Rockefeller Foundation’s Workshift Seeks to

Transform Job LandscapeCecilia Ibru

On August 14, 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation announced the launch of the Workshift campaign.

Funded in partnership with public benefit firm Purpose, the new initiative seeks to engage with the American workforce to answer the increasingly salient question, “What is a good job in America?”

Workshift seeks to transform national rhetoric about good jobs by providing a platform for workers, employers, and national leaders to discuss the attributes of favorable jobs and the strategies necessary to create more of them.

Drawing directly from the insight of American workers, the campaign aims to create a new standard for desirable employment in America, focusing on the needs, experiences, and values of the nation’s workforce.

In this way, the Rockefeller Foundation hopes to transform the employment landscape to offer more valuable jobs for all Americans, thus strengthening communities and businesses alike.

The Rockefeller Foundation kicked off the Workshift campaign with a series of public events across the United States.

In the public spaces of major cities, including Miami, Des Moines, and New York City, the foundation erected interactive art installations that encouraged participants to contribute to the national conversation on the attributes of a good job.

By choosing a ball labeled with the value that is most important to them and placing it in a Plexiglas box, workers across America created visual displays of what they value most highly in employment opportunities.