Ban the Box Employer’s Guide
Business in the Community’s (BITC) Ban the Box campaign calls on employers to create fair opportunities for people with criminal convictions to compete for jobs by removing the tick box from application forms, and asking about criminal convictions later in the recruitment process. Ban the Box employers publicly commit to fairly assessing criminal convictions; judging candidates first and foremost on the basis of their skills and suitability for a role, rather than their past mistakes. This Ban the Box employer guide takes you through the four steps to becoming a Ban the Box practitioner.
Objective and transparent recruitment practices give people with criminal convictions, who are skilled and able to work, the opportunity to compete fairly for roles and move on from their past mistakes. There are business benefits too – increasing the diversity of the talent pool and reducing the unnecessary exclusion of talented individuals from roles.
It may be that your business operates a policy of automatic exclusion for people with criminal convictions, or perhaps you do not have a tick box, but your recruiters are not sure how to effectively assess criminal convictions. Whatever stage you are at, this guide provides a step-by-step approach to help implement a fair and open recruitment process.
Ban the Box steps
This Ban the Box employer guide takes employers through four steps to becoming a Ban the Box practitioner:
- Understand your starting point
- Assess legal, regulatory and contractual requirements
- Develop your recruitment process
- Put Ban the Box into practice
The guide also contains a myth-busting section and a glossary.
About Ban the Box
We are calling on all of BITC members to join the Ban the Box movement to ensure that no one is left behind by a tick box.
Companies that sign up to Ban the Box commit to:
- removing any tick box from job application forms that ask about criminal convictions
- considering applicants’ skills, experience and ability to do the job before asking about criminal convictions
- reviewing their employment processes to ensure that when a candidate discloses a criminal conviction they are given a full opportunity to explain the situation
- ensuring that the circumstances of any conviction are fairly assessed against their relevance to and risk within the role before a decision is made.
Find out more about Banning the Box.
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Business in the Community is creating a skilled and inclusive workforce for today and tomorrow