HR More Accepting of Workers with Criminal Records

Read the original article source of this excerpt.

SHRM on 5/10/2021 by Roy Maurer

But too many companies still just ‘talking the talk,’ expert says

New research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the SHRM Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute shows that a majority of HR professionals and business leaders are willing to hire and work with people with criminal records.

People with criminal records—especially those who were incarcerated—face significant barriers to employment. Based on surveys of over 3,400 HR professionals, managers, executives and individual contributors conducted in February and March, the new research found that most believe people with criminal records perform the same as or better than other hires in terms of job performance, dependability, retention and overall quality of hire.

Specifically, 85 percent of HR professionals and 81 percent of business leaders believe workers with criminal records perform just as well or better in their jobs compared to workers without criminal records, and 81 percent of HR professionals say the quality of hire for those with criminal records is about the same or better—an increase of 14 percentage points from 2018, the last time the survey was taken.