Home
/ Insights
/ Case Studies
/ Advancing Fair Hiring Through Risk-Based Background Checks

Advancing Fair Hiring Through Risk-Based Background Checks

A Fortune 100 company needed to revamp its criminal background check process following allegations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) that its prior hiring practices resulted in disparate impact and discrimination against protected groups. FTI Consulting was engaged to evaluate the company’s use of criminal history in hiring decisions and deliver recommendations aligned with regulatory requirements.

Our Impact:

By implementing a defensible, data-driven background check framework designed to mitigate the risk of disparate impact in its hiring practices, the company rebuilt its reputation and credibility with the EEOC.
Automating the company’s criminal background check review process eliminated 95% of manual review, streamlined hiring decisions and significantly reduced administrative time and cost burden.
Empowered with a customizable tool to inform risk-based decisions, the company was able to accelerate hiring and close critical staffing gaps.

Our Role:

Partnering with an external criminology expert, our team designed and operationalized a risk-based, automated scoring model using criminal background check data — including offense type and severity, time since offense and other relevant factors — to support fair and defensible hiring decisions.
Our data and analytics experts led the technical integration of the scoring model into the company’s hiring workflow by developing an API with the background check vendor to ingest applicant data, calculate an automated risk-based score and return the applicant-specific results in real time.
FTI Consulting serves as the ongoing steward of the automated scoring solution, hosting the tool and providing continuous testing, customization, daily reporting and maintenance to ensure sustained effectiveness and compliance with regulatory requirements.