Key Takeaways
There are roughly 10 million open jobs in the United States and only 6 million job seekers. Fair Chance Employment is an important strategy to help meet this growing labor shortage.
To adequately build a talent pipeline, companies must consider opening up meaningful career opportunities, not just low-level entry jobs to the justice-impacted community. This is important for both recruitment and retention.
Leverage community organizations, small and large, to communicate open opportunities at your company and connect with work-ready candidates who have access to wrap-around support and case management
Last month The Commonwealth Club hosted a conversation between Jeffrey Korzenick, Chief Investment Officer of First Third Commercial Bank and author of Untapped Talent, and Ken Oliver, Executive Director of the Checkr Foundation. Ken Oliver moderates the discussion as they explore the business case for Fair Chance employment as well as some of the hurdles and challenges that many employers face when implementing Fair Chance initiatives. The conversation highlights best practices that many companies take in order to identify candidates best suited to the job and opening up new opportunities to justice-impacted individuals. Oliver and Korzenick also describe how often employers make commitments to Fair Chance initiatives without understanding the hurdles that many justice-impaired people face. They argue that education and access to resources are key for ensuring companies understand how best to approach the implementation of Fair Chance practices.
To listen to the full conversation, check out the podcast episode here.