WorkLife Partnership

Founded in 2009, WorkLife Partnership, a nonprofit organization focusing on economic equity, will launch a technology solution to enhance job quality and promote employee advancement in small businesses across the U.S. The web-based and mobile platform will use AI techniques such as natural language processing and sentiment analysis to analyze employee engagement survey data, identifying trends and areas for growth. This solution will transform raw data into actionable strategies to strengthen the workplace. Through advanced data analysis, the AI-driven approach will uncover workforce sentiments, patterns, and trends, allowing for the creation of targeted pathways for employee advancement. What sets the platform apart is the ability to turn these insights into personalized action plans, ensuring that businesses do more than just gather data – they can act on it effectively, fostering a thriving work environment that supports employee retention and advancement.

The AI-generated recommendations will be grounded in evidence-based, industry best practices and successful strategies from similar businesses. The human-centered design of the platform will prioritize workers' needs; pathways for employee advancement will be based on direct feedback from employees. 

This solution will not only help small businesses understand their workforce but will also provide concrete, actionable strategies to enhance job quality and improve employee engagement and retention. The solution represents a significant step in democratizing sophisticated data analytics tools for the small business sector, positioning WorkLife as an essential partner in creating positive workplaces and supporting worker success.

An AI-driven recommendation system forms the heart of WorkLife’s technology solution. This system will leverage advanced machine learning techniques to offer personalized suggestions for improving workplace engagement and job quality in small businesses. Core technology components include:

Web-Based and Mobile App Interface: A user-friendly interface for businesses to conduct employee engagement surveys.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): Advanced NLP techniques will be used to interpret and analyze open-ended responses from employees, extracting meaningful information that can lead to actionable insights.

Sentiment Analysis: Applies machine learning techniques to identify and gauge positive or negative sentiments expressed in employee feedback. This helps pinpoint areas of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, allowing businesses to respond to employee needs.

Feature Extraction: Employs natural language feature extraction techniques to identify common themes, opinions, and sentiments in survey data. This provides a deeper understanding of employee experiences, enabling targeted strategies for improvement.

Quantitative Analysis - Unsupervised Cluster Analysis: Uses clustering algorithms to group similar responses, identifying patterns and outliers that can inform innovative solutions to workplace issues.

AI-Driven Recommendations: Leverages AI algorithms to generate personalized recommendations. Insights gained from the advanced analysis of the survey data will be mapped against a repository of evidence-based practices, industry benchmarks, and successful strategies employed by similar businesses. The AI component will apply pattern recognition and predictive analytics to this complex data, delivering actionable, tailored recommendations for each small business.

Inclusive and Equitable Design: Prioritizes the needs and preferences of workers, utilizing evidence-based equity practices and human-centered design principles to encourage honest feedback, promote inclusivity, and directly inform the recommendations.

Employer Dashboard: A consolidated view that provides businesses access to key metrics, trends, and specific recommendations, allowing for data disaggregation to reflect the experiences of different employee populations.

Integration with Job Quality Practices: Maps insights to evidence-based job quality practices, aiding in identifying strengths and areas for improvement within the workplace.

By synthesizing advanced data analysis techniques such as natural language processing, sentiment analysis, feature extraction, clustering techniques, and AI-driven insights, WorkLife's platform promises to bridge the gap between insights and real-world applications for small businesses. For example, AI-driven recommendations could suggest that a business implement flexible working hours if analysis shows that employees feel overworked or stressed. A suggestion may be offered for equity training if survey responses reveal feelings of exclusion among certain employee groups. Actionable, specific recommendations will be based on actual data and evidence, offering a clear path forward for businesses to improve.

Understanding the needs of small businesses and their employees is paramount. WorkLife works directly with 25 small businesses providing one-on-one support to their employees, dealing with issues beyond traditional benefits. Through this direct service approach, we have gained a deep understanding of the various barriers they face such as financial stability, housing, childcare, and mental healthcare.

Our solution will address workforce needs using AI-driven recommendations to enhance job quality and employee development based on feedback from the employees. Our focus is to increase the resiliency and sustainability of small businesses, which in turn directly benefits their workers.

Statistics underscore the need for this solution. Over 63% of small businesses find employee retention harder than hiring, with nearly 1 in 5 workers quitting within their first year. High turnover not only impacts business operations but also costs approximately 33% of a lost worker's base pay. Our solution can help small businesses mitigate these challenges; for example, identifying ways to strengthen the onboarding process has the potential to improve new hire retention by 82%.

