Advancing Frontline Employees of Color

Employers of frontline talent face an unprecedented opportunity to advance racial equity as a source of competitive advantage. The United States is experiencing dramatic demographic shifts, its workforce is becoming increasingly racially diverse, and the nature of work is fundamentally changing due to automation. Approximately nine million of the country's 24 million frontline employees—entry-level employees who engage closely with customers—are people of color who represent a reservoir of talent, innovative ideas, and multicultural competency that are increasingly sources of competitive advantage.At a time when there are rising societal expectations for companies to embrace a more active role in society and lead with an ambitious corporate purpose, employers face an unprecedented opportunity to advance racial equity as a source of competitive advantage by intentionally finding ways to advance the careers and enhance the experience of employees of color.Advancing Frontline Employees of Color, written in partnership with PolicyLink, identifies 23 evidence-based practices for advancing racial equity and fostering working environments where all people feel valued and can thrive

Moving from Intention to Impact: Funding Racial Equity to Win

This joint PolicyLink-Bridgespan analysis says funders are a key part of the racial equity ecosystem: to benefit the entire nation they should both be transparent in reporting where grants go and fund what movement leaders say is needed to achieve enduring change

Scoring Federal Legislation for Equity: Definition, Framework, and Potential Application

Federal legislation is fundamental to building a nation in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Since our nation's founding, in many ways, federal legislation has created and exacerbated racial inequities, leaving one-third of the population experiencing material poverty and preventing our democracy from realizing the promise of equity. To ensure the federal government serves us all, we must accurately understand and assess whether every policy advances or impedes equity. The Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI) exists to establish the foundation for a new legislative scoring regime. By scoring for equity, we can begin to create an accountable, responsive democracy

The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity

Corporate America is missing out on one of the biggest opportunities of our time for driving innovation and growth: creating business value by advancing racial equity.Developed in partnership with PolicyLink and funded by the Ford and W.K. Kellogg foundations, The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity highlights examples from 12 leading companies such as Gap Inc., PayPal, and Cigna, who are driving innovation and growth by advancing racial equity

International Trade and California Employment: Some Statistical Tests

This paper presents preliminary statistical tests of the effects of rising international trade on California employment. We found a strong positive relationship between exports and manufacturing employment and a weak, but positive, effect of imports on manufacturing employment. Since higher imports are normally expected to reduce domestic production, the latter result suggests that there exists an additional link between imports and domestic demand. A particular mechanism for this additional link is that low-cost imports of a good, based on foreign production, may lead to an expansion in domestic demand for the good. Although manufacturing employment in that industry will probably still fall as a result of the low-cost imports, employment in the associated service sector for that industry is likely to rise. Indeed, the increase in service sector employment may dominate, leading to an overall increase in the industry's employment. The paper uses California's computer industry to illustrate and quantify this mechanism.