Small Business Job Quality Advising

Learn how to incorporate job quality into your small business advising, demonstrating to your clients how improving jobs can drive business success.

This tool offers guidance for small business advisors on how to integrate a focus on job quality into their conversations with their clients. Developed as part of the Shared Success demonstration, the tool is based on the understanding that improved job quality benefits both small businesses and their workers. It centers business value and includes a variety of information and resources to assist business owners in addressing poor job quality and building successful firms. The tool revolves around two central questions: How can implementing job quality improvements help business owners achieve desired business outcomes? What strategies can be used by business advisors to demonstrate how these outcomes may surface? There are many opportunities for small businesses to improve the quality of jobs of their employees as part of their work in building a successful business.

See the links below for additional resources on following six categories of job quality detailed in the tool:

Hiring and Onboarding — Implementing job quality begins before you even hire an employee. While hiring and onboarding, it is important that you implement equitable practices and provide adequate training. 

Compensation — Offering a competitive, transparent, and equitable compensation package to employees. 

Benefits — Providing additional support to employees besides the salary. This may include health insurance, paid time off, stipends, etc.

Workplace Culture (including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) — Having policies and practices to establish effective communication channels for employees, implement respectful supervision, and promote diversity and inclusion. 

Employee Development and Advancement — Offering programs and resources that contribute to career growth.

Operations — Building job quality through a variety of operational practices. These may include providing workers with the possibility to adjust their work hours and/or work location, providing employees reliable hours with advance notice of schedule, and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for workers, among others.

For additional job quality tools that can be used directly by small businesses, please see our small business topic guide.