Leading Practices

A competitive Ohio-based training center leverages income share agreements as a mechanism to help participants pay for diesel mechanic training in the transportation industry. This program is part of Social Finance’s American Diesel Training Center’s Career Impact Bond.

Founded in 1997, the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) operates in 31 cities across 12 states. It has placed more than 34,000 individuals who were formerly incarcerated in full-time employment. The center is one of the only evidence-based employment programs dedicated to working with individuals who have recently returned home from incarceration. A randomized control trial by MDRC found that CEO reduced rates of recidivism by 22% and created $3.30 in social benefit for every $1 spent on the program. This case study in Philadelphia outlines how CEO partners with local government to make an impact on the ground.

The Metropolitan Planning Council partners with Chicago employers to provide employees homeownership counseling and/or financial assistance. The Chicago Neighborhood Housing Services produced this guidebook for employers interested in setting up an employer-assisted housing (EAH) program, including financial and nonfinancial support.

Chipotle has partnered with Guild Education since 2018 to provide its employees the opportunity to earn an advanced degree such as an online bachelor’s degree in 18 months. Classes fit into workers’ schedules and are designed to help them grow in their careers. The program is part of Chipotle’s educational assistance program, which provides up to $5,250 a year in tuition assistance and a Guild Education personal success coach who helps students enroll in classes and apply for financial aid.

Colorado established a statewide Office of Employee Ownership to increase the number of employee-owned companies in the state by administering a statewide tax credit (HB-21-1311) for employee-owned companies. It provides grants for feasibility studies and technical assistance to help owners sell to their employees and educates businesses about employee ownership through storytelling and building a network of employee-owned companies.

Cupcakin' Bake Shop is a Northern-California-based business with multiple locations. The company is committed to maintaining job quality as it grows. The owner offers her workers a living wage, career-building opportunities, wealth-building opportunities and a fair and engaging workplace. Cupcakin’ partnered with Pacific Community Ventures and their Good Jobs, Good Business program to implement job quality practices, including tracking and measuring changes over time, as well as to receive access to capital to scale operations efficiently and prepare the business for the future while supporting quality jobs.

In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) provided a comprehensive overview with detailed examples of how local governments are protecting workers’ rights by establishing local labor standards offices to enforce workers’ rights laws, establishing worker boards and councils, passing local worker protections laws, setting job quality standards for contractors and internal employers and championing workers issues through local public leadership.

Supported by inaugural training providers Merit America and Year Up, learners upskill and earn Google Career Certificates—industry-recognized credentials that equip people with the skills needed to enter in-demand fields such as data analytics, information technology support, project management and user experience design. The program focuses on helping people from underserved communities access well-paying high-growth jobs.

In 2021, Harris County established an Essential Workers Board to advise the county on programs and policies that support essential workers. All members must be “low-income essential workers,” with at least one worker representative from the airport or transportation, construction, domestic work or home care, education or child care, grocery, convenience or drug store, health care or public health, janitorial, food services, hospitality or leisure services, and retail industries. In addition to advising the county on its overall approach to protecting essential workers’ rights and providing a public forum, the board is also tasked with providing feedback on the county’s purchasing and contracting policies; workforce development programs; tax abatement and incentive policies; community benefits agreements; distribution of federal COVID-19 relief and recovery funds; disaster preparedness and recovery programs; OSHA trainings; independent monitoring of local, state, and federal public health and labor laws and inclusive economic development planning.

Since 2017, the Hilton Apprenticeship Academy has taught hospitality through hands-on exposure to a range of industry disciplines. Hilton apprentices complete a six-week rotation through all hotel departments, including security, food and beverage, engineering, accounting, human resources and front office. Once they complete the rotation, apprentices choose a specific department to focus on for an additional 16 weeks. Upon the conclusion of those 16 weeks, apprentices complete a final project that includes a presentation to Hilton’s executive committee.

This national nonprofit works with childcare workers and owners to increase the number of employee-owned childcare businesses and cooperatives, such as the Rose Garden in Buffalo, New York. Workforce and economic development agencies can partner with groups like ICA to create more resiliency, equity and wealth building opportunities in the childcare industry, helping childcare businesses grow and expand to create more spots for working families.

In 2021, Pacific Gateway, the local workforce development board, partnered in the development and implementation of a project labor agreement with the city of Long Beach (CA), local unions and private developers to fill local hire and other project labor agreements for public works projects. Pacific Gateway recruits and trains diverse applicants and refers them to the Los Angeles and Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council Multi-Core Craft Curriculum (MC3) pre-apprenticeship program at Long Beach City College.

Through a partnership between the city and county workforce agencies and employment social enterprises, the Los Angeles Regional Initiative for Social Enterprise (LA RISE) began in 2015  to help people overcoming major employment barriers get jobs, stay employed and take initial steps toward living wages and higher quality jobs. Now in its seventh year, LA RISE has nearly 50 partners and has enrolled more than 4,100 individuals in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs through its Client Referral Form, Client Flier, Program Model and Participant Flow Chart. The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund provides backbone management services to manage the network, track outcomes and build capacity for service provider partners.

The Maricopa Workforce Development Board partners with building and construction trade registered apprenticeship programs, including the Phoenix Painters and Allied Trades, the Southwest Carpenters Training Fund and the Laborers Training School. The workforce board provides $4,000 through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) adult funds for related instruction and offers case management and supportive services to apprentices, generally in the first year of the apprenticeship program. In 2019, the US Department of Labor did a case study on Maricopa’s apprenticeship programs and found that WIOA Adult Program Apprenticeship participants had a 94% employment rate during the second quarter after program exit, 22 points higher than the statewide rate for the WIOA Adult Program.

Minneapolis offers a free co-op feasibility training for potential and new cooperatives and existing businesses interested in converting into a cooperative. The program also provides one-on-one technical assistance (consulting).

This 1935 law protects workplace democracy by providing employees at private-sector workplaces the fundamental right to seek better working conditions and designation of representation without fear of retaliation.

In 2020, New Jersey launched a $10,000,000 Pay it Forward fund that mixes philanthropy and state funds for programs in health care and information technology through Career Impact Bonds that bring together wraparound support services and student-friendly financing to help individuals upskill with high-quality training providers and achieve economic mobility.

New York City developed the nation’s largest municipal initiative for education and technical assistance around employee ownership and conversion. Business owners can access $10,000 of technical assistance services, utilize the Owners2Owners hotline and have targeted financing and grant opportunities for worker cooperatives.

Good Jobs, Good Business from Pacific Community Ventures has a chapter focused on strategies to strengthen employee engagement and create strong workplace cultures that includes the business case and specific steps to get started.

Quest Diagnostics had high turnover and operational issues, leading to frustrated employees and customers. In 2015, under new leadership, the company launched a Good Jobs Transformation to improve the performance and lives of the workers through creating greater meaning and purpose at work.