Ready To Work Business Collaborative Announces Initiative to Promote Hiring of Long-Term Unemployed and Other Highly Capable Job Candidates

1. 6 West 48th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10036 • 917-519-2642 • www.rtwbc.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:Janet Falk
347-256-9141, janet.falk@rtwbc.org
Ready To Work Business Collaborative Announces
Initiative to Promote Hiring of Long-Term Unemployed
and Other Highly Capable Job Candidates
Corporations Join to Address Need to Recognize Proven Skills
and Remove Bias
New York, NY — January 10, 2017 —
Focusing on the pool of skilled workers who have been seeking employment for longer
than six months, corporations representing diverse industries today joined together and
launched the Ready To Work Business Collaborative (RTWBC), a non-partisan
initiative to help employers achieve their goals by hiring highly capable candidates who
may have been inadvertently overlooked in traditional recruitment. Ready to work
candidates are the long-term unemployed, under-employed, veterans and individuals
with disabilities, as well as opportunity youth, ages 16 to 24 years.
The program responds to a White House call to action in which 350 employers signed
on to address the issue of long-term unemployment. These corporations and employers
are prepared to improve their recruiting processes to identify and hire pre-evaluated,
ready to work talent; deepen their connections with the local community; lower
recruitment costs; and achieve corporate social responsibility goals.
“The Ready To Work Business Collaborative helps businesses by connecting them with
the government agencies and workforce intermediaries that bring qualified and pre-
screened talent and employers together,” said Beverly M. Riddick, Executive Director.
“The Ready To Work Business Collaborative is leading the way for employers to partner
with public and nonprofit workforce intermediaries, as well as colleges and universities,

2. by creating best practices for hiring, and also advocating for policies that benefit the
long-term-unemployed.”
The RTWBC will serve as a convener of best practices, benchmark data and industry
insights regarding public/private partnerships, with the goal of increasing the
employment of ready to work talent. The first of these quarterly events for employers
will be held on March 15, 2017 in New York City.
According to Riddick, research conducted by Deloitte shows that employee groups,
such as the long-term unemployed and veterans, have an above-average retention rate
compared to other employees in the same industry.
Notably, many companies are unaware that aspects of their hiring practices may
present unintended barriers for the long-term unemployed. For example, simple
adjustments to advertisements for open positions, such as referring to significant
experience with a specific skill, rather than current experience, will expand the
candidate pool to include qualified jobseekers who apply for such roles and are not
presently employed.
Employers perceive multiple benefits from implementing this skills-based hiring practice:
50-70% reduction in time to hire
70% reduction in cost to hire
50% reduction in time to train
22-75% reduction in turnover
according to research conducted by Deloitte.
To help increase opportunities for ready to work candidates and institute best practices
in hiring this talent, representatives from a diverse group of corporations and
organizations have contributed financial and knowledge resources and are actively
promoting access to these candidates among their industry peers and other companies,
including:
• Pacific Gas & Electric Company (NYSE: PCG), San Francisco, CA
• PeopleScout, Chicago, IL
• Principal Financial Group (NYSE: PFG), Des Moines, IA
• Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU), Newark, NJ
• Robert Half (NYSE: RHI), Menlo Park, CA
• The Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY
• U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), Minneapolis, MN
• Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), San Francisco, CA

3. RTWBC Advisory Board companies and their representatives are noted below.
Other companies are expected to join the RTWBC in the coming months.
For more information, please visit www.RTWBC.org or contact Beverly Riddick at
Beverly.riddick@rtwbc.org or 917-519-2642.
About the Ready to Work Business Collaborative
The Ready To Work Business Collaborative is a non-partisan business-led organization
that brings together employers who are interested in successfully hiring and retaining
ready to work talent consisting of the long term unemployed, the under-employed,
veterans, people with disabilities and opportunity youth. For more information, please
visit www.rtwbc.org or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Members of the RTWBC Advisory Board:
Company Contact City
Pacific Gas & Electric Company Ananda Baron San Francisco, CA
Principal Financial Group Kerry Gumm Des Moines, IA
Prudential Financial Marietta Cozzi Newark, NJ
U.S. Bancorp Christopher Hill Minneapolis, MN
Wells Fargo & Company Lance LaVergne New York, NY
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