Fair Chance Hiring as a Talent Strategy: How Checkr.org Is Building New Pathways to Work

For many employers, conversations around hiring often center on shortages: not enough candidates, not enough retention, not enough people with the right skills. 

For Checkr.org, the challenge looks different. The company sees a labor market where talent is often overlooked—not because it is unavailable, but because too many people never receive a fair shot. The company’s unique approach to Fair Chance hiring is expanding the apprentice talent pool to employers while its long-standing commitment to such hiring is inspiring a new workforce model with dedicated partners designed to help other organizations follow suit.

“At the core, I see this as a talent strategy,” said Christina Louie Dyer, who leads Community Impact and the foundation at Checkr.org. “When people are given an opportunity, they show up, they work hard, and they stay.”

A Mission Beyond Background Checks

Checkr is well known as a people data platform that helps organizations make safe and fair decisions across hiring, housing, caregiving, and other trust-based decisions.

But alongside its technology business, the company has invested deeply in community impact work, where Fair Chance hiring has been central from the start.

That focus centers on expanding employment opportunities for justice-impacted individuals; people with records often face steep barriers entering or re-entering the workforce.

“One in three adult Americans has some sort of record,” Dyer said. “If we are leaving out a third of the adult population when it comes to jobs, we are missing so much talent.”

For Checkr, the issue is quite practical.  Employers need reliable, committed workers and many justice-impacted candidates are eager for an opportunity to prove themselves.

“Folks who have a record are often carrying a scarlet letter,” she said. “A lot of people never even get that first chance to demonstrate they would be an incredible addition to a company.”

Turning Commitment Into Action

In 2024, Checkr made a financial commitment to apprenticeships with a specific goal: help more companies take proactive steps toward Fair Chance hiring.

The result was the Catalyst Apprenticeship Program, a 12-month paid, on-the-job learning model designed by Checkr.org to create real workforce pathways while reducing risk and friction for participating employers.

The program first began internally at Checkr before expanding outward to partner companies.

“We had this vision of how we wanted to do it,” Dyer said. “We had interested employers and we had the right partners to help identify talent. But we needed the right ecosystem to make it work.”

Today, that ecosystem includes employers such as Lyft and Aramark, organizations Dyer highlighted as values-aligned participants that are helping demonstrate the real-world success of Fair Chance apprenticeship pathways.

The Power of the Ecosystem

What makes the Catalyst model distinctive is that no single organization is expected to do everything alone. Instead, the program is intentionally built as a coordinated ecosystem in which each partner contributes specialized expertise.

At the center is Checkr.org, which helps fund the model by subsidizing apprentice wages while convening companies committed to Fair Chance hiring. The Last Mile helps identify and prepare talent, connecting qualified candidates with apprenticeship opportunities. TechSF registers the apprenticeship with the Department of Labor. And YUPRO Placement plays a critical operational role as Employer of Record, helping transform a promising concept into a scalable workforce program.

YUPRO Placement manages key employment functions such as onboarding, payroll, benefits administration, and HR processes. But Dyer emphasized that YUPRO Placement’s contribution extends far beyond back-office support.

“They aren’t only an EOR,” she said. “They are an EOR plus so much more.”

YUPRO Placement also provides coaching, guidance, and day-to-day support for apprentices as they navigate what is often their first professional opportunity in a new environment. From answering benefits questions to helping individuals work through workplace challenges, the organization creates an added layer of stability for both apprentices and employer partners.

For participating companies like Lyft and Aramark, that infrastructure helps reduce complexity while allowing internal teams to focus on integrating apprentices, developing talent, and measuring impact.

“We know any of our apprentices can go to the YUPRO Placement team with questions and feel supported,” Dyer said.

In practice, the ecosystem model allows each organization to stay focused on what it does best (talent sourcing, funding, operations, coaching, or hiring) while collectively producing stronger outcomes than any one group could create alone.

Why Apprenticeships Matter

Unlike short-term internships or observational programs, the Catalyst model is built around sustained immersion.

Participants receive a full year of paid experience embedded within teams, building real-world skills while contributing meaningful work. The apprenticeships are also aligned with structured competencies, with some tracks registered or being registered through the U.S. Department of Labor. “The goal is that after 12 months, people come out with the skills to land a full-time job—either where they are or elsewhere,” Dyer said.

For employers, the structure offers a practical on-ramp: access talent, evaluate fit over time, and build inclusive hiring capabilities with support already in place.

For companies such as Lyft and Aramark, participation also signals that Fair Chance hiring can move beyond theory and into a repeatable workforce strategy.

A Business Case Employers Can Understand

While Fair Chance hiring is often discussed through the lens of corporate responsibility, Dyer believes employers should primarily view it through operational reality: attracting, engaging, and retaining talent.

Studies and employer experience alike, she said, consistently show that when justice-impacted individuals are given meaningful opportunities, many become highly dedicated employees with longer tenure.

“As an employer, I want people who are going to be incredibly dedicated and who are going to stay longer,” she said. “That to me is a talent strategy.”

Checkr itself has embraced that philosophy for years.

The company describes itself as a proud Fair Chance employer, reviewing candidate records on a case-by-case basis rather than applying blanket exclusions.

“If someone is the best candidate for the role, we review the context,” Dyer said. “We are not excluding people because of their records.”

Lowering the Barrier for Other Employers

Despite growing awareness, many companies still hesitate because they do not know where to begin and how to establish processes and protocols. 

Questions around compliance, onboarding, supervision, benefits, and program design can stall good intentions.

That is where Dyer believes partnership models like Catalyst can make a difference.

“Anything we can do to make it more accessible for employers who may not have that level of investment or resourcing available feels like a huge opportunity,” she said.

With wage subsidies, operational support, vetted talent pipelines, and structured programming, the model gives organizations a starting point that might otherwise feel out of reach.

The Bigger Opportunity

For employers struggling to fill roles while building stronger, more inclusive cultures, Fair Chance hiring may no longer be a niche initiative. It may be an underused competitive advantage.

Companies say they want the best people for the job. Checkr.org’s message is simple: many of those people are already out there if employers are willing to look beyond the past and invest in potential. Additionally, Checkr.org has built a supportive ecosystem of partner companies and organizations, like YUPRO Placement, that ensure operational efficiency and program success.

And for businesses willing to do so, the payoff may be larger than expected.