“I Can Make My Own Schedule”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of the Impact of the Health Profession Opportunity Grant Program on Workplace Flexibility

Abstract

Background: Policymakers are increasingly focused on promoting job quality as a means to enhance financial stability and well-being through employment. Thus, evaluations of public workforce inventions are adding employment outcome measures that go beyond wages in order to assess job quality more broadly. Objective: This study employs a mixed methods design to understand what aspects of job quality, beyond wages and benefits, are valued by most participants of a federally funded sectoral job training program and then assess the impact of the program using these grounded insights. Methods: We use secondary data from a randomized control trial of the Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG) for our analyses. Themes from a qualitative analysis of 153 participant interviews informed the selection of three flexibility-related outcome measures for quantitative analysis using experimental survey data. Intention-to-treat estimates were generated using linear regression and ordered logit models, with subgroup analyses examining race/ethnicity, nativity, parental status, and education. Results: Workplace flexibility emerged as a widely valued aspect of job quality, with participants emphasizing scheduling choice as a strategy to achieve work-life balance. Statistical models demonstrate that the program facilitates access to jobs with greater workplace flexibility. Heterogeneity analysis reveals differential impacts by ethnicity and education level, and notable positive results for individuals with children, a group more likely to value and benefit from flexibility. Conclusion: HPOG improved access to jobs offering workplace flexibility—an aspect of job quality prioritized by participants. Findings underscore the importance of incorporating non-wage metrics, especially work-life balance, in workforce program evaluations.