Renee Bellis, Feedback Labs | October 4th, 2024
Feedback Labs is always looking for ways to highlight the impact feedback has on nonprofits and foundations. We also collect our own feedback by interviewing participants in the Feedback Crash Course to hear what they learned and how feedback has been implemented at their organizations. We recently had a chance to interview Yon Jimenez-Macuso, the Learning and Evidence Manager at REDF and a former Feedback Champion, who attended the Crash Course in 2023.
About REDF
REDF invests in businesses that reveal and reinforce the talent of people breaking through barriers to employment. The nonprofit helps support Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs), revenue-generating businesses that also have a social mission of hiring people who have challenges accessing competitive employment for reasons such as a past criminal conviction, unstable housing, mental health issues or substance use challenges. REDF partners with social entrepreneurs — providing capital, capacity, and community — to amplify the success of their businesses and the people they employ. . Yon and his team foster a learning culture rooted in curiosity and equity which is internally focused on impact and directed externally on advancing the employment social enterprise field. His team develops and maintains systems, processes, and practices needed for data-driven decision making, ongoing performance management, evaluation, impact measurement and reporting, and strategy development.
REDF’s Feedback Process
Yon told Feedback Labs about a perceptual feedback survey REDF conducted, in partnership with RTI International, thanks to funding from the Fund For Shared Insight. Fund for Shared Insight helped produce a poster with additional data and analysis about this feedback loop.
Cross-Sectional Design
A cross-sectional Evaluation Learning Committee was formed to direct the feedback process. The committee was made up of REDF staff, ESE leaders, Fund for Shared Insight representatives, and external evaluators from RTI. They had a common vision and goals: to learn from each other’s experiences to conduct a responsive and meaningful evaluation while building our capacity and understanding of the evaluation and feedback process and results. The Committee also considered how to elevate the voices of ESE leaders and employees in every stage of the feedback loop, and helped create a sense of partnership and collaboration.. The cross-sectional committee broke down some of the power dynamic that exists between a funder and grantees, and convened a group with rich and diverse backgrounds and experiences in employment social enterprises, grantmaking, feedback, and evaluation.
Thoughtful Data Collection
In considering its collection method, the Committee discussed how to reduce the burden for ESE leaders and employees to administer and complete the survey. ESE leaders and employees were involved in the design process and its aim was to determine if the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of ESE employees had an impact on their employment and life stability outcomes, such as whether the employees were higher paid or in more sustainable long-term employment in the future. The survey asked general satisfaction questions adopted from Listen4Good, and questions about their sense of inclusion and belonging, preparation for the future, resiliency and support, safety, among others.
Analysis and Data Disaggregation
The Evaluation Learning Committee carried out collaborative sense making activities to analyze the results. As part of the data analysis process, REDF and RTI took care to disaggregate the data to see if different employee lived experiences or demographics had an impact on perceptions of future job prospects. The disaggregated data revealed that gender didn’t play a role in the perceptions of ESE participants in their ability to get a better job after working at the ESE. On the other hand, race and age were correlated with differences in experience. BIPOC and younger people had less confidence in their future job prospects when compared to their white and older counterparts. They also found that a positive connection to ESE staff and a low fear of future jobs are the strongest predictors of a positive exit, defined as exiting the ESE for another employment opportunity, obtaining a promotion within their organization, or to start an educational program. The data showed that feeling that ESE staff treated employees with respect increased the likelihood that the ESE worker was employed 18 months after enrollment, that interacting frequently with ESE staff was associated with higher wages and that the ESE employee’s general satisfaction with the organization was predictive of them working at least 30 hours/week in their jobs after the ESE. The data confirmed some of REDF’s assumptions about what was happening for different participants and disaggregation made it possible to support ESEs to make programmatic changes that support the people who need it most.
Dialogue with Feedback Participants
Following the analysis of the data, the Evaluation Learning Committee produced an overarching report as well as targeted reports with the data from each ESE. The ESE leaders were then responsible for taking the data back to their employees to have a dialogue and then reported back the results of those conversations to REDF. The Committee, including ESE leaders, co-created ideas about how they could share the survey data back with employees. Organizations presented the data to employees in different ways, channels and formats and some had round table discussions.
Closing the Loop by Course Correcting
Course correction varied between the ESEs. Using one ESE as an example, the feedback data revealed that their employees who were feeling more insecure about their next job tended to have worse outcomes in terms of future employment and wages, compared to employees that were more confident about their future jobs, who were securing better jobs with higher wages and more hours. This helped this ESE understand that self-confidence was a critical factor in its employees’ long-term success, and something the business should prioritize. The ESE initiated an alumni program where former employees returned to speak with current employees about their achievements and challenges. The transparency and acknowledgement of both struggle and success within the program context, and hearing both the good and the bad of employment outside of the ESE, was well received, is helping build trust between the staff and employees, as well as demonstrates to employees what they can achieve.
REDF’s feedback loop demonstrates how stakeholders from multiple disciplines can come together to listen to constituents. When multiple perspectives are present in the feedback process, it allows for more nuanced information to be collected. As a result, organizational leaders can make better decisions about programs when they have rich, nuanced data to inform their decision-making.
Crash Course Takeaways
The feedback loop that Yon described in our conversation was well underway by the time Yon participated in the Feedback Crash Course. However, he shared that the Crash Course was an exceptional learning experience, offering practical insights that were immediately applicable to his work and that provided him with knowledge, resources, and support to design a standard feedback framework and process across REDF’s many programs. He particularly appreciated the comprehensive content, which covered everything from foundational concepts to more advanced feedback strategies. He also reflected on invaluable networking opportunities that allowed him to connect with peers in the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors. Yon told us that he had never been part of peer conversation about feedback before and that he enjoyed being a part of a cohort that he can reach out to for support in the future. He said that the Crash Course was empowering, well-structured, and left him with the confidence and tools to make a real impact in his organization.
Yon is dedicated to building data systems, processes, and tools that generate evidence on the value of Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs). REDF invests in ESEs which are mission-driven revenue-generating businesses that reveal and reinforce the talent of people breaking through barriers to employment to build an economy that works. For everyone. With over a decade of experience in the social sector, Yon has been a tireless advocate for economic empowerment and social justice, focusing on individuals facing systemic inequities and barriers to work and opportunity. Before joining REDF, he honed his expertise in data management and evaluation at various organizations and startups in the U.S. and his native Spain. Yon holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of the Basque Country in Spain, and a Social Sector Leadership certificate from UC Berkeley and Philanthropy University.
