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As leaders scramble to fill roles and combat turnover, a motivated, qualified workforce remains largely invisible. Just weeks ago, 32 women graduated from the Televerde Foundation’s Career PATHS program across Indiana’s women’s prisons. Beyond coursework, they built companies from the ground up and presented business plans and capstones rivaling MBA-level rigor.
Yet most hiring managers will never see their résumés.
This is more than a missed opportunity for individual job seekers. At a time when 75% of employers globally report difficulty filling positions, businesses overlook a talent pipeline that possesses the very attributes they claim to value most. While technical tasks can be taught, these graduates bring the unteachable essentials: critical thinking, resilience and ambition proven through work ethic and retention potential.
◗ The business case for second-chance hiring
The data is clear. Research from the Society for Human Resource Management shows employees with criminal records have longer tenure and comparable job performance to those without. A Johns Hopkins University study found formerly incarcerated individuals demonstrate 13% lower turnover than do traditional hires in similar roles.
That retention advantage should capture executive attention. According to the 2026 Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll, the average cost of replacing a single employee has surged to $45,236. When factoring in lost productivity and training, the cost can easily reach 1-1/2 to two times an employee’s annual salary.
In this environment, workforce stability is a competitive advantage. Second-chance hiring is not a social initiative; it is a strategy for cost control and operational strength.
Programs like Career PATHS produce workforce-ready talent through a model many corporate training programs would recognize — and benefit from emulating. Six months of intensive, project-based learning mirrors real business conditions, building technical capability, professional communication and problem-solving under deadline pressure. These are precisely the skills employers say they cannot find.
◗ What this model gets right
Traditional hiring assumes candidates arrive job-ready, only for employers to discover skill gaps requiring costly onboarding. Career PATHS inverts this model. Women receive workforce preparation before employment begins, including:
◗ Skills-based competencies validated through completed projects.
◗ Professional development spanning communication, collaboration and workplace expectations.
◗ End-to-end reentry support addressing transportation, housing and other employment barriers.
Participants complete the program within 12 months of release, emerging fully trained, immediately available and motivated to contribute.
The capstone requirement deserves particular attention. As a team-based project under tight deadlines, it demands more than analytical thinking. It serves as a proving ground for teamwork, conflict resolution and peer leadership — transferable skills employers consistently struggle to hire and retain. Graduates leave having already pressure-tested their ability to deliver results in complex group environments.
◗ The competitive edge of overlooked talent
Forward-thinking companies are already acting on this shift.
Organizations including JPMorgan Chase, IBM and Microsoft have eliminated degree requirements for many roles, recognizing that skills-based hiring expands the talent pool and delivers stronger returns.
The formerly incarcerated population represents a distinct competitive advantage. While many employers compete for the same shrinking pool of candidates, these individuals offer capability, character and loyalty — qualities that reduce costly churn.
◗ From social program to business solution
Second-chance hiring is often framed around rehabilitation and social responsibility. While important, that framing obscures the core business logic: In a tight labor market, artificial barriers to employment hurt companies more than candidates.
Career PATHS is not asking employers to compromise standards or accept risk. It delivers qualified candidates who have proven their capabilities through rigorous, demonstrable achievement.
The question isn’t whether these women can contribute — the recent graduation answered that. The question is whether business leaders can afford to keep ignoring them.•
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Michelle Cirocco is CEO of the Televerde Foundation.
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