#4 - Megan Mauro: Second Chance Hiring & Unlocking Talent for Texas Businesses

Welcome to Bills and Business, your go to podcast for the latest developments in Texas legislation in business. I'm Laura Carr, co-founder of USLege for Texas Startup and very happy to be partnering with TV for the start of our news organization. Today, I'll be speaking with Megan Mauro, executive vice president of the Texas Association of Business, about something you might find surprising from the business community second chance hiring.

Specifically, we'll be talking about the Texas Second Chance Employers Coalition by the TV Foundation starting in 2021. Okay. I'm very excited to have you again on the podcast. I'm so excited to welcome Megan Mauro, executive vice president of the Texas Association of Business. And, Megan, it has been so fun working with you so far with Texas Chamber Business News and, you know, our lunch we had a couple months ago has blossomed into now podcast.

And so it's just been such a pleasure working with you. Thank you for coming on today. Well, thank you so much for having me. And it's been great working with you. And I was really just got this idea from our CEO and talking to you over that lunch. And I knew that if anyone could make it happen, it would be the U.S. lunch team.

And to be so happy to be here. So I would love to know a little bit more about the Texas Second Chance Hire Coalition. And if you could explain to our listeners what that, what that is. Yeah. So second chance hiring is simply businesses that hire people that have either been impacted by the criminal justice system or have been formerly incarcerated.

I know this is an issue you're really passionate about, so I would love to hear more about your background so our listeners know how you got involved in the Second Chance Hiring Coalition? Absolutely. I would love to answer that. So I don't have a background in criminal justice policy at all. And the good thing about working for a broad business association, like to be, is you get to work on a lot of things.

There's a lot of things I'm passionate about. And this one, I am on a personal level because we've all made mistakes. I know I've made mistakes. So that's for a different podcast. Those in business after dark. Shh. uhm, so coming soon. And so but really, we've all made mistakes. Either we got away with it or we just got lucky, with the consequences.

But, I just think it's really important for people to get that second chance when they want it. And so, personally, I'm compassionate about it professionally. It's great for business, and it's the best of both worlds, but all of it. Speaking with my business hat on always. And then to be studying. Because there is a fine line there.

You know, like what policies they support as far as protecting employers, but also allowing them and encouraging them to choose hiring practices that that benefit their their organization. Can you explain a little bit about the TV Foundation? And just for our listeners to it's been it is. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for asking now, because it does get a little bit confusing.

So we're the Texas Association business for the State Chamber of Commerce for a CS6 organization. And our number one goal is to advocate for business issues across the state of the Texas Capitol. Now we do have a TV foundation, which is a, pure education arm where we educate communities and businesses on certain areas of interest. But it is not an advocacy organization.

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We do work hand-in-hand with each other, and our Second Chance Hiring coalition is through the TV Foundation, and we'll talk more about that. So I recently read, your opinion piece on the Texas Second Chance Coalition. Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about it and and what it is? Yeah, absolutely. So there's a second chance employers coalition that's national.

Of course, Texas being Texas. Our members wanted something of our own, which is very important in Texas is a large state. And so this coalition brings employers together that are already implementing second chance hiring initiatives or interested in doing so, and want to be connected with businesses that have done so successfully to learn best practices is and when did you and maybe get involved in this?

And what was that all about three years ago, and a couple of our members brought it forward. So, specifically, I know appreciate the shout out, JP Morgan Chase. As you may know, I, Jamie Dimon, their CEO, has been very vocal and outspoken on the national level about the how they, implement hiring and value that as a, business organization.

And so they really, helped bring this initiative to UAB and, we apply for grants to get seed funding. So thank you, JP Morgan Chase. And then we, we brought in the coalition of different trade groups across our industry representatives across the state, but also businesses in Texas that are operating, successful second chance hiring initiatives.

I know this is something that's changed people listening to their perspective on all the time. What is kind of, you know, change the perspective of a lot of businesses that you've seen lately and hiring new people from who have been incarcerated before. Yeah. Well, I really think that, you know, the information that is out there. And what workforce, you mean, and, the skills that people get while they're incarcerated and when they're reentering the workforce.

And so, and then also hearing from other businesses like JP Morgan Chase, Union Pacific, who are very open about, their second chance hiring initiatives and how it's been helpful for their business. Bottom line. So you mentioned there was a book, that was written by an economist to work for the large scale commercial banks. What was that book?

And I'm glad you asked. It's, top talent cattle. This is one of my favorite books, and I'm not an economist, but I read this and pretend that I am, but it's pretty fascinating. So listeners are probably wondering, you know, we're at work. We're a business organization that represents employers. And for decades we've advocated that employers dictate how they run their businesses, whether that's their internal practices or hiring practices.

So with this coalition, we really, it's it's it's to help bring employers together that I've already implemented that without advocating, you know, for mandates on what employers can do. But this book is by this economist, he works for a large kind of a commercial bank, and he's not a criminal justice focused economist. He's looking at what's best for business.

What he found out was in the United States for a losing a million people a year in our workforce. Right. So that's not available anymore. However we do. And it's really as you can imagine, we're not having kids as many or as early as our character, our grandparents were. And there's some other factors there that I won't get into.

