Redressing the Balance an Economic and Social Analysis of Dress for Success Sydney’S Employment Interventions

Redressing the balance an economic and social analysis of Dress for Success Sydney’s employment interventions

Olav Muurlink Stephen Iles Katie Allan Stephanie Macht

Central Queensland University Centre for Tourism & Regional Opportunities

Redressing the Balance 1 Redressing the balance an economic and social analysis of Dress for Success Sydney’s employment interventions

. A/Prof. Olav Muurlink Stephen Iles Katie Allan Dr. Stephanie Macht -

Published by CQUniversity Australia Centre for Tourism and Regional Opportunities School of Business and Law

Published in Brisbane.

ISBN 978-1-921047-55-8

Cover photo of a seedpod, unknown photographer, released under Cre- ative Commons CC0, from https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1488659

Redressing the Balance C4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Beyond the authorial team, this report would not have happened but for matchmaking between the Cranfield Catalyst chief executive John Hosie (who has since retired) and director Lindsay Graham. The Cranfield Cata- lyst is an organisation that aligns neatly with Central Queensland Univer- sity’s social innovation mission. The Catalyst, and it’s UK ‘parent’ the Cran- field Trust helps to align not-for-profits with the expertise that sometimes is missing at board level in the sector but can be found (believe it or not) in universities such as CQU. Once introduced to Dress for Success Sydney, the research team received great co-operation from DFS’s chief executive (also since retired—believe me, pure coincidence) Ursula McGeown, and the team at DFS Sydney. The team—and their clients—trusted us with sensitive information required to produce the report. Its limitations are entirely our responsibility, and its strengths in no small measure reflect the cooperation Dress for Success Sydney offered.

Associate Professor Olav Muurlink, Central Queensland University.

Redressing the Balance 5 About the authors

Associate Professor Olav Muurlink is Head of Course, sustainable innovation, at Central Queensland University. A social psychologist in CQU’s School of Business and Law, he is also program leader of the Food Waste Cooperative Re- search Centre’s Future Leaders’ Program, and chair of the international education charity Cooperation in Development.

Following a corporate career with NAB, BP, Coca Cola Amatil and Westpac, Stephen Iles moved to the social sector with roles including Deputy Director at the Cape York Institute at Griffith University and Chief Executive at State Schools’ Re- lief. Currently he is a social innovation PhD researcher at Central Queensland University.

Katie Allan works in a support role in the School of Civil Engi- neering at the University of Queensland and is a graduate of CQU’s postgraduate social innovation program.

Dr. Stephanie Macht is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Course at CQUniversity’s School of Business and Law. Stephanie has teaching and research interests in the broad areas of entre- preneurial finance, entrepreneurship, social innovation, and design thinking.

About the CTRO

The Centre for Tourism and Regional Opportunities (CTRO) is an entity jointly run between the School of Business and Law and the Office of Indigenous Engagement. The Centre is ad- ministered from CQUniversity’s Cairns campus. The CTRO is an applied and multidisciplinary research centre and is or- ganised into five thematic areas: n tourism development n indigenous development and cultural capital n regional communities and growth n natural assets and environment n services industry innovation and work.

About the University

Central Queensland University is the largest university based in regional Australia, with locations in every mainland state. The Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rank- ings placed CQUniversity within the top 200 institutions in the world when it comes to creating social and economic impact. CQUniversity was ranked within the top 100 for three of the fields: decent work and economic growth (94) and peace, jus- tice and strong institutions (64) and quality education (83). -

6 Redressing the Balance EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report aims to estimate the impact of Dress for Success Sydney’s job placement work, as well as conduct a broader qualitative project evaluation, on the operation of Dress for Success Sydney (hereafter referred to as DFS-S). The project involved the gathering and analysis of both qualitative data (from interviews and documentation), quantitative data (both primary, as in gathered directly from the agency and its clients, and secondary, from both agency and government data), as well as drawing on a broad review of the scholarly literature.

Two separate analyses were conducted. The first study was a qualitative study drawing on interviews with staff volunteers and clients, while the second study drew on secondary data as well as primary data drawn from DFS–S records.

The qualitative study indicates that the unique intervention that DFS offers impacts on clients’ self-esteem and a powerful way. This indirect intervention (when considered in terms of the clients’ pathway to employment) was revealed to be surprisingly powerful in opening up client readiness for work challenges. The quantitative analysis shows that while the DFS-S approach to helping clients’ job readiness is expensive, it is complementary to existing services and highly impactful in improve job outcomes. ‘Graduates’ of the DFS-S intervention were not just more likely to gain employment but were more likely to gain a high-quality outcome, i.e. a full-time, as opposed to part-time or casual employment outcome. The study shows that ratio of up front program costs to the present value of real future net gross wages for 2018 was in excess of 5 to 1.

