Tool Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Job Quality Center of Excellence

This playbook, developed by A—B Partners, is part ot the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s Shared Success project. Shared Success is working with CDFIs across the US to help them integrate job quality into their financing and advising services. This playbook offers findings and recommendations on how best to communicate the importance of job quality to owners of small- and medium-sized businesses.

This guide for employers provides guidance for the intentional inclusion of transgender workers, from recruitment and hiring to fostering a supportive culture. This resource can be used by organizations to learn about and evaluate their internal practices or practitioners looking to involve partners in working toward transgender inclusion.

The Roadmap for Investing in Good Jobs is a guide developed by the U.S. Department of Labor to help governments—at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels—leverage the Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda (including BIL, CHIPS, and IRA) to create high-quality, good-paying, union jobs. This resource provides recommended language to embed in grants, loans, and contracts, which outlines requirements, preferences, and encouraging job quality practices in projects. While created for the Investing in America initative, this language in applicable beyond these projects and provides a tangible guide for employers and other organizations aiming to embed job quality more formally in their project documentation and contracts.

The Roadmap is organized around key elements of job quality and worker empowerment, such as mandating and incentivizing fair pay (e.g., prevailing wages and pay equity audits), committing to worker rights protections (like project labor agreements and union neutrality agreements), promoting skills and career advancement through proven models like registered apprenticeship programs, providing family-sustaining benefits (like paid leave and health insurance), adopting DEIA workforce plans to promote opportunities for underserved communities, and safeguarding job security and working conditions by combating worker misclassification and establishing joint labor-management safety and health committees.

This is part of a collection of resources created by the Department of Labor and other federal agencies, relating to job quality and implementing good jobs priorities through federal investments and beyond. Many of these resources are no longer publicly available on government websites, though they were all at one point public and shared with the intent of preserving these resources for public use.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that information contained in these resources related to specific programs, policies, and processes remains accurate, though many best practices and examples remain useful. In addition, many of these resources link out to government websites that do not exist anymore. You may be able to find these linked resources in the archive itself by searching the Overview document. For more resources, please visit the Data Rescue Project website, at https://www.datarescueproject.org/

The Job Quality Toolkit is a comprehensive but beginner friendly resource for employers trying to improve job quality and retain their workforce. The toolkit walks the reader through components of job quality and provides strategies and resources for each component: Recruitment & Hiring; Benefits; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility; Empowerment & Representation; Job Security & Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Pay; and Skills & Career Advancement.

This resource, created as guidance for the Department of Commerce Internet for All initiative, provides examples of childcare initiatives, which employers can implement to make their workplaces more accessible for caregivers and attract a diverse pool of talent despite caregiving responsibilities. Examples, with case studies of these strategies being implemented, include: on-site childcare, all hours childcare, grant programs, public-private partnerships, family resources, and subsidies.

This publication compiles seven lessons for small business prospecting, recruitment, and ongoing engagement. The lessons outlined in this tool are based on our experience working with Pacific Community Ventures and workforce partners to conduct job quality-focused business advising pilots with small businesses across the country. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing relationships with employers, we have found that asking lots of questions and tailoring engagement to the local context is key.

This guide to conduct worker surveys posits amplifying worker voice as a viable business strategy. It was developed as part of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Reimagine Retail job quality research, in response to growing recognition of the importance of listening to workers. The tool for conducting worker surveys includes practical tips, sample opening survey language, and sample survey questions that address topics such as job satisfaction, growth opportunities, and workplace relationships and culture. This tool may be helpful for employers looking to use worker expertise and engagement to strengthen job quality, equity, and the business bottom line. Workforce development and worker advocacy organizations may also find it helpful to share these tools with employers in their networks.

This guide to conducting worker focus groups posits amplifying worker voice as an equitable solution for reducing turnover. It was developed as part of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Reimagine Retail job quality research, in response to growing recognition of the importance of listening to workers. The focus group guide delves into six topics related to highlighting worker voice, which include building the business case to employers, developing interview guides, what to do with your interview data, and pandemic considerations. This tool may be helpful for employers looking to use worker expertise and engagement to strengthen job quality, equity, and the business bottom line. Workforce development and worker advocacy organizations may also find it helpful to share these tools with employers in their networks.

This tool provides information about ALICE households, an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. These are households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level but not enough to afford their most basic needs, including housing, food, transportation, and health care. The tool provides a national overview and state- and county-level information about the percentage of ALICE households. Users can explore data by household factors including age, family composition, and race/ethnicity. United for ALICE has also published research focused on financial hardship in Black households. This tool has relevance for policymakers and employers focused on policies and practices related to wages. Organizations who support workers or employers may also find this tool useful.

This guide contains tips and practices for creating trusted relationships with small business employers focused on improving job quality, and compiles seven lessons for small business prospecting, recruitment, and ongoing engagement. Lessons outlined in this publication were developed as part of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Reimagine Retail job quality research, and in response to a growing demand for employer engagement practices that enable collaboration and innovative solutions in connecting people to good jobs. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing relationships with employers, this tool may be of interest to employers (and their partners) who would like to engage in job quality discussions and tailor engagement to their local contexts.