Shared Success

Low wages, limited benefits, unpredictable schedules, limited training and advancement opportunities, unsafe working conditions, and more — these are the issues that lead millions of US workers to report not having a good job. Poor job quality isn’t just bad for workers; it’s also a challenge for businesses, particularly small businesses, who struggle to find and retain the employees they need. Addressing job quality can be a win-win, improving workers’ livelihoods and strengthening businesses, but most business owners are encouraged to manage labor as a cost rather than an investment in business success. And small business owners, while often eager to be good employers in their communities, often need information, encouragement, and support to identify and implement the job quality improvements that their employees will value and that will, in turn, strengthen their business.

Recognizing this context, in 2022, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) launched the Shared Success project, funded by the Gates Foundation. The project supports 11 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) across the country to integrate job quality support into their small business services with the goal of improving job quality for small business employees and building business resilience. Three years later, EOP has seen how grantees have used innovative approaches to recruit, advise, and incentivize small businesses to improve job quality.

With an investment from the Gates Foundation, Shared Success builds on EOP’s foundational work on defining and advancing job quality. It also leverages our longstanding commitment to small business success, which reframes this concept to include, and be facilitated by, improved job quality and economic dignity for workers.

Shared Success is demonstrating — in the real world, in real time — how improvements in job quality can support the needs of employees while helping small businesses improve performance and achieve their goals.