[FoxBusinessNews] Companies are becoming more receptive in the tight labor market.While an increasing number of companies say they are receptive to the idea, many still have major reservations. And that is something the world's largest human resources organization wants to change.
Johnny Taylor Jr, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, has been on a mission for years, urging U.S. employers to stop overlooking folks with criminal records in their hiring. He argued in a FOX Business op-ed nearly four years ago that hiring former offenders is a win-win for both businesses and society.
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Since then, he says, progress has been made in hiring from what he says is a largely untapped source of talent, but not nearly enough.
SHRM released research last year showing 38% of business leaders said they would be willing to hire individuals with criminal records, up from 33% in 2018.
Despite the stigma surrounding the practice, 81% of business leaders said workers with criminal records performed the jobs roughly the same or better than workers with no records at all, 73% found them to be just as or more dependable and 81% of HR professionals believe the quality of hire of workers with criminal backgrounds is about the same or even better.
Taylor told FOX Business former offenders tend to not only stay with employers longer because they have fewer options. They are also less expensive to hire. From a business perspective, he says, it just makes sense to hire from the pool of millions of former offenders when America has more than 10 million job openings.