Two Sigma Impact’s focus is to drive positive social change through investing in companies that invest in their people, and to help define what it means to have a “good job.”
Recently, our Impact team in partnership with the Good Jobs Institute convened an interdisciplinary group of experts from NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, The Drucker Institute, Impact Weighted Accounts Project at Harvard Business School, PwC, JUST Capital, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), and others to discuss how to define, make and measure “good jobs.” We organized this impressive group to listen and learn from those dedicated to tackling the shared challenges we face and discuss how we can work to drive systems change at scale.
Here are three highlights from our conversation.
- There are diverse metrics to measure good jobs, and agreement on the most critical – pay and growth opportunities – are key: While several key characteristics arose in the conversation around how best to define a quality job – including fair wages and benefits, defined pathways to growth opportunities, and most importantly stability, safety, and security – the modern workforce is nuanced. Flexible schedules and work environments, rate of turnover, diversity and inclusion, and corporate purpose are increasingly highlighted contributors to employee satisfaction and are now considered table stakes for quality jobs.
- Metrics remain a key obstacle to defining a good job: Universally accepted and clearly defined metrics to measure impact are critical, but still nascent. As with the broader impact investing ecosystem, capturing the complexities and variability in data collection as it relates to the workforce is exceptionally challenging. Additionally, how do you determine what are the best benchmarks? What may be critically important in one job, may not translate to other industries. Having the appropriate tools, talent, and systems in place to collect and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data is key to enacting and measuring impact.
- Good jobs must be born out of diverse and inclusive environments: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have largely been addressed at the board of directors and the c-suite levels. The events of 2020 have created momentum to extend efforts around DEI beyond the board room, so there is grassroots momentum galvanizing employees and enabling change across more levels within organizations. Codifying metrics in this arena will only accelerate momentum and can be integrated into existing key human capital metrics (for example, disaggregating pay, benefits uptake, promotion rates, and turnover by race and gender).
We are committed to making an impact and doing our part to drive a fundamental change in how we assess value in the workforce, which we believe make for better, more sustainable businesses and satisfied workers. As we pursue this work amidst the evolving backdrop of the global pandemic and a new Presidential administration in the U.S., we will continue to keep our finger on the pulse of evolving trends as it relates to “good jobs” and convene conversations with leading voices aligned with this mission to accelerate efforts to unlock human potential.
The views expressed above are solely the views of the author(s), are as of the date they were originally posted, and are not necessarily the views of TSPI, LP or any of its affiliates. They are not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment advice.
