In this event, panelists discuss the role that employers, workers, government, philanthropy, and others can play in shaping how workplace technology is developed and deployed. How does technology affect job design? How can investments in both workers and technology improve business performance and increase employee retention and engagement? How can workers be engaged to help shape how technology is used? And what can we learn from human-centered design?

This shared definition of job quality was created collaboratively by leaders in business, labor, workforce development, and policy as part of the Good Jobs Champions Group, an initiative of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Families and Workers Fund. The definition provides a framework for understanding job quality, dividing the components of a good job into three categories: economic stability, economic mobility, and equity, respect & voice.

This event serves as a capstone to a year-long study on how the events of 2020 and 2021 — including the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to racial inequality — affected businesses, including their operations, skill needs, hiring, human resources, and education and training programs. Panelists discuss what they learned from employers and what can and should be done to help workers build the digital skills needed to advance in the workplace.

Over the past year, UpSkill America conducted a three-phase study to learn how the pandemic and heightened attention on racial inequities have influenced companies’ employment plans for the months and years ahead. We were especially interested in the impact these changes were having on frontline and entry-level employees and employers’ education and training programs. n this third phase of the research, we spoke directly with employers and asked:

In what ways are businesses adopting technology in the workplace, and has COVID-19 accelerated these efforts?
How is digital transformation impacting skill needs for frontline workers?
What approaches are businesses taking to support development of digital skills for frontline workers?

Promoting Equity and Inclusion and Connection to Good Fit Jobs for Young Adults describes three categories of practice for employer engagement including leveraging political and financial incentives to influence employer practice change; acltivating connections between employers and young adults to influence employer practices; and working with employers to change practices from the inside. We hope this new publication will be helpful for workforce practitioners looking to engage with employers around supporting equity and inclusion in the workplace and to expand good-fit jobs in their communities.

Improving job quality not only transforms workers’ lives, but it also benefits businesses’ performance and bottom lines. Highlighted in this brief is Sunrise Treatment Center, a leader in the addiction treatment sector that provides stable, sustainable jobs. Founder Dr. Jeffrey Bill, Chief Operating Officer Steven Smith, and Chief Human Resources Officer Brett Burns developed strategies to simultaneously meet the needs of their patients and their commitment to employees. Sunrise Treatment Center saw sustained growth and improvement in both capacity and caregiving by ensuring that the focus of the organization was explicitly two-fold: to provide the highest quality treatment for patients with substance abuse issues and mental illness, and to offer a great place to work for employees.

Government, business, labor, and education leaders need to consider ideas to build and strengthen inclusive systems of lifelong learning that provide opportunities for adult workers to develop and improve the knowledge and skills they can apply to their jobs. This brief explores one such approach: separating training from specific jobs, so that workers can accumulate the benefits of training as they work across multiple jobs or switch jobs frequently, an approach we call portable training. In the following sections, we first contextualize portable training in the current landscape of worker education and training in the US. We then consider the potential strengths and risks of a portable approach. Finally, we look abroad and consider several portable training programs that have been established in France, Singapore, Canada, and Scotland, highlighting how program design choices can mediate the possible challenges of a more portable system of training.

In “To Build Back Better, Job Quality is the Key,” Maureen Conway (The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program), Jeannine LaPrad (Corporation for a Skilled Workforce), Amanda Cage (National Fund for Workforce Solutions), and Sarah Miller (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) make the case that improving job quality should be a central goal of economic recovery and rebuilding efforts, and they lay out practical policy ideas toward that end. The report includes a framework illustrating the multiple dimensions of job quality and outlines the variety of institutions and organizations that can play a role in improving job quality. Particular attention is given to the role of federal policy and to the practices of local governments, economic development, and workforce development organizations.

This research brief and landscape analysis focuses on pervasive racial disparities in elements of job quality (e.g., pay, health & safety, adequate hours) and some of the causes behind them. The authors pull together research on established laws, institutional practices, and cultural norms (e.g., occupational segregation, nonstandard work arrangements like the independent contractor classification, hiring discrimination) to create a cohesive narrative outlining how these structures have resulted in systemic disadvantages and discrimination for workers of color, particularly Black workers. These racial disparities not only persist today but were magnified during the ongoing COVID-19 and resulting racial reckoning. Individuals involved in work influencing policy decisions and institutional practices to improve labor market opportunities for workers of color may find this resource helpful.

Work-based learning (WBL) can help young adults of color get the experience, education, credentials, and relationships necessary to succeed in the workforce, now and in the future. It can also provide an entry point into jobs in industries where they have been historically underrepresented. WBL can provide opportunities for young adults to demonstrate their value and abilities to employers and to change biases around hiring and career advancement.

This research report describes how four organizations involved with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Generation Work initiative engage with young adults and employers to design and manage WBL opportunities. Learn about the behind-the-scenes programming and relationship-building work that practitioners engage in with employers and how practitioners have tailored their programs to meet the needs of young adults of color and to support employers in their work to develop, structure, and support WBL opportunities.