SHRM Program Promotes Second Chances

The U.S. is enjoying a period of low unemployment. The monthly rate has been 4% or below since March 2018.

While this is great news for workers and by extension the nation’s economy, it also has employers scrambling to fill positions.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unfilled job openings has ranged between 7.1 and 7.6 million since April 2018.

A new initiative, a partnership between the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and Koch Industries, aims to fill some of those open positions from the ranks of the formerly incarcerated.

Getting Talent Back to Work targets employers and particularly the human resource professionals that SHRM represents with an extensive toolkit that offers research, best practices and guidance on vetting and hiring individuals with a criminal history.

Reform Act Inspired Initiative

Emily Dickens, SHRM’s Corporate Secretary and Chief of Staff, spoke about the organization’s Getting Talent Back to Work initiative and why HR professionals should consider giving formerly incarcerated job applicants a second chance.

Emily Dickens, SHRM’s Corporate Secretary and Chief of Staff, said the impetus for Getting Talent Back to Work was the passage of the First Step Act, a major piece of criminal justice legislation that received bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. It was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 21, 2018.

Three days later, SHRM’s CEO, Johnny C. Taylor, Chief Knowledge Officer Alexander Alonso and Dickens, met with a representative from Koch to begin formulating what would become Getting Talent Back to Work.

“Justice reform is not part of our policy agenda, but we saw that it would impact the world of work in such a positive way if we came in now and said here is a path forward,” Dickens said.

“We’ve got tons of jobs and we’ve got a talent shortage,” Dickens said. “And we’ve got people we know want to work.”

Employment is the best defense against recidivism, according to “Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Jobseekers Benefits Your Company,” a report published by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Trone Center for Justice and Equality.

For an individual leaving prison, being able to get a job “means that you’re less likely to recidivate. You’re not going to go back to prison because you’re out there trying to make ends meet,” Dickens said.

Risks Often Rewarded

Statistics help support the necessity of Getting Talent Back to Work’s efforts:

• Around 2.2 million individuals are held in U.S. prisons and jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Employment within a year of release reduces the chance of recidivism from 32.4% to 19.6%, according to the United States Sentencing Commission  
• 75% of formerly incarcerated individuals remain unemployed a year after release, according to ACLU’s “Back to Business” report

Getting Talent Back to Work, Dickens said, is about giving the formerly incarcerated a second chance.

“You’re taking a risk giving someone a second chance,” Dickens acknowledged. “And yes, everything won’t always be perfect.

“But more often than not, the fact that you gave that person a second chance, means you‘ve now got someone who is loyal to you, believes in your company and your company’s mission and wants to do the best job they can,” Dickens said.

Welcome in the Workplace

A 2018 survey by SHRM and the Charles Koch Institute of more than 1,000 full-time employees consisting of HR managers (including C-Suite executives) and non-managers, further details the benefits of hiring workers with criminal histories. Overall, the survey revealed that a majority of customers, managers and co-workers are open to working with people with nonviolent criminal records. Highlights from the survey include:

• 78% of Americans are comfortable shopping with businesses where a customer-facing employee has a nonviolent criminal record
• 76% are comfortable doing business with a company that offers second chances by hiring the formerly incarcerated
• 74% say they are comfortable being employed by a business at which some coworkers have non-violent criminal records   
• More than 80% of managers say workers with criminal records bring as much or more value to the organization as workers without records
• 74% of managers and HR professionals believe the cost of hiring workers with criminal records is the same as or lower than the cost of hiring workers without criminal records

According to Dickens, whether a jobseeker has a criminal record isn’t the most important consideration for HR professionals looking to fill a position.

Skills Are the Key

“Can they do the job? Do they have the skills to do the job?”

Dickens said that should be the first question when it comes to hiring any potential employee, including the formerly incarcerated.

“That’s the first thing you consider,” Dickens said.

She also pointed out that many who end up on the wrong side of the law possess valuable, marketable skills.

“People went into prison with skills and they may have a skill that we’re looking for now,” Dickens said. “That’s why the focus when you’re hiring someone has to be on what skills they have so that we’re able to get them into these industries.”

Dickens noted that many industries are reskilling and upskilling current employees for positions that otherwise are going unfilled, skills that some formerly incarcerated jobseeker may already possess.

“We want to meet people, see what they have and be able to get them back into their profession,” Dickens said. “It’s an excellent opportunity for these persons coming into the work force to get skilled in new areas, or use their existing skills to get in the door.”

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Further, Dickens said, a truly diverse workplace, one that reflects the larger community, must acknowledge Americans who have some sort of criminal record.

“We try to tell people that a diverse workforce isn’t just about what people look like and their agenda,” Dickens said. “It is really about their experiences and everyone has a different experience.”

“A diverse workforce is going to rightly include people who’ve had some experience with the law that either had to be incarcerated or were on parole or probation at some point. That is part of creating an inclusive environment,” Dickens said, “and if we’re going to be the organization that represents those HR professionals who are the gatekeepers, we’ve got to make it easier for them to create an inclusive environment.”

“Diversity isn’t what drives better outcomes,” said Jameel Rush, an HR professional and adjunct professor at Villanova University, where he teaches Diversity in a Global Economy.

“Adding diversity and making sure you can leverage different points of views and different perspectives to work toward a stronger solution — that’s what adds up to better business results,” Rush said.

Getting Talent Back to Work’s toolkit is aimed at educating employers on hiring the formerly incarcerated. The site also includes a pledge that asks signers to provide second chance opportunities to qualified jobseekers with criminal records.

Dickens said the response from SHRM’s chapters nationwide has been positive.

“Our chapters have taken an amazing interest in this,” Dickens reports. “They came back and said, ‘We want to do more. What can we do to create an even more inclusive environment?”

Expanding on that topic, as well as addressing the issue of older workers — “An inclusive environment doesn’t look like a company full of 20- and 30-year-olds,” Dickens said — will be part of Getting Talent Back to Work’s continuing efforts.   

The initiative benefits both SHRM’s constituency and the formerly incarcerated, “so this was a win-win,” Dickens said.

“We look for ways to bring policy to life,” Dickens said. “If it’s something that will impact work, workers or the workplace, we want to figure out how to bring it to life and this was a good way to do that.”