HR Tip of the Week: Global Trends in Second Chance Employment
Much attention has been focused recently on second-chance employment in the United States. Amid discussions, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) “is committed to learn more about how countries around the globe have addressed second-chance employment, so we find responsible ways to bring the formerly incarcerated back to the workplace while ensuring worker and customer safety.”
With major labor shortages in industries such as construction, retail, and hospitality, employers are taking a second look at “second chance employment” to those with a criminal record. Consider factors such as nature of offense, time elapsed and type of job in question when deciding the appropriate type of criminal history inquiries.
Internationally, second-chance employment depends on a country’s background-check laws, data-privacy laws and laws banning discrimination on the basis of conviction history, according to Darren Gardner, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in San Francisco. Read up on the laws and best practices for second chance employment in other parts of the globe here.