You May Be Overlooking One in Three Candidates — Here’s How to Change That

In the U.S. alone, nearly one in three working-age adults has a criminal record — some 73.5 million people who’ve been convicted for everything from fishing without a license to possession of marijuana (and serious crimes too, of course).

That criminal record can follow a person around for decades, even if the offense was a one-time aberration and the person is an upstanding citizen in every regard. And if your company uses background-check software, you may be screening them out before you have a chance to see what they’re made of.

“Contrary to popular belief,” says a recent study from the nonprofit research group RAND, “most who enter the criminal justice system ultimately desist from crime. The risk of recidivism declines the longer a person is in the community and does not commit a crime. Eventually, a past criminal record is no longer predictive of future convictions.”

April is Second Chance Month in the U.S., a perfect time to reconsider your hiring practices to make sure they’re not unnecessarily shrinking your talent pool.

At a time when unemployment is low in many places and companies are struggling to  find enough skilled workers, overlooking candidates with a criminal record puts you at a competitive disadvantage. “Employers need to understand that one big reason they cannot find the workers they need,” says Shawn Bushway, the RAND study’s lead author, “is too often they exclude those who have had involvement with the criminal justice system.”

Ex-offenders can actually help the bottom line

To avoid missing out on qualified candidates and reduce potential bias in your process, here are some things you should know before ruling out hiring people with criminal records: There’s a strong business case for hiring candidates with criminal records. Ex-offenders tend to be engaged and productive, with a strong work ethic. They’re typically extremely loyal to the company that gives them their second chance, staying in the job longer.

One company that discovered the effect hiring ex-offenders can have on retention was ERI (Electronic Recyclers International). Before the company created a program to welcome ex-offenders into the workforce, its turnover rate was 25%. After hiring more employees with criminal records, attrition dropped to 11%.

One reason for this might be that hiring ex-offenders can change their lives for the better and help them find stability. Studies show that the sooner someone with a criminal record finds stable work, the less likely they are to be arrested again or become homeless. In Maryland, for example, the statewide recidivism rate is about 40% — but for ex-offenders who reach the six-month milestone at their new job that rate drops to zero.

Attitudes about working with ex-offenders are changing

A recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 33% of the people released from U.S. federal prisons found no jobs in the four years after their release. And the report suggests that 60% of those formerly incarcerated are unemployed at any given time. 

Nonetheless, there are hints that societal attitudes about hiring or working with ex-offenders may be gradually shifting.

In 2002, more than 60% of employers said they would probably or definitely not hire candidates with criminal records. But a 2018 SHRM survey found that just 26% of managers and 14% of HR professionals were still unwilling (or completely refuse) to hire a candidate with a criminal record. 

Working Chance, a U.K. recruitment consultancy dedicated to helping women with criminal convictions find work, reports that attitudes are a lot different now than they were a decade ago. The popularity of shows like Orange Is the New Black has definitely helped raise public awareness of the struggles faced by those who are currently or formerly incarcerated, helping to humanize a group of people who are sometimes forgotten.

Hiring ex-offenders can give you a leg up on the competition

Overlooking a significant segment of the talent pool makes hard-to-fill roles even more difficult to close. With countless companies struggling to find enough qualified candidates, being open to the possibility of hiring an ex-offender can give you a real competitive advantage — both in terms of attracting candidates and boosting your employer (and consumer) brand.

Take Greyston Bakery, which creates the brownies found in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. With the aim of helping people, including ex-offenders, find work, the Yonkers, N.Y.–based company has operated an “open hiring” policy since 1982, meaning that candidates can put their name on a list and walk right into a job when there’s an opening — no background checks or references required. Today, around 65% of Greyston’s employees have spent time in prison.

This hiring policy makes it easy for Greyston to find and retain productive and enthusiastic employees. The $30 million company has a lower turnover rate than its competitors and reports no increase in workplace theft. Better yet, it says its commitment to inclusivity provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace, as its buyers connect with and support its social mission. 

But it’s not just small businesses who are tapping into this talent pool. JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., has hired thousands of people with criminal records, according to Brian Lamb, the firm’s global head of diversity and inclusion. “There’s a labor shortage,” Brian said recently. “I think we’re all experiencing that globally. It’s going to require unconventional approaches [to hiring].” 

While you may not be ready to adopt an open hiring policy like Greyston’s, making your policies more inclusive can help you find hidden talent. You’re looking for the best person for the job, and that person might have a criminal record — causing other companies to potentially overlook them.

Don’t let background checks make hiring decisions for you

For some companies, the cost and effort of running countless background checks has led to a shortcut — one that introduces bias into the process and limits the pool of available talent. If a company’s ATS system is set up to automatically reject candidates who tick the criminal conviction checkbox, these candidates never get the chance to show what they’re made of.

Even if these applications are considered, that checkbox can lead to unconscious bias. Candidates with criminal records are half as likely to be called back for an interview.

To avoid missing out on talented candidates, many companies are removing the conviction history question from their job application altogether. Removing this question gives you a chance to get to know the candidate and assess their skills before finding out any potentially biasing information about their background. You can still run a background check at a later point. But when you do, you’ll be better equipped to judge them fairly and understand whether their potential outweighs the risk.

This is something that Johns Hopkins discovered in the 1990s. The economy was strong, unemployment was low, and it was tough to find hospital workers. Since running background checks was eliminating a huge number of applicants, the university’s health system began conducting them only after a conditional offer of employment was made.

This allowed candidates to show that they were right for the role before their background was taken into account. That way, when the HR department considered mitigating factors like the type of offense and how long ago it took place, the team could think about the person and not just the crime, helping them make a fairer judgment call. 

As the recent RAND study found: “The reset principle states that any viable risk-assessment instrument used in background checks should reset the assessment of recidivism risk to the time of the background check and not the time of conviction, as current methods derived from the criminal justice context do.” 

AI can help you assess ex-offenders and reduce risk

You can also use technology to help remove bias and find the best candidates. For example, Checkr offers background-check software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make the process quicker and easier.

At the same time, the software corrects for potential bias. Companies are able to customize it to ignore blots on the record that happened outside a certain window (say, a drunk and disorderly arrest from decades ago or a teenage shoplifting conviction). Or, they can choose to ignore data about convictions that aren’t relevant to the job, while still spotting red flags that matter.

Netflix, Instacart, Grubhub, Lyft, and other companies already use this software to take bias out of the equation. Last year, Checkr and its customers “unblocked” over 1.5 million candidates who were looking for work and were previously screened out. 

Final thoughts: Giving second chances will give you a chance at a much bigger talent pool

For more help making your hiring policy fairer, you can also check out this handy guide from the ACLU.

With the competition for talent so fierce right now, taking a broader view of the talent pool can work to your advantage. By rethinking criminal record checks, you’ll not only be able to tap into a vast pool of overlooked candidates, but you’ll also be making a real difference in people’s lives. In turn, they’ll make a real difference in yours.

*Photo by Diana Parkhouse on Unsplash

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