A Master’s Class in Hiring a Person With Credit Wrecked By Bad Health and Being Laid Off
Posted on Sunday, January 31, 2010 by Frank RocheI saw this question/plea on Ask Reddit this morning. For those of you in HR making hiring decisions, here’s your master’s class in the impact that credit check policies have on hiring decisions. Read the article and the comments. Here’s the setup.
I was out of work to fight an illness and can’t get a job now because my credit is bad. I have 13 years of IT experience -will work my a** off for you.
Since early 2008 I have been out of work. I had to bow out and go full time to Rochester, MN for medical care. I stayed current with my skills and I am better than ever before. My last two job offers have been rescinded due to bad credit. I’ve had hiring managers desperately want me on their team and go to bat for me but with no luck. I didn’t run up credit cards on a shopping spree, I fell ill and was financially destroyed. I lost my cars, home -the works in order to get the care I needed in order to stay alive. I have designed data centers, managed global IT teams, designed, implemented and managed Global WANS, network security, route\switch, worked for dot coms that you’ve heard of and Fortune 50 Companies. Are there any hiring managers that want a top-flight employee with a proven track record that can deliver you and your team results? I am open to constructive ideas. Thank you Reddit!
Edit: I had ‘good corporate’ Health Insurance. The Insurance was a paperwork trap and they basically said everything was ‘experimental’ or ‘not covered’ as my condition was extremely rare so basically Insurance was like a 10% off coupon and my ticket to get let in. I was wiped out financially in 6 weeks.
What would you do? WWYD?
Paul Smith
Jan 31st, 2010
Do you..
A. Hire the person that fits the vacant position or
B. Hire the person that has the least impact on your corporate insurance rates?
The fact that folks choose B makes my head hurt. I just don’t understand how people ruin each others’lives over a couple of percentage points.
It just goes to show that the human race still has a great deal of work to do toward being more human and less a race.
Tammy Colson
Jan 31st, 2010
Unless the position is a “Cash sensitive” one, I just don’t see what credit has to do with it. Divorce, layoff, illness, identity theft, there are 100 reasons credit can be bad.
We are in a recession. If someone has been layed off for more than 3 months, I will almost GUARANTEE their credit has suffered.
We have somehow moved to a zero-tolerance society. And the backlash is that we will never recover and flourish if we continue to think this way.
Paul Smith
Jan 31st, 2010
and another thing….the longer this guy is unemployed, the worse his credit will become.
Frank Roche
Jan 31st, 2010
Paul and Tammy, I tack this one up to HR wanting to peek at someone’s underwear. What’s the point of credit checks? As one commenter wrote: What was Bernard Madoff’s credit score?
fran melmed
Jan 31st, 2010
credit scores lack nuance. i can’t help but consider this guy’s experience another tragic tale of how our health care system locks people into and out of situations that affect their financial, physical, and emotional security.
Lance Haun
Jan 31st, 2010
I have been very cautious about using credit checks in the past. I’ve done credit checks on company officers, executives and our top five or six finance people. I’ve even received static on that but my feeling is that if you’re making six figures and you have the ability to defraud the company with minimal checks and balances, tough cookies.
Even for people handling cash or receivables as part of their job, I could care less. These people aren’t criminals. Let’s stop treating them like potential ones at every step.
Just a quick point of clarification though: no employer should *ever* be getting a credit score. Decent background check companies know this. That may be working against this fella even more if his debt is medical related (as Paul may have been alluding to).
NancyKing
Feb 1st, 2010
I’m hoping we see a back lash from this overwhelming need to tests, and numbers and filters to make hiring decisions for us. Technology and data do not replace the human. Verify that the person did the job(s) they said they did and did them well, check out their online presence talk to people that know them and stop trying measure things with data like credit scores.
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
Hi Nancy, I’m with you about those kinds of tests and such. If they can do the job, I’m not quite sure what a credit check will bring.
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
Lance, you are always a voice of reason. I’d like to work in a company where you are. What you say about decency…so right on the money.
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
Fran, doesn’t it seem this one will keep going in circles? Credit scores? Does that mean we also eliminate people who have been divorced, pulled themselves up by the boostraps, or just plain old got screwed by the system? I like what you say: credit scores lack nuance.
fran melmed
Feb 1st, 2010
i’d love to throw in photos on facebook and all of the other surface and fairly uninformative digging that seems to be part of “state of the art” employee screening these days.
Carrie Corbin
Feb 1st, 2010
HR professionals who do background checks need to do themselves, their companies and the potential employees a favor by learning the law and understand the principle of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!”
(To Nancy – Backlash is starting, as of December, the first cases of discrimination/disparate impact hit the courts re: minorities for blanket use of pulling credit and criminal records and denying employment based solely on the felony convictions or poor credit)
Just like anything else we do – we need to keep in mind if the decisions we are making are based on bona fide qualifications. There is absolutely NO reason anyone should be running a credit check on an IT position UNLESS they are in a financial institution or will somehow have major access to company funds. The only conceivable stretch I can think of is if someone has carte blanche access to the accounting systems, but again – still a stretch.
We shouldn’t run an MVR check on someone who will never drive a company vehicle or on the company’s behalf. Likewise, we shouldn’t run a credit check on someone who is not in a position of financial authority or executive oversight of major financial transactions (and that does not mean managing a budget).
Bad credit isn’t an indicator of theft; however in financial institutions or positions in which there is access to large sums of money or the ability to manipulate account date – then the temptation to steal or manipulate is not based on past history of credit or pre-meditated, but rather are “crimes of opportunity.” This is very well documented in the financial world, and subsequently, this is where someone with bad credit and inability to manage finances may be more tempted and is a legit reason for pulling credit *not score* and/or making a decision not to hire.
However, even in those situations – I always evaluate whether the credit is due to medical reasons (as medical charges are usually separated) and I will often discuss the credit report with the applicant to ask about particular charges that are a legitimate concern.
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
Hi Carrie,
“The backlash has started.” Scary times for employers who thought it was okay to work employees over.
You make such good points…”Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!” HR people should tape that to their wall and read it aloud every day. Thanks for a very good analysis and great advice.
nelking
Feb 1st, 2010
Carrie
“Just because cause you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Is a great mantra for so many situations.
Carrie Corbin
Feb 1st, 2010
Well, I cut me teeth in small to mid-size businesses where I constantly had to be the HR police (bleh) and go toe to toe with my executives on many issues – this being one of them.
I totally understand that there are times when you assess business risk – so that saying was my mantra for many years!!
nelking
Feb 1st, 2010
Good for parenting too!
Carrie Corbin
Feb 1st, 2010
I attended a SHRM conference several years ago in which the keynote related practically every strategy to “this also works on teens”
Kind of depressing if you think about it that our child rearing strategies work when dealing with employee issues.
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
I was thinking we could use a show like the HR Whisperer.
Carrie Corbin
Feb 1st, 2010
Frank – you might be on to something! :0)
Carrie Corbin
Feb 1st, 2010
I checked the domain. Already taken…lol
Frank Roche
Feb 1st, 2010
Carrie, LOL, I did the same thing. Taken..and it has so much potential.
Jason Seiden
Feb 2nd, 2010
No reason not to think that what works with adults will work on teens–what’s high school, save a primer on what kinds of crap you’ll have to deal with in the real world?
A credit check for an IT person? Sounds like new-guy hazing by someone who’s not too certain of his place at the cool table…
Frank Roche
Feb 3rd, 2010
Jason, it does sound like a hazing now that you mention it. LOL about the HS-Work link.