The Business of Benefits: Second-chance hiring at Frontier Co-op

Here’s this week’s edition of our Business of Benefits series, where we spotlight benefits that are driving value for HR leaders, digging into their design and ROI.

If you’re interested in talking about a workplace benefit you love for an upcoming edition, click here to get in touch. You can also reach out directly to HR Brew’s total rewards reporter, Courtney Vinopal: [email protected]

Since 2018, herbs and spices manufacturer Frontier Co-Op has used second-chance hiring practices when considering job applicants. This means that the Norway, Iowa-based employer doesn’t ask applicants about prior felony convictions until an offer is made. A criminal history doesn’t disqualify someone from working for Frontier, so long as the candidate hasn’t been convicted of a violent crime or sex offense.

When Frontier employs individuals through second-chance hiring, their history with the criminal justice system is only known to a few people in HR, Megan Schulte, the company’s VP of HR, said. “We want them to be viewed just like any other person would be viewed, and truly get a fresh start,” she told us.

Schulte explained how Frontier adopted second-chance hiring, which is part of a Breaking Down Barriers to Employment initiative that also provides benefits including transportation, childcare, and apprenticeship opportunities.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Explain the business case for this benefit.

Our CEO, Tony Bedard, and I each had the opportunity to participate in a program that teaches entrepreneurial skills to incarcerated individuals here in our region. We both walked away from that experience struck by the same thing—that there was and is an incredible amount of talent, drive, and potential in our community that often goes unseen.

At the same time, our state was facing record low unemployment, and employers were struggling to fill roles. That contrast made something very clear: it wasn’t a talent shortage we were facing, it was an access and opportunity gap. We had a capable, motivated workforce right in front of us, we just needed to rethink how we were reaching them and how we could set them up to succeed once they got here.

That realization became the foundation for our Breaking Down Barriers to Employment initiative in 2018. While second-chance hiring is a core element of that work, it was never intended to stand alone. Early on, we recognized that expanding access to opportunity only works if people have the support to succeed once they’re in the door.

To us, second-chance hiring is just one part of a broader, integrated approach to reducing barriers to employment. That’s why our apprenticeship program, childcare, transportation, and employee support services are all designed to work together. They create multiple entry points into our workforce and help address the real-life challenges that can otherwise stand in the way of stability and growth.

What level of investment does this benefit represent for your organization?

We see our investments in the Breaking Down Barriers to Employment programs as part of a more holistic talent recruitment and development strategy—how we attract, support, and retain employees over time—rather than a standalone expense. These programs are woven into our broader approach to culture and talent building with the aim of helping employees succeed and grow with us both personally and professionally.

A few details, though. Our transportation program provides three round trips each day aligned to our shifts. Each trip costs $10 per person, and we subsidize half of that to make getting to work more accessible for our employees. We also subsidize our on-site childcare program and offer a reimbursement program to support parents with kids utilizing other childcare that makes sense for their family. Onsite, that subsidy brings the cost down to $120 per week per child—a discount that can make a meaningful difference for working families.

Each of these programs requires real investment, but collectively they help to expand the talent pools we’re hiring from, support employee retention, and result in a more stable and engaged workforce.

How are you measuring the ROI of this benefit?

We look at ROI for these programs through a mix of traditional workforce metrics like time-to-hire, retention, and employee engagement, as well as longer-term indicators of stability.

Our childcare program is a good example. Today, it supports 81 employees and 103 children, and in FY25, 100% of employees who took family leave for the birth of a child returned to work. That kind of retention is meaningful not just for our culture, but for business continuity and cost savings as well.

With our apprenticeship program, we take a slightly broader view of success. Since 2018, more than 435 individuals have completed the program. Whether they stay with Frontier or move on, they leave with work experience, references, and greater financial stability. We’ve also seen a 10% decrease in the number of apprentices experiencing homelessness, which speaks to the role stable employment can play in people’s lives, and in building a more stable and resilient workforce.

And through our second-chance hiring efforts, we’ve made more than 285 hires since 2018, significantly expanding our talent pool. In fact, in our FY25, 27.6% of entry-level production hires came to us through this program.

Taken together, these data points reinforce what we’ve seen more broadly: When we reduce barriers and invest in people, we’re able to attract and retain a stronger, more committed workforce, while also creating positive impact in our community.