Michelle Rafferty, Chief Program Officer, Shift Work Forward

In June, our nation’s labor force participation rate — the portion of working-age adults who are employed or actively looking for work — fell to its lowest point in 50 years, excluding the COVID pandemic years. This isn’t due solely to retirements or a declining immigrant population. Many workers are opting out of the labor market and it spells trouble for families, businesses, and communities.

Workers leave jobs and job seekers stop searching when the cost of having a job outweighs the benefit. Why apply for jobs that don’t offer the pay or flexibility you need? How do you show up for work when you can’t afford the cost of childcare? Lower-wage work can feel like a dead end, even when you find meaning in what you are doing.

The good news is that this challenge is solvable. With a new approach, workforce systems can help make jobs better so that more people can thrive in the labor market and make their communities more vibrant.

Job Quality Matters

Our field needs to partner with businesses to shape training programs and talent pipeline strategies. But what happens when a workplace prevents employers from attracting and retaining workers? Some workplace practices can lead to employee burnout and turnover, which harms business performance.

Businesses are also investing less in developing their employees, while public workforce system focuses on rapid reemployment or short-term training that quickly leads to a job. Postsecondary institutions offer lucrative 1-to-4-year credentials and degrees, but this path is often out of reach for those who need to work one or two jobs to stay afloat.

Furthermore, workforce systems are doing little to disrupt inequity. People of color are steered to lower wage careers or overlooked for hiring and promotion. The result is a labor market with untapped potential. Employers can more actively support the career growth of their employees. After all, they are one of the key beneficiaries of a skilled workforce.

Sparking a Movement

Over 10 years ago, Shift Work Forward came to a transformational conclusion: the workforce development field — public agencies, nonprofit organizations, funders, training providers, industry partnerships — will fall short in advancing equitable economic mobility if we don’t activate employers to improve job quality. But when we joined with a few of our Network Partners to pitch the idea of encouraging employers to improve their workplaces, it sparked controversy.

Many in our network worried this approach would cost them crucial relationships. The prevailing mindset of the field was (and still is) to treat employers as customers. Challenging employers to make better choices felt like a contradiction.

We forged ahead and invested in job quality pilots with early adopters. These pilots worked well and demonstrated to the rest of the network how we could improve workplaces and still align with industry needs. Today, over half of our Network Partners have established job quality programs for employers.

To help employers understand what makes a job both good for workers and effective for business, Shift Work Forward developed the Job Design Framework, a practical tool that connects better jobs to better business outcomes. Through this framework, and other field-tested tools, we’ve equipped hundreds of employers, business advisors, and workforce leaders with training and technical assistance in redesigning jobs. These efforts resulted in stronger workplaces that boost employee engagement, retention, advancement, and/or compensation, as highlighted in our series of case studies.

Redesigning Jobs

We’ve found that small- to midsized businesses are especially keen to provide their employees with good jobs. They understand the business case for job quality and often have deep community roots. But most don’t have a robust human resources department, so they need help getting started. Workforce and economic development agencies can fill this gap, offering a tested approach and tools that are grounded in the realities of for-profit business. When we partner with these types of employers, we also ensure precious, limited resources have the greatest impact.

Today, Shift Work Forward and its network are partnering with employers to improve job quality in many ways. This work is being tackled in urban and rural communities, as well as red, blue, and purple states. A few examples include:

• Using human-centered design to boost profits and compensation in restaurants (Northeast Ohio; Pittsburgh) and career navigation in healthcare (Atlanta; Hartford, CT; Cincinnati; Wichita, KS).
• Adopting hiring practices that give justice-involved workers a fair chance (Baltimore; Chicago; Louisville; Northeast Ohio; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Wilmington, DE).
• Subsidizing childcare or transportation costs for employees (Baltimore; Chicago; Northeast Ohio; Pittsburgh; Tuscaloosa, AL; Wichita, KS).
• Expanding skill-based hiring and advancement practices (Atlanta; Chicago; Cincinnati; Columbus, OH; Indianapolis; Louisville; Portland, OR; Seattle; Tuscaloosa, AL; Wichita, KS; Wilmington, DE).

Every Job a Good Job

Some industries face tight profit margins that make raising compensation more challenging. For example, without a major overhaul of federal and state policy, the childcare sector is restricted in what in can pay its workforce. Through Shifting the Childcare Industry, we’ve learned that other changes can improve the well-being of educators and stabilize childcare businesses. Intentional onboarding, more recognition, access to mental health support, and opportunities to influence practices and policy all alleviate burnout and boost retention among educators.

In the last four years, Shift Work Forward’s Network Partners have used our tools to help over 350 employers adopt changes that benefit both workers and businesses. This translates into improved financial stability for tens of thousands of workers. We had to embrace risk and innovation to get here. The current and future labor market calls for the entire workforce field to do the same, including the public and private funders who have the resources to catalyze workplace transformation. We won’t solve the workforce challenges facing our country without helping employers create jobs that workers can sustain. When employers have the tools and support to redesign workplaces, they see the business benefit firsthand and are more likely to sustain quality jobs over the long term.