Understanding the Historical Context and Current Challenges
The persistent issue of financial insecurity disproportionately impacts women, Black and Latino workers, where considerable wealth gaps remain. The clear evidence is a symptom of a systemic problem that dates back generations, highlighting the need for targeted solutions to drive equitable economic advancement and level the economic playing field.
JFF’s Mission for Equitable Economic Opportunities
Jobs For the Future is a leading non-profit with a broader mission to advance equitable economies for all workers, including those in rural communities. Under this mission, their Center for Racial Economic Equity compiles and conducts tremendous research on the systemic barriers and solutions to closing the racial wealth gap.
In particular, JFF’s approach considers four gaps: income, employment, advancement, and wealth. Their work emphasizes the importance of providing high school students with meaningful pathways to success, such as through partnerships with community colleges that facilitate postsecondary education and training for quality jobs.
JFF’s initiatives also focus on the development of family-supporting careers so that workers, regardless of their origin or educational background, can secure employment that sustains their families and contributes to the growth of their communities.
In considering the wealth gap in particular, one immediate barrier that remains is the aforementioned financial insecurity. In general, 73% of individuals living paycheck to paycheck, a number that has steadily grown, and 57% still unable to uncover a $1,000 emergency. However, the statistics are even worse for Black, Latino, and female workers.
A new insight in understanding the wealth gap in particular comes from recent research published by Morningstar, Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association, and the Aspen Financial Security Program through a partnership called the Collaborative for Equitable Retirement Savings. The big takeaway is that employer-sponsored retirement plans carry significant gender and racial wealth gaps, driven in large part by loans and early withdrawals.
Driven by such evidence, JFF sought to understand which solutions could achieve equitable economic advancement for all workers. This blog post introduces their framework and high-level results. Be sure to download the full Wraparound Services Market Scan here.
A Framework for Wraparound Supports Market Segments
JFF created a framework to understand and evaluate wraparound supports as a part of its recent Market Scan and its overall research on Social Determinants of Work. While acknowledging support systems in state-based programs, common benefits like healthcare and retirement, and comprehensive HR systems, the scan focused on new innovations across three broad outcomes.
How Recruitment Solutions Can Unlock Economic Mobility
Under recruitment, JFF primarily considered Talent Intelligence Platforms like Basta and AdeptID.
The nonprofit Basta enables first generation college students to achieve higher wage jobs at corporations like Bloomberg and Citigroup. With over 2,800 students served in 2022 alone, with 90% remaining in those roles, this type of approach shows promise for socioeconomic mobility.
AdeptID, a B-Corp, has helped employers source over 600 hourly workers leveraging AI-driven tools. The information it collects about applicants and the process itself further enables employers to improve their own talent strategy.
Enabling Retention to Sustain and Support Careers
As employers in any industry know, retaining employees reduces unnecessary replacement and retraining costs while positioning the organization for growth through internal talent pipelines. It’s also a win for employees who often can advance more quickly into leadership titles through well-defined career pathways. JFF considered a host of different approaches here, many of which intersect with education and workforce systems.
For instance, the integration of career and technical education (CTE) into workforce systems could be a vital tool for employee retention. By offering access to CTE programs, employers can help their workers develop the specialized skills needed for advancement within their current roles or prepare them for new opportunities that arise within the company.
This approach benefits employees and supports lifelong learning and career growth. JFF’s research highlights how such investments boost organizations’ overall health by fostering a skilled and adaptable workforce.
Financial Wellness
One of the biggest opportunities in driving retention and productivity of employees is unlocking financial wellness, or more specifically financial well-being. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines financial well-being as a “condition wherein a person can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feel secure in their financial future, and is able to make choices that allow them to enjoy life.”
JFF highlighted two organizations who are enabling financial wellness: Sunny Day Fund for its role in powering Workplace Emergency Savings programs and financial education, and WorkLife Partnership for its role with Small Dollar Loan program.
