Business in the Community (BITC) exits to build healthy communities with successful businesses, at their heart. BITC inspires, engages and challenges its members and mobilises that collective strength as a force for good in society to create a skilled, inclusive workforce today and for the future, build thriving communities in which to live and work and innovate to repair and sustain the planet.
BITC has been campaigning for improvements in recruitment processes in the UK to increase opportunities for people with criminal convictions since 2013. Ban the Box, BITC’s flagship campaign, calls on all UK employers to give people with criminal convictions a fair chance to compete for jobs by removing the tick box from application forms and instead ask about convictions later in the recruitment process.
Businesses that sign up to Ban the Box commit to considering applicants’ skills, experience and ability to do the job before asking about criminal convictions, and to reviewing their employment processes to ensure that when a candidate discloses a criminal conviction they are given a full opportunity to explain the situation.
In addition, BITC runs a national programme called Ready for Work providing employment opportunities for some of society’s most disadvantaged groups, including people with criminal convictions. The programme works with businesses to support those who have faced multiple barriers to work through the delivery of a supported two-week work placement.
Link to sign up to Ban the Box – Ban the Box: Sign Up form
Link to inclusive employers – Employers that have Banned the Box