We tend not to think much about how, and why, people get hired. You apply. You interview. You get the job, or you don’t. End of story; at least that’s the way it goes in most of our minds.
Buried in that “simple” process is a set of stigmas and biases that quietly shuts millions of people out before they ever get a real chance.
In the coming months, you will see a lot in this space about Fair Chance hiring, sometimes referred to as Second Chance or Reentry hiring, and hear from our community partners who work in this ecosystem about the challenges they face and the opportunities they provide in an effort to enrich the lives of jobseekers who have been recently-incarcerated, or otherwise impacted by the legal system.
This post kicks off our Fair Chance blog series; a collection of stories, information, and practical examples about what it means to build a more honest, effective, and humane hiring system here in Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Who Are “Fair Chance” Individuals?
“Fair Chance” or “justice-impacted” individuals are those whose lives have intersected with the criminal legal system, whether through arrest, conviction, or incarceration. These might be people who have:
- Served time in a county jail or state prison,
- Been detained pre-trial,
- Completed or remain actively subject to supervision provisions like probation or parole, or
- Faced other legal consequences that now show up in their background checks.
According to peer-reviewed research from the University of South Carolina, about one in three Americans is arrested by age 23.
One in three.
That’s not “some people.” That’s a lot of people, individuals whose lives intersected with the legal system, sometimes briefly, sometimes deeply, who now carry that history with them into every job application. Coworkers. Neighbors. Friends from high school. Family members you don’t talk about at Thanksgiving. People who made mistakes at 18 and are still paying for them at 38.
Often forever.
What Is Fair Chance Hiring?
Let’s first state what Fair Chance Hiring is not.
The practice of Fair Chance Hiring does not call for employers to ignore safety, nor are employers called upon to pretend the past doesn’t exist. And, certainly, Fair Chance Hiring doesn’t mean “hiring anyone no matter what;” it means refusing to let a single line on a form become a permanent life sentence.
Fair Chance Hiring is, at its core, a pretty radical idea in its simplicity: Evaluate people for what they can do, without judging them for what they have done.
Employers who have successfully implemented Fair Chance Hiring into their organizational culture have done so by building hiring systems that:
- Focus first on skills, experience, and fit
- Consider background information later and in context
- Use individualized judgment instead of automatic rejection
Why Fair Chance Hiring Works
Fair Chance Hiring isn’t just the “nice” thing to do; it also makes business sense from an employer perspective.
Research shows that justice-impacted employees are often more loyal, less likely to quit, and just as productive, if not more, than other workers, leading to increased employee retention rates and reduced turnover.
Seventy-three percent of HR professionals say employees with records perform as well as or better than those without.
In other words: this isn’t charity. It’s smart hiring.
Why You’re Going to Hear More About This
Across Cincinnati and Hamilton County, organizations are realizing that the old system doesn’t work. It creates labor shortages and permanent underclasses at the same time. It’s inefficient and unfair, the worst possible combination.
When you give someone a fair chance, rent gets paid, kids get stability, stress levels drop, community ties grow, cycles get interrupted.
If we believe people can grow, learn, and change, then our systems should reflect that. Otherwise, “second chances” are just something we say when it’s convenient.
So, we’re going to talk about it. Openly and honestly.
Join the conversation and share your story in the comments below.
By: Daniel Love, Manager, Workforce Innovation Center at the Cincinnati Regional Chamber & Monika Royal Fischer, Director, The Talent Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati
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