Design and Analysis Plan for the Impact Study of Work Success

Poverty and other chronic stressors can hinder the development and use of skills that are critical in finding, keeping, and advancing in a job. As an approach to assist adults in becoming economically independent, coaching has garnered increasing interest among policymakers and employment program operators. Employment coaching involves trained staff working with participants to set individualized goals—directly or indirectly related to employment—and develop individualized action steps for meeting those goals. Coaches take a collaborative approach by working in partnership with participants, as opposed to telling the participants what goals they should pursue or what action steps to take in pursuing them. This nondirective approach to goal setting can help people use and strengthen the skills they need to stay organized, finish tasks, and control emotions, which we refer to as self-regulation skills. By helping participants practice these skills, coaching could improve employment outcomes and hence economic security. Despite the growing interest in employment coaching programs for adults with low incomes, there is limited rigorous evidence of their effectiveness.

Work Success is a novel employment coaching program designed to help adults facing complex employment challenges use and strengthen the skills needed to find and keep a job. The program combines intensive group and individual coaching with workshops on topics such as resume writing, job search strategies, and interviewing skills.

To learn more about the potential of Work Success to improve outcomes of people with low incomes, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funded an experimental study of the Work Success coaching program, conducted as part of the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies (NextGen) Project. The evaluation of Work Success will explore how the program was implemented and its impacts on self-regulation skills, employment, earnings, selfsufficiency, and other well-being measures of study participants. This report describes the design and analysis plan for the impact study of Work Success.

The impact study seeks to address four main research questions: 1) Does Work Success affect participants’ outcomes related to goal pursuit and other skills associated with labor market success? 2) Does Work Success affect participants’ employment and economic security outcomes? 3) How do the impacts of Work Success change over time? 4) Is Work Success more effective for some groups of participants than for others?