This report shares how Goodwill San Diego adapted its culture and operations to enhance job quality and business performance in response to a mandated local minimum wage increase, including developing transparent career pathways, investing in leadership development at all levels, and building a culture of learning and development. Businesses and service providers seeking to get ahead of minimum wage legislation and improve job quality can learn from the practices outlined in this profile.

This report highlights pressing racial disparities in the US workforce and education systems and offers recommendations for advancing racial equity within state and federal workforce policies. This publication is primarily geared towards workforce development professionals, as training and education can help address employment, income, and wealth disparities when paired with broader job quality efforts.

Manufacturers looking to improve productivity and efficiency often turn to Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs), public-private partnerships supported by the US Department of Commerce that provide consulting services to support their growth and competitiveness. These partnerships often focus on implementing lean manufacturing strategies to cut waste and eliminate production bottlenecks. But what if they also adopted people strategies, focusing on job quality alongside process and product strategies to help businesses solve their problems?

Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC) took just this approach with its Genesis initiative, working with manufacturers to implement “good jobs” strategies to improve workforce engagement, productivity, and stability, alongside process and product improvements. Launched in 2014, with the support of the Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance (CWFA), the Genesis initiative is based on the premise that workforce practices are central to a firm’s operations, productivity, and competitiveness. Through Genesis, IMEC fine-tuned a strategic planning approach that helped companies explore process- and product-related challenges that were deeply interwoven with people-related challenges.

This report details the process IMEC followed to implement Genesis, how it worked with manufacturers, results from the initiative, and key considerations for other MEPs, funders, and policymakers looking to learn more about this approach and how they can support similar work in their communities.

This question bank includes targeted questions that workforce development professionals can ask retail business representatives to have learning focused conversations and deepen relationships. The tool includes questions to help understand a business and its workforce, employee engagement, development and advancement in a firm, and wages and scheduling practices.

To make the business case for improving retention, employers can use this simple calculator to get a ballpark estimate of hard costs of turnover. Partners can complete this exercise with businesses to show the value of their services or talent management practices that reduce turnover. Unlike many other turnover calculators, this tool includes both direct costs, such as the cost of hiring or orientation, and indirect costs, such as lower employee morale or poorer customer service.

This report details the findings from a randomized 2019 Gallup survey of over six thousand American workers to understand their perspectives on job quality. The study offers a definition of job quality based on ten dimensions workers care about and provides useful findings and implications about who has a quality job and how job quality impacts quality of life.

In this paper, authors Karen L. Corman and Ryne C. Posey outline several key considerations for implementing a pay audit to assess pay disparities among current and incoming staff. Topics explored include the potential benefits and drawbacks of pay equity audits, the purpose and parameters of the audit, privilege considerations, practical guidance for conducting the audit, and post-audit considerations and remediation strategies. HR professionals and other individuals involved in conducting pay audits may find this resource useful. Additionally, those who work with employers may be interested in sharing this with their partners. You may access this downloadable document by clicking on the “PDF” symbol towards the top, right-hand side of the linked webpage.

Since 2008, more than 2.5 million new jobs were created in the most prosperous ZIP codes, while the least prosperous areas lost nearly 1.5 million jobs, according to research from the Economic Innovation Group. New jobs have flowed into cities, with rural areas across the country still yet to fully recover from the Great Recession. And within cities prosperity is not broadly shared; income inequality is higher in large cities than the country as a whole and wealth inequality has a large and persistent racial bias.

Opportunity Zone investments have the potential to address these economic divides by supporting small business growth and local ownership in communities that have thus far been left out of the recovery. But effort and expertise are needed to ensure that these investments create opportunities that reach people in the targeted communities, and that they extend to women, people of color, those who have been involved with the justice system, and others who have traditionally faced barriers to economic opportunity.

This event explores these issues and considers ideas to focus Opportunity Zone investments in ways that will create jobs and wealth for communities and support small business development and ownership in places that have for too long been left on the sidelines of the economy.

The personal and economic needs of gig workers can be as varied as the platforms they use. In what ways is independent work working for people? In what ways can it pose problems? How can we build systems in which gig work is good work?

As a society that encourages work, we need to also consider what the rewards for hard work should be. We know that working people need access to benefits such as health insurance and paid sick days, but who should provide them? What kind of flexibility do workers need and how well does that match with business needs for flexible access to workers? Can gig jobs support both thriving businesses and thriving workers and families?

This event explores the issues and opportunities facing gig workers and offers ideas for building supports to make gig work good work.

Food retailers play an important role in communities, serving as major employers and anchor institutions. But local chains are facing challenges from market consolidation, new competitors, and new technologies that threaten to alter business operations and replace workers. Some stores are finding ways to differentiate and improve business performance by investing in workers – which helps them create exceptional customer service and cater to local communities. Research by the National Grocers Association, the trade association for independent supermarkets, indicates that more than 80 percent of consumers still prefer their local store to an online alternative, and they value local, quality items and friendly staff.

This event explores how grocers can succeed – and can advance economic and racial equity – by investing in workers. Bringing together food access advocates, food retail leaders, and workforce development experts, we discuss what consumers, business owners, and policymakers can do to encourage good working conditions for the people behind our groceries.