Why second-chance hires can be a vital resource for employers

For anyone intoning the modern cliché, “nobody wants to work anymore,” according to proponents of second-chance hiring who spoke with HR Brew, there are millions of potential applicants waiting in the wings: the formerly incarcerated. But these applicants’ pursuit of employment is often thwarted at square one—filling out a job application—or during background checks, when criminal histories are flagged.

Advocates of second-chance hiring—or hiring people with criminal records—say the practice isn’t just altruistic, especially in today’s hiring climate.

“People who are rebuilding their lives have resilience and grit like you’ve never seen…facing rejection after rejection, and just getting up every morning and having to just keep applying for jobs,” Ashley Furst, senior program manager at the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, told HR Brew.

Even as societal stigma lingers, she said that leaders hesitant to implement a second-chance program can be convinced after a hard look at the data and case studies. “Businesses are risk-averse. But if you do your research, it’s really not as big of a risk as you think it might be,” she explained.

A solution in a tight labor market? There are nearly 2 million people behind bars in the US and its territories, a March Prison Policy Initiative report found. An additional 70 million civilians with a criminal arrest history live in the US, and 600,000 people are released from prison annually, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.

Tony Lowden, VP of reintegration and community engagement at ViaPath Technologies, which provides communications technology for the criminal justice system, aims to get these people jobs—building bridges with HR departments along the way.

“We have to look at ways of being able to work with HRs across the nation, as companies struggle to identify strong candidates,” he told HR Brew. There are 70 million people “wanting to sit down with the HR person and tell them their story.”

But employers are often wary of hiring people with criminal records. Furst said willingness needs to come from a company’s top brass. “Your VP, your C-suite, they need to have the ultimate buy-in, because actually…HR and general counsel is where things kind of get hung up, because chance implies risk.”

HR professionals at organizations with second-chance programs seem to cherish them. In a survey last year, the Society of Human Resources Management found that 75% of HR managers believe “workers with criminal records were just as or more dependable than workers without criminal records,” while 72% said second-chance hires are “as good as or better than” traditional hires at retaining jobs.

Zoom in. In 2014, a Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, struggled to add talent to payroll. The company partnered with staffing firm Kelly Services to implement a second-chance program, but first had to update hiring practices, including its background check policy, that often presented barriers for the formerly incarcerated. “Many times these policies are so outdated, they haven't been dusted off in decades,” said Pam Sands, the firm’s VP of product management and partnerships.

After the firm revamped the employment requirements, the applicant floodgates opened: Kelly Services placed 645 contingent workers with nonviolent convictions at the Toyota facility, increasing its total talent pool by 20%, the company claimed.

Other success stories abound at large employers: JPMorgan enacted a second-chance program in 2019, while Walmart, Kroger, and a variety of large employers routinely look to the second-chance market. For Ashley Furst, the evidence is clear. “As far as the business case, the data really speaks pretty clearly: You have increased retention, you have increased loyalty, you have increased productivity.”—Sam Blum

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