Industry Leaders in Fair Chance Hiring: Union Pacific Corporation (3/4)
This post is part of a four-part series featuring case studies of companies leading in fair chance hiring efforts. To be notified about future posts, follow our LinkedIn, and to read the full report, click here.
Fair chance hiring reduces recidivism rates and helps businesses improve their bottom line. That’s why we we’ve provided a rundown of the top-performing companies in fair chance hiring in our last blog post and our 2023 Criminal Justice Report. To celebrate Second Chance Month this April, we’ll be using case studies to answer an important question for companies and responsible investors: What makes a company an industry leader in fair chance hiring?
Union Pacific Corporation was spotlighted in our 2023 Criminal Justice Report for how the company jumped in our ratings—from 35th to 5th in just one year—due to them implementing their second chance hiring program at the end of 2021. Read on to learn more about how they became a leader in fair chance hiring:
Commitment to Fair Chance Hiring: Less than 1/3 of the S&P 100 have policies in place to actively recruit justice-involved workers, but Union Pacific is a leader in this small group. Union Pacific Corporation has been a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition, an initiative that supports businesses’ hiring of justice-involved workers, since its creation in April 2021. Union Pacific’s hiring policies encourage qualified applicants with histories of incarceration to apply.
Recruitment of Justice-Involved Workers: Union Pacific is one of seven companies in the S&P 100 that have created their own second-chance hiring initiative. The company developed a pilot second chance hiring program in Houston, Texas that has now been expanded nationwide. Part of the hiring process includes an internal review panel, which allows the hiring team and applicant to discuss the context of the individual’s conviction.
Sharing of Hiring Best Practices: By developing their own second chance hiring program, Union Pacific learned how to best support employee candidates with conviction histories and saw firsthand how fruitful these efforts have been. They have since begun to share the model of their program with other corporations and share insights from the program on their website.
What can you do to support Fair Chance Hiring?
Whether you are an investor, shareholder, or employee, we hope these insights shed light on best practices that companies can utilize to reduce mass incarceration, provide a fair chance for all job seekers, and tap into a diverse, often overlooked, pool of talent. To learn more about how you can minimize your criminal justice footprint and shape your investments to be more fair chance hiring-friendly, check out our data subscription offerings or contact us.
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Sources:
Union Pacific Corporation, Why Work Here
Union Pacific Corporation, Why Should the Transportation Industry Consider Second Chance Hiring?