The impact from both organizations has already been remarkable. Sunny Day Fund’s benefit has seen 40-60% voluntary enrollment with 25-33% higher retention rates among its participants, with many achieving balances north of $1,000.
But when they don’t have those savings, WorkLife Partnership’s Small Dollar Loan program comes in handy. 93% of borrowers say they’re more likely to stay because of the program.
Health Care
While JFF didn’t name any specific innovators in this category, it’s noteworthy for this category to be included in consideration as there are many innovations happening in health care. One adjacent opportunity is with Escalate, who will be covered in Resource Navigators and Learning & Skill Development
Caregiving
Over the last four years, Tootris has enabled caregiving capabilities via employers and government agencies. With over 200K child care providers in network and 1.4M users, Tootris is certainly a caregiving innovator to watch.
Resource Navigators
Resource Navigators play a critical role in complex systems with entangled public and employer-provided benefits. WorkLife Partnership and Escalate were both named as innovators in this category, enabling employees to understand how to take advantage of an employer’s collective benefits while also accessing grants and other public resources for childcare, healthcare, and eldercare.
Mental Health
Coming out of the pandemic, mental health became just as hot a topic as remaining physically healthy itself. Empower Work was named an innovator in enabling workers to access trained personnel over text, phone, and app. With 360K people supported to date and 93% noting improvement in mental health after the conversation.
Scheduling
With greater pressure on families for childcare and eldercare at home, and some workers juggling multiple jobs, flexible scheduling remains an important consideration. Shiftboard was highlighted as an innovator in scheduling, with over 630M shifts scheduled. Their employers observed a 16% reduction in turnover and 86% increase in employee satisfaction.
Transportation
“Return to work” has been a hot topic for professional services, but the reality is that most workers in healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and other sectors with place-based work did not have an option to work from home. As inflation continues to hurt the ability of workers to secure transportation, innovators meeting this capability have been important partners to employers with place-based work.
Share Mobility is an innovator providing transportation access, casting wider talent nets for employers and enabling those who may not have direct means like a personal car. As a result, employers have been able to fill roles 4x faster and in one case saw retention rates spike from just 17% to 70%.
Worker Voice
In a tight labor market, paying close attention to what employees need and want distinguishes employers of choice. While no specific innovator was named under this category, Empower Work and WorkLife Partnership both do a fantastic job of lifting Worker Voice to their organizational partners.
Recognition & Rewards
Recognizing performance and personal milestones can drive retention. Sunny Day Fund’s customizable rewards program helps employers deliver those cash rewards. JFF has not yet named an additional innovator for this category.
Advancement Solutions Open New Economic Pathways
Advancement within an employer means an employee’s institutional knowledge, team-built goodwill, and talent are staying with the employer rather than leaving for a higher-paying horizontal move. As an employee earns higher titles and higher wages, employers have the opportunity to lean on them to attract new talent and retain existing high performers for eventual leadership.
Mentoring, Coaching, and Employee Resources Groups (ERGs)
Mentoring employees through career advancement is important for workers across different groups, and especially among BIPOC and female populations. A mentor can help an individual worker navigate organizational complexities to position that individual for career advancement.
Likewise, a coach can help an employee understand how to change or ready themselves personally to attain and succeed in new roles. ERGs cover similar themes through peer-based networking. While not explicitly, Escalate, Empower Work, AdeptID, and WorkLife Partnership deliver supporting services across this spectrum
Learning & Skill Development
Next level roles may require new skills that a worker may not have today, which does not mean that the worker is incapable of learning those skills quickly. Thanks to tools like Escalate and AdeptID, access to and quality of learning & skill development has never been easier.
Learn More At Jobs For the Future
Beyond this brief introduction is an entire report that employers, workforce development boards, and other employment enabling service providers should read. Be sure to visit JFF’s website to learn more: https://info.jff.org/wraparound-supports-market-scan.