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Colorado Manufacturer Looks Past Criminal Records When Hiring Workers
When you're looking for work in a tough job market, having a criminal conviction on your record usually makes things tougher.
Unless you're applying at Loveland's Advanced Manufacturing Technology.
There, the owners believe in giving people second chances.
"I like hiring people who want to change," said Rodney Talbot, AMT's vice president for manufacturing and co-founder with president Tom Ingraham.
"They turn out to be the people who come to work every day," he said. "They've been in a worse spot. Coming to work is a blessing."
Advanced Manufacturing Technology builds systems that use air blowers to move bottles through the production line at bottling plants.
The company is growing -- it employs 110 workers and could add 10 more by summer, Talbot said, and it is building a 10,000-square-foot addition to its facility at 3920 Patton Ave. near the Walmart Distribution Center.
Since Talbot and Ingraham started the company in Fort Collins 16 years ago, Talbot said he has followed the practice of looking past criminal records when interviewing people for jobs. "It's not a policy; it's just my personal preference at hiring."
Talbot cited two main reasons for the practice. "One is, my trade is a little bit of a rough trade," he said. People working as welders, millwrights, ironworkers and assembly workers "don't tend to have as clean records as most trades do," he said, adding that he started out doing such work himself.
The other reason is that he believes the criminal justice system is out of control, "busting people for minor things." He said sometimes, people end up serving time for actions that don't necessarily deserve jail time.
And then, "when you come out, you have no prospect of improving yourself," Talbot said.
"Is that fair? They've done their time," he said. "They want to be a part of society. They need a place to work."
Lew Wymisner, assistant director of the Larimer County Workforce Center, said having a criminal record, especially during a labor surplus, "puts people at a disadvantage. It's just that simple."
"It's another barrier to employment, absolutely," Wymisner said.
He said he wasn't aware of AMT's hiring practices but said, "They should be applauded. For whatever reason they're doing it, good for them."
Talbot said he draws the line at "the three evils" -- certain crimes involving harm to women and children. He said he asks applicants whether they've been convicted of those offenses.
He tells them, "If you don't have those three, don't worry about it. We're just doing the background check to make sure."
Fort Collins resident Wes Terry is a temporary worker hoping to get on full-time with AMT. He benefited from the company's attitude about workers' criminal records, even though he didn't realize it.
Terry, 21, said he didn't know about the practice when he went to work there in January. He said he had several misdemeanor offenses as a teenager and ended up spending a year and a half in juvenile detention programs.
He fits Talbot's profile of somebody turning his life around.
"It has been five years since I've been out of jail," Terry said. He spends 50 to 58 hours a week at work, doesn't associate with the friends he had when he was getting into trouble and is talking about going to school to learn an automotive trade.
Talbot said, "The people who come here are looking for real work.
"Come to work sober and want to work hard. That's all I care about."
His hiring practices have served the company well, Talbot said. "I've never regretted making that decision.
"I've never seen anything due to anybody's background cause any issues," he said.
Talbot declined to say how many of his employees have been in trouble with the law but said he has hired a lot. And those workers often are the most loyal, he said.
"We treat people with dignity, and I think they tend to stay."
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