Authors: Matthew Bruce, Executive Director, Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance, and Steph Dolan, Program Director, Corporate Coalition of Chicago
What do Martha Stewart, Donald Trump and Robert Downey Jr. all have in common?
All have criminal records. While these individuals have gone on to varying degrees of fame and success, many individuals with records are not so lucky. Nearly one in three working-age Americans have a criminal record, and data have demonstrated that justice-impacted individuals face significant barriers to employment. Some of these barriers are needlessly created by employers themselves. Tapping into this talent source by removing those employer-created barriers is called fair chance hiring.
In Chicago, fair chance hiring has garnered increasing momentum and awareness, building on decades of work that community partners have invested in these efforts. In October 2024, three Chicago-based organizations hosted a national fair chance hiring conference. The goal of the conference was three-fold:
- Explore the impact of recent changes in fair chance hiring practice and policy;
- Catalyze new knowledge-building that will advance fair chance policy and practice;
- Grow the emerging research field by connecting seasoned researchers with scholars who are still forming their research and teaching platforms, and by engaging both with justice-impacted individuals.
Nonprofit partners, funders, researchers and fair chance hiring advocates participating in the conference identified three key takeaways and opportunities for this work:
- Accessing Employer Data – There is a profound dearth of data to demonstrate what drives success among fair chance talent and how that success is defined (hiring, retention, promotion, wage growth, etc.). The fair chance industry would benefit from employers who are willing to share this information – even if anonymized / aggregated – and a better understanding from justice-impacted individuals about their interests, skills and requested/helpful supports.
- Changing the Narrative – There was universal agreement among panelists and conference participants that a marketing campaign for fair chance hiring could bear real fruit in dismantling existing stigmas and misconceptions about hiring justice-impacted talent. Whether through documentaries, social media, print media, news coverage, well-known spokespeople, etc., changing the narrative on this topic must move the discussion from the workforce/recruiting space into the mainstream.
- Evaluating Public Policy Efficacy – While studies have been and continue to be done on the efficacy of well-known policies like Ban the Box (BTB) and Clean Slate, additional research could be helpful to compare policies (for example, expungement and BTB) to evaluate which approach more effectively promotes long-term employment stability. Another research angle could study what level of wage support or tax incentives may encourage employers to hire fair chance talent (i.e., how deep should incentives go).
In addition to the three takeaways and opportunities identified, graduate students from across the country combed through the dozens of ideas generated, and drafted research papers exploring ten high potential opportunities to dig into. The resulting report: “Expanding Employment for Individuals with Records: Ten Research Ideas from the 2024 National Fair Chance Hiring Conference” explores four buckets for continued research and support: 1) Changing perceptions, 2) Employer practices, 3) Job Readiness and 4) The Policy environment.
What role can funders play? As we continue to advance our understanding of the benefits and challenges of fair chance hiring, funders play a critical role. Funders can support convening and provide thought leadership by engaging with workforce organizations and leveraging connections in the business and policy worlds. They can help identify major opportunities like the ones shared above and in the October conference proceedings to garner interest and support for these efforts. In addition to serving as thought leaders and funders for research, data projects, policy work, narrative change, etc., they can also look for on-the-ground opportunities to move the field forward by investing in workforce organizations that support justice-involved individuals and encouraging employers to adjust their hiring practices to more effectively hire, retain and advance those individuals within their organizations.
The conference made clear that the makings of a movement for fairness and opportunity are there. And the need is urgent. It’s time to connect the expertise of researchers, workforce organizations, community partners, advocates, and funders to enable more employers to access the untapped talent of individuals with records and open opportunities for millions of Americans.
If you are interested in learning more about research ideas and findings related to fair chance hiring, please contact Steph Dolan at Steph.Dolan@corpcoalition.org (e.g., the Corporate Coalition hosts a virtual “brown bag lunch” every other month to feature new reports and other related initiatives – we’d be happy to add you to the list!). If you are interested in a funder’s perspective on the opportunities and stakeholders in the fair chance hiring space, please contact Matt Bruce at mbruce@cct.org.
