JPMorgan & Chase Co. pilots equitable hiring program

October 1, 2024 7

WILMINGTON —JPMorgan & Chase Co. and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) will be launching an equitable hiring initiative to shore up Wilmington’s workforce by working with 10 employers to train them on updated screening processes to help reduce barriers to employment.

The RBIJ is an organization that started with a coalition of lawyers, businesses and government leaders focused on seeing change in their communities through focusing on social justice initiatives. With undisclosed funding from JPMorgan & Chase Co., the RBIJ will develop a program that will work with select businesses for four months to identify barriers in their hiring processes and work to minimize them through training.

“JPMorgan & Chase is proud to support the Delaware Equitable Hiring Initiative, a project that strengthens our portfolio of systems-change investments to advance inclusivity and opportunity in the workplace,” JPMorgan & Chase Co. Delaware Market Leader Tom Horne said in a prepared statement. “As an employer that actively prioritizes inclusive hiring, we know how targeted resources can transform lives and business success.”

While the hope is to grow the program so it can stand on its own with city and state leaders, the initial focus is to help those who live in the Zip Codes 19801, 19802 and 19805 (Riverside, Edgemoor and Elsemere) achieve a possible long-term career.

“We know there are 63 people for every 100 jobs in the state of Delaware. We have the people, and it’s about figuring out a mechanism to train up the individuals who are living in Wilmington and connecting them with those opportunities,” said Jac Rivers, the Vice President Program Officer with the JPMorgan & Chase Foundation. “There are concentrated pockets of poverty in the city, and we want to serve the most vulnerable populations we can.”

In particular, the Wilmington equitable hiring initiative hopes to target the city’s “hidden workers,” or those who are not actively working because they cannot access training opportunities or have the right credentials. The term was coined by Harvard Business School in a 2022 study, which notes that the category does not represent a single group with a similar background. It includes caregivers, veterans, immigrants, those with physical disabilities and the neurodiverse, among others.

Harvard Business School estimated that there are 27 million hidden workers, as of 2022. Rivers added that the equitable hiring initiative also fits neatly in JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon’s interest in reducing employment barriers for those with a criminal record, although the pilot is not focused solely on that population.

“At the end of the day, this won’t be a JPMorgan effort or an RBJI effort, this will be a Delaware effort,” Rivers said. “We’re calling all partners to invest in this because this is a statewide problem. Creating access to employment and a sustainable wage is important, so we want to collaborate with our partners to help so we can build this capacity as a local program.”

Businesses involved in the equitable hiring initiative will also receive technical assistance and connections to industry experts as well as opportunities for peer-to-peer mentorship. From there, JPMorgan & Chase Co. and the RBJI will work on developing a customized training program for each business enrolled in the pilot for their employees.

The pilot program will include 10 businesses paying employees roughly $20 per hour. The first partners to join the cohort are the Delaware Transit Corporation, which manages the DART buses, as well as the Delaware Department of Human Resources.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. also plans on reaching out to the community to ensure that Wilmington residents and businesses have a voice in how the initiative is shaped for the future. The company has already tapped a small group of people with connections to the community to give input as well as design a framework for the pilot and plans are in the works to start a survey to understand the exact employment barriers that exist in Wilmington, Rivers said.

For more information on how to get involved with the Delaware Equitable Hiring Initiative, visit rbij.org/delaware-ehi.