Removing Barriers to Employment
Susan Gard
Chief of Policy
City and County of San Francisco
Presentation Agenda
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About San Francisco
Centralized Conviction History Program
JobsNOW Program
City and County of San Francisco
 60 Departments
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Varied size
Range of services
 Diverse workforce of 28,000
 City’s largest employer
 Merit system with 1,100 job
classifications
 36 Unions represent employees
 35 MOUs
Centralized Conviction History Program
Program History
 2005: Partnered with All of Us or None
 2005: SF Board of Supervisors passed Resolution to “Ban
the Box”
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City established Conviction History Program
Finalists self-disclose conviction history to departmental
hiring manager prior to offer of employment
 2012: SF Board of Supervisors passed a Resolution to
expand search to include FBI
 2012: EEOC issued enforcement guidance document
 2013: City implemented centralized program
 2013: CA Assembly Bill 218 banned the box for California
public agencies
Why Centralize?
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Eliminate conscious and unconscious
bias by centralizing data collection
and analysis
 Departments/hiring managers never
know about irrelevant conviction
history
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Data collection and analysis done as
final step in hiring
Analysis based on:
 Recency
 Relevance
 Rehabilitation
Analysis in Action
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Departments identify position attributes at beginning of
hiring process
Final candidates fingerprinted
 Results from CA DOJ and FBI
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Recency: If conviction falls within “look-back” period we
then determine relevance
 Look-back since completion of sentence:
• 10 years = felonies
• 5 years = misdemeanors
• Forever = Murder, attempted murder, arson, sex crimes
requiring registry, mayhem*
*Doesn’t mean won’t be hired—just means conviction moves on to relevance
determination no matter how long ago sentence completed
Analysis in Action
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Relevance: Use matrix to
determine whether conviction
is job-related
Rehabilitation: Ask candidate
to demonstrate suitability
based on what they’ve done
since completing sentence
Results
Centralized Conviction History Review
August 2013 - June 2015
Total Reviews
13,982
No Conviction
History
Noted: 90%
(12,612)
Conviction
History
Noted: 10%
(1,370)
No Nexus: 78%
(1,075)
Cleared after
further
review: 20%
(269)
Disqualified after
further review:
2% (27)
98% of candidates with conviction histories hired
Further Research Needed
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Do certain types of evidence of
rehabilitation predict a candidate's
job success?
How do employees fare on the job?
JobsNOW Program
Program History
 2009: Obama stimulus program to assist local businesses,
reduce unemployment and pump money into economy
 2010: Stimulus ended, but San Francisco decided to
continue program on smaller scale with local money
 Program designed to employ anyone regardless of work
experience, education, or job skills
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Tiered approach based on experience and skills
 15,000 people have gotten jobs since 2009
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Over 2,000 this past fiscal year (FY ‘14-’15)
Public Service Trainee Program (PST)
 Participants are clients of City’s General Assistance program
 Human Services Agency (HSA) is employer of record but
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employees work at various departments
HSA provides job placement services for eligible re-entry job
seekers with barriers to employment, including conviction
histories
Designed for participants with moderate to high job skills,
moderate to high soft skills
Participants work 32 hours a week and earn $14.22/hr
Job sites at 13 different City departments and include both
administrative and blue collar positions
Program lasts 6 months, with possibility of two 3-month
extensions
Program Results
 JobsNow participants July 2011 to March 2013 (6 quarters):
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63% employed after JobsNow placement ended
60% employed 3 months after JobsNow placement ended
77% receiving cash public assistance no longer receiving it 1 year
after placement
 Participant average earnings:
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2 quarters PRIOR to JobsNow placement =$2,084
2 quarters POST JobsNow exit = $4,716
126% average earnings increase
Questions?
Conviction History Program:
Contact: Susan Gard
[email protected]
(415) 551-8942
JobsNow Program:
Contact: James Whelly
[email protected]
(415) 401-4960