How to Give Job Seekers with a Criminal Record a Fair Chance

As many as 100 million people in the US have a criminal record. That’s almost one in every three Americans. Job seekers who have been involved with the criminal legal system — or justice-impacted job seekers — want the same things that everyone else wants in life: the ability to provide for themselves and take care of the people they love. But many of them are barred from pursuing this due to employment policies and hiring practices that discriminate against them. According to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy center for criminal justice reform,  more than 60% of the formerly incarcerated are still unemployed a year after being released from prison.¹ Securing employment to earn a living is one of the biggest challenges for those reentering society. 
 
Moreover, given the racial disparities in the criminal legal system’s impact, these challenges are more pronounced for Black Americans. Since the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent racial reckoning in the US, large employers have expressed deeper commitments to racial equity and diversity in their hiring and retention practices.²  Dedicating to fair chance hiring is one of many ways to realize those employer commitments.

 

Fair chance hiring is the act of giving fair consideration to all qualified candidates regardless of their criminal record. It gives justice-impacted job seekers a better shot at landing a job and improving their lives. And they aren’t the only ones who benefit. Companies that hire fair chance candidates are rewarded with better retention rates and reduced rehiring costs as these candidates tend to be more loyal. A study from Northwestern University found that justice-impacted candidates who were hired had a 13% lower turnover rate.³

Indeed has been committed to providing individuals with criminal records a fair chance at employment since the very beginning (Indeed’s first employee in 2004 was a justice-impacted engineer), and it’s a journey the company is still on. Most recently, fair chance hiring has become a key focus of Indeed’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitment to help 30 million job seekers facing barriers get jobs by 2030 — with the goal of breaking down bias and barriers in the hiring process. 
 
So how can employers promote fair chance hiring and connect to this overlooked talent pool? Here are a few places to begin.  

1. Address the Fears Your Company May Have Around Fair Chance Hiring

Many misconceptions and fears about justice-impacted job seekers keep them from accessing employment. Hiring managers might have concerns about corporate liability, workplace safety or a negative response from their employees. Research has shown that justice-impacted job seekers are no more likely to steal, harass or harm colleagues than any other worker. A recent Indeed commissioned survey found that 92% of employee respondents would be comfortable working alongside a coworker with a nonviolent criminal record and a single, isolated incident, and the majority (54%) said they would be comfortable working alongside a coworker with a violent criminal record including multiple incidents. Yet these unfounded fears or concerns persist.  
 
“In my experience, when business leaders and hiring managers balk at hiring people with criminal histories, it is because fear and emotion override rational business considerations that would otherwise drive their decision-making around hiring, even though most people seem to believe in the idea of a second chance,” says Andrew Glazier, the president and CEO of Defy Ventures, a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurship training to those with criminal histories. 

Unconscious bias at your company could be keeping you from hiring winning talent. An important step is to make an effort to explain to stakeholders what fair chance hiring is and why it matters. You can start by launching a conversation. (You can read more about Indeed’s approach here.)  

2. Go Beyond #BanTheBox and Use this Practice Only as a Starting Point

According to the National Employment Law Project, 37 states have adopted “ban the box” policies,⁴ and this movement has been gaining steam for more than two decades. “Ban the box” refers to the check box commonly found on many job applications that ask applicants to indicate whether they’ve ever been convicted of a crime. 
 
The goal of #BanTheBox policies is to delay any question about a criminal record to the later or final stages of the hiring process so that candidates can be evaluated solely on their abilities for the role. Instead of being immediately disqualified, this policy gives candidates with a criminal record an opportunity to be considered on the merits of their skills and capabilities.

However, to be clear, #BanTheBox is a bare minimum and a starting point. For example, as of last year, the federal government took an additional step by enacting a new law that prohibits federal contractors from asking about conviction records until after giving an applicant a preliminary job offer. This move toward true fair chance hiring goes further than #BanTheBox by regulating when and how employers can conduct background checks.  

3. Highlight Your Commitment to Hiring Justice-Impacted Job Seekers 

Some job sites focus exclusively on connecting justice-impacted candidates with open jobs. Launched in 2018, the platform Honest Jobs is the country’s largest fair chance employment marketplace. Founder Harley Blakeman was driven to start the organization after his drug-related arrest as a teen left the honor student with few employment options. Today, Honest Jobs employs a 20-person team of mostly justice-impacted employees who connect participating employers with formerly incarcerated job seekers.

