Tools for Making Good Jobs Great: Working Metrics and Trusted Advisor

We all benefit when local economies offer equitable, stable jobs. Two new tools are being piloted in Baltimore to enhance the ability of companies and their employees to prosper. This program, co-convened by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, will support MPN members and our partners to learn about how practical employer-based tools can advance job quality and equity for frontline workers. The topic will be of special interest to stakeholders in the spheres of Asset Building, Workforce Development, and Equitable Economic Development.

Approximately 25% of families in Central Maryland are considered among the working poor according to the United Way of Central Maryland’s ALICE report. One way to address this problem is to support employers that compete by valuing their employees. Developed in partnership with the Aspen Institute, Working Metrics, is a cloud-based system that helps “high-road” companies capture metrics to demonstrate what sets them apart as businesses that invest in their employees. The tool is currently being piloted with an employer partner of Civic Work’s Baltimore Center for Sustainable Careers. For more, please read: “Working Metrics – Toward a  More Equitable, Stable Economic System,” by Mark Popovich and Maureen Conway, Aspen Institute.

Many employed workers are financially vulnerable. The economic stress they experience also impacts the competitiveness of the companies for which they work. Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners Trusted Advisor program is an employee financial wellness platform developed to provide employees with counseling and tools to help improve credit scores and reduce debt while helping employers to transform the payroll and benefits process to better support frontline workers. With support from T. Rowe Price and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Trusted Advisor is launching services in Maryland.  For background on the topic of financial wellness, please see “The Importance of Financial Wellness to Workers and Employers,” by Stephen Adams for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

SPEAKERS

• Justine Zinkin, CEO, Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners
• Larry Schlang, CEO, Working Metrics
• Kelly Brooks-Hailey, Civic Works, Baltimore Center for Sustainable Careers

This program is for members and invited guests; refreshments will be served.

Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you require specific visual, audio, or mobile, aids or services please contact Linda Dworak, ldworak@marylandphilanthropy.org.