To help HR Professionals understand U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Guidance on the use of criminal records, Attorney and safe hiring expert Lester Rosen, founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), will present a webcast, ‘Practical Steps Employers Can Take to Comply with the New EEOC Criminal Guidance,’ at the Institute for Human Resources (IHR) Quality of Hire Virtual Event on Thursday, September 27, 2012 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET. For more information and to register for the webcast, please visit: https://crm.hr.com/en/webcasts_events/webcasts/upcoming_webcasts/practical-steps-employers-can-take-to-comply-with-_h5xidvoq.html.

On April 25, 2012, the EEOC – the agency that enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – voted to approve updated Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complete text of the updated EEOC Guidance is available at http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/arrest_conviction.cfm.  

In the webcast, Rosen will go beyond simply repeating the EEOC Guidance language and give “real world” examples and suggestions on what employers should do now to remain in compliance while performing criminal background checks. Topics covered in the hour long webcast include:

* Longstanding court decisions and existing EEOC Guidance documents.
* Employment discrimination based on race and national origin, criminal records, and employer practices.
* The differences between arrest and conviction records.
* Disparate treatment and disparate impact analysis under Title VII.
* Employer defenses the EEOC believes meet “job related and consistent with business necessity” standard.
* Compliance with other federal laws and/or regulations that conflict with Title VI.
* State and local laws or regulations preempted by Title VII.
* EEOC Guidance best practices for employers.
* Options for handling questions about post criminal records.
* Criticisms of the new EEOC Guidance.
* ‘The Good, the Maybe Good, and the Impossible’ stemming from the new Guidance.
* What should employers do now?

In September 2012, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) released a new whitepaper written by Rosen, ‘Practical Steps Employers Can Take to Comply with New EEOC Criminal Record Guidance.’ The complimentary whitepaper is currently undergoing a controlled release and is available to employers by emailing EEOCwhitepaper@esrcheck.com.  Rosen also recently completed an updated second edition of his comprehensive book on background checks, ‘The Safe Hiring Manual,’ that will be published in October 2012. For more information, visit http://www.esrcheck.com/SafeHiringManual.php.

For more information about background checks, visit the Employment Screening Resources (ESR) booth at the IHR Quality of Hire Virtual Event, visit our website at http://www.esrcheck.com, call Toll Free 888.999.4474, or email customerservice@esrcheck.com.