Fair Chance Advisor Series

The Fair Chance Business Advisor Series is a hands-on series that equips employer-facing teams with the tools to help companies modernize hiring and access new talent pipelines.

About the Series

The Fair Chance Advisor Series is a cohort-based model designed for employer-facing staff at workforce boards, business associations, or training & job placement organizations.

The Series provides practical guidance and interactive activities to help prepare participants to advise employers on recruitment and hiring of people with past conviction records. The content covers employer engagement, hiring and background screening practices, and candidate assessment strategy.

The Series is undergirded by the Fair Chance Navigator, which hosts dynamic resources and tools to effectively implement hiring practices and build employer champions.

Series Highlights

Employer Engagement

Build the case, language, and resources to encourage companies to recruit and hire candidates with past convictions

Hiring Strategy

Become fluent in best practices to provide technical assistance to employers on interviewing, background screening, and expanding talent pools

Localized Knowledge

Gain insight into your region's unique landscape to help businesses build effective pipelines and navigate local laws and regulations

Access the Fair Chance Navigator

The Fair Chance Navigator platform equips advisors with the knowledge and tools needed to advise employers on Fair Chance employment practices.

Utilized throughout the Series and available as a strategic resource afterward, the Navigator includes extensive guidance on case-making, job postings and interviewing, background screening, individualized assessments, talent partnerships and pipelines, measurement, and incentives.

The Navigator also includes dynamic tools to facilitate employer implementation such as the Background Screening Matrix Builder, Talent Partner Map, Individualized Assessment Process Guide, and Regional Policy Analysis to support advisors as they guide the employer community.

"Being a Fair Chance Employer is the right thing to do. It keeps our communities safer, it positively impacts our customers, and it’s something each of us can easily be a part of."

Monique Williams, American Family Insurance

Case Studies

Philadelphia, PA

After conducting a Fair Chance Implementation Series with local employers, Envoy partnered with Philadelphia Works through funding from PhilaWorks and the William Penn Foundation to design a Fair Chance Employer Engagement Series focused on the regional CareerLink staff. The goal is to empower the Business Engagement team to support the individuals who are utilizing the workforce system by having the language and policy understanding to discuss changes employers can make to hire from untapped talent pipelines.

Envoy launched its first Philadelphia Fair Chance Implementation Series in 2024, bringing together seven Philadelphia area employers collectively representing over 40,000 jobs in the region. These employers will help create examples across multiple industries of how to build, implement, and grow a Fair Chance talent strategy.

South Central Pennsylvania

Envoy trained CareerLink staff in the eight counties served by SCPa Works – Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lebanon, Perry and York – to help employers implement Fair Chance employment practices. Envoy provided the resources necessary to help employers recruit, train, and retain people with past convictions in high-quality employment.

SCPa Works CareerLink Staff were equipped to begin internal conversations with employers on Fair Chance employment, revising and modernizing HR policies and practices, and proactively recruiting candidates with past convictions. Given the relationships between local CareerLink staff and employers in the community, staff is able to determine employers’ stage and interest through ongoing conversation, and use the resources created by Envoy to support employers’ progress toward Fair Chance employment.

Creating Fair Chance Ecosystems

Envoy has worked in communities across the U.S. to build employer-centered ecosystems to drive Fair Chance employment.

These ecosystems focus on employer engagement, convening, and cohort-based learning, driving HR policy change at local companies, facilitating recruiting partnerships between employers and reentry/workforce organizations, and creating champions to drive a culture of Fair Chance employment across the region.

Envoy partners with business organizations, workforce leaders, and local philanthropy on multi-year initiatives to impact tens of thousands of jobs in the region – creating new career pathways for jobseekers with highest barriers to the labor market.

Submit an Inquiry

We'd love to talk to you about bringing the Fair Chance Advisor Series to your organization. To start a conversation, reach out via our contact form or send us an email at navigator@envoy.us.

About Envoy

Envoy was founded in 2017 to offer social impact consulting services that center on implementation. Our Fair Chance Employment practice has its roots in criminal justice reform, workforce readiness and human resource management experiences across our team.

By focusing on policy modernization, proactive hiring pilots, training & culture building, and sustainable community partnerships, we have designed an engagement strategy that enables employers, industries, and influential leaders to expand opportunity and broaden their talent pipelines.

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