This report makes a number of recommendations:

INVESTMENT

n Financial decision making that acknowledges the time value of money using a discount rate of 3.5 percent but without the complexity of specialist valuation n Maximise future impact by aligning decision making to the four milestone benchmarks of participation, employment, retention and reduced income support.

DATA

n Continue on the data journey already underway and allocate funds for data collection and evaluation, perhaps five percent n Start collecting data on post placement retention of participants perhaps using new product development design to maintain and enhance connection with past participants and donors n Clearly differentiate between modes of employment, in particular permanent and casual, and work pattern in hours n Adopt a standardised set of industry descriptors

Redressing the Balance 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS

11 Background - DFS-S and its operations 12 Rationale for the study 13 Women and unemployment in Australia 15 Employment interventions 17 Why a focus on clothing might ‘work’ 20 Analysis, Study 1 24 Analysis Study 2 33 Summing up 39 References 42 Appendix -

Redressing the Balance 9 Background

Dress for Success, its scope of operations

The ‘core activity’ of Dress for Success Sydney ten years in operation (DFS, 2019), and in 2017 styled (DFS-S) is its work in providing free professional 2506 women across NSW in preparation for inter- clothing, and assisting women in need with attaining a views, employment or another important life event. professional, job-ready ‘look’. However, in the last ten These styling services include access to second-hand years, the charity has extended its work to providing professional clothing and accessories, donated by pro- training and support to women—including, crucial- fessional women, which are provided to clients free of ly, building the esteem of women at risk. Taking a charge. The clothes itself is donated by professional broader perspective, it espouses the aim of providing women. “a network of support [in aid of the] career develop- As just noted, DFS-S does not, however focus pure- ment to help women achieve self-sufficiency”. There ly on ‘dressing’, its 2018 “Our DNA” statement divid- is an unusual element to the DFS formula, when con- ing the organisation’s approach into three categories: trasted with job placement agencies, which have pro- dressing, career support services (providing work- liferated in Australia in the last two decades. Contrary shops and coaching to assist clients with job-search to other interventions designed to ‘help’ women with and job-relevant skills) and outreach (providing ser- skills such as preparing for interview, and developing vices to women in regional and rural areas as well high-quality resumes, the DFS intervention acts di- as those at correctional centres, who were unable to rectly on perceptions: how society sees DFS’s clients, physically attend DFS-S’ two showrooms). and how these clients see themselves. A typical intervention designed to improve job outcomes tackles The organisation has a core group of paid staff and a the problem more or less ‘head on’, pointing clients to large pool of volunteers (740 in 2018) that enable the jobs, showing them how to apply for jobs, and either organisation to provide a greater intensity of focus on through inducements or punishments or training, try- its clients than other operators in the job-assistance ing to create a match between client and employer. space, which rely on paid staff for the delivery of their programs. DFS-S volunteers donate in a single year Dress for Success was first established in New York around 15500 hours (equivalent to 7.8 full time equiv- in 1997 by Nancy Lublin (Cummins & Blum, 2015; alent staff) to the organisation and its clients. The -or Turner & Bowker, 2001). DFS Sydney is an affiliate ganisation tends to have a surplus of donated human of a global charity that now has in excess of 150 af- resources, particularly in relation to certain elements filiates in 30 countries. The Sydney affiliate (which of its operation such as direct client contact, but it also now has associated studios at Illawarra and Newcas- has a substantial excess of donated clothing, with a tle) was founded in May 2009 by Megan Etheridge, number of innovative programs being developed to and has assisted in excess of 14,000 women during its deal with this access.

