Commercial consultancy Barkers LLP has become the 100th company to sign up to Business in the Community’s Ban the Box campaign, creating a fair chance for ex-offenders to compete for jobs and helping to break the cycle of reoffending.
In signing up to the national campaign the North West company has joined 99 forward-thinking employers across every business sector including the Civil Service, Barclays, Boots, Freshfields and Virgin Trains who are bringing down barriers to employment, assessing people on their ability to do the job before any convictions are fairly considered.
Warren Kozera, Barkers Partner said: “At Barkers we’ve never had the box, we treat all potential employee as we’d like them to treat us and that starts with integrity. We are honest, open and fair. We have strong morals, underpinned by our code of conduct and our commitment to delivering social value. In our experience by demonstrating trust in all existing and potential employees, loyalty and commitment very quickly follow.”
As well as its commercial consultancy, Barkers runs Lifescape, a social enterprise providing grounds maintenance services across the North West and providing employment opportunities to ex-offenders. Whether candidates will be working for the commercial consultancy or the grounds maintenance service, they go through the same recruitment process.
Having a job can reduce a person’s chance of reoffending by up to 50% and Barkers LLP is leading the way in offering people a chance to turn their lives around while helping to bring down the £15 billion a year cost of reoffending.
Jessica Rose, Business in the Community’s campaign manager said:
“Two thirds of employers admit to discriminating against people with criminal records but the employers we work with recognise the skills and loyalty this diverse group of people can bring to their roles. Removing the barrier of a tick box can make all the difference to someone deciding to apply to your company or not. I’m delighted to see more organisations with a range of roles seeing the benefits of Ban the Box and I hope that Barkers’ move leads to many more companies signing up across the North West.”
Through signing up to Ban the Box and considering whether, when and how to ask about criminal convictions, employers can play a vital role in keeping people out of prison while gaining access to a large and diverse talent pool.
Employers large and small are urged to join Ban the Box to help remove barriers to 1 million jobs across the UK by 2020.
