Hello everyone! Welcome to the Job Quality Initiative Kickoff Event.

Job quality is an integral part of the President’s Build Back Better agenda – especially when it comes to equitable economic growth.

I know that improving job quality is also a priority for companies, especially those that are dealing with significant labor shortages.

We all share an intuition about what a quality job means to us.  We consider pay, benefits, and beyond that a multitude of other factors like workplace safety, a voice, scheduling flexibility or scheduling certainty, skills building and advancement.

The Department of Commerce, along with White House and Labor Department, are trying to build a national dialogue about job quality to help guide federal spending – and to help businesses attract and retain workers.

But to make changes that lead to long-term growth, we need a larger national dialogue on job quality. 

As many of you know, what’s currently lacking is a common definition and framework around this issue – and that’s why we’re so honored to have you, the leading industry voices, participate today.

I want us all to put our heads together to develop a very practical job quality framework that we can all stand behind.

The Department of Commerce brings some job quality expertise to the table through the Baldrige Performance Excellence program.

The program is housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology and since 1987 they’ve established a globally recognized model for evaluating organizational performance.

This afternoon you’ll learn more about the Baldrige team’s approach and methodology.

Our goal is to leverage the Baldrige program’s expertise in developing high-performing organizations − and your knowledge − to create a Job Quality Framework and deploy it in a way that helps businesses assess and improve their own performance evaluations.

I’m delighted that we’re joined today by our partners from the White House and other agencies who share our commitment to this issue.

I’m really looking forward to your insights and to working together on this issue today and in the days ahead.

With that, I’ll turn it over to David Langdon, our Acting Deputy Director of Policy to get the discussion started.