If you met Carlos Arceo today, you wouldn’t guess he’d been in prison. He
has a thriving career as second-shift manager at US Rubber
Recycling — a sustainable fitness flooring and
underlayment manufacturer in Colton, Calif. In just over two years since his
release from prison, Carlos has risen through the company’s ranks, earned the
respect of his direct reports and put himself on the path toward a bright
future.
Too many people like him don’t have this opportunity. Nearly 70 million
Americans have a criminal record; and even after they’ve paid their debt to
society, many remain marginalized. Incarceration brands those it touches,
trapping them in a cycle of unemployment and poverty, which can lead to
recidivism. Groups such as the Second Chance Business
Coalition tout the benefits of
second-chance hiring and offer resources that help ease the transition to
employment for people with criminal records and their employers amid a growing
movement of
support
for the practice.
But success requires more than good intentions — being open to second-chance
workers isn’t enough. Success means hiring formerly incarcerated people and
building work environments where they can thrive.
About half of our employees have a criminal record. Since I began
leading the team in April 2019, I’ve learned valuable lessons from working with
them, which I applied when revamping our own second-chance hiring program, newly
dubbed Bounce Back! If your business is
preparing to make the leap to hiring formerly incarcerated people, the following
lessons learned may help you avoid common obstacles to building a positive
environment so your new employees can succeed and your business can grow as a
result.
Check your biases
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I realized early on that we as an organization needed to recalibrate our
expectations and work to eliminate preconceived notions. Hiring Carlos did not
make sense on paper. He was 37 years old when he applied; and he had never held
a job before. Despite the odds, he proved himself an adaptable, hardworking,
smart and highly motivated team member.
Consider how difficult it must be to bounce back after spending time in prison:
Upon release, many of our employees have no money or resources. They may be
alienated from their family; and many must shun former friends to avoid
returning to old destructive habits, leaving them without a support system. The
mental and emotional fortitude it takes to start a new life from scratch and
apply for jobs despite frequent rejection is a strength.
These employees are working toward a fresh start and must not be judged for past
mistakes. Rather, employers should view them as they are now and recognize
their
potential.
Many of the Bounce Back! employees who work with us for more than a year exceed
my expectations — and many surprise themselves, too.
Create a positive work environment
Many employees, regardless of their prior status, feel like they’re in a
fishbowl when they start a new job — this feeling is amplified for formerly
incarcerated people. If second-chance
employees
feel as if others are judging them for their past, their tenure will likely be
short. Make them feel welcome from day one, for who they are now.
Positive reinforcement goes a long way. Our Bounce Back! employees have pointed
out to me that many ex-felons have dealt with negative feedback their whole
lives. Their confidence in their own abilities is frequently low, and it takes
time to build that up. Meet them in a new job with gratitude for positive
actions and gradually entrust them with new responsibilities; and they can begin
to reverse their negative self-conceptions, building confidence in themselves
and trust in the workplace.
Equally important is making sure all employees feel that they’re part of the
team. Integration can be tricky; but we work hard to build a single culture that
focuses on potential. Every one of our employees, regardless of their
background, wants to do their best. And we as a company want to build something
great. By treating the past as irrelevant to those goals, we are building the
future together.
Teach teamwork
Bounce Back! employees tell me that prison is an environment where selfishness
equals survival. Most jobs, however, require mutual support and collaboration.
Being an inclusive team leader and actively seeking contributions can help
resolve that dissonance. Crowdsourcing ideas from our second-chance
employees
has given us useful feedback and made people feel seen, heard and acknowledged.
Encouraging outcome-oriented thinking is another powerful strategy. One way
we’ve done this is to show every employee when and how the team succeeds and
outline learnings from every failure, supported by data. This helps employees
understand how their individual contribution impacts the larger context of team
and company growth.
Get professional help
Many of our employees’ lives changed for the better the day we contracted
psychiatric rehabilitation counselor Nancy Lambert. Before I hired her as
our full-time human resources manager, she came to the factory once a week to
meet confidentially with any of our employees who wanted her help resolving
issues inside or outside the workplace. She also scheduled calls throughout the
day or after hours. Many of our Bounce Back! employees were imprisoned at young
ages and never had the chance to learn the life skills most of us take for
granted. After release, emotions are raw and many of our second-chance employees
struggle to meet the demands of daily life. Nancy brings significant prior
experience working with incarcerated people, and her expertise has made a big
difference in our second-chance team members’ overall success and ability to
contribute to business growth.
Accept that it won’t always work out
I won’t sugarcoat this. Working with second-chance employees is challenging —
and not everyone will be a success story; many fail during the first 90 days. It
takes a while for a formerly incarcerated person to build confidence and foster
new habits to avoid slipping back into self-destructive patterns. The turnover
rate for our second-chance employees is higher than average and can be
heartbreaking. Many employees who don’t work out perform well at first but can’t
keep it up.
I can’t lament the ones who don’t make it, though. Watching and working with
those who succeed at building a new life is enormously rewarding and a testament
to the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity.
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Jeff Baldassari is CEO of US Rubber Recycling — a triple-bottom-line business that manufactures high quality fitness flooring and acoustical underlayment by giving discarded tires a second life and providing employment to a second-chance workforce.
Published Dec 1, 2021 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET