Job Quality in Practice

Job Quality in Practice, an event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, presents actionable tools and guidance to help leaders improve jobs and connect to a growing national conversation.

About This Series

In 2019, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, with support from Prudential Financial, launched an effort to encourage the development of job quality practices that promote access to economic opportunity. In this webinar series, we provide actionable tools and guidance to support leaders across geographies and fields – including workforce development, economic development, capital deployment, policy, worker advocacy, business, and higher education – to engage in practical action to improve jobs in their local communities and connect to a growing national conversation.

Job quality today is a challenge.  Many people who work every day to connect people to economic opportunities that will provide a dignified living can see this.  Whether it’s a family sustaining wage, decent benefits, safe working conditions, or simply a schedule that is manageable with their other obligations—finding jobs that meet people’s basic economic needs can be a challenge. But what if we rethought this approach?  What if, instead of trying to find the “good jobs” within the sea of inadequate ones, we instead tried to transform jobs so that more of them provide workers with what they need to thrive?  We know this approach sounds daunting—but many organizations have started down this road, and are making progress.  And that is what this series is all about.  What are the practical strategies organizations can use to address the biggest economic opportunity challenge we face—fixing work.

Recent and Upcoming Events

When Work Isn’t Enough: Improving Job Quality for ALICE Households
Economic Opportunity
Investing in Job Quality in the South
Economic Opportunity

Investing in Job Quality in the South

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Reimagining Workforce and Economic Development in the South
Economic Opportunity
Worker- and Community-Led Strategies for a Fairer Economy
Economic Opportunity
Building New Narratives on Work and Opportunity in the US South
Economic Opportunity
Fixing Work: 
Recent Lessons from the Field
Economic Opportunity

Fixing Work: Recent Lessons from the Field

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Advising Small Businesses on Job Quality: Lessons from CDFIs
Economic Opportunity

Event Recordings

When Work Isn’t Enough: Improving Job Quality for ALICE Households
Podcasts Videos

When Work Isn’t Enough: Improving Job Quality for ALICE Households

This is the final event in our Job Quality in Practice series. In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on May 7, 2026, we hear from the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows who are embedding job quality into their work across a range of contexts and strategies — from employee ownership models that give workers a direct financial stake in their company’s success, to apprenticeship programs that create structured pathways to higher-wage careers, to worker advisory committees that bring employee voice into business decision-making.

Investing in Job Quality in the South
Podcasts Videos

Investing in Job Quality in the South

This is the final event in our Job Quality in Practice series. In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on May 7, 2026, we hear from the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows who are embedding job quality into their work across a range of contexts and strategies — from employee ownership models that give workers a direct financial stake in their company’s success, to apprenticeship programs that create structured pathways to higher-wage careers, to worker advisory committees that bring employee voice into business decision-making.

Reimagining Workforce and Economic Development in the South
Podcasts Videos

Reimagining Workforce and Economic Development in the South

In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on April 1, 2026, we hear how the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows are embedding job quality into their work across a range of contexts and strategies — from employee ownership models that give workers a direct financial stake in their company’s success, to apprenticeship programs that create structured pathways to higher-wage careers, to worker advisory committees that bring employee voice into business decision-making.

Worker- and Community-Led Strategies for a Fairer Economy
Podcasts Videos

Worker- and Community-Led Strategies for a Fairer Economy

This event — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on Thursday, March 5 — is the second in its four-part event series on Fixing Work in the South. Drawing on the work of EOP’s Job Quality Fellows, this conversation — Worker- and Community-Led Strategies for a Fairer Economy — explores what kind of progress is possible when we lean on the expertise of workers and communities to inform strategy and empower them to shape a labor market that works for everyone.

Building New Narratives on Work and Opportunity in the US South
Podcasts Videos

Building New Narratives on Work and Opportunity in the US South

This event — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on February 19, 2026 — is the first of four conversations with members of the Aspen Institute’s Job Quality Fellowship who are working in the South.

Beyond 9 to 5: Facilitating Good Jobs for People with Unpredictable Schedules
Podcasts Videos

Beyond 9 to 5: Facilitating Good Jobs for People with Unpredictable Schedules

What many believe is a thing of the past is in fact an ever-growing crisis, with life and death consequences for children across the US.

Big Impact, Big Challenges: Lessons from Collaborating with Large Businesses to Improve Job Quality
Podcasts Videos

Big Impact, Big Challenges: Lessons from Collaborating with Large Businesses to Improve Job Quality

This event is part of our Job Quality in Practice webinar series. For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our podcast to listen on the go.

Fixing Work: Recent Lessons from the Field
Videos

Fixing Work: Recent Lessons from the Field

This webinar, which EOP hosted on July 22, 2025, offers fresh insights, practical lessons, and inspiration to advance job quality in your own work. It features opening remarks from the Aspen Institute’s Matt Helmer, followed by a panel discussion.

