Better Jobs Mean Better Business®

WORC helps impact investors and businesses capture untapped value with the hidden asset at the bottom of the org chart – lower-level workers.

What We Do

Actionable Workforce Diagnostics

Science-backed workforce diagnostics for actionable insights — each diagnostic points directly to what you can do to achieve business goals through people.

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Research for Impact

Driving job quality innovation for positive business results through rigorous research and expert program evaluation.

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Why WORC?

Driving Business Results

If you’re not strengthening your workforce, the science is clear – you’re leaving money on the table. A stable workforce is a chronically underutilized engine to achieve outsized financial and impact results. WORC helps leading private equity firms and their portfolio companies unlock this value.

Measuring Impact

Our science-backed worker voice diagnostics help you streamline stakeholder reporting by concisely measuring improvements over time with a single standardized impact score.

Reducing Risk

WORC diagnostics swiftly uncover risks, strengths, and opportunities for a targeted and bespoke approach to workforce improvements that reduce risks – like high turnover – and boost your bottom line.

Who We Are

Ellen Frank-Miller

WORC envisions a thriving economy where every worker has a job worth having.

WORC’s founder and CEO, Ellen Frank-Miller, PhD, has spent her 30-year career collaborating with investors, employers, national advocates, charitable foundations, and nonprofits to drive positive business impact and alpha by improving the quality of lower-level jobs in verticals such as healthcare, industrials, manufacturing, and retail.

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Meet Our Partners

Hear What Our Clients and Partners Are Saying

  • “We appreciate that WORC is bringing science-backed resources to the broad-based ownership field. At Ownership Works, we’re working with companies and investors to expand employees' access to wealth-building opportunities through shared ownership. WORC's diagnostics will advance the field by making it easier for employers and workforces to reap the benefits of broad-based employee ownership strategies with actionable guidance based on valid and reliable data.”

    — Anna-Lisa Miller, Executive Director, Ownership Works

  • “While conducting impact diligence for a portfolio company, I was impressed with Ellen and the WORC team's analysis which tied actionable goals for improving job quality to evidence-based KPIs. WORC's Worthwhile Jobs Framework(TM) provides an approachable methodology and meaningful set of tools for impact investing funds and organizations that believe investing in human capital is critical to business success.”

    — Bhairvee Shavdia, Managing Director, SBJ Elevation Fund

  • “WORC has been a great partner to JFF. They always come to the table with insights, depth, and creativity. In particular, their collaboration with JFF to advance job quality through private equity action has been excellent. They bring bold vision, follow-through, and a commitment to get the job done well. We look forward to continued partnership and impact.”

    — Cat Ward, Vice President, Employer Mobilization Practice, Jobs for the Future

  • “WORC's unique combination of rigorous research expertise and understanding of businesses and people operations was exactly what we needed for our highly-complex project. Getting five large employers to collaborate effectively and engage in research to figure out how to develop career pathways for lower-level workers in healthcare is no small feat - I don't think typical academics or typical consultants could do what WORC is doing for us.”

    — April Harrington, Project Manager, Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative

  • “Ellen Frank-Miller and her team at WORC and CCAT first evaluated our systems and business imperative — employee engagement to enable success of strategy. They then applied their decades of broad evidence base (that defines what people are looking for and how to create systems to provide it) to design a phased plan to identify our specific needs (by asking associates what they want), create processes in support of that context, and the ability to systematically measure our success as we move through this journey. ”

    — Milton Ives, Operations Leader

  • “Working alongside WORC was such a pleasure. They made each step clear and on track, and their insights were invaluable. From handling our proposal to adhering to our budget, WORC was timely in its execution and an excellent partner throughout, playing a critical role in our program's growth. I look forward to any reason to partner with you in the future!”

    — Brittany Robinson, Program Director, WorkLife Partnership

  • “Ellen and her team have been instrumental in supporting our partners' efforts to build capacity to evaluate complex job quality initiatives. Ellen's disciplined and rigorous approach to applied research is accessible to players with varying levels of understanding of evaluation.”

    — Michelle Wilson, EdD, Program Evaluation Expert

  • “WORC has been incredibly effective at collaborating with us and our employer partners. Ellen has an amazing way of making evaluation easy to understand and implement — and has helped our organizations demonstrate the impact improving their lower-wage jobs had on key indicators such as employee satisfaction and retention, costs of turnover, and quality of care. Having WORC's expertise and their ability to make meaningful evaluation accessible has helped us build our capacity as an organization.”

    — Hope Arthur, Workforce Innovation Leader

News & Insights

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