Does Robert Half hire people with felonies?

What Robert Half has said

Robert Half hasn't published a statement, program or policy on hiring people with criminal records that we could find, and it isn't on the Second Chance Business Coalition member list. Its U.S. privacy notice lists background check information among the information it collects about candidates and background check providers among its sources, but doesn't say which candidates are checked, when, or by whom. The only fair-chance wording we found is in the corporate job postings, which add one sentence for positions in San Francisco and one for Los Angeles County citing those local ordinances and the California Fair Chance Act. The client-job postings we opened in nine states have no screening or fair-chance wording.

• Local fair-chance notice

  The Robert Half corporate job postings we opened (ten, for positions in South Carolina, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey and Connecticut) end with two location-specific sentences. For positions in San Francisco, Robert Half says it will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories as the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance requires. For positions in Los Angeles County, it says it will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in line with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act. The sentences are tied to those places.¹

Does Robert Half do background checks?

Robert Half hasn't said publicly whether it runs background checks. Robert Half's U.S. privacy notice (updated October 2026) lists background check information among the categories of information it collects about job applicants and workers who use its sites, and lists background check providers among the sources of personal information. It doesn't say which candidates or jobs involve a check, what a check covers, when it happens, who runs it or how far back it looks. None of the postings we opened mention screening.²

• How long a background check takes

Does Robert Half drug test?

Robert Half hasn't published a drug testing policy. We found no Robert Half page or posting that mentions drug testing for candidates.

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.^12,13,14
• 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."^12,13
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^12,15
• 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.^16,17
• 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).^16,18

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.^12,15,19
• 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.²⁰
• 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.^21,22

See whether you can clear your record in your state