Event Archive

Past Events in the Opportunity in America Series

Seizing the Moment on Worker Rights: A Toolkit for Organizers and Practitioners
Event

Seizing the Moment on Worker Rights: A Toolkit for Organizers and Practitioners

How to demystify and democratize the policy-making process and bridge the gap between grassroots movements and government.

Tapping into Worker Voice to Improve Job Quality: Lessons from the Talent Pipeline Management Network
Event

Tapping into Worker Voice to Improve Job Quality: Lessons from the Talent Pipeline Management Network

This event is part of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Job Quality in Practice series.

Job Quality Fellowship Overview
Event

Job Quality Fellowship Overview

The Job Quality Fellowship brings together innovators from differing lines of work who are engaged in work that expands the availability of better quality jobs in our economy.

Photo of two small business owners wearing face masks while working at a laptop
Event

Encouraging Job Quality in Small Businesses: Advising, Lending, and Procurement Approaches

Small businesses have an important role to play in advancing economic opportunity and job quality.

Photo of a smiling Black woman using a touchscreen cash register
Event

Addressing Job Quality and Equity in a Time of Crisis: Tools and Case Studies from Local Government, Workforce Development, and Policy Advocacy

In this webinar, we’ll hear from leaders in government, advocacy, and workforce development on new tools and approaches to address the challenges of job quality and equity.

A Job Quality Agenda to Build Back Better – An Action Platform for 2021 and Beyond
Event

A Job Quality Agenda to Build Back Better – An Action Platform for 2021 and Beyond

Our economy doesn’t just need more jobs, it needs better jobs. What ideas can help restore the ideal of work as the pathway to the American Dream?

Job Quality in Practice Webinar: Can Investing in Workers Support Small Business Resiliency Through the Pandemic?
Event

Job Quality in Practice Webinar: Can Investing in Workers Support Small Business Resiliency Through the Pandemic?

Supporting workers isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also good business. How can small businesses and workforce organizations advance job quality?

Photo of a young woman of color working at the checkout lane in a grocery store, wearing personal protective equipment, including a face mask, face shield, and gloves
Event

How the Workforce System Can Advance Workplace Health and Safety During and After the Pandemic

In this webinar, panelists share about the crucial role workforce development professionals can play in advancing workplace health and safety, including through direct engagement with employers and partnerships with local advocacy organizations.

A group of smiling workers
Event

Increasing Equity in a Post-Pandemic Economy: The Potential for Growing Worker Ownership – Job Quality in Practice Webinar

Can worker ownership address the inequities that divide our society and help us build a more resilient economy?

Photo of warehouse worker preparing goods for dispatch
Event

Job Quality in Practice Webinar: Worker Organizations Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis

Many workers have been fired or furloughed, while others are overworked, underpaid, and unprotected. How can we raise workers’ voices now and beyond the current crisis?

About the Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

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More from the Economic Opportunities Program

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes
Podcasts Videos

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes

Economic security shouldn’t be a lottery. Yet for millions of working families, stagnant wages and precarious jobs collide with the daily grind of managing money on shaky ground — leaving stability feeling less like a plan and more like a gamble. Fixing that takes more than one lever. It takes structural reform and the tools people need to take control of their financial lives, working together.

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers
Publications

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

Firms differ in how equity or profit is allocated, how long the ownership structure is intended to last, and how workers participate in governance and the workplace, all of which affect how workers experience ownership.

Employer-Friendly Practices: A Guide for Higher Education
Publications

Employer-Friendly Practices: A Guide for Higher Education

This resource is designed to help colleges and universities become more employer-friendly and build the kind of institutional capacity that sustains and grows partnerships while simultaneously better serving working learners. It offers role-specific guidance for leaders across the institution, a self-assessment spanning five domains of practice, and a process for turning results into action, grounded in the conviction that institution/employer partnerships can become easier without compromising academic missions.

MillerKnoll: Developing Operations Leaders from Within and Beyond — A Case Study in Structured Talent Development
Publications

MillerKnoll: Developing Operations Leaders from Within and Beyond — A Case Study in Structured Talent Development

Bridge, Propel, and Career Academy are built on a practical philosophy: that MillerKnoll has great talent already inside the organization. Finding that talent, developing it, and aligning it to the right opportunities is key to its success. T

A Typology of State-Supported Work-Connected Learning Programs
Publications

A Typology of State-Supported Work-Connected Learning Programs

States invest in work-connected learning through dozens of distinct funding streams, grant programs, and agency initiatives, often developed independently over time by different administrations and agencies pursuing different goals.

Resource Roundup: Data Centers and the Workforce
Blog Posts