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The Business Case for Second Chance Hiring Is Real. It's Also Not Enough.

Jake Shafer·March 25, 2026

MIT Sloan just published the data. Fill rates 25% higher. Turnover 2.7% lower. Retention that outperforms traditional hires.

The business case for second chance hiring is real. And it's still not the point.

What the Data Actually Says

MIT Sloan's research on second chance hiring is worth reading. Staffing firm Kelly launched a second chance hiring pilot at a Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. They screened 1,200 people with criminal records. As long as the charge wasn't related to the job, the record didn't disqualify the candidate.

The result? According to MIT Sloan, not one of those employees was terminated for something related to their criminal record. Zero. And clients who built second chance hiring practices into their pipelines saw fill rates that were 25% higher and turnover that was 2.7% lower than those who didn't.

That's not charity. That's a competitive advantage.

MIT Sloan professor Paul Osterman put it plainly: "Second chance programs are not charity: They are good business, and they work."

He's right.

So Why Are Companies Still Passing?

Here's the thing — most hiring managers already know this. The information isn't the problem.

I've watched companies publicly champion fair chance hiring. They post about it. They put it in their DEI reports. They say all the right things in all the right rooms.

And then a candidate's record shows up in the background check — and quietly, without fanfare, the process stalls. The email goes unanswered. The role gets filled by someone else.

The mission statement stays. The candidate goes.

That's not a data problem. No ROI argument fixes it. No tax credit closes it.

It's a belief problem.

If you don't actually believe the person in front of you has done the hard work of rebuilding — that they are more than what they did — then the numbers won't move you. You'll find another reason.

The Gap Between What Companies Say and What They Do

Real talk: most companies aren't short on information about second chance hiring. They're short on conviction.

And conviction doesn't come from a white paper. It comes from proximity.

It comes from actually meeting someone who served time, spent years developing a skill set, and walked into your building ready to contribute — not asking for sympathy, just asking for a shot.

That's a different experience than reading about retention rates.

This is exactly why the work Persevere does matters so much. They're not just training developers. They're training people who have already proven something most candidates never have to — that they can do the hard thing, sustain the long thing, and come out still standing.

Their graduates walk into interviews having cleared more barriers to get there than most hiring managers will ever fully understand.

Why This Matters to Us at Banyan Labs

At Banyan, we sit at the intersection of engineering excellence and human potential. That's not just a tagline — it's the actual tension we operate in every day.

We know what it takes to build world-class software. We also know that world-class talent doesn't only come from the places most companies think to look.

The tech industry has a talent problem. It also has a perception problem. And those two things are connected.

There are developers right now — skilled, motivated, ready — who can't get a first interview because a checkbox on an application form says no before the conversation ever starts.

That's a systems failure. And at Banyan, we don't just talk about systems failures. We build solutions to them.

What This Actually Means for Employers

If you're a hiring manager or a company leader reading this, here's where I'll land:

The MIT Sloan data is permission. It tells you this is smart business. Use it to make the internal case, get budget approval, update your hiring process — whatever you need.

But don't let the business case be the only reason you open the door. Because business cases get revisited when budgets tighten. ROI arguments get challenged in Q4. The employer who hired because of a tax credit stops hiring when the tax credit changes.

The employers who show up consistently — year after year, candidate after candidate — are the ones who actually believe the person in front of them deserves the opportunity. Full stop.

That belief is what closes the gap.

Key Takeaways

  • The data is on your side. Second chance hires demonstrate higher retention and fill rates than traditional pipelines, according to MIT Sloan research.
  • Information isn't the bottleneck. Most companies already know second chance hiring works. The gap is conviction, not data.
  • Proximity changes perspective. Meeting someone who has done the work of rebuilding is a different experience than reading about it.
  • Build a real pipeline. Posting about fair chance hiring without partnering with organizations that train and place candidates isn't a strategy — it's a press release.
  • The business case is the door. Belief is what keeps it open.

If your company is serious about hiring developers who are ready to work and motivated to prove it, Persevere graduates are worth your attention.

Reach out to the Persevere team at perseverenow.org — or contact us at Banyan Labs and we'll make the introduction.


References
Sommers, M. (2024, July 18). The bottom-line benefits of second chance hiring. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/bottom-line-benefits-second-chance-hiring

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