Reactions towards pre-employment screening procedures: Perceptions of fairness and validity.

• In Event: Navigating Stigma and Barriers: The Impact of Criminal Records on Education, Employment, and Relationships

Abstract

Despite extensive interest in applicant perceptions towards personnel selection procedures such as job interviews and personality inventories, no prior research has investigated the widely used pre-employment screening procedures such as criminal background checks and credit checks. Applicant perceptions are important to measure, given that not passing these checks may be stigmatizing, and the expected chance of not passing such screening procedures may discourage applicants with certain backgrounds to not apply to jobs, leading to self-exclusion and inequality. The current study investigates the applicant perceptions towards and experiences with four different pre-employment selection instruments. Specifically, we compare perceptions of credit checks, criminal background checks (both direct checks of criminal records by employers and the Dutch Certificate of Conduct screening), and overt integrity tests. We will also investigate which background characteristics are related to these perceptions, specifically, demographic information, having financial debt, a criminal record, or professional experience with conducting screening. This study allows us to investigate the perceived legitimacy of these screening instruments and whether the unique Dutch system is perceived differently than the internationally used direct criminal record checks. The results also improve our understanding of self-selection of applicants if they report withdrawing from selection procedures to avoid exclusion.

Authors

• Ard Barends, Leiden University

• Elina van 't Zand-Kurtovic, Leiden University