But that's kind of the overall picture. And then we have 70 million people that have been touched by the, the, justice or the justice impacted. Right? Like touched by different processes in some way. So is there any chance hiring isn't hiring prisoners? I mean, some companies do that, may do that constructively. But it's anyone that has, any type of encounter with the criminal justice system or has been incarcerated before.

And so that number, like I said, is 70 million. Why not tap into that talent base, and, and use it to your advantage, as a business. Not to sound harsh or cold, but you and I do represent business. To fulfill your workforce needs of skilled individuals that are loyal and want to work. That is very fascinating.

I'm sure a lot of people are gonna ask this, but how do you filter, you know, the level of crime that someone has committed? Yeah, it's up to the business. So some businesses, and I know this from work with their Second Chance Coalition members. Right. So these are organizations that have implemented these practices. So some their process looks a little bit like, hey, we're not going to include that question in the application.

You ever been convicted or committed a crime. So instead of including that every applicant get to go through the interview process. And that's where they can be asked that question. If if they do answer that question as they would check a box, they have the opportunity to explain what happened instead of just their application being thrown away.

And then some companies have you check that box and so whatever, you know is on your record, but still, meet with you and it's just up to the company on on what? You know, their boundaries are are, what folks center not expect as far as, you know, what's on your record or and how that will impact the position that they're being hired for.

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So as a business owner myself, I'm curious to how businesses can benefit, and our listeners from implementing these practices. Yeah. So, this book is also interesting because the author, the economist. Yeah, that's how he's he's always writing and speaking from the business economic perspective, which is fascinating because typically when people are speaking, they're working on criminal justice issues.

It's not in my perspective. But back to your question. He and I've met with these businesses who who tell me this. And in his book, he gives really great examples as well, because he's traveled around the country and met with businesses who implement these practices. And they'll tell you, and there's even studies by Sherm that the national or the Society of Human Resources, association national level, there's you're going to have or most of the time what we see is it's going to be a very loyal, dedicated employee that knows that they have, you know, they provided a second chance.

And these people want to work, they want to work. And you're going to see that their retention rates are a lot lower. And, and the companies are more engaged with their community as well. And really it because a lot of the community education that goes around someone who's openly speaking about second chance hiring, and it's not in all cases, you know, everyone's everyone cases are different.

The the way that businesses operate, you know, you have different experiences. But that's really the great thing. And the importance of the coalition is that people can talk to each other. And maybe Union Pacific says, hey, we were doing it this way and it wasn't working out. So we changed our hiring practice to this, and that's been working a lot better.

And those businesses are able to communicate with each other and share mistakes. So maybe not everyone has to go through the same thing. Interesting. So what would you say are the main goals that the coalition is looking to achieve? So really educating businesses on best practices, bringing people together and educating communities online businesses that do this, like I don't think a lot of people are realizing that we're losing so many people a year in the United States.

You know, he's a million a year. We're we're not gaining in the workforce. And that there is a way, to allow everyone to be productive or allow more people to be productive. And businesses can play a big role in that if they choose to do so. As I said, TV has operated for decades representing employers. We always will.

And we want employers to choose their, you know, hiring practices. And, this is just a way for them to decide if they want to do that. And we'll be here to support and educate. Wonderful. Yeah. Not me. Anything else? So how can a business owner get involved if they want to start looking using these processes, they can go to our website.

So we have a web page that has, more about the Texas Tech and Chance Employers Coalition. And they can do it. Anyone can join. You don't have to be a member of Tab. And the more people that join the coalition, the better for the members of the coalition. As is always the case with the coalition.

But there's also some resources there as well from the state. So this is pretty interesting. In the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Texas Workforce Commission and Windham School District, which is the district that serves the TDC in Texas. They're all very aware. And so we meet regularly with them. And this is a priority, really for the state agencies.

Even the Texas Workforce Commission has started having an annual conference on reentry. And so that's pretty cool. And, there's a lot of resources that are already out there by the great state of Texas that we have compiled on our landing page as well. And our goal for the coalition is to continue building those resources so both companies can benefit.

And also people looking for work can benefit. Well, thank you so much for a lot of your lightning comments on this topic. That's definitely new to me and I appreciate that. I'm sure, for our listeners to this has been a really enlightening episode, and I learned a lot from what you brought up. I mean, I have to read the book, so I'd love to borrow that from you and any other comments as we close out the segment.

Well, I do encourage everybody to read the book. The author, Jeffrey Christian, who is now a friend of mine, because we through our coalition, we were able to invite him to be a guest presenter, on our first regional event in San Antonio, last summer. And then besides that, he also does a way better job of articulating that than I do.

But I just want to highlight that the reason why an employer, you know, we represent employers or the Texas Association of Business, and I just want to say making more, concisely, this is a workforce issue, and it's a business issue. Workforce is a business issue. And second chances really provide wins across the board. So I think I mentioned this earlier about reducing recidivism.

You know, someone has a job when they reenter, they're less likely to go back to prison. And I think that's pretty obvious. Why? And then, you know, allowing people in the great state of Texas to provide for themselves and their families. And then with my business hat on, very strong employers being on staff to times, you know, and that's what employers want.

And, it just affects everybody. Well, thank you again. Again, it's a pleasure working with you. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. And yeah, thank you for our listeners for tuning in. And be sure to subscribe for future episodes.

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