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  • 2022
  • White Paper

Building from the Bottom Up: What Business Can Do to Strengthen the Bottom Line by Investing in Front-line Workers

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
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Abstract

A significant number of American workers—44%—are employed in low wage jobs at the front line of industries. Despite undertaking some of the most tedious, dirtiest, and most dangerous jobs, low-wage workers are—and have long been—the most likely to be overlooked by employers and by society. Business leaders express growing anxiety about their ability to fill the low-level positions that are at the foundation of their operating models, yet relatively few actually respond to that threat. Managements do little to understand or address the reasons why low-wage jobs are hard to fill and low-wage workers hard to retain. Most employers show little engagement in workers’ lives, provide minimal support for skill building, give infrequent or unclear feedback, and offer almost no guidance on career pathways. In doing so, employers have ignored the high price their organizations pay: unfilled positions that reduce output and increase overtime, direct and indirect costs caused by constant churn, and the “soft” costs of eroding morale.

Keywords

COVID-19; Labor Market; Low-wage Workers; Worker Welfare; Churn/retention; Morale; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Wages; Retention; Well-being; Human Resources

Citation

Fuller, Joseph B., and Manjari Raman. "Building from the Bottom Up: What Business Can Do to Strengthen the Bottom Line by Investing in Front-line Workers." White Paper, Harvard Business School, January 2022.
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About The Author

Joseph B. Fuller

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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    Governors Reshaping Workforce Development: Turning WIOA Challenges into Workforce Solutions

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    • 2025
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    Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment

    By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Amanda Holloway, Rony Rodriguez Ramirez and Ali Epstein
    • March 10, 2025
    • Harvard Business Review (website)

    How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

    By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
More from the Authors
  • Governors Reshaping Workforce Development: Turning WIOA Challenges into Workforce Solutions By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Nathalie Gazzaneo, Ariel Higuchi, Justine Gluck, Zoe Butler, Jack Porter and Malena Dailey
  • Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Amanda Holloway, Rony Rodriguez Ramirez and Ali Epstein
  • How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
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