Companies exploring Second Chance hiring initiatives need to think critically about updating their own hiring practices and removing barriers for otherwise qualified candidates.
Strong relationships with high-quality community partners significantly strengthen Second Chance hiring initiatives by providing training and wraparound support to job seekers navigating reentry.
Pilot initiatives in high-demand markets can help encourage learning, adoption, and replication across a company’s footprint to grow the model into new markets across the United States.
The Manufacturing Institute began collaborating with Union Pacific (UP) in early 2021 to build a Second Chance hiring initiative to expand candidate pools by being more inclusive of job applicants with past convictions. Envoy has supported the initiative by providing guidance on inclusive HR policies and practices and facilitating partnerships with high-performing reentry and workforce organizations in Houston, Texas, and Los Angeles, California.
After a year of successful implementation at UP, the Manufacturing Institute published a new case study highlighting best practices from UP’s initiative in Houston. The study covers how factors like leadership, internal policy, and high-quality community partnerships enable expanded candidate pools and strong retention for justice-impacted employees.
Additionally, the MI hosted and published a webinar where leaders from UP, Envoy, and Alex Love Consulting shared their experience and expertise in implementing the pilot initiatives.
The two groups hope the case study and webinar can help other employers establish and expand second chance initiatives.