Equity & Inclusion Archives - Job Quality Center of Excellence

The Gender Decoder calculates the proportion of feminine-coded and masculine-coded words in job advertisements. Research has found that masculine- coded language in job postings can deter women job seekers from applying. This free tool can help HR professionals, recruiters, or managers who want to appeal to applicants of all gender identities. For more information on the tool and it’s creation, please refer to the FAQ page.

The document outlines the six principles of Opportunity Employment, which prioritizes equity, inclusion, and opportunity, and mobility within a company while generating business value. The principles are associated with the various stages of Opportunity Employment: strategy and set up, recruiting and hiring, retention and advancement. HR professionals, managers and organization leaders, and practitioners can all benefit from this resource.

The Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy guide, “Retaining and Supporting Disabled Workers,” outlines practical steps for employers to build an inclusive workplace where workers with disabilities have the support and working conditions they need to thrive. Key strategies include creating an inclusive workplace culture that promotes flexibility in time and place (like flexible lunch breaks for medication or swapping tasks) and actively works to overcome bias and stigma, especially around mental health conditions. Employers must fulfill their obligation to provide reasonable accommodations, which often carry low or no cost, and offer sufficient leave, to ensure workers don’t have to choose between their job and medical needs. The guide also emphasizes that a good job must be a safe and healthy job, requiring employers to involve disabled employees in creating accessible emergency plans, ensure workplace technology conforms to accessibility standards, and provide targeted safety training.

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 Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy guide, “Advancing Disabled Workers,” provides strategies for employers to support the professional growth, development, and career advancement of employees with disabilities. Key recommendations include equitably offering learning opportunities and professional development to all employees, as well as ensuring that training is accessible and supplemented with mentorship. In order to be able to measure inclusion goals, employers must create an environment where workers feel comfortable with disclosing their disabilities. This also allows for the creation of clear and appropriate performance expectations and enable managers to provide usable, relevant feedback during performance reviews. Finally, employers should continuously track and report progress toward disability inclusion goals, hold specific individuals or teams accountable, and ensure that the voices of disabled workers are included in these efforts.

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.

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.

Even before the pandemic and associated economic fallout, one in four working adults in the US earned a wage insufficient to lift a small family out of poverty. This conversation is about how quietly courageous leaders in city government, policy advocacy, and workforce development are innovating to improve the quality of jobs in their communities. This webinar draws from experiences of leaders who contributed to our Job Quality Tools Library, a compendium of tools and resources curated from a range of organizations to share ideas about opportunities to improve job quality. The webinar also includes tips about how to use the Library and responds to as many of your questions as time allowed.

Even before the pandemic, in an allegedly strong economy, workers at the bottom end of the opportunity scale were struggling to support themselves and their families. No single metric is more striking in this respect than the divisions in wealth between men and women, and between white households and households of color. White households have roughly 10 times the wealth of Black households. Households headed by single women have less than 40% of the wealth of those headed by single men. Broadening opportunities to participate in the ownership of business assets can help address this wealth divide and offer working people the opportunity to meaningfully participate in the success of our economy.

This discussion includes perspectives from research, business, policy, and worker-owners.

This report includes 23 practices to embed racial equity into your organization by developing, recognizing, and promoting frontline employees of color. Employers and practitioners can use this resource to structure and implement equitable policies for advancement to strengthen their business.

Building a race equity culture can support organizations’ capacity to reduce racial disparities within their organizations and through their external strategies. This resource is designed to support practitioners to strengthen internal organizational culture as it relates to race equity. This publication can support a range of organizations to prioritize racial equity, embed equitable practices, and monitor outcomes.