MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER)

Starting a Workplace Health and Well-Being Committee: A Step-By-Step Guide for Managers | MIT Sloan In this guide, you will learn about the benefits of workplace Health and Well-Being Committees and gain information about how to set them up.

‪New research from @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social & @hsph.harvard.edu
finds that workplace health and well-being committees (HaWCs) can result in lower turnover & improvements in workers’ mental health. Read our new guide for managers about starting a HaWC program: tinyurl.com/yvs46sap

Emilio J. Castilla in Conversation with Renee Bales About The Meritocracy Paradox - Columbia University Press Blog In this interview, Emilio J. Castilla and Renee Bales discuss the strengths and limitations of meritocracy, the state of merit-based evaluation practices today, and more.

New in the @columbiaup.bsky.social blog: Professor Emilio J. Castilla of @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social, explains some key findings from his new book “The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them”: tinyurl.com/5dtrfnm6

Announcing Emilio Castilla’s New Book “The Meritocracy Paradox” | MIT Sloan MIT Sloan Professor Emilio J. Castilla’s new book, "The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them," will be published soon by Columbia University Press and i...

“The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them,” a new book by @mitsloan.bsky.social Professor Emilio J. Castilla @mitiwer.bsky.social, will be published soon by @columbiaup.bsky.social & is now available for preorder: tinyurl.com/56cvrzan

Work and Well-Being: An IWER Research Compendium | MIT Sloan This collection of links highlights some of the research and analysis on work and well-being that has been conducted in recent years by scholars affiliated with the MIT Institute for Work and Employme...

Check out our new MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research compendium highlighting research on work and well-being :
tinyurl.com/3wpwuydy

The Surprising Potential of Health and Well-Being Committees | MIT Sloan MIT Sloan Professor Erin L. Kelly, who is Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER), found in a recent multiyear study in e-commerce warehouses that establishing Health ...

You might not think that forming a committee where frontline workers can share work-related health & well-being concerns would have all that much effect on a workplace.
But it can. That’s what @elkelly.bsky.social @mitiwer.bsky.social & colleagues found in a recent study: tinyurl.com/y4pej88v

The Market Basket saga: This time, the family feud is over succession. Will employees and shoppers care? - The Boston Globe A spokesperson for the CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas, says his sisters don’t want his children to take over when he retires.

There’s a succession dispute at the Mass.-based family-owned supermarket chain Market Basket, according to @bostonglobe.com. What would help? A mediator, advises Tom Kochan @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social. The situation needs “fewer lawyers,” according to Kochan: tinyurl.com/yhczt6mp

The Spring 2025 newsletter of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research is now available online. The theme of this issue is "Exploring the Connections Between Work and Well-Being." Read it here: tinyurl.com/3uw29wsj

Minimum Wages and Monopsony Power: MichalReichFest. June 6, 2025. Learn more: irle.berkeley.edu/events

Virtual registration is still open for the "Minimum Wages & Monopsony Power" conference! Featuring an all-star lineup of labor economists, this one-day event also honors career of Dr. Michael Reich.

📅 June 6, 2025 | 8am - 5pm
🔗 Register today: irle.berkeley.edu/events/minim...

America’s job-quality crisis and how to revive workers’ pay, dignity, job advancement, and economic well-being This essay focuses on the drivers of the job-quality crisis and concrete policy responses to address those drivers.

In a new essay for @equitablegrowth.bsky.social, @elkelly.bsky.social @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social reflects on America's job-quality crisis, how it fuels anger & fear that right-wing populist politicians capitalize on, and how to improve working conditions: tinyurl.com/2k2v35xz

America’s job-quality crisis and how to revive workers’ pay, dignity, job advancement, and economic well-being This essay focuses on the drivers of the job-quality crisis and concrete policy responses to address those drivers.

"The crisis of poor job quality has encouraged right-wing populist leaders to pitch divisive rhetoric to struggling workers and their families..."

@elkelly.bsky.social on drivers of poor job quality and concrete policy responses to address them 👇

#EssaySeries

equitablegrowth.org/americas-job...

Our #EssaySeries on "The Rise of Populism and the Future of Economic Policy" is now live!

It explores economic factors contributing to the rising support for authoritarian populism, as well as any potential policy solutions.

Learn more & see all essays here. ⬇️
equitablegrowth.org/insights-exp...

The Trouble With Meritocracy Explore the concept of meritocracy and its significance in today's corporate world, featuring insights from major companies.

Meritocracy has become an increasingly popular term recently. But Emilio Castilla @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social explains that his research suggests that saying an organization is meritocratic can increase the odds of bias in people-related decisions.
tinyurl.com/muuna2j4

College graduates are feeling pessimistic about the job market. here's why Why college grads are getting the cold shoulder from employers

"College graduates this year are facing a very uncertain labor market," Tom Kochan of @mitiwer.bsky.social told Newsweek. "With employers not clear on whether the economy is going to go into a recession…the uncertainty is going to create a softer labor market…."
tinyurl.com/mpt44yc7

The Surprising Potential of Health and Well-Being Committees | MIT Sloan MIT Sloan Professor Erin L. Kelly, who is Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER), found in a recent multiyear study in e-commerce warehouses that establishing Health ...

A research team led by @elkelly.bsky.social @mitiwer.bsky.social found that forming a committee where workers in e-commerce warehouses could share workplace health and well-being concerns significantly reduced employee turnover and improved employees’ mental health. tinyurl.com/y4pej88v

Why do #migrant workers in #China not complain against #labor violations? Duanyi Yang @cornellilr.bsky.social
shows that most of these workers do not interpret labor violations as such because of their close local and ties with the employers.
doi.org/10.1177/0019...

