Beyond the Background Check
How HR Leaders Can Build Inclusive Talent Strategies That Recognize Rehabilitation, Potential, and Second Chances Beyond Criminal Records
Beyond the Background Check: Reimagining Talent, Opportunity, and Second Chances
By Keisha Autrey
Human resource management sits at the intersection of organizational performance, employment law, and human potential. One of the most complex challenges facing HR professionals is determining how to evaluate candidates whose backgrounds include criminal convictions. Research demonstrates that criminal records can create persistent barriers to employment, while evidence regarding policies designed to reduce those barriers is mixed. (RCNi Company Limited) This article argues for a more individualized, evidence-informed approach to talent evaluation—one that maintains accountability and legitimate workplace protections while recognizing rehabilitation, demonstrated competencies, education, and post-conviction achievement. Drawing on research and my own journey from incarceration to HR leadership, I examine why organizations should look beyond a background check to understand the person, capabilities, and potential behind the record.
Keywords: human resource management, second-chance hiring, criminal records, employment, leadership, rehabilitation, talent management
The Person Behind the Record
At 40 years old, after a lengthy prison sentence, I returned to society with the GED I had earned at 17.
I had a past that could easily have become the first thing people saw when they looked at me.
Instead, I decided it would become the foundation from which I built something different.
I began my higher-education journey at Tulsa Community College, eventually earning my bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2023. I continued my education through Trinity Law, graduating cum laude in 2025 with a master's degree in Human Resource Employment Law. Today, I serve as an HR Director overseeing three locations in the sports and entertainment industry, am pursuing a PhD in Human Resource Management, and am the author of Beyond the Background Check.
My journey fundamentally shaped how I view human resources.
I understand why organizations conduct background checks. Employers have legitimate responsibilities to protect employees, customers, assets, and the organization itself. Criminal history can be relevant to particular positions and circumstances.
But I also know something from personal experience:
A background check can tell you about someone's history. It cannot, by itself, tell you their entire story.
The Evidence Behind Second Chances
Employment is an important component of successful reintegration after incarceration. Yet criminal records can create substantial employment and earnings penalties. Research by Rose (2021), for example, found that convictions were associated with decreases in employment and earnings. (RCNi Company Limited)
The policy response has often included "Ban the Box" initiatives, which generally delay when employers may ask about criminal history. However, the research on these policies is not uniformly positive. Reviews have found mixed outcomes, including evidence that some implementations may produce unintended consequences. (Annual Reviews)
That finding is important for HR professionals.
The answer cannot simply be to ignore criminal history.
Nor should the answer automatically be to exclude everyone who has one.
The more meaningful question is:
How do we evaluate the relevance of a person's history while also evaluating the evidence of who that person is today?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission encourages employers, where appropriate, to consider factors such as the nature of the offense, the time that has passed, and the relationship between the conduct and the position. It also emphasizes consistency and individualized consideration. (EEOC)
That approach resonates deeply with me.
From Screening to Understanding
HR has an opportunity to move beyond a purely transactional approach to talent acquisition.
A background check should be one piece of an employment decision—not necessarily the entirety of the decision.
- What has the candidate accomplished since the offense?
- Have they demonstrated reliability?
- Have they obtained education, certifications, or training?
- Have they established a consistent work history?
- Have they demonstrated leadership?
- What skills do they bring to the organization?
Most importantly, is the historical conduct actually relevant to the responsibilities and risks of the position?
These questions do not eliminate accountability. They introduce context.
SHRM research has found that many HR professionals and business leaders report positive experiences with employees who have criminal records, including perceptions of comparable or stronger performance, dependability, retention, and quality of hire. (SHRM)
That evidence challenges organizations to reconsider whether an individual's record should automatically overshadow demonstrated qualifications and subsequent achievement.
My Experience Changed the Way I Lead
My professional journey has made this issue personal, but it has also made me more intentional as an HR leader.
I don't believe in lowering standards.
I believe in seeing the whole person.
There is a significant difference.
