Enhancing Worker Voice and Gaining New Insights into Job Quality from Employees

In 2023, HCAP partnered with Ellen G. Frank-Miller, PhD, founder and CEO of the Workforce & Organizational Research Center (WORC) to pilot the Worthwhile Jobs Employee Survey and Index Score™ to gather additional insights into job quality from the perspective of workers during due diligence and inform post-investment activities with portfolio companies through the Gainful Jobs Approach™.

The Worthwhile Jobs Survey™ is an evidence-based, statistically validated survey that can be completed by portfolio company employees in five minutes. The survey asks workers a series of questions related to their job experience, compensation and benefits, health and safety, representation and voice, opportunities for training and development, and feelings about the company. It provides a snapshot in time of portfolio companies’ job quality strengths and opportunities for improvement.

To analyze survey results and distill findings, WORC used statistical modeling to build the Worthwhile Jobs Index Score™. The Worthwhile Jobs Index Score™ provides HCAP and portfolio companies with a standardized way to measure job quality from the perspective of employees across portfolio companies and to correlate changes in job quality and human capital KPIs with portfolio companies’ financial results.

The Worthwhile Jobs Employee Survey™ and Index™ were developed based on the Job Quality Outcome Maps created for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions by Ellen and her team at Washington University in St. Louis and WORC. They examined 3,000 peer-reviewed studies to identify the connection between desired employer outcomes/business KPIs and job characteristics.

The Worthwhile Jobs Survey™ has provided HCAP and portfolio companies with greater insights into the perspectives of workers and actionable guidance for improving job quality through the Gainful Jobs Approach™. Portfolio companies have found that Worthwhile Jobs Survey™ results help them prioritize high-impact opportunities and identify strengths they can lean into to achieve job quality improvements. Whether results validated a current strategy or flagged an area to keep an eye on, portfolio companies have been able to use the results to orient their job quality efforts for impact.