Monday, May 07, 2007

Men's Wearhouse passes on background checks

A recent Business 2.0 cover story, titled "Ripping up the Rules of Management", mentions that George Zimmer, the founder of clothier Men's Wearhouse, has a policy that no employee or interviewee will ever undergo a criminal background check.

Seem risky? Well it doesn't appear to be hurting them. In fact, the company loses only .4% of revenue to theft, much less than typical for big retailers (1.5%). Says Zimmer:

"I don't trust the U.S. justice system to get it right...I'd rather make my own decisions, and I believe in giving people a second chance."

This policy is particularly interesting given efforts by various jurisdictions to limit criminal history checks in employment screening as well as the EEOC's renewed focus on criminal history checks as part of its new E-RACE Initiative.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hallejuah amen. Finally weeding through the political bull and seeing people for who they are not what a piece of paper says.