When I evaluate talent, I want to understand capability, character, performance, potential, and accountability. I want to know what someone has learned and what they have done with the opportunities they have been given.
My own life is evidence that transformation can occur.
At 40, I was beginning an educational journey that would ultimately lead me to multiple degrees, professional advancement, and executive HR leadership. What changed was not my history. What changed was what I chose to do with my future.
That distinction is critical.
Organizations should not be expected to erase someone's past. But they can learn to distinguish between a history that presents a legitimate job-related concern and a history that has simply become a permanent label.
The Role of Education and Opportunity
Education became one of the most transformative forces in my life.
It gave me knowledge, but it also gave me confidence. Each academic achievement challenged an assumption I had once held about what was possible for me.
That experience reinforced something I believe HR professionals should recognize: development is not simply an organizational investment. It can be a catalyst for personal transformation.
Organizations that provide meaningful pathways for development, mentorship, training, and advancement can help employees move from opportunity to achievement.
For individuals with criminal records, those pathways can be particularly significant.
The SHRM Foundation's current second-chance employment initiative emphasizes that expanding employment opportunities for people with criminal records can help organizations access overlooked talent while supporting recruitment, retention, and advancement. (SHRM)
The opportunity, therefore, is not merely charitable.
It is strategic.
Accountability and Compassion Can Coexist
One of the most important lessons my journey has taught me is that compassion does not require the absence of accountability.
- We can hold people accountable for their decisions while recognizing their capacity for growth.
- We can protect our organizations while creating pathways for qualified people who have demonstrated meaningful change.
- We can acknowledge someone's past without refusing to see their present.
That balance is where I believe modern HR leadership has an important opportunity.
Good HR protects the organization. Great HR also recognizes human potential.
Leadership Means Reaching Back
My commitment to second chances extends beyond my professional role.
I have volunteered in women's prisons, teaching victim impact, anger management, life skills, and critical thinking. I do this because I understand what it means to sit on the other side of a decision and wonder whether your life can ever become something different.
My long-term goal is to establish transitional homes for women—spaces where women can access stability, education, employment opportunities, mentorship, and the support needed to rebuild.
My goal is not simply to tell people that transformation is possible.
I want to help create the conditions that make transformation possible.
A New Question for HR
Perhaps the question we should ask is not simply:
"What does the background check say?"
Perhaps we should also ask:
"What has this person done since then?"
That question shifts the conversation from permanent labels to evidence.
It invites us to examine growth.
It encourages us to evaluate achievement.
And it reminds us that talent management is ultimately about understanding human beings—not merely processing information about them.
My story does not mean every person with a criminal record is appropriate for every position. It does mean that people deserve to be evaluated thoughtfully, consistently, and in relation to the actual requirements of the work.
My past will always be part of my story.
But it is no longer the chapter that defines me.
Today, I lead.
I continue to learn.
I continue to serve.
And I continue to pursue opportunities that once seemed impossible.
That is why I believe deeply in the message behind Beyond the Background Check:
A background can explain where someone has been. It cannot fully determine where they are capable of going.
For HR leaders, the challenge is to see both.
- The record. And the person.
- The risk. And the potential.
- The past. And the possibility of what comes next.
That is not simply a second-chance philosophy.
It is a more complete way of understanding talent.
References
Doleac, J. L., & Hansen, B. (2020). The unintended consequences of "ban the box": Statistical discrimination and employment outcomes when criminal histories are hidden. Journal of Labor Economics, 38(2), 321–374. https://doi.org/10.1086/705880 (RCNi Company Limited)
Rose, E. K. (2021). Does banning the box help ex-offenders get jobs? Evaluating the effects of a prominent example. Journal of Labor Economics, 39(1), 79–113. https://doi.org/10.1086/708063 (RCNi Company Limited)
Raphael, S. (2021). The intended and unintended consequences of "ban the box." Annual Review of Criminology, 4, 191–207. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-061020-022137 (Annual Reviews)
Society for Human Resource Management. (n.d.). People with criminal records. SHRM Foundation. (SHRM)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Criminal records. (EEOC)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2012). Enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (EEOC)
