This background check company wants to give everyone a fair shot at a job—no matter their past
Checkr—a winner of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards—helps companies avoid bias by searching for only past convictions that are relevant to the job.
For many companies, running a background check on a prospective employee is the final step before making a hire. A school might run a background check to make sure a potential teacher is properly licensed, and since federally insured banks are prohibited from hiring anyone convicted of money laundering, a background check can reveal any of those criminal records. Initially, when an employer used background check company Checkr, the report would result in either “clear,” if there was nothing to review, or “consider” if something popped up that needed a personal look. Today, one in three Americans have a criminal record, and so millions of background checks could be flagged—but not all criminal records are equal, or relevant to a job.
