By Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
Every year, nearly 700,000 people leave prison to reintegrate into society, but most quickly run into roadblocks when looking for gainful employment. A year after release, 75 percent of them will remain unemployed.
SHRM is a strong advocate for giving willing workers who made mistakes a second chance. Men and women with criminal histories are looking for opportunities to re-enter the workplace, contribute to their communities and earn an honest living. Studies show that having a job after incarceration reduces recidivism substantially, making communities safer. It’s also good for the economy, as nearly $87 billion in GDP is lost each year by excluding ex-offenders from the workforce.
People who have paid their debt to society, who want to work and who are qualified for the job should not be re-sentenced to joblessness. And it is short-sighted to exclude them from workplaces that have a tremendous need for workers—especially in a time when the U.S. is experiencing a serious skills shortage. Currently, there are about a million more open jobs than there are qualified applicants looking to fill them—and the skills gap isn’t going away any time soon.
SHRM’s own research shows that hiring people with criminal records is an important strategy for employers struggling to meet their need for qualified talent. And it makes good business sense.
- Three-quarters of managers and HR professionals say the cost of hiring workers with criminal records is the same as or lower than those without.
- More than 80 percent of managers and two-thirds of HR professionals believe the value workers with criminal records bring to the organization is as high or higher than that of workers without records.
- Those who hire the formerly incarcerated say they tend to be more loyal employees when it comes to retention.
And there is not as much resistance from fellow workers as you might imagine. A majority of employees in all roles say they are willing to work with individuals with criminal records, and an additional 40 percent reported no opinion
The First Step Act
SHRM has met with Congressional and Administration leadership to offer solutions and engage in thoughtful discourse on how the private, public, and government sectors could work together to provide opportunities for more Americans with records and reduce recidivism rates.
On December 21, 2018, the First Step Act was signed into law with SHRM’s support. This ground-breaking bill received broad, bipartisan backing, with advocates from the business, political and social justice spectrums coming together to reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders in federal prisons and improve programs to reduce recidivism by investing in workforce training and skills building.
The First Step Act’s criminal justice reforms open new opportunities for job training, treatment and rehabilitation for the formerly incarcerated. These measures will help those with criminal records reintegrate into the workforce, while helping employers address our country’s critical skills gap by making it easier to hire individuals from this nontraditional applicant pool.
Our government has made a clear commitment to give past offenders much-needed workplace skills and training—a potential game changer for companies looking to hire viable candidates who are ready to do the job upon release.
The Next Step for Business: Take the Pledge
As HR professionals we understand that that the First Step Act really is the first step; our work has just begun.
It is up to us to persuade our organizations to take the next step: committing to consider qualified job seekers with criminal records. We must counter the stigma and fear around this talent pool with knowledge, tools, and resources.
This is why SHRM, in partnership with Koch Industries, has launched the Getting Talent Back to Work initiative and toolkit.
Getting Talent Back to Work encourages employers to make their recruiting practices more inclusive by taking a pledge to give opportunities to qualified people with a criminal record deserving of a second chance.
The toolkit equips employers to confidently evaluate applicants with criminal records by reducing uncertainty and promoting best practices, including when to ask about a criminal record during the hiring process, state and federal regulations, and what types of convictions to consider based on the job.
Already, a diverse coalition of organizations—together representing more than half of the American workforce—have partnered with SHRM to take the pledge. They include the American Staffing Association, the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Koch Industries, Checkr, Dave’s Killer Bread and others.
HR professionals can and must do a better job at creating second-chance employment opportunities for the formerly incarcerated. If we do, everyone wins: Employers acquire valuable employees, deserving people can turn their lives around and our communities are safer.
We’ll have a chance to dig deeper into this and other issues that shape today’s workplaces this month at our Employment Law & Legislative Conference, March 18 – 20 in Washington, D.C. It’s a perfect opportunity to get an inside look at the current agendas of the presidential administration and Congress, as well as public policy issues that impact every American workforce. At our annual Capitol Hill Day on March 20, HR professionals have the opportunity to meet directly with their legislators to include our issues and experiences on the policy agenda.
Hiring people with criminal histories is one important way that HR and our organizations can create better workplaces for a better world. Together, let’s pledge to extend jobs to people based on their merit, not their mistakes.
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.,SHRM-SCP
President and CEO of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.