Root Cause Definitions

Accommodations: Adjustments made to the work environment to help qualified applicants overcome barriers to performing the fundamental duties necessary for the job position. Barriers may be physical, cognitive, sensory, environmental, attitudinal, technological, or communication related.
Amenities: Public or private enhancements that improve the quality of life of community members. Enhancements can address social, environmental, cultural, recreational, or infrastructure needs. Amenities are one of the top items individuals take into account, along with family, job, housing, and weather, as they decide where to move for work.
Child/ Family Care: The availability of affordable child care centers and in-home child care, as well as a variety of benefits like flex time, paid family leave, and other resources, to allow employees time to care for family members.
Communication: The exchange of information, ideas, and messages between individuals or groups. It can take various forms, including Verbal (f-2-f, video conferencing, phone calls, …) and non-verbal (email, memos, chat, …). Clear and timely communication gives employees the information they need to perform their jobs effectively and improves engagement.
Culture/ Family: Culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, practices, and behaviors that shape how individuals and groups interact within an organization. When family values, such as work-life balance, are integrated into workplace culture, improvements in employee satisfaction can enhance staff attraction and retention.
Diversity/ Equity/ Inclusion: The values and practices organizations use to create a workforce that is diverse in demographics, equitable in opportunity, and inclusive in culture. Essentially, creating an environment where employees from all backgrounds can thrive. This includes building a recruitment process that reaches a wide array of candidates, ensuring that hiring and promotion processes are equitable, and fostering an inclusive workplace where diverse employees feel they belong and are valued.
Expertise/ Learning/ Training: The understanding and skills employees acquire and apply to perform their tasks effectively. Expertise is gained through experience and deep familiarity with a specific field or role. Learning is the continuous process in which individuals acquire new information and skills. Training is a structured process to acquire new techniques, tools, and methodologies.
Housing: Places to live in a community that provide shelter and safety. The availability, cost, quality, diversity, and proximity to employment opportunities are essential elements of good community housing, which is needed to attract a diverse workforce.
Job Opportunity/ Job Fit/ Economic Vitality: Job opportunities refer to the availability of positions within a community or organization, while job fit is the alignment between a specific role and an individual's skills and interests. Economic vitality reflects the local economy's overall health, diversity, and growth potential. A community with abundant job opportunities, job diversity, and strong economic vitality creates a thriving environment that draws talent.
Job Security: The sense that an individual's job is safe from being eliminated based on an organization’s past performance. Organizations can minimize layoffs by having a culture of retaining employees, diversifying revenue streams, relying on revenue streams with less fluctuation, adjusting expenses, and relying on savings.
Load/ Staff Leveling: Smoothing out production rates and staffing needs to minimize layoffs and rehiring. This can be accomplished by diversifying revenue streams, incentivizing increases in production as product/service demand drops, sharing employees, transferring employees between functions, and adjusting hours worked.
Management/ Supervisor: Leadership's ability to decide strategic direction, allocate resources, efficiently and effectively operationalize plans, set expectations of employees, monitor progress, understand staff needs and provide support, and effectively communicate to team members.
Network: Making connections and building relationships with colleagues, potential colleagues, acquaintances, and industry professionals can increase the number of job opportunities available, improve job fit, and reduce the time needed to find a new job. Individuals who are new to an area often do not have networks, making it more difficult to rapidly find a good job fit.
Operational Excellence/ Safety: A systematic approach to consistently deliver superior performance in all aspects of an organization’s operations, with a focus on efficiency, quality, safety, and continuous improvement. It is driven by a culture of accountability, innovation, and problem-solving, where employees at all levels are empowered to contribute to process improvements. Achieving operational excellence allows companies to maintain a competitive edge, reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and create sustainable, long-term success.
Partnerships: Collaborative alliances where organizations pool resources and expertise to address shared challenges. Developing partnerships is important when an organization’s financial capabilities are insufficient to sustainably address workforce root causes.
Policy Restrictions - External: External policies are regulations or laws outside of an organization, such as government labor laws, immigration rules, or industry standards, that limit the organization’s ability to achieve workforce-related goals. An often-cited example is when an individual’s income crosses a threshold, and they no longer qualify for certain financial assistance. These cliffs can be abrupt, and the loss of benefits can be greater than the associated increase in income, creating a disincentive for individuals to accept a higher-paying job.
Policy Restrictions - Internal: Organizational rules that limit some actions in an effort to reduce liability, improve efficiency, enhance uniformity, etc. While the restrictions provide structure and some can safeguard the organization, they can sometimes be outdated and constrain the organization’s ability to attract sufficient talent.
Project Management: The process of planning, organizing, and overseeing the execution of an endeavor to achieve specific goals within set constraints of time, budget, and resources. Resources can include people, materials, facilities, information, and more.
Project Selection/ Scope: Project selection involves evaluating and choosing an initiative from a pool of possibilities. A project that adds value and is successful is essential for organizations implementing new operational methods. Project scope defines a project's specific objectives, deliverables, tasks, and boundaries, outlining what is included and excluded. A clear and well-defined project scope is essential for successful outcomes, as it ensures that everyone involved understands the project's goals, timelines, and resources.
Program/ Staffing Cost: The resources needed to develop, implement, and sustain impactful activities. Resources include staff, finances, materials, equipment, technology, and information.
Settlement/ Transition Services: Services to assist individuals or families moving into a new community by providing support with housing, employment, language, and navigating local systems. These services are essential for newcomers who may lack resources or knowledge of the community. This helps them access essential services, integrate into the community, and achieve self-sufficiency more quickly.
Transportation: The movement of people to and from a job location in a reasonable timeframe. A lack of reliable, timely, and efficient transportation can limit access to job opportunities, reduce punctuality and reliability, decrease retention rates, and adversely affect the health and well-being of the employee.
Wages and Benefits: Wages and benefits refer to the compensation employees receive for their work, including salary and additional perks like health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. Competitive wages and flexible benefits are crucial for attracting and retaining workers, as they offer financial security and cater to diverse needs, making jobs more appealing and fostering long-term employee satisfaction.
Work Schedule/ Location: Work schedule refers to the hours and days employees are expected to work, while the location of work is where the job tasks are performed, whether on-site, remotely, or a combination of both. Flexible work schedules and locations are increasingly important in attracting employees, especially those not currently in the labor force, as they allow individuals to balance work with personal responsibilities, making employment more accessible and appealing.
Targeted Marketing/ Engagement: Targeted marketing for hiring is a recruitment strategy that tailors outreach efforts to attract specific groups of individuals based on their employment characteristics or demographics. This approach involves using different platforms, messaging, and incentives, recognizing that what appeals to one group may differ for another.

NOTE: In many cases, the research literature uses different terminology in describing root causes that prevent different types of individuals from working. Some of the terms used here are a generic representation of the different terms used by different researchers. As well, sometimes similar root causes are grouped together into a single overarching category to reduce the total number of root causes.

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