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Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

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Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#41

Post by ilovetux »

As a felon myself working in tech, I find this attitude refreshing. It could work in IT...but would require significant changes to how things currently work. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth it to restructure entire organizations to benefit the disenfranchised, but my instincts are telling me that it would add a reddish hue to the bottom line and thus is unlikely to be adopted.

I do think that this sort of attitude could add value and blacken the bottom line if applied to many other types of industries (eg. construction, manufacturing, machining, food service and much more).

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#42

Post by Kalium »

ilovetux wrote: post #41

As a felon myself working in tech, I find this attitude refreshing. It could work in IT...but would require significant changes to how things currently work. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth it to restructure entire organizations to benefit the disenfranchised, but my instincts are telling me that it would add a reddish hue to the bottom line and thus is unlikely to be adopted. I do think that this sort…

I suspect this practice would take the expected time from hire to productive from maybe 1-3 months to 1-3 years. This seems likely to be an expensive prospect, and that's if we assume every single person makes a good engineer.

Based on the comments of others, I suspect this approach is most useful in a business where you have positions at a variety of skill levels. In IT and tech, the base skillset required can be substantial.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#44

Post by pc86 »

Unbeliever69 wrote: post #26
aturley wrote: post #2

I've half joked about doing this for technical positions. I think to make it work you'd need: 1. A strong management system in place that's committed to helping folks succeed. 2. A willingness to honestly evaluate people and let them go if they aren't working out. I've seen enough bad hires even in places that have well planned hiring processes that I'm having trouble believing this would be any worse.

I hire for a tech company and never background or drug check my employees.

Honestly not sure what that has to do with the discussion here.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#45

Post by pc86 »

ilovetux wrote: post #41

As a felon myself working in tech, I find this attitude refreshing. It could work in IT...but would require significant changes to how things currently work. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth it to restructure entire organizations to benefit the disenfranchised, but my instincts are telling me that it would add a reddish hue to the bottom line and thus is unlikely to be adopted. I do think that this sort…

If the overall effect is cost-negative, what is the incentive for a company to spend more resources to hire "the disenfranchised" (felons)?

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#46

Post by pc86 »

barry-cotter wrote: post #6

> People who are given a job start off as apprentices, during which they go through a 10-month job training and life-skills course. Around half the people who begin an apprenticeship choose to complete it and stay at Greyston, and when they do, they’re then assigned an entry-level job–working the mixing machines or overseeing the slicing and packaging of different-sized brownies for distribution. They pay minimum wag…

Who is TheZvi and why should we care about what he's talking about? Especially when the about page is still the default WP about page...

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#47

Post by ThrustVectoring »

Kalium wrote: post #42
ilovetux wrote: post #41

As a felon myself working in tech, I find this attitude refreshing. It could work in IT...but would require significant changes to how things currently work. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth it to restructure entire organizations to benefit the disenfranchised, but my instincts are telling me that it would add a reddish hue to the bottom line and thus is unlikely to be adopted. I do think that this sort…

I suspect this practice would take the expected time from hire to productive from maybe 1-3 months to 1-3 years. This seems likely to be an expensive prospect, and that's if we assume every single person makes a good engineer. Based on the comments of others, I suspect this approach is most useful in a business where you have positions at a variety of skill levels. In IT and tech, the base skillset required can be su…

>if we assume every single person makes a good engineer.

Not every person makes a good engineer. The US Army, with very good reason to train anyone who is willing, has decided that anyone with an IQ under 83 is not able to be trained to any position.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#48

Post by ilovetux »

pc86 wrote: post #45
ilovetux wrote: post #41

As a felon myself working in tech, I find this attitude refreshing. It could work in IT...but would require significant changes to how things currently work. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth it to restructure entire organizations to benefit the disenfranchised, but my instincts are telling me that it would add a reddish hue to the bottom line and thus is unlikely to be adopted. I do think that this sort…

If the overall effect is cost-negative, what is the incentive for a company to spend more resources to hire "the disenfranchised" (felons)?

There would indeed be little incentive for a lot of businesses (specifically IT but also others). There are, however, other industries where this sort of career path already exists and with less rework could implement an "open-hire" program.

Edit: I didn't really address your question. While there would be little incentive, there would not be none. For instance

a better public image (like being an equal opportunity employer, but even more so)

I believe they would end up with a more loyal workforce (but this is debatable and even if true it would be difficult to quantify)

but...

They might also upset existing employees who were hired under a more traditional process

There would be less incentive to pursue higher education if this were common practice

In short...I am tempted to look for a way to make it work, but also torn because I know that the needs of the business take a backseat to philosophical ideals. I do, however, believe that this could be implemented in certain industries and be a net-benefit to all

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#49

Post by aturley »

teilo wrote: post #4
aturley wrote: post #2

I've half joked about doing this for technical positions. I think to make it work you'd need: 1. A strong management system in place that's committed to helping folks succeed. 2. A willingness to honestly evaluate people and let them go if they aren't working out. I've seen enough bad hires even in places that have well planned hiring processes that I'm having trouble believing this would be any worse.

You forgot #3: A company with a lot of cash, and a lot of time to waste. I really don't think this can work. Whenever we post for a position, I get flooded with a bunch of garbage resumes from people who barely have an idea what programming is. We have work to do, and deadlines. We literally can't afford to turn ourselves into a technical training school.

So, I actually thought about including "enough of a cash buffer to survive a few bad hires", but the more I thought about it the more I remembered how much time was wasted on folks who made it through the interview process but didn't work out. Lots of companies are wasting money hiring folks with no plan for how to retain them or get them to work effectively. If you've solved this problem then good for you.
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