Ex-offender and employment: examining factors influencing employer’s decision to hire

Employment is extremely essential to an ex-offender’s effective reintroduction into society. Yet, several sorts of obstacles prevent them from taking advantage of possibilities, which fuels the cycle of recidivism. Therefore, this study is conducted with the intention to capture factors that might influence decision to hire ex-offender. The study tested three independent variables namely, training during incarceration, government incentive and crime severity and type against decision to hire ex-offender. The study adopted quantitative approach where data were collected at one point in time (cross-sectional). A total of 258 questionnaire were distributed online using Google form to hiring decision makers working in one of the Shared Service companies in Petaling Jaya and 250 questionnaire were return, yielding a response rate of 96.9%. In this study, hypotheses for direct relationship were tested using multiple regression analyses. Results showed that all the variables were positively related to decision to hire ex-offender. The findings indicate that employer has high tendency to hire ex-offender when they have skills and knowledge received through training and when there is incentive from the government. Interestingly, the study also reveal how severity and type of crime committed did not hinder employer from hiring. The question of why severity and type of crime committed by ex-offender did not stop the employer from considering for employment, provide opportunity for future research to reconcile these explanations.