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.

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.

Drawing on recent research, this issue brief – co-authored by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, and the Democracy at Work Institute – makes a case for why policymakers, funders, and investors who care about racial and gender wealth equity should support employee share ownership. Informed by a roundtable discussion which brought together researchers, philanthropic leaders, investors, policy experts, and advocates, the paper provides a set of concrete policy and practice ideas to expand employee ownership and advance equity and economic justice. We hope this paper contributes to a broader collaborative effort to spread employee share ownership policies and practices that support economic recovery and lay the foundation for a more equitable and resilient economy.

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.

This report introduces behavioral design as an approach that can help disrupt behaviors that perpetuate the U.S. gender pay gap. An alternative to individual-focused bias and diversity training, this approach can help employers design interventions to address systems and norms. The report aims to help employers shift behaviors away from those that disadvantage women and toward those that benefit all employees. Although written to help employers reimagine their role in creating fair and dignified workplaces, this report may also be useful for organizations that work with businesses, to share with employer partners.

This report compiles insights from workforce professionals about the types of questions they ask employers. 210 workforce professionals in Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia responded to a survey about the kinds of conversations they have with business representatives on topics related to workplace practices, environment, and equity and inclusion in the workplace.

In this brief, we highlight key ideas for how the workforce development system can promote workplace health and safety during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This publication provides a guide to re-opening businesses in the restaurant sector and sets out a long-term vision for the restaurant industry after the shock of COVID-19. Based on input from restaurant owners across the country, the roadmap identifies ways restaurateurs can reimagine how they operate as practical, sustainable, and ethical businesses, including by reforming tipping and restaurant minimum wages. The business examples and innovative ideas have relevance for restaurant owners who are navigating the crisis and for workers and their advocates with a stake in the sector’s trajectory after COVID-19.

This guide identifies policies employers can enact to support workers during COVID-19, which can be applied in other moments of workplace upheaval. There are sections on providing emergency benefits to workers, ensuring a safe workplace, and how to support workers who are furloughed or laid off. This publication includes tangible solutions that employers can implement, such as exploring a work-sharing agreement or increasing flexibility of scheduling. While designed for employers, this guide may also be useful for worker advocates and workforce professionals who work closely with employers to support workers.