It’s also important to make it apparent and obvious to potential candidates that you are committed to hiring justice-impacted job seekers. Recently, for example, Indeed made its commitment more visible by adding purposeful language to all of its US-based job descriptions so that any potential candidate knows about our company's commitment. It reads as follows: “We value diverse experiences, including those who have had prior contact with the criminal legal system. We are committed to providing individuals with criminal records, including formerly incarcerated individuals, a fair chance at employment.”

4. Reassess and Update Your Company’s Background Check Processes and Policies

Overly aggressive background check algorithms can automatically filter out candidates with any type of criminal record — regardless of whether it was a minor, nonviolent crime that happened decades ago or even an offense that may no longer be a crime in the state where the candidate lives, such as marijuana possession. Human resources professionals should examine the parameters they have set with their background check provider to make sure it’s not excluding candidates with arrests or convictions that don't relate to the core duties of the job. Depending on the provider or technology you use, you may be able to adjust your background check features to be thoughtful about what actually matters and what is creating an artificial barrier. 
 
Outside of your technology, you can also reconsider how you evaluate the results of background checks. For example, in 2015, Indeed updated its background check program to improve best practices for hiring justice-impacted job seekers. One best practice is to evaluate candidates based on the following considerations: nature of the crime, time when it was committed and nature of the job the candidate seeks. Indeed doesn’t look at anything related to criminal records until after making a conditional job offer to a candidate. This means candidates can be evaluated on their skills and abilities for the role.  

5. Work with Partners Who Can Help You Grow Your Fair Chance Commitment

Many nonprofits and other organizations across the US focus on supporting justice-impacted people. Look into opportunities to collaborate with local partners to source, hire and retain this quality talent. National nonprofits such as Jails to Jobs and the Center for Workforce Inclusion focus on career training and job placement for the justice-impacted. Indeed partners with the Center for Employment Opportunities and works closely with Banyan Labs, a software development company that teaches, trains and supports justice-impacted job seekers and helps them graduate into jobs through on-the-job training programs. Through Indeed’s collaboration, Indeed places developers who are graduates of Banyan Labs’ Persevere program, giving them immediate on-the-job experience.
 
Being a fair chance employer means implementing scalable practices like those listed above. “Just saying you are ‘open’ to hiring people with criminal histories is not the same as being a fair-chance employer,” says Glazier. 
 
All people have the right to work. And tapping into the quality but the often-overlooked population of justice-impacted job seekers is good for employers. By adopting fair chance policies, employers can not only be part of the solution, they can find the ideal candidate for the job. 
 
SOURCES

1. The Sentencing Project—Americans with Criminal Records
2. Corporate America’s $50 Billion Promise, The Washington Post, August 2021; Workplace Racial Equity Depends on Job Retention as Much as Job Hires to Achieve a Truly Diverse Workforce, World Economic Forum, May 2021
3. Should You Hire Someone with a Criminal Record?
4. National Employment Law Project—Ban the Box Toolkit 

 
RESOURCES

• Society for Human Resource Management—Ban the Box: What Employers Need to Know
• Ban the Box: US Cities, Countries, and States Adopt Fair Hiring Policies
• Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment among Formerly Incarcerated People

Abbey Carlton is Vice President of Social Impact for Indeed, the world’s top job site. In this role, Abbey leads Indeed’s global efforts to break down bias and barriers in hiring through product innovation, partnerships and community initiatives. Prior to joining Indeed, Abbey spent nearly a decade at The Rockefeller Foundation, where she led the Foundation’s efforts on jobs and economic opportunity. Under Abbey’s leadership, Rockefeller partnered with Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, federal and local governments, tech start-ups and others to promote talent strategies that meet business objectives while improving the outcomes of workers who face barriers to employment. Earlier in her career, Abbey held research and program management positions with New York University’s Institute for Education and Social Policy, the US Department of Labor, and the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. She is a fellow with The Aspen Institute’s First Movers program, a member of the Workforce Matters Steering Committee, and a mentor through PhilanthropyNY’s Young Leaders program. Abbey has served on several nonprofit boards, currently serving as a Board Director for Family Promise of Essex County, an organization focused on housing instability in and around Newark, NJ. Abbey received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a master’s in Public Policy from Georgetown University.  Connect Abbey Carlton