Employment Retention for Formerly-Incarcerated Individuals
CEO provides employment placement and retention services to newly released, formerly-incarcerated individuals. Historically, such programs focused on job placement as the desirable outcome. However, a recent shift in emphasis to job retention requires study and development of additional workforce development techniques. CEO requested: a review of existing research and analogous programs for potentially useful practices; analysis of employment data maintained by CEO; and an identification of commonalities among CEO clients who have held jobs for significant periods. Accordingly, the Team: performed a literature review examining standards, approaches, programs, and existing research; analyzed CEOs internal data to assess the impact of CEO programs on job retention; and conducted a survey of CEO participants who maintained employment at least 180 days to identify characteristics supporting long-term employment and determine what kinds of programs help address barriers to retention. The team found useful common threads among programs and studies it researched, identified issues and opportunities emerging from CEOs internal data, and drew some conclusions from its survey of CEO participants. The Team believes these results will help CEO improve employment retention outcomes among participants.