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DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE 10 BIG IDEAS

Table of Contents

Introduction
The 10 Big Ideas
Digging Deeper
  1. Measure what matters to workers, capturing a full range of job quality indicators
  2. Center equity in measurement
  3. Increase mandatory human capital data disclosure
  4. Link public and private data to gain new insights into the quality of jobs
  5. Leverage business data to demonstrate the return on investment from good jobs
  6. Revise data systems to include and support the non-W2 workforce
  7. Strengthen workforce system metrics to deliver results for workers and businesses
  8. Use public and private spending to measure and strengthen equity and good jobs
  9. Strengthen state and local capacity for data-driven decision-making to advance good jobs
  10. Invest in strengthening job quality measurement
Understanding the Impact
Appendices
Acknowledgements

#10: Invest in strengthening job quality measurement

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These actions are intended for…

Philanthropic, corporate, and government funders can seize this window of opportunity to reimagine our national economic measures to reflect the needs and aspirations of working people. Funders should come together to advance a common vision to strengthen job quality measurement, and to coordinate investments to complement major public and private capital flows. These investments can seed scalable demonstration projects that build new data capacity and test bold approaches to the collection, linkage, and use of job quality data.

To put this into practice, philanthropy, along with business and government funders, can:

1. Invest in the development of job quality data infrastructure.

Developing job quality data infrastructure requires large-scale, cross-sector collaboration, and funders can make catalytic investments to drive the development of this ecosystem. This starts with diverse segments of philanthropy aligning behind a common goal, and jointly engaging government, business, and nonprofit partners to implement a shared vision and common metrics. It will also require ongoing programmatic investments, both to implement initial changes to program design and evaluation to strengthen measurement systems, and to update practices based on learning from new data collection.

To accelerate job quality measurement, funders can:

  • Support the research and implementation approaches discussed throughout this report to seed innovation and accelerate progress. This could include, for example, investing in the development of job quality scorecards and other data disclosure tools, or in partnerships between investors and researchers to understand the good jobs return on investment.
  • Fund government pilots at the local or state level to test new job quality measurement approaches and create additional buy-in from local stakeholders. Such investments will support the development of case studies and replicable models, and ultimately support scale. Funders should explore opportunities to provide seed funding for data collection and linkages at the state and local level, with a focus on undercounted populations such as gig workers, and undercounted aspects of job quality such as worker voice and benefits utilization.
  • Invest directly in the job quality data analytics capacity of community-based nonprofits, along with local, state, and federal government agencies. This might include investment in skill building to strengthen technical expertise on data use and/or investment in organizational and technology infrastructure. To enhance federal capacity, for example, philanthropic funding can support the deployment of outside experts, such as through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Mobility Program, which provides for the temporary assignment of external personnel from universities, research and development centers, nonprofits and other eligible organizations for up to four years. Embedded experts can work alongside agency personnel to design and implement creative measurement approaches, provide technical assistance to other agencies or localities on complex measurement issues, or assess the impact of changes that an agency has made on equity and job quality.

2. Model promising practices for data collection and job quality in philanthropic grantmaking.

Funders committed to advancing good jobs should explore ways to measure and invest in their grantees’ job quality. While the need for local, nonprofit organizations with intimate knowledge of their communities has never been more acute, the increasing downward pressure on operating costs and upward pressure on numbers served has left many nonprofit employees with high-stress jobs that fail to provide family-sustaining wages. Women and people of color are over-represented among nonprofit frontline workers, yet 87% of non profit CEOs are white; 1 occupational segregation is directly impacting the earning power, health and wellbeing of the workforce we have tasked with supporting economic mobility for others.

To close these gaps, philanthropic funders can:

  • Support grantees to collect job quality data to help build the emerging evidence base that investing in good jobs for program staff improves program outcomes. Shift messaging to grantees from a focus on what can be done at the lowest possible cost to serve the highest number of people to what will make the largest impact, including consideration of job quality for both program participants and program staff. Keep applications simple to avoid burdening grantees, but consider light-lift ways to gather data about their job quality approach and outcomes, including for their own staff. Encourage grantees to include the full cost of services in their proposals including staff development, market-aligned pay, benefits and other aspects of job quality. Provide specific examples, or guidelines, on what you will accept and ask questions when proposed salaries don’t reflect living wage for the area where the work will be carried out or don’t include cost of living raises in multi-year grants.
  • Provide maximum flexibility in grant dollars—from indirect rates to payment terms or unrestricted funds to manageable and trust-based reporting and compliance requirements that don’t impose undue burden—to encourage grantees to build capacity for job quality measurement and improve jobs for their own staff. Capping indirect rates or implementing a lengthy payment period during which an organization must wait for reimbursement can cripple a small organization’s financial viability and ability to innovate on measurement and provide family-sustaining jobs.
  • Test and document practices that can offer a model for government grantmaking. This might include, for example, using the grantmaking process to collect and use job quality data, conducting an equity assessment of the philanthropy’s grantmaking priorities to ensure that target outcomes and evaluation metrics are designed to address disparities, and engaging and compensating directly impacted communities in designing evaluation methodology and data collection practices.

Endnotes

  1. BoardSource. Leading with Intent: BourdSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices (June 2021).

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