Employers can understandably feel skittish when hiring people with criminal records. But despite any reservations you might have, second-chance hiring often makes it possible to hire experienced construction professionals looking to re-enter the workforce. They could make excellent additions to your staff. Depending on your location, your state government might even prevent you from asking about criminal histories, especially early in the hiring process.
Keep reading to learn more about how fair-chance hiring can benefit your construction company and improve your fair chance hiring compliance.
What “Fair Chance” Requires in 2026
You might think of fair chance hiring as another phrase for “ban the box.” The box refers to a section in job applications that asks about criminal records. States that ban the box prevent employers from asking about criminal records during the recruitment stage.
While fair chance hiring shares some similarities with ban the box, it goes a step further by encouraging individualized assessment hiring. With individualized assessment hiring, you give applicants an opportunity to explain why their convictions aren’t related to past employment. For example, someone might have gone to prison for drug possession charges. If those charges aren’t relevant to the job, it makes sense to focus on skills assessment rather than previous criminal activity.
To be clear, you can still use a background check hiring process. But you emphasize the importance of relevant skills instead of the person’s criminal history, as long as that history doesn’t interfere with work. For example, you probably wouldn’t hire a bank robber to work at a bank. You might, however, hire them to operate heavy machinery on your construction projects.
The Conditional Offer Timing Rule
Once you make someone a conditional offer, you can perform a background check to help you decide whether to hire them. It’s important to make that decision promptly, though. Don’t hire someone else and wait weeks to inform the other person that they didn’t get the job.
Following this rule benefits all applicants and your business. Respecting applicants contributes to your brand’s positive reputation among workers and customers.
Document the “Why,” Not Just the Decision
Whether or not you hire someone, you should document your reasoning for the decision. That way, you can provide evidence showing that you used fair chance hiring practices instead of rejecting an application because someone had an unrelated criminal history.
By documenting your process, you can show state auditors and courts that you didn’t arbitrarily discriminate against an applicant.
The Rebuttal Window You Can’t Skip
What happens when you decide not to hire someone because you believe their criminal record will interfere with their job performance?
In this case, you need to give applicants an opportunity to defend themselves. This “rebuttal window” typically lasts five to 10 days. During that time, the applicant can dispute the background check’s accuracy or provide evidence that they’ve been rehabilitated.
The rebuttal window is another reason you must inform applicants that you plan to withdraw your conditional employment offer. If you haven’t contacted them, they can’t take advantage of the rebuttal window. Applicants have that right, so you must make sure they can use it.
Why This Looks Different in Every State
Second-chance hiring rules look different in every state because each state sets its own standards, as long as it meets federal guidelines. For the most part, the federal government establishes baseline rules employers must follow. States then craft their own laws on top of that.
This approach can create confusion, especially for companies with locations in multiple states. Hiring someone in Texas can look very different from hiring someone in Colorado, for example.
Relying on an employment agency with local offices can make fair chance hiring compliance much easier for your construction company. A reliable employment agency can also check each applicant to ensure they have the right skills for the job. It’s a way to benefit from second-chance hiring without putting more stress on your HR department.
Reach out to a HireQuest Direct location near you to find the talent your business needs. We have offices in more than 37 states, so we can almost certainly help your company find the right talent for your open positions.
FAQ
Does HireQuest Direct handle fair chance hiring compliance on our behalf?
Yes. Our local offices screen applicants and manage the compliance steps tied to fair chance hiring, so your HR team isn’t tracking rebuttal windows and documentation requirements on top of everything else.
Do fair chance hiring rules change across the states where we operate?
Yes, and that’s exactly why a local office matters. With locations in more than 37 states, we keep up with state-specific requirements so a multi-state employer doesn’t have to build separate compliance processes for each location.
Can HireQuest Direct help us find experienced workers re-entering the workforce?
Yes. Second-chance candidates are often experienced construction professionals. We assess relevant skills and work history so you get workers who are ready for the job, not just applicants who cleared a background check.
How does documentation work if we decide not to move forward with a candidate?
We help maintain the records that show your decision was based on individualized assessment, not a blanket policy, which protects your business if a decision is ever questioned by a state auditor or court.
What happens if a client company has questions about a specific state’s rules?
Your local HireQuest Direct office serves as your point of contact for those questions, so you get answers specific to where you’re hiring instead of generic guidance that may not apply.