With 76% of employees more likely to stay if promoted from within, our solution emphasizes the importance of career advancement opportunities, addressing the top reason employees leave: a lack of growth and development opportunities, a concern for 22% of workers according to the Work Institute's 2022 Retention Report.

Demographically, the community that will be served by this solution aligns with national trends: 54% women, 25% Hispanic/Latinx, 15% Black, and 30% single parents. By actively supporting these communities, we aim to improve work-life balance, career opportunities, and overall well-being.

The solution addresses the Challenge's focus on innovative technology for small businesses through the key dimensions of: 1) employee advancement and 2) data and impact, reflecting the Challenge's goals of resilience, sustainability, and competitiveness.

1. Employee Advancement

Problem: Small businesses face difficulty in retaining employees and struggle with developing pathways for employee advancement when constrained by limited HR resources.

Solution: The solution offers personalized strategies for feedback and career mapping, promoting employee satisfaction, while developing pathways for employee growth.

Population: By targeting small businesses and lower-wage workers, the approach directly benefits those who need enhanced career pathways, aligning with the broader needs of the U.S. working population.

2. Data and Impact

Problem: In order to compete with larger companies, small businesses must be innovative in their efforts to attract and retain employees. There is a lack of affordable, technologically advanced ways to assess and improve job quality using employee-centered, data-driven insights.

Solution: Using AI-driven recommendations, small businesses can make informed changes based on employee data. This alignment with workforce needs helps pinpoint where employees hesitate to advance, such as the "cliff effect," allowing personalized support for growth.

Population: The solution's human-centered design ensures that feedback from all employees will be considered and may allow focused initiatives for populations with specific needs, optimizing impact and fostering a positive work environment. With small businesses representing 99% of U.S. employers, the potential reach of this solution is vast, aiming to positively impact job quality across a significant portion of the workforce.

The problem WorkLife aims to solve is the lack of affordable, accessible methods for small businesses to implement job quality practices to enhance the workplace and prevent turnover. The solution is a mobile app for employee engagement surveys that uses AI to link survey results to proven job quality practices.

Activities encompass the creation of a user-friendly app for conducting surveys and assessments with AI-driven recommendations and an employer dashboard. Small businesses will gather feedback through ongoing surveys. Data, analyzed using natural language processing, will be linked to job quality practices, forming personalized recommendations for continuous improvement.

Outputs:

• Technology Platform: A platform for automated engagement surveys and job quality assessments.
• Data Analysis: Insights into employee opinions and workplace challenges.
• AI-Driven Recommendations: Strategies for improving job quality.
• Employer Dashboard: Metrics and trends for monitoring progress.

Immediate Outcomes:

• Enhanced Employee Engagement: By analyzing needs via scientifically-backed surveys, businesses can fine-tune staff engagement and understand motivational lacks, (such as the cliff-effect).
• Improved Job Quality: Data mapping to practices enables impactful changes. WorkLife assisted the Humane Society of Pikes Peak with a job quality assessment that resulted in the immediate actions of reducing health benefit wait times, introducing an Empowerment Card program, and hiring a Communications Manager.
• Data-Informed Decision-Making: Increased resource allocation efficiency.

Longer-Term Outcomes:

• Increased Retention and Advancement: Improved job quality through focusing on employees' needs retains talent and attracts new hires, supporting lower- and moderate-income workers' career growth.
• Sustainable, Inclusive Small Businesses: Data-driven practices contribute to sustainable, inclusive workplaces. The solution has the potential to drive substantial positive changes in job quality for small businesses, which compose 99% of businesses, thus significantly impacting the worker landscape in the U.S.

WorkLife’s evidence-based approach aligns with organizations such as Jobs for the Future, The Aspen Institute, and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. The framework has its roots in WorkLife's Job Quality assessment pilot, which was conducted with four companies in 2023, identifying unique goals and exposing unused data from homegrown engagement surveys. The assessment included the development of a roadmap to overcome various challenges; the technology solution will automate this process.

WorkLife Partnership’s core programming has served 1,648 individual workers in 2023; we’re on track to serve 4,400 unique individuals  by the end of the year. We reach ~32,000 total workers across all business partners. Of these, 6,000 are employed by a small business. 

By the end of 2024, WorkLife anticipates reaching 75,000 U.S. workers; of these about 19,000 will be employed by small businesses. Over 5,000 of these workers will use one of our direct employee services, including Resource Navigation; another 10% will be employed by small businesses piloting this technology. 

Through the growth of its existing programming, as well as the development and launch of this technology solution, WorkLife aims to reach 420,000 workers in five years.  Of these, an estimated 85,000 will be  employed by small businesses. Of these 4200 will use one of our direct employee services. Seventy-five percent will be employed by a business deploying this technology to improve the workplace experience for their employees.

