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An interview with Dane Linn, SVP, Business Roundtable of the Second Chance Business Coalition for Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim
An interview with Dane Linn, SVP, Business Roundtable of the Second Chance Business Coalition for Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim
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Second chance hiring is a powerful way to break the cycle of poverty 

A conversation with Dane Linn, SVP, Corporate Initiatives, Business Roundtable
By Ramona Schindelheim
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In this episode of Work in Progress, I’m joined by Dane Linn, senior vice president of corporate initiatives for the Business Roundtable, to discuss second chance hiring and how opening the door to people who are justice-impacted is good for the individual, society, and the economy.

More inclusive hiring is a powerful way to break the cycle of poverty for many Americans. When people are given a fair opportunity to participate in the workforce, our economy and society are stronger.

For the 70 million people in this country who have been touched by the justice system, having a criminal record often makes it harder for them to find employment. For some, a conviction, and even a brush with the law without a conviction, can become the equivalent of a life sentence when it comes to trying to reenter the workforce.

“We’re talking about more people than those who’ve been in jail. Some of these individuals have a minor offense and that minor offense has crippled their ability to seek any employment opportunity,” says Linn.

The Second Chance Business Coalition – an initiative of the Business Roundtable – is committed to second chance hiring, expanding opportunities to jobs, careers, and greater upward mobility for this population.

There are more than 2.3 million people currently behind bars in the U.S. Once released, more than two-thirds of these individuals will likely end up as repeat offenders because they can’t find jobs once released.

Barring individuals who are justice-impacted from the workforce means they have a greater risk of ending up in poverty. It also decreases the amount of federal, state, and local taxes being added to the economy.

“The cost to the U.S. economy, between $78 and $87 billion, is not insignificant. But let’s make no mistake about it, this Second Chance Business Coalition is not just a charitable endeavor. This is a business imperative, important for companies to meet the [talent] supply problem they have.

“It’s important to provide individuals with an equal opportunity to work in corporate America and advance in corporate America. And it’s important to ensure our ability as a country to maintain our economic competitiveness and in some cases not depend or not have individuals depend on public assistance in some cases for which they don’t want to depend on.

“They want to be contributing members to society just as much as anyone else and giving them an opportunity to work in corporate America is one way to do that.”

JPMorgan Chase and Eaton were among the founding members of the Coalition which now totals 52 large companies.

“We’ve all been given second chances. When you talk about it that way with employers – ‘You may not have a criminal record, but at some point along the way you’ve been given a second chance’ – there’s interest in hiring individuals with records.

“We illuminate or illustrate that idea by bringing in individuals to [our] convenings who have actually have a criminal record and hear about the struggles they’ve had, but also that an employer took a chance on them and gave them an opportunity to have a job and what that meant to them and the contributions they’ve made.”

Linn says in addition to making the case for impact of second chance hiring, they provide employers with the tools and resources so they can effectively implement second chance hiring within their own companies.

He says this approach is making a difference.

“Eighty percent of the companies who participate in the coalition now review individual candidates individually without hard stops on certain conviction types and 60% partner or contract with reentry or other organizations to administer the hiring or the support programs for employees with criminal backgrounds.

“I think that’s pretty impressive for four years.”

In our conversation, Linn and I go into details on how companies are implementing second chance hiring and the impact itis having for people who are justice-impacted.

Learn more in the podcast, which you can listen to here or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 362 Dane Linn, Senior Vice President, Corporate Initiatives, Business Roundtable
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.

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