"There are more Americans working at Walmart than in all U.S. auto factories combined….The future of the middle class depends much more on the jobs that already surround us—service jobs—than on manufacturing jobs." —MIT Sloan Professor Zeynep Ton, in Harvard Business Review: tinyurl.com/2y2bxwj8

NIOSH cuts threaten worker health and safety, say experts | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Cuts at NIOSH, a federal agency focused on workplace health and safety, could make workers across the U.S. less safe, slow research about how to prevent worker illness and injury, and shrink the pipel...

Cuts at NIOSH, a federal agency focused on workplace health and safety, could make workers across the U.S. less safe, slow research about how to prevent worker illness and injury, and shrink the pipeline of experts in occupational health and safety. hsph.harvard.edu/news/niosh-c...

Six from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2025 MIT professors Lotte Bailyn, Gareth McKinley, Nasser Rabbat, Anne Whiston Spirn, Susan Silbey, Catherine Wolfram were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2025.

Congratulations to MIT faculty members Susan Silbey and Lotte Bailyn! Silbey and Bailyn, who are both affiliated with @mitiwer.bsky.social, have just been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with four other MIT scholars: tinyurl.com/4n52yrdd

I’m thrilled this is out! Job seekers are often hired into their contacts’ workplaces. We show that contacts’ informal networks in their workplace help job seekers get hired, but optimal networks look different in these settings.

Making Sense of Diverging Trends in Personal and Household Income Inequality | MIT Sloan From 2010 to 2019, US personal earnings inequality shrunk but household income inequality grew. A paper coauthored by MIT Sloan's Nathan Wilmers explains why.

Making Sense of Diverging Trends in Personal and Household Income Inequality: New findings from Zachary Parolin, @lukaslehner.bsky.social & @mitiwer.bsky.social's @natewilmers.bsky.social:
tinyurl.com/264pe64r

Pizza Hut, Chili’s, Olive Garden: The Death of the Middle-Class Restaurant The boom in American sit-down chains has come and gone. What replaced them isn’t so great for human connection.

Research by @natewilmers.bsky.social @mitiwer.bsky.social & Maxim Massenkoff found Americans are most likely to be near people from different economic classes in affordable sit-down restaurants. This finding “popped out of our data,” Wilmers said in new @nytimes.com article: tinyurl.com/mwh2pdf8

How to improve wellbeing and retention using worker voice tactics MIT’s Erin Kelly on new research into an approach to worker voice that boosts employee wellbeing and retention.

In a @charterworks.com interview (behind a paywall), @elkelly.bsky.social @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social discusses her new research: Establishing a health & well-being committee as a form of worker voice “reduced turnover significantly” in the warehouses studied: tinyurl.com/yc5cz4ys

The most serious cases reported by organizational ombuds | MIT Sloan When employees contact an ombuds, what issues are raised — and which are most important to all stakeholders, including the organization?

“The best leaders actively welcome information about concerns & good ideas, knowing that all leadership is somewhat insulated. They want to know about problems & good ideas so they don’t lose out.”-- Mary Rowe of @mitiwer.bsky.social & a former ombuds, in new MIT Sloan article:
tinyurl.com/5fz96tcm

My research was cited to diminish DEI. Actually, we should stay the course. | Opinion A column in the Register noted my work in dismissing diversity work, but the lesson from decades of research is far different, writes Thomas Kochan.

“My research was cited to diminish DEI. Actually, we should stay the course”: New opinion column in the Des Moines Register by Tom Kochan @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/mv5zny5s

David Schmittlein, dean who brought MIT Sloan into its own, dies at 69 | MIT Sloan Schmittlein arrived on campus in 2007 “not to change MIT, but to help it be the best version of its distinctive self.”

mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-t...

Can businesses ever run a true meritocracy? Corporate leaders are ditching diversity for performance-based promotion. Critics say it is not that simple

In a recent @financialtimes.com article, Emilio Castilla @mitiwer.bsky.social @mitsloan.bsky.social cautions that companies' attempts at meritocracy “may have unintended negative consequences for organisations & their employees if not carefully designed & implemented:” www.ft.com/content/87cd...

Silicon Valley Consensus | 25 | Self-fulfilling Technological Determin The term ‘Silicon Valley Consensus’ is a pervasive view about the ecosystem of ideas of innovation, creativity and disruption – originating from the Silicon

Michael Piore of MIT Economics, MIT Political Science & @mitiwer.bsky.social, on innovation: “If we looked in a different direction, we would find different technologies. The direction in which we choose to look...it seems to me, should be the welfare of society”:
tinyurl.com/7ebxdh9a

Thanks for having me on the podcast!

A Lively Discussion of “Retiring” with MIT Sloan’s Lotte Bailyn | MIT Sloan At a presentation at the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research seminar, MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Emerita Lotte Bailyn and three additional experts discussed a new book Bailyn ...

"How do you transition from a life that's centered around your work…to one that isn’t?” That, Lotte Bailyn @mitsloan.bsky.social explained at a recent presentation, is the research question that motivated a new book she coauthored on the process of retiring:https://tinyurl.com/bd73ncne

Measuring The Connection Between Worker Voice and Job Quality | MIT Sloan Until recently, the link between having a say in the workplace and workers’ job satisfaction and well-being had not been empirically demonstrated by researchers. Now, a new journal article coauthored ...

Learn about recent research by @yaminette.bsky.social & Tom Kochan of @mitiwer.bsky.social, Arrow Minster, @psdwsomuch.bsky.social, & Duanyi Yang on measuring the connection between worker voice and job quality: tinyurl.com/47mv44me