About Jeffrey Korzenik
Jeffrey Korzenik is Chief Investment Strategist for one of the nation’s largest banks, where he is responsible for the investment strategy and the allocation of over $40 billion in assets.
For more than 30 years, Jeff has been known in the investment management industry for the clarity and originality he brings to complex challenges. A regular guest on CNBC, Fox Business News, and Bloomberg TV, his insights into the economy, markets, manufacturing, and the workforce are frequently cited in the financial and business press.
Jeffrey’s writings on economics and public policy have been published in Barron’s, Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, and other periodicals. He has testified on Capitol Hill as an expert witness on the use of commodity indexes by pensions and other institutional investors.
A leading expert on private sector models and the re-employment of people with criminal records, Jeffrey Korzenik is a sought-after public speaker; he has presented at the Detroit Economic Club, the Executives Club of Chicago, for Los Angeles County’s Fair Chance Hiring Initiative, and at national conferences of the American Bankers Association, the AICPA, SHRM and for numerous other organizations and universities around the country.
With over fifty speaking engagements each year, Jeffrey Korzenik is noted for his ability to distill complex topics to common sense and approachable arguments.
Jeffrey Korzenik is a graduate of Princeton University, with an A.B. in Economics and a Certificate of Proficiency in Near Eastern Studies. A passionate supporter of the arts, he serves as a Trustee for the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago and as an Overseer of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA.
Where to find Jeffrey Korzenik
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Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community
Hiring people who have served time in prison is not only a good cause, it should be a crucial part of your hiring strategy if you want to stay competitive.
It’s time for businesses everywhere to open their minds to second-chance hiring practices. With tens of millions of people in the U.S. with criminal records, companies that successfully implement second chance hiring practices will have a massive competitive advantage over those that do not.
Untapped Talent makes the business case for second chance hiring. From a credible source— the chief investment strategist of one of the country’s leading business banks—this book speaks directly to business leaders to explain the economic case for considering alternative sources of employees. It also shows why companies utilizing second chance hiring enjoy a competitive advantage. Throughout, it will include dozens of examples of businesses (from factories to restaurants to retail) that have successfully implemented this strategy.
Readers will:
- Understand what goes into a successful second chance hire, from the support that will be needed internally to the resources that are available from outside agencies.
- Learn how businesses from a variety of industries have instituted successful second chance hiring programs and how this has positively impacted their culture and bottom line.
- Gain practical onboarding and coaching strategies that will help ensure a smooth transition and a productive, happy new employee.
Untapped Talent shares the business case and best practices of “second chance hiring,” employing people with criminal records. The first and only book of its kind, “Untapped Talent” is meant to inform and inspire business leaders to broaden their hiring to this population. This is a disciplined and realistic look at this issue – not everyone with a record is ready for employment, and even those that are may require additional support. Based on the successful experience of pioneering second chance employers around the country, “Untapped Talent” identifies the challenges and opportunities in hiring people who have been marginalized from the workforce. The book covers the realities of our criminal justice system, models of hiring (both successful and unsuccessful), overcoming objections, implementation, refinement, and where employers can find the resources.
Within the pages of the book, readers will learn more about the business leaders who have led the way in giving people a chance. Beyond numerous lessons and anecdotes throughout the book, an entire chapter is devoted to the case study of an Ohio manufacturer, whose business and company culture were transformed by this experience.
Why this matters: The United States has 19 million people with a felony conviction, including one in three Black men. Along with the additional tens of millions burdened with misdemeanor convictions, “people with records” represent an enormous underutilized labor resource.
• On a macroeconomic level, higher workforce growth drives faster growth for everyone. The United States and virtually the whole world face a demographic challenge ahead. Our best opportunity lies in bringing marginalized workers into employment and giving them a chance to be as productive as possible.
• On a company level, using the model explained in the book, second chance employees are on average more engaged and more loyal, leading to lower turnover costs and higher productivity. Contributing to a worthy social cause in this way makes companies more attractive to investors, employees, and customers alike.
• On a societal level, this is the right thing to do, one of the most important ways businesses can engage in solving social problems. When people who have made a mistake and paid for that error continue to suffer the penalty of workforce barriers, we create injustice, reduced public safety, family dysfunction, and intergenerational poverty. As a country, we cannot hope to get to equality of opportunity across racial lines, until we offer people the opportunity to move beyond their worst moment. Second chance hiring is the solution. The road to a better society must be paved by the business community, and “Untapped Talent” is the map.
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