Good Jobs Community of Practice: Providing Good Jobs Leads to Productive Workplaces

Share:

This month is National Work and Family Month, an opportunity for all of us to have a conversation around healthier work environments and jobs that allow us to create healthy relationships between work, family and life responsibilities. National Work and Family Month was first designated by the U.S. Senate in 2003 in order to spotlight the need to focus our attention on the challenges faced by working families every day. Poor wages, a lack of benefits, access to quality healthcare, leave policies that make it difficult or impossible to take care of sick or ailing families don't just make life harder- they place an incredible strain on the economy as a whole.

The fact of the matter is, there is an economic incentive for businesses to play a positive role in addressing some of these challenges. Happy employees who are able to focus on their work because they have good jobs with good benefits are more productive and lead to higher profits. Research conducted over the past two decades has consistently shown that the happiness of employees is directly correlated to a businesses' success. In The Happiness Advantage, a 2010 book by Shawn Achor which aggregates a lot of the research done to that point, shows that, "happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality of life improvements." So the question really becomes, "What does it take to create the conditions for worker happiness on the job?"

Prosperity Now, Pacific Community Ventures and Family Workers Fund, in a program supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have been working together in order to help small businesses learn more about what good jobs are, what the conditions for success in providing those good jobs look like, and creating resources that small and medium sized businesses can use in order to provide the good jobs that result in success for everyone. The project builds on research and guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor which lays out a set of good jobs principals.

As part of the Good Jobs Initiative, we are working on The Good Jobs Community of Practice, which is equipping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the tools and information to improve and offer high-quality jobs.

The Good Jobs Community of Practice is a 15 month-long program to help small to medium-sized businesses improve job quality. Business owners who attend all 3 program sessions receive a $1650 stipend for their participation, along with an additional stipend for completing the program surveys. Employees who complete the surveys will also receive a survey stipend.

As part of the program, business owners also receive support from Good Jobs experts through facilitated sessions and office hours focused on helping them identify improvements, create action plans, and implement changes in their businesses. By the end of this program, participants leave with a network of values-aligned businesses who are striving to create great jobs, plus the information and resources needed to continue to make job quality improvements long term.

Through the Good Jobs Initiative, we are excited to provide SMBs with the sort of guidance, tools and technical support they need in order to find ways to provide better work environments for their employees. The bottom line is that by providing support through programs like the Good Jobs Community of Practice, we are helping small and medium sized business owners invest in themselves and their future success.

But don't just take our word for it, here you can find success stories from small business owners who have benefitted from quality jobs.

Find more information about how to apply to the Good Jobs Community of Practice here.