Best Practice: Hiring Ex-Convicts (The Case of 2010 Olympics)
Background
Besides medals, flower bouquets were the complementary appreciations given to every winner of the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver. 58 florists had competed for the position to supply the flowers and in the end the committee picked two Surrey-based flower stores, one of which, Just Beginnings Flowers, hires and teaches floristry to female ex-convicts.
With around 650,000 ex-offenders being released from American prison each year, the success of the ex-offenders’ reintegration project has never been so vital. Not only do they face discrimination when applying for a job, but their prospect to get hired also depends on the unemployment rate. These threats will lead them to recommit crime and be imprisoned. Therefore, companies, having the financial and educational resources, should contribute to the enhancement of society by hiring them and making the best out of them.
Why Hiring Ex-Convicts?
First, the best practice of hiring ex-convicts involves a more far-reaching diversity dimension because it goes beyond the other extensively researched ones (e.g. gender, ethnicity, or age). Second, it concerns the humane part of a company’s HR policy, allowing an organisation to offer ex-offenders a second chance and the opportunity to rebuild their lives. As such, it stretches beyond a company’s hiring, training, and retaining policies. Third, due to the provocative nature of the issue a rich analysis of the benefits and downsides in both business and society is feasible. Finally, the success stories of ex-offenders who have turned their lives around for the better, renouncing the common saying “once a criminal, always a criminal,” are so inspiring that this topic cannot be left untouched.
Strengths (for Company & Society)
First, it concerns the financial matter. By giving the rehabilitated ex-offenders a second chance a company may gain dedicated, motivated, and grateful...
