Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works For Your Business and the Community
Date and Time
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EST
Location
This is a virtual event via Zoom.
You will receive the Zoom link in your registration confirmation email.
Fees/Admission
(Registration includes a copy of the book)
$25 Traverse Connect Investors
$45 Future-Investors
Description
The labor shortage is more than a transitory problem. Although workforce problems exacerbated challenges, U.S. and global demographic trends point to a dramatic change in long term labor availability, and talent acquisition, development and retention will become the critical skill set for business leaders. The best answer to the labor shortage lies in looking for talent where it has been largely overlooked. The pool of 19 million Americans with felony convictions offers a tremendous opportunity for employers, but one that must be approached with knowledge and intention. Fortunately, pioneering business leaders around the country have developed processes that can uncover highly engaged and loyal employees from this background. Author and strategist, Jeff Korzenik, shares the insights he has gained from years of research studying successful employers who have learned to tap this talent pool.
Jeff Korzenik | Managing Director, Chief Investment StrategistFifth Third Investment Management GroupJeff Korzenik is Chief Investment Strategist for Fifth Third Bank, where he is responsible for the Bank's overall client investment strategy. For more than 30 years, Jeff has been recognized for his insight into the relationship between economics, markets, and social trends. A regular guest on CNBC's Squawk Box, Bloomberg, and Fox Business, Jeff's writings on economics and public policy have been published in Barron's, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, and other periodicals. He has been quoted in publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He was recently elected a Member of the Council on Criminal Justice for his work on the intersection of the justice system and the labor markets. Jeff's book, UNTAPPED TALENT: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community, shares the business case and best practices for hiring people with criminal records and was recently published by HarperCollins Leadership. |
Each participant will receive a copy of "Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works For Your Business and the Community" by Jeff Korzenik, courtesy of our sponsor, Consumers Energy.
This work shares the business case and best practices of “second chance hiring,” employing people with criminal records. The first and only book of its kind, “Untapped Talent” is meant to inform and inspire business leaders to broaden their hiring to this population. This is a disciplined and realistic look at this issue – not everyone with a record is ready for employment, and even those that are may require additional support. Based on the successful experience of pioneering second chance employers around the country, “Untapped Talent” identifies the challenges and opportunities in hiring people who have been marginalized from the workforce. The book covers the realities of our criminal justice system, models of hiring (both successful and unsuccessful), overcoming objections, implementation, refinement and where employers can find the resources. Within the pages of the book, readers will learn more about the business leaders who have led the way in giving people a chance. Beyond numerous lessons and anecdotes throughout the book, an entire chapter is devoted to the case study of an Ohio manufacturer, whose business and company culture were transformed by this experience.
Why this matters: The United States has 19 million people with a felony conviction, including one in three Black men. Along with the additional tens of millions burdened with misdemeanor convictions, “people with records” represent an enormous underutilized labor resource.
- On a macroeconomic level, higher workforce growth drives faster growth for everyone. The United States, and virtually the whole world faces a demographic challenge ahead. Our best opportunity lies in bringing marginalized workers into employment and giving them a chance to be as productive as possible.
- On a company level, using the model explained in the book, second chance employees are on average more engaged and more loyal, leading to lower turnover costs and higher productivity. Contributing to a worthy social cause in this way makes companies more attractive to investors, employees and customers alike.
- On a societal level, this is the right thing to do, one of the most important ways businesses can engage in solving social problems. When people who have made a mistake and paid for that error continue to suffer the penalty of workforce barriers, we create injustice, reduced public safety, family dysfunction, and intergenerational poverty. As a country, we cannot hope to get to equality of opportunity across racial lines, until we offer people the opportunity to move beyond their worst moment. Second chance hiring is the solution. The road to a better society must be paved by the business community, and “Untapped Talent” is the map.