Giving Second Chances with Spotwork

We spoke with Spotwork about their Second Chances program, which helps give justice-involved individuals work opportunities

While second chances in life don’t come around every day, when it comes to work the same can be said about first chances. In a world in which our ability to find and secure employment is tied to education and experience, a solid dependable past is our passport to success.

But what happens when instead of job experience, your resume includes a criminal conviction? In those cases, doors typically slam shut rather than open up, making even a first chance at getting a job difficult. As Tim Callan, Community Liaison at Spotwork explains, this scenario can be detrimental to both the job-seeker and companies looking for staff.

Tim Callan
Community Liaison
Spotwork

 

Spotwork would know. The company runs an end-to-end staffing, marketplace and workforce management app that helps place workers with companies looking to hire. Recently, the company began to promote the app through a program called Second Chances, designed to help people get the second chance they need.

How Spotwork works

A made-in-Ontario workforce app, Spotwork helps companies upscale and manage their hourly workforces. The app gives companies an opportunity to bring on flexible hourly workers or Spotters with just a couple of clicks. In addition, it a great effective HR recruitment tool. Think no conversions fees, no volume commitments and big cost savings. For Spotters, the company offers flexibility and a way to find jobs besides the broken system of job boards. Whether it’s flexibility or a temp-hire role of finding permanent employment – Spotwork does it all.

When a job is posted to the app, along with the description, job profiles also explain what a Spotter might need to bring to the table in order to get hired. As an example, forklift license.

When a job is posted, compliance files are built into the Spotter profile. So, let’s say a job requires that the applicant have a forklift license. Prospective Spotters can show that they have one before their first shift. They take a picture of their license with the expiry date. This forms part of their living compliance file to ensure their license is always checked and up-to-date.

Similar to the functionality of other apps like Uber or AirBnB, once a Spotter has completed a shift at a job they can rate and review the company and vice versa. “For companies, there's a reliability piece that's built right in”, NAME explained. “Did the person show up on time? Do they apply themselves? How did it go?”

The individual Spotters also get an opportunity to evaluate whether or not the workplace they were just at is a fit. “The Spotter can take a look and ask themselves, ‘is the right work environment for me?’ No two warehouses are alike. It's one thing to imagine what it would be like to work at a place, but it's another to see it in action.”

Essentially, rather than concern themselves with a person’s background, because of the non-committal aspect of the process, people can be hired based on up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings, rather than their past.

It is this simple functionality that makes Spotwork such a powerful tool when it comes to offering second chances for people with criminal records, as mentioned above.

Opportunities for the justice-involved

From coast to coast, the number of people removed from the job pool due to criminal background checks is substantial. In Ontario alone roughly 1 million people have some sort of criminal record, while nationwide that number is close to 4 million. As Tim points out, many of those are for low level charges, often for activity that is no longer illegal.

“A pretty strong estimate appears to be that there are about 500,000 people with minor drug offenses. And, some of those cases are for possession and distribution of something that is now legal.”

Traditionally, when people convicted of criminal offences applied for jobs, they’ve been passed over as candidates, often by companies that have a hard time finding qualified staff—a missed opportunity for both sides. How so? According to the John Howard Society people with criminal records who do get hired for jobs have a 13% lower turnover rate than people without one. As Tim points out, “Individuals given a chance typically stay in a position.” He elaborated:

There are people making the effort to turn things around and take responsibility for their actions. In the case of justice-involved individuals that are demonstrating motivation, reliability and dependability, those are people worth investing in. Spotwork will help them find employment. And we believe they'll turn into tremendous assets for the companies that hire them.

In terms of becoming a valuable asset and helping reduce turnover, hiring justice-involved individuals offers an additional benefit to hiring companies, enhanced public perception.

Another stat from John Howard shows that 58% of Canadians surveyed said they were likely to buy products or services from a company that provide employment opportunities to people with a criminal record.

Second Chances: an untapped pool of talent

Overall, Spotwork’s approach to promoting its app for hiring those with criminal records has two components. One, helping people change their lives with a second chance, and two, helping companies access an untapped pool of talent.

“In terms of the Second Chances program, I'll reiterate that it really is an untapped talent pool of amazing workers. Spotwork has created the unique technological solution to open new labour sources for companies and give thousands of job seekers a well-deserved second chance at work.      If one industry isn't going to gobble these people up, another will. For me, I would suggest you don't want to miss out on the opportunity.

Learn more about Spotwork at ca.spotwork.co.