Drew Wilson
Businesses struggling to fill open positions may find the workers they’re looking for right in their backyard — if they’re willing to give someone a second chance.
During a panel at the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2022 Future of Florida Forum, second chance hiring expert John Koufos and Fifth Third Bank chief investment strategist Jeff Korzenik spoke at length about the benefits of hiring people with criminal records.
Korzenik said businesses need to shake the mindset that hiring a reformed convict is simply kindness. He said those employees often end up being among the most driven and loyal workers a company can bring aboard.
A lack of available workers — the Florida Chamber’s Scorecard shows about 464,000 open jobs and just 266,000 Floridians looking for work — should make giving convicts’ resumes a second look an even more appealing proposition.
“We [Fifth Third Bank] started examining this issue, looking at what was wrong with our labor force, and it’s been evident for over 10 years. Something is different. Something’s wrong. We’re missing people. And we’re at a time when we can’t afford to miss any talent,” Korzenik said.
“We at Fifth Third have been warning the business community that a talent shortage was coming because if you look, a fundamental issue was stopped having enough babies 20 to 30 years ago, and then that gradual problem became a sudden problem during the pandemic when an estimated 2.4 million Americans retired early.”
Koufos and Korzenik both stressed that while prospective workers shouldn’t be chucked from the candidate pool just because they have a criminal record, they are not advocating for businesses to overlook past convictions completely.
“This is not an act of charity,” Korzenik said. “This is business.”
“We understand all of you will write checks to charities that pull on your hearts, but you’ll only hire someone who can add value to your enterprise and that has to be the baseline for this. … This is not about compromising safety. We’re not saying you have to hire every single person with a record.”
Koufos — a convict himself — has been extolling the benefits of second chance hiring for years through multiple advocacy groups, including Right On Crime. He emphasized that most people with a criminal record “are eager to prove we are better than our worst moments.”
“The business case is there, but there are people you will never know whose generational lives you’ve changed just by simply giving them a job. By simply giving them a chance to realize the American dream,” he said. “That’s probably the most powerful thing that’s happened in my world, because I certainly didn’t think I was going to be in this work when I was locked up.”
One comment
Elliott Offen
October 24, 2022 at 6:53 pm
Republicans and conservatives are notorious for creating the conditions for discrimination based on past error. Just like in the Roman empire they wish for their to be a kind of slave class. Because they can’t do it easily with skin color anymore, they will do it based on “record.” Incarcerated people have the rights and social standing of slaves in ancient Rome. Of course both then and now slaves could be freed but retained the status of “freed slaves.” This was a class below citizen and people were still able to treat them as they saw fit. In Florida, even with a pardon it is “forgive but not forget.” You will be socially demoted for life. Every felony is essentially a life sentence in some way shape or form in the eyes of the Ancient Roman State of Florida.
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