WorkLife forms partnerships with small businesses nationwide, specifically seeking those that share our mission of enhancing job quality for frontline workers. Among WorkLife's current network of 25 small business partners, examples are MM Solutions (manufacturing, CO), Shalom Park (healthcare, CO) Nortech (manufacturing, MN), Humane Society (nonprofit, CO), and Bobo’s Oat Bars (food manufacturing, CO).

In support of our objective to play a significant role in advancing job quality and enhancing economic opportunities for the U.S. workforce, WorkLife tracks prominent national thought leaders: Jobs for the Future, Family and Workers Fund, The Aspen Institute, National Fund for Workforce Solutions, The Urban Institute, FSG: Retail Opportunity Network, Prosperity Now Scorecard. WorkLife's decision-making process is influenced by our Constituent Committee, which operates as an extension of the Board of Directors, offering valuable guidance to WorkLife's senior leadership based on their first-hand experiences as current or past clients of WorkLife.

As the bulk of WorkLife’s direct-to-employee services are self-referring, WorkLife is diligent in its effort to ensure outreach and communication methods embody inclusion and belonging. Using input from our Constituent Committee and employer stakeholders ensures our outreach welcomes clients to engage. 

WorkLife’s Resource Navigator program builds trust through direct human relationships. Using trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, and cultural humility, Navigators work with clients to identify challenges and create personalized plans that address immediate needs like housing, childcare, and transportation to promote work stability and family well-being. Navigators also guide clients in exploring long-term opportunities for personal, financial, and career development.

WorkLife builds trust with small business partners through its Employer Engagement process, offering quarterly reviews of data and trends, on-demand insights, and collaborative problem-solving for workforce needs. WorkLIfe’s Job Quality consultation practice includes a facilitated assessment which evidences to business partners our expertise and investment in worker well-being.

Current year goals: 

• Develop prototype of solution

• Beta test with 15 small businesses

Goals for the next 5 years:

• Increase small business engagement: onboard small businesses to use the technology solution

• Scale solution: by year 5, expand the platform to serve small businesses across the U.S.

• Enhance employee advancement opportunities: the platform will identify at least 2-3 evidence-based job quality practices for each participating small business

• Improve employee retention:

• Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: the platform will provide personalized recommendations and resources that address the specific needs of diverse worker populations

Ongoing data review and periodic assessments will enable WorkLife to identify what is working as expected and make necessary adjustments, ensuring responsiveness to employer and worker needs within small businesses.

WorkLife is applying to the Truist Foundation Inspire Awards because our goals align perfectly with the challenge's focus on innovative, technology-based solutions that foster resiliency and sustainability for small businesses. Our planned technology solution specifically aims to support frontline, low-wage workers by enhancing employee advancement opportunities and improving retention within small businesses across the U.S.

Developing a functional prototype of this solution requires significant financial backing to engage skilled developers, invest in state-of-the-art technology, and cover extensive research and testing expenses. The Inspire Awards funding, in conjunction with technology support, would serve as a crucial catalyst, enabling us to move beyond the conceptual stage to create a tangible prototype. This would not only enhance our credibility but also attract additional resources necessary for scaling the solution.

By accelerating the development process and overcoming financial barriers with the support from the Inspire Awards, we will be better positioned to expedite the delivery of our technology solution to small businesses. Ultimately, the Award will increase the likelihood of achieving our broader impact goals, such as enhancing employee advancement opportunities and improving employee retention for small businesses across the U.S. in the next five years.

WorkLife Partnership is a nonprofit that does not specialize in technology, thus partnerships with experts in the field are critical to the success of this project. Support and partners in the area of technology will play a crucial role in advancing this project:

Prototype Development: Technical expertise will aid in efficiently building a functional mobile app prototype.

Scalability and Accessibility: Support in these areas ensures the app can grow to serve various small businesses across the U.S., even those with limited technical skills.

Data Security and Privacy: Technology expertise is vital for implementing measures to protect sensitive data, crucial for maintaining trust among small business owners and employees.

Support for legal and regulatory:

Legal and regulatory support may include compliance with data privacy laws like GDPR and the CCPA, adherence to federal and state labor laws, protection of intellectual property rights, and ensuring accessibility according to the ADA. Ethical AI governance, international compliance, understanding healthcare laws, collaboration with regulatory bodies, public policy support, insurance and liability considerations, and adherence to financial regulations are also vital. The goal will be to create a legal framework that promotes trust, innovation, and responsible growth, helping WorkLife to navigate complex legal landscapes effectively.