results should be limited to the Business Officer, who can then confer with the Head on any borderline results. No one else in the hiring process needs to know more than “pass” or “fail,” which they should accept without further question, for the protection of the school and the candidates involved.
