By Kara E. Shea

Employers are understandably hesitant to hire an applicant with a criminal history. There are good reasons to exercise caution ― employers face considerable exposure for workplace violence committed by employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor‘s Occupational Safety and Health Administration regularly cites employers that have failed to enact adequate safeguards against workplace violence. Employers also may be sued in private lawsuits based on negligent hiring or retention of employees who commit workplace violence.

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Last month we covered the emerging issue of discrimination against the unemployed. This month, we follow that up with employment law attorney John T. Neighbors giving his insight on the legal and practical considerations of having a policy that the unemployed need not apply for vacant positions with your company.

Legal Implications

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The early bird catches the worm — and the best employees.

At least that’s the thinking of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Street Law organization, which are working together to encourage young people of color to extend their educations and consider law-related careers. Among other things, their Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline program pairs teachers at high schools with corporate lawyers to provide law-related education, role models, and mentors.

“The ACC/Street Law Diversity Pipeline program is [a] wonderful initiative that targets diverse high school students and offers them positive contact with corporate lawyers and insight into the challenging and engaging work that they do,” says Laura Stein, ACC’s outgoing board chair and senior vice president and general counsel of the Clorox Co.

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Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) professionals are being increasingly targeted by corporate America — as both employees and customers. According to new research, the industry doing the best job of it is the financial services sector. In the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) most recent annual Corporate Equality Index, 32 employers in the financial services industry received a perfect score of 100 percent, the most of any other industry.

Daryl Herrschaft, director of the study, says financial services firms like JP Morgan Chase and Capital One ranked so well for both humane and business reasons. “The GLBT community is estimated to have $680 billion in purchasing power,” he said in a release. “Not only does being good on these issues allow companies to tap into that market, it also creates a more productive workplace and improves recruitment and retention.”

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If you want to attract a broad base of workers with talent, you must be more proactive in your recruiting efforts, says employment lawyer and diversity consultant Natalie Holder-Winfield, author of Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation.
Holder-Winfield, president and chief strategic officer of Quest Diversity Initiatives, offers these three tips for getting started with recruiting talent with diversity:
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