| Earlier this summer, I took a whirlwind seven-hour trip to Washington, DC from my home in New Jersey to learn a bit more about second-chance hiring. That's the practice of bringing on individuals with criminal records, sometimes referred to as fair chance hiring. At the offices of the Business Roundtable, an association that represents more than 200 chief executive officers, I sat down with Dane Linn, senior vice president of the group's corporate initiatives. The association partners with the Second Chance Business Coalition, a group of big employers that have committed to hiring people with criminal records. Linn filled me in on this untapped resource. He told me that more than 80 million Americans have a criminal record, so that's about one in four. The barriers to hiring are substantial. In a recent survey of people with past convictions, 55% said they had difficulties finding or keeping a job. There are stigmas around ex-offenders in the workplace, like fears that they'll be a liability or risk to other employees, and companies can actively try to weed them out of their pools of prospective hires. Some firms may have blanket bans on accepting new workers with records. Jobseekers can confront applications that have checkboxes asking them about their past with the justice system. And even if there are no specific questions, their criminal records can come up in background checks. There can also be legal restrictions, such as rules preventing financial companies from hiring people with certain types of convictions. Now, more companies are taking a second look at this cohort. Since 2020, businesses have reexamined how they can increase representation of Black and brown workers, who are disproportionally represented in conviction rates. So, an extra push to hire people with records can be a way for firms to meet their commitments to diversity. And of course that's against the backdrop of a tight labor market that has made competition for talent fierce. The number one reason business leaders and human resource professionals cited for a willingness to hire people with records is a desire to find the right candidates for a job, regardless of criminal history, according to a 2021 report from the Society for Human Resource Management. There are other benefits, and one of them is financial: 81% of HR professionals say the cost per hire can be the same or less than for staff without records. And more than two-thirds of business leaders rated those with criminal records as good or better than their peers when it comes to job retention. The growing interest can be seen in the membership of SCBC, co-chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Eaton CEO Craig Arnold. The number of participants has grown to 46 employers from 29 two years earlier. (Microsoft, Verizon and Walmart are among firms involved). For firms considering taking the leap, Linn recommends revising policies that could inadvertently keep qualified people out of jobs, like college degree requirements. He also suggests working with partners like local nonprofits that already have programs in place where they can tap talent. Ken Oliver, vice president of fair chance hiring initiative Checkr.org, says even though momentum is building, it's not fast enough. "By and large there is a shift happening, but like any big social shift that happens in a country or in a society, it's slower than what we'd all like," he said. | 
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