Building a Prison to Workforce Pipeline with Televerde's Michelle Cirocco

[0:50] Demand generation and sales acceleration, "but it's the way that we do it that is the most exciting part...employing 425 women in prison"

[2:30] 2.3m in prison in the United States, 700,000 released each year, 83% will return to prison within 9 years, 76% will be unemployed after a year and the #1 predictor of recidivism is joblessness

[4:20] The formation of the Televerde model - over 25 years, 3,000 have worked there so far while less than 7% have gone back to prison

[7:30] The hiring process at Televerde (getting a GED, typing test, interviews), the onboarding process (akin to a mini MBA, even accredited by the local community college)

[11:45] Starting a 501c3 nonprofit to helping employees transition out of prison - financial planning, health and wellness, resume writing, interview skills, job placement, mentoring, coaching
(Learn more about Arouet at https://arouetfoundation.org/about-us/)

[13:30] 40% of the 200 employees at the corporate office and 30% of the leadership team started their career in prison

[14:45] Some companies use Televerde as a workforce development pipeline - for one client, 4 of their top 10 salespeople started at Televerde

[16:30] Clients include Microsoft, SAP, Adobe, Honeywell - not just about the social mission, but also about results - $8B in revenue for clients over the past 25 years, generated 30,000 sales opportunities resulting in $825M in revenue for one client, representing a 14:1 return on their investment

[18:00] Dealing with pushback from clients

[20:00] Building a "prison to workforce pipeline" - there are other companies, but few like Televerde that provide work both in prison and afterward and even fewer that create knowledge workers

[22:55] Plans to scale up - 10,000 life changing opportunities in the next decade

[24:00] Why we need to "ban the box" about criminal records on the job application - 1 in 3 have a criminal record and they have an unemployment rate 25% higher than average

[27:00] Making employing the formerly incarcerated part of your diversity and inclusion efforts

[29:30] Michelle's career path - finding her way to Televerde "the traditional way" ... through prison

See Michelle's talk (along with other Televerde employees, as well as a Televerde client) recorded from the main stage at Conscious Capitalism 2019: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenge-business-leaders-michelle-cirocco/

Learn more about Televerde at https://televerde.com/

Find Michelle on twitter @mcirocco or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellecirocco/

...and if you're ever in Phoenix, stop in for a tour!