Driving Impact: Reflections on JUST Capital’s Summit on Workforce Innovation and Well-Being
Two weeks ago marked significant milestones for JUST Capital: we hosted a week-long Workforce Innovation and Well-being Summit for executives driving vital initiatives at some of America’s largest companies, and we welcomed the trailblazing former PayPal CEO, Dan Schulman, as our new board chair.
With Dan at the helm, JUST is proud to continue a close working relationship that began when we partnered with PayPal to launch the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative. This initiative, which aims to make employee financial wellness a C-suite priority, laid the groundwork for our ongoing efforts to advance workforce well-being and innovation.
Building on the foundation of our Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, the Summit brought together committed, visionary corporate leaders from industries that collectively employ almost one million U.S. workers, and represent over $4.2 trillion in market cap. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in collaboration with partners like IDEO, Jobs for the Future, Financial Health Network, Good Jobs Institute, Guild, and Syndio, the Summit fostered peer dialogue and leveraged expert insights to develop actionable strategies aligned with each leader’s workforce priorities.
Rooted in a focused, hands-on, interactive approach developed by JUST in partnership with IDEO, the goal of this Summit was to help executives bridge the gap between visionary goals and practical, incremental strategies. Rich, provocative discussions, alongside context-specific strategies and tools gave participants the opportunity to strategize, think big, and connect with peers.
Participants found immense, immediately applicable value in their experience. From our attendees:
This was easily the most valuable event I’ve been to in this role and one of the top 3 in my career.
High value for me as timing was right in the midst of strategic planning for my team/company. Felt like I was able to spend some dedicated deep work time on the most important work while being surrounded by credible partners and peers.
I am leading the People and Culture work stream for a massive company transformation and this was helpful to crystallize my approach, KPIs, potential allies, etc.
It was an excellent event from start to finish: Carefully curated attendance list; Everyone was able to build on and add value to each other.
These reflections fuel our commitment to creating spaces and opportunities for impactful collaboration.
Those spaces – and JUST’s theory of change – will always recognize the complex landscape corporate leaders must navigate. From addressing Americans’ declining trust in corporations to grappling with economic uncertainty, talent shortages, and regulatory compliance, the challenges are multifaceted. And we know that solutions with staying power must meet workforce priorities and enable the advancement of related business imperatives. That’s precisely why JUST Capital is focused on supporting leaders in pursuit of operational excellence, healthy workplace culture, and workforce sustainability – bridging the gap between data and reality, while enhancing our ability to measure just business practices.
That approach is anchored in the strong, compelling financial performance of companies prioritizing stakeholder value. As of September 30, 2024, JUST Capital’s flagship indexes, the JUST 100 Index (JUONETR) and JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD), have outperformed their benchmarks by 51.1% and 11.96%, respectively, since inception. These figures underscore the growing evidence that just business practices are not only ethically sound, but financially prudent.
As we reflect on the success of the Summit and look to the future, I’m confident in the power of bringing together diverse perspectives to tackle shared challenges. One of our participants echoed these sentiments:
We’ve never shied away from challenges. We’ve been built by them.
As the leaders left Santa Fe, they did so with a newfound sense of confidence, urgency, and direction: the roughly half of attendees who entered the Summit likely to implement workforce well-being initiatives in the near-term jumped to 80% by the Summit’s end.
