Hiring the Formerly Incarcerated: HR’s Role in Making History
There are movements that have changed the course of history: the Civil Rights movement, women’s liberation, LGBTQ equality, the list goes on. At the time, these movements tore the country apart, but looking back it’s hard to imagine that so many people held beliefs that had so little basis in fact. We think history is once again repeating itself. There are seventy million Americans―one in three adults―with some kind of criminal record, and each of them experience pain in finding a job. But attitudes towards the formerly incarcerated are changing, and changing fast: federal and local governments are passing laws like Ban-the-Box, the First Step Act, and in Florida, returning the vote to 1.6 million local citizens with criminal histories. And as in the past, you again have a critical role to play as history is being made. Corporate HR departments set an important dialogue about who gets hired, and why. Armed with SHRM's own research, more and more employers are hiring returning citizens, asserting themselves as leaders in this historical social movement. The stage is set, all we need now is action.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn about the shift in national attitudes towards individuals with criminal records, including changing federal and state laws.
- Learn about the role of employment in the criminal justice reform movement.
- Learn to separate the myths from the facts regarding applicants with criminal records, particularly the quality of their work, compared to those without records.
- Learn about next steps in hiring the formerly incarcerated.
Richard Bronson
Richard Bronson is the Founder and CEO of 70 Million Jobs, the first national, for profit employment platform for people with criminal records. The Y Combinator company’s job board matches a community of one million plus+ active job seekers with some of the nation’s largest employers.
His career began on Wall Street, where he was a partner in the infamous Wolf of Wall Street firm, before launching his own 500-person, $100 million business. Some of the company’s actions were outside the law, and he was punished with a two-year prison sentence. When he was released, he served as Director of the prominent reentry non-profit, Defy Ventures.