The pandemic, coupled with today's record-breaking quit rates and sluggish job growth, has challenged already-strapped SMBs with adapting strategies to stay afloat. Even amid reductions in resources and staff, JPMorgan's latest report reveals 83% of midsize and 71% of small businesses remain optimistic about 2022. In fact, many are implementing wage increases, flexible hours and new health benefits to entice talent; but these types of perks aren't enough to give SMBs the needed boost in hiring, onboarding and employee retention.

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To bounce back and survive in our new workforce climate, SMBs must look beyond benefits and improve how and who they hire. A critical piece to this equation is ensuring the right hiring practices and tools are in place.

Do SMBs need to change how they're hiring? If so, how can they utilize HR tech to make the hiring process more efficient?

SMBs aren't always equipped with dedicated HR teams, forcing executives to wear many hats. This includes managing the hiring process—from reviewing applications to holding interviews to onboarding new employees. SMBs have an opportunity to revamp outdated hiring practices by turning to smarter tools that improve hiring efficiency while cutting recruitment costs. These tools can be seamlessly integrated into their HR and operations ecosystem, providing a comprehensive view of candidates' background and their status in the hiring process.

Integrating next-gen HR tech into hiring protocols also frees employees from administrative tasks, allowing them to be more productive with their time. In fact, 70% of small businesses in the U.S. handle HR functions on an ad-hoc basis in addition to their primary job—some spending more than 13 hours a week on human resources tasks, taking significant time away from their core responsibilities. SMB executives must turn to automated tools to improve hiring efficiency, including optimized background check technology that can speed up the overall process, cut costs and time, and even expand diversity.

What role do SMBs play in creating a more equitable workforce?

Over the last two years, the expectation for American businesses to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts among their workforce, policies and practices has grown exponentially. Many SMBs operate at the center of diverse local communities, creating a responsibility for them to employ and support their community members of all different backgrounds. More than half (62%) of small business owners already plan to invest in more DEI initiatives in 2022, but to reach a truly diverse set of workers, SMB leaders must incorporate fair chance hiring.

Like many larger employers, SMBs may be missing out on an entire population of qualified candidates to fill new workplace demands and open job seats. Business leaders must expand their talent pool to include those who have been historically excluded—such as the 77 million Americans with criminal records. In fact, 75% of workers expect their employers' values to match their own and prioritize those with values committed to fighting workplace discrimination (85%) and racial justice (74%), which can be tackled through fair chance hiring and ban-the-box practices.

Can you elaborate on fair chance hiring, and why it's critical to getting our economy back on track?

A criminal sentence should not be a life sentence to unemployment. Far too often, millions of workers experience the stigma of having a conviction history—facing restrictions in employment, licensing, housing and more. These limitations are damaging for our economy; helping these Americans find work is an essential part of lowering recidivism rates, rebuilding our local communities and revitalizing the economy.

During this time of nationwide talent shortages, fair chance hiring programs open up the talent pool to more qualified candidates, particularly helping small and midsize businesses to bounce back. We're proud to say that in 2021, Checkr and our customers unblocked more than 2.5 million fair chance candidates who were seeking meaningful employment, which in turn bolsters businesses' diversity, equity and inclusion.

What benefits do SMBs see to implementing new hiring practices, such as fair chance?

We recently commissioned a survey to understand workforce perceptions and benefits of fair chance hiring. In the Fair Chance Hiring Report, executives reported that fair chance talent are usually more productive and higher performing workers that stay at the company for longer than their counterparts.

In addition, these executives also reported that adding diverse fair chance talent to their teams trickled down to improve morale across their workforces.

Research shows that most employees would be more engaged at work if their employer improved DEI, and another report found that diverse teams also see higher levels of retention. All this culminates in financial reward as companies with a more diverse workforce outperform those without by 36% in profitability.

Beyond business benefits, fair chance programs have a positive impact on society. As more organizations of all sizes adopt this approach to hiring, we will see lower unemployment rates, reduced recidivism and flourishing businesses that are actively supporting their local communities. Fair chance hiring is one step small businesses can take to solve larger workforce and societal challenges.