Does Best Buy hire people with felonies?

What Best Buy has said

The retailer is a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition and was among the companies named when the coalition launched in 2021. Its applicant privacy policy says it runs a criminal background investigation only after a conditional job offer, with a separate disclosure and consent form at that point. Its careers FAQ says some roles, but not all, require a drug test after you accept an offer, and its posted testing policy lists opiates, amphetamines, cocaine and PCP.

• Second Chance Business Coalition member

  Listed as a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition.¹

• Founding member of the Second Chance Business Coalition

  Named among the companies that had joined when the coalition launched on April 26, 2021.²

• Checks records only after an offer

  The company's careers privacy policy says criminal background investigations are only conducted after a conditional offer of employment, and that a separate disclosure and authorization are required then.³

Does Best Buy do background checks?

Best Buy runs background checks after a job offer. Best Buy's careers privacy policy says applicant information may be used for background investigations and that a criminal background investigation happens only after a conditional offer, with its own disclosure and authorization form. It doesn't name a screening company, say what else is checked, or give a lookback period.³

• Criminal history

• How long a background check takes

Does Best Buy drug test?

Best Buy drug tests for some roles. Best Buy's careers FAQ says some roles, but not all, require a drug test. If yours does, you get an email from an fadv.com address within about an hour of finishing the offer-acceptance steps, and the FAQ says to complete the test within two full business days of accepting. Its posted pre-employment drug test policy (last updated Feb. 27, 2024) describes a urine test for opiates, amphetamines, cocaine and PCP, as allowed by law; marijuana is not on that list. A medical review officer reviews positive results, and a confirmed positive or a refusal to test ends the conditional offer.^4,5,6

Rules for specific jobs

• All Best Buy jobs

  The careers FAQ says you must be at least 16 to work at Best Buy, and that some jobs list a higher minimum age in the posting.⁴

Your rights, and how far back a check can go

• Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer must get your written permission before it gets a background report about you from a background screening company.^10,11,12
• Before an employer decides not to hire, keep, or promote you because of something in a background report, it must give you a copy of the report and a document called "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act."^10,11
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^10,13
• The FCRA's seven-year limit does not apply to criminal convictions, so under federal law a conviction can show up on a background report no matter how old it is.^14,15
• Under the FCRA, background and credit reports generally cannot include arrest records, civil lawsuits, or civil judgments that are more than seven years old (or older than the statute of limitations, if that is longer).^14,16

Your full background check rights

Before you apply

• You can ask a background screening company for the information it has on you, and the CFPB keeps a list of consumer reporting companies, including employment screening companies, with their contact details.^10,13,17
• According to the Clean Slate Initiative, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that meet its criteria for automatically clearing eligible records: Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, and Missouri, plus D.C.¹⁸
• The Federal Bonding Program, run by the U.S. Department of Labor, lets states give employers free fidelity bonds that protect them against losses from a newly hired worker's dishonest acts, for job seekers with past justice involvement or in recovery from substance use.^19,20

See whether you can clear your record in your state