‘The ultimate empathy issue’: Why hiring people with criminal backgrounds is good for business

As employers rush to fill empty positions and beat out other organizations for top talent, workers with criminal backgrounds are ready to work, if employers are willing to hire.

Nearly 78 million people have a criminal record and 700,000 individuals are released from prison each year, according to the Brennan Center For Justice, a law and public policy nonprofit. But with their prior convictions in the past, finding an opportunity for their future is especially challenging: the unemployment rate for those with a criminal record is 27%, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, compared to the current national unemployment rate of 5.2%.

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For employers, this is a talent pool that should not be overlooked, says Elizabeth Kohm, program manager for the SHRM Foundation. Not only does this population have high productivity and retention rates, hiring them is a firm statement that your business cares.

“This is the ultimate empathy issue,” Kohm says. “If you have a reputation as an empathetic workplace for this population, then it's going to bleed into the empathy and sense of belonging that your other employees have.”

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SHRM’s Getting Talent Back to Work pledge seeks to break down the stigmas associated with this group, and provides education and resources for HR managers when it comes to their hiring practices and support. Companies including Uber, employment agency 70 Million Jobs and more than 3,000 other companies and individuals have signed the pledge.

Kohm spoke to Employee Benefit News about the advantages of hiring people with criminal records and how to change your job description and interview policies to be more inclusive.

There’s a lot of stigma around hiring people with criminal backgrounds. What are some of the misconceptions that follow this group into the workplace? 
There’s a lot of misinformation and false perceptions and fear. A lot of people aren’t aware of how big a group of people we’re talking about: one in three Americans have a prior criminal record, and obviously their families and communities are impacted by this as well. There's also an enormous amount of people — 700,000 — who are released from prison every year and they're out there trying to find jobs. So people should understand that this is a talent pool that is out there and that may even be working for you already.

People have outsized concerns that don't match reality. They're concerned about disciplinary issues from people, which research shows is just not true. They're concerned about their colleagues or employees, but SHRM research has shown that 66% of employees would be proud to work for an organization that offers training and guidance and mentorship to people with criminal records. Finally, they're concerned about customer blowback, yet 82% of Americans said they feel comfortable patronizing a business that's known to give people a second chance.

What are some of the benefits that come with hiring people with criminal backgrounds? 
They’re intensely loyal to an organization. You're going to see higher job retention and their job satisfaction is higher, our research has found. If the employer does the work to create career growth and mobility for that person, you're changing some of the systemic issues for them around economic progression too.

Business leaders and HR professionals are saying that the majority of people with criminal backgrounds perform their jobs about the same or better than workers without criminal records. It increases the bottom line of your organization and your reputation as a business. I think all of us have needed a fair chance about something in life, and to have a workplace that has the humility to hire prior justice-involved people is a pretty powerful signal that you're sending.

How would you advise HR leaders to make their hiring practices more open to people with criminal records? 
Being intentional about it with policy, practices and your culture about how you’re looking to include instead of exclude would be a great examination. Look at how you've written the job description. If the organization requires a background check, that reduces the chance of a second interview by 50% for someone with a criminal record. We have to collectively do better that, and ask, is it relevant to job competencies? Also, in that job description, are you sending inclusionary messaging or exclusionary messaging, even if it’s unintentional? Include more inclusionary language like, 'people from under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.' Look at the job you're hiring for and ask, does it matter if someone has a prior conviction?

If it's disclosed in an interview, really focus on what it has to do with the competencies you need for the job. If it's relevant, then you dive into it a little bit more. If it's not relevant, then it’s a fact like the person in front of you has blonde hair.

How is SHRM advancing these efforts to get more people with criminal backgrounds back to work? 
The Getting Talent Back to Work pledge is really the start of the journey. Employers signaling that they're open for this is still really important at this stage of ensuring this population gets hired. So this pledge is a very public way to signal it. When we rolled that out in 2018, it made a difference. Our research showed that this year, 53% of HR professionals said they'd be willing to hire individuals with criminal records, up from 35% of 2018. Thirty-eight percent of business leaders said they'd be willing to hire individuals with criminal records, up from 33% in 2018.

This is such an incredible opportunity right now, because usually when we're in an economic change phase, there’s a retrenchment of this population. But instead we're dealing with a labor shortage. So it's such an opportunity for people to be looking at these untapped talent pipelines in a new way. It's one of the reasons we're focused on getting resources into HR professionals' hands, because we really think that they're core to changing the hiring practices. The more we can make them aware and break down misperceptions, we can educate them as to why this is good for them, good for business and good for talent.