C1S2: What Makes a Great Employment Partner?
What makes a great Employment Partner is less about what you do and more about how you do it. For example, if you’re a manufacturing company simply looking for a way to quickly pad your workforce with cheap labor, this process is not a good fit for you. However, if you believe that the value and valuing of quality workers is worth investing in, you’re our kind of Partner. Ultimately, great Employment Partners are integrity-filled people who care just as much about the means as the ends and share our essential DNA summarized in the acronym “ACE”.
Available
It probably goes without saying, but Employment Partners should actively need employees and be prepared to hire them at a sustainable, living wage should they think they’re a good fit for employment. “Available” however, doesn’t just describe the availability of a position at your business. It also applies to the time and ability to be actively involved in this Partnership process.
Mentorship, between communicating and engaging with Mentee as well as periodic check-ins from TRP, can take an hour or 2 per month. More time may be needed as your Mentee gets closer to release and is potentially starting their job with you. Additionally, we ask that the mentor be a single person (not multiple people) who: (1) has decision-making authority in the hiring process, (2) understands the company vision and culture, and (3) who can, ideally, continue to tend to a professional relationship with the TRP Fellow well after they’ve started their job. This person tends to be a business’ CEO/founder/owner, HR representative, or higher-level manager.
Committed
Employment Partnership can be extremely rewarding and beneficial, however it is not something to be entered into lightly. Many of our TRP Fellows have come from backgrounds and situations where abandonment and being forgotten about were common. It is essential that Employment Partners do everything in their power to commit to their role. This commitment creates critical “relational deposits” with the Mentee, showing them that you care about their well-being and future. Forging a connection like this is instrumental to the mentoring/employment process being a success.
Empathetic
Before prison, in prison, and after prison, our TRP Fellows have experienced and will experience difficult circumstances that often require greater empathy and understanding than more traditional hires. For example, TRP Fellows may need their shifts arranged so they can do a required drug test, have their parole officer check in on them while at work, or be working through other hardships related to reentering society after prison (e.g. housing, transportation). To be clear, we are not asking you to excuse or pretend these individuals have not committed crimes or make extravagant accommodations for them. Your empathy can and should have boundaries. In this case, empathy is more about understanding the context of their situation and still choosing to see and support the potential inside of them.
As we’ve shared before, great Employment Partners don’t have to be perfect or come into the process without any anxieties or reservations. Chances are, if you truly value people and can get behind our “ACE” DNA (Available, Committed, Empathetic), you’ll be a great fit!