October 2022 Summaries

Your ideal candidates are out there, but optimizing your hiring strategy is crucial to maximize business potential in a challenging hiring cycle. To do so, define clear expectations in job descriptions, leveraging your network, offering training opportunities, and simplifying the application process. By doing so, you'll be able to attract qualified individuals, build a strong workforce, and set your small business up for success in 2023.

The redaction of date of birth (DOB) and driver’s license (DL) numbers in California county courts has caused delays for background check results, hindering both employers and job candidates. A 2021 California Court of Appeals decision restricted access to these identifiers, prompting courts to redact this information from publicly searchable records. Checkr has led efforts to restore access to DOB in court records through Senate Bill 1262, but the bill was vetoed by Governor Newsom due to concerns about striking a balance between public safety and individual privacy. Despite this setback, Checkr remains committed to finding a solution to resolve delays in background checks and ensuring people can work with minimal interruption.

The US is facing an unprecedented labor shortage due to high inflation, supply chain issues, and a lack of workers in the labor force, with 11.2 million open jobs and only 6 million unemployed workers. The shortage is attributed to various factors, including early retirements during the COVID-19 crisis and declining birth rates, which may lead to a smaller workforce in the future. To address this issue, businesses must broaden their hiring scope to build representative workforces, prioritize diversity, and consider non-traditional talent pools, such as those with criminal records who are often excluded from the labor market. Fair chance hiring practices can help solve the labor shortage by providing opportunities for people who have been marginalized or excluded from the workforce due to a criminal record. By adopting fair chance hiring, companies can tap into a vast and untapped talent pool, increase employee retention, and boost productivity, ultimately contributing to economic growth and success.

The trend of climbing the skills map over the corporate ladder is a shift towards acquiring diverse skills across various industries, breaking away from traditional five-year or ten-year plans to climb the corporate ladder. This new approach allows employees to be agile and maintain a wide variety of skills for success, including technical and soft skills. Employers can support this trend by promoting open roles internally, having ongoing conversations about career trajectory with employees, and sponsoring ongoing education. By doing so, employers can foster a culture of skills map climbing that benefits both employees and the organization as a whole, increasing productivity and efficiency while reducing silos and innovation barriers.