The Honest Jobs Solution
Honest Jobs is building a nationwide ecosystem that connects millions of jobseekers with thousands of employers. In more than 230 correctional facilities across the country, people can use tablets to connect to the company’s platform through ViaPath and Aventiv/Securus networks. People preparing for reentry access it 10,000 times per day.
More than 1,000 employers are on the Honest Jobs platform, with more joining daily. Some have well-established fair chance hiring policies and are using Honest Jobs to scale their efforts. Others are looking for ways to modify or undo internal policies that intentionally or unintentionally have placed limits on the employment opportunities they offer to people with criminal records.
Honest Jobs is also partnering with community organizations, including nonprofits and institutions of higher education, to expand its capacity to help incarcerated people find jobs.
Jobseekers can use the Honest Jobs platform free of charge. They enter their criminal histories when they create accounts, however, Honest Jobs doesn’t share people’s records with employers. Instead, it runs the information through a proprietary system called ConflixAI, which generates color-coded job listings that rate employment opportunities based on the likelihood that a particular user will pass a job’s background check. This approach reduces wasted time and enables users like Alejandro to avoid the frustration of seeing offers rescinded.
Employers can post jobs for free with the option to pay for priority placement in search results. They can also choose the highest tier of service, through which they work with a team of dedicated Honest Jobs recruiters who are all certified in fair chance hiring. The company’s recruiters source and vet candidates on the employer’s behalf and support the candidates throughout the hiring process and their initial periods of employment.
Impact
According to Honest Jobs, people with criminal records who use its platform find jobs seven times faster than they would using job boards designed for broader populations of jobseekers, and their wages are an average of 2.5 times higher than the pay they’d receive if they found jobs through other platforms.
People who have found work via Honest Jobs earn an average of $36,440 per year to start, and most of them find full-time jobs with benefits. Nearly 40,000 jobseekers are on the Honest Jobs platform, and more than 1,000 new users join every week.
Employers report that expanding their recruiting efforts by proactively reaching out to people with records increases the volume of applications they receive. It also diversifies their applicant pools, helping them meet diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. And on top of those benefits, they’ve found that offering job opportunities to people who other employers might disregard or overlook increases employee loyalty and staff retention rates. From Fortune 50 companies to nonprofits, municipalities, and small, local businesses, employers across the country and in all sectors of the economy say that hiring via Honest Jobs enables them to address talent challenges.
JFF’s Commitment to Fair Chance Hiring
At JFF, we believe that supporting the millions of people with criminal records who face barriers to education and employment is an essential part of our mission to drive transformation of the U.S. workforce and education systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all.
JFF's Center for Justice & Economic Advancement is driving reforms to eliminate barriers and create conditions that give people with records a fair chance to pursue careers that match their talents and aspirations. The center works closely with partners to advance efforts to provide critical services to people with records and expand access to education and employment opportunities that enable them to engage in their communities and succeed in their careers.