Become a ‘Second Chance Employer’ to solve labor shortage
Who in this world has never needed a second chance in life? There is a group of people that need it more than most: the formerly incarcerated. Hundreds of laws and regulations make it difficult for people with criminal convictions to access resources and opportunities, including housing and employment, which helps explain high recidivism rates.
The business community can play a significant role in reducing recidivism by hiring qualified returning citizens to fill vacant positions. We at the Center for Urban Families, PIVOT and Turnaround Tuesday — all Baltimore-based reentry and human service organizations — challenge employers to hire people who have served their time and need a second chance at work and life. A good job is essential to a successful community reentry from prison, but it also is good for business.
The great resignation of 2021, along with thousands of deaths during the pandemic from drug overdoses and COVID, has shrunk the labor pool, leaving companies struggling to meet customer demands, grow their businesses and make a profit. Some companies have adapted by implementing more inclusive employment practices that include hiring returning citizens. We refer to those companies as Second Chance Employers, and they report that returning citizens can be good employees.
A 2021 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, revealed that individuals with criminal records perform the same as or better than employees without a criminal record. Three quarters of business leaders surveyed said that the second chance hires were just as or more dependable than hires without criminal records, and 81% reported that the cost-to-hire second chance employees was the same or less for hires without criminal records. According to Jamie Dimon, Second
Chance Business Coalition co-founder and JP Morgan CEO, second chance hires are more loyal and have lower turnover rates. His research shows that companies that changed “their culture to ensure second chance employees can succeed are finding that their entire workforce is now more loyal and engaged.” Hiring returning citizens can make companies more attractive to millennials who as of 2020, make up 50% of the workforce. A 2016 survey of millennial employees revealed that 76% of them consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work; 64% won’t take a job if a company doesn’t have strong corporate social responsibility policies.
Second Chance employers promote public safety and reduce taxpayer costs. Employing returning citizens significantly reduces the chance that they will reoffend. For every person who stays out of prison, taxpayers save almost $40,000 per year. DC Central Kitchen hires returning citizens and estimates that it reduces annual re-incarceration costs by at least $2.4 million dollars. Baltimore is home to returning citizens who serve as mentors, counselors, community leaders, crime interrupters and non-profit leaders.
As an incentive to employers that hire returning citizens, the Maryland Federal Bonding Program protects employers whose second chance employees commit fraud, theft or forgery. The federal Workforce Tax Credit provides employers a tax credit equal to between 25% to 40% of a returning citizen’s qualifying wages. Gov. Larry Hogan just signed into law Maryland’s Workforce Tax Credit, which provides a state tax credit to companies that employ qualifying returning citizens.
Businessman Jeffrey Korzenik’s book “Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community” is a superb how-to guide. He notes: “any second chance program can only be as good as its referral sources and its support network.”
We are that network.
At the Center for Urban Families, PIVOT and Turnaround Tuesday we prepare returning citizens for the workforce, and we can connect employers with people who are ready, willing and eager to work. We not only prepare people to be productive workers, but we support them after they become employed with coaching, self-development, relationship building, leadership training, housing resources and mental health supports. Consequently, we have excellent track records.
We urge Maryland employers to join local Second Chance employers Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical System, HMS Bakery and Total Wine.
It is not only a realistic solution to the labor shortage, but, as the evidence cited demonstrates, being a Second Chance employer can benefit your company and our community.
Veronica Jackson (veronica@pivotprogram. org) is executive director of PIVOT, Joe Jones (sakinyele@cfuf.org) is president and CEO of the Center for Urban Families, and Melvin Wilson (mwilson@turnaroundtues day.org) is co-director of Turnaround Tuesday. Ms. Jackson, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Wilson are on the advisory board for Return Home Baltimore (www.returnhome.org), an online resource for returning citizens and those who support them. Also contributing to this piece are: Dawna Cobb and Joseph Meyerhoff II, founders of Return Home Baltimore, and other members of RHB’s advisory board: John Huffington, vice president and COO of Kinetic Capital Community Foundation; Ramieka Robinson-Peoples and Donte Small, who were students in Goucher College’s Prison Education Partnership; and Emily Thompson, co-founder of PIVOT.