Redressing the Balance 11 Rationale for study stitutional and individual investors are increasingly looking at environmental, social and corporate gov- In 2017 Dress for Success Sydney resolved to expand ernance goals of a firm, believing (with good reason) its ability to measure the impact of its services and that entities that aim themselves towards these out- began gathering more data to enable impact assess- comes are more likely to survive and thrive (Neuen- ment (DNA). From the point of view of the current haus, 2019). study, the data that is now routinely collected includes This can lead to relatively superficial attempts on “number and type of DFSS service touch-points; em- the part of enterprises seeking investment to engage ployment (or) training outcome; interviews secured; in relatively shallow attempts to demonstrate their industry-type; sustainment of employment” (DFS, ‘corporate social responsibility’. The urgency for 2018, p. 25). While DFS-S does collect anecdotal real change, as opposed to the appearance of change, data which it uses in its publicity, and additionally, as drives a layer of individual investors who are seeking a large, well-established professional organisation col- objective measures of impact (Kolk, Rivera-Santos, & lect data as part of its organisational processes, it does Rufin, 2012). The work by economists and philoso- not analyse this data to a significant degree to measure phers looking at ‘effective altruism’ (MacAskill, 2015; impact. It is the combining of this latter secondary Singer, 2015), philanthrocapitalism and more broadly data, with some primary data collected by the project impact investment (e.g. Edwards, 2008) speaks to the team from the agency’s clients and staff, that will see need for objective metrics of impact. With accurate this project produce a more valid measure of impact. measurement of impact comes the opportunity for in- This study presents an objective mixed method anal- vestors and donors to strategically seek out targets that ysis, including a qualitative analysis of the impact of its deliver maximum impact. To summarise, there are ‘core’ intervention, the clothing intervention, focused two broad, clear reasons to develop evidence-based on psychological impact, and a quantitative analysis to assessment of impact: evaluate the impact of the indirect measures that DFS takes on job outcomes. 1. Articulate the organisation’s impact internal- ly to staff, members, donors and volunteers as DFS-S is not alone in seeking an objective analysis well as externally to government, potential do- of its impact. Increasingly, non-profits are moved to nors and regulators, gain clarity, partly to better map causal pathways of 2. Inform evidence-based decision-making by impact and inform internal investment decisions, but management and the board. also to secure the attention of institutional investors in an increasingly competitive market (Papania, Shap- iro, & Peloza, 2008). Both commercial and non-prof- Thus, this study is designed to evaluate the impact of it entities are being forced to change the way they do a social program to assist disadvantaged women not business and talk about the way they do business. In- merely from theoretical interest. It is expected this project will inform internal policy and approach, as well as assist the non-profit in communicating effec- tively to donor bodies, including the government, in Increasingly, non-profits are the process of gaining further funding. moved to gain clarity, partly In the following sections, we will turn first to the to better map causal pathways quantitative analysis and the associated focus on unemployment in Australia. While aiding women to ob- of impact and inform internal tain employment is not the sole sphere of operation of investment decisions, but also Dress for Success Sydney’s work, a significant proportion of the economic impact of what the charity does to secure the attention of can be measured through its impact on employment donors and investors in an in- outcomes. Employment is one of those outcomes that has pervasive effects on quality of life, as well as the creasingly competitive market advantage of being associated with a high degree of accurate record keeping on the part of government. These records have a strong empirical and historical basis, that enables relatively accurate measurement - of outcomes relative to norms. Following this analy- 12 Redressing the Balance sis, we will turn our attention to the qualitative component of this study as we will explore the impact of DFS-S’s work in improving psychological outcomes through providing women with access to professional clothing. Women and unemployment in Australia

A recent report on the state of play in Aus- tralia on long term unemployment (Davidson & Dorsch, 2018) noted that over half a million Australians have been out of work for more than 52 weeks. This group is presumed to be a subset of a significantly larger group who are long-term unemployed but absent from government records. Focusing on those who are on the government’s direct radar, over two thirds of this group, Davidson and Dorsch noted, have received benefits for over two years, and around a quarter have received benefits for more than five years. They are the entrenched unemployed, “systematically excluded from paid employment” the authors note (p. 4). As time passes, statistically, their chances of employment reduced. For the long-term unemployed, not surprisingly, the job search period is long—and tends to increase with age. Average duration of unemployment rises with age. For women aged between 15 and 19, the 2017 unemployment figure was 5.3%, rising to 8.8% for those aged 20 to 24, 12.2% for those in the 25 to 54 bracket, and 15.5% for those aged 55 or over (OECD, 2019). However, women are relatively less likely to be represented in the category of long-term unemployed as defined by the ABS. However, this gender difference is probably a function of social and other variables. To measure the duration of a job search period, the ABS calculates the time elapsed between the point when “an unemployed person began looking for work and was available to start work” (Vandenbroek, 2018, p. 1), and for women the point at which a job search commences is frequently significantly mediated by constraints such as family com- mitments. While women are less likely to be represented in long-term unemployment figures, 2019 figures suggest they are more likely to be underemployed (10.4% in January 2019, compared with 6.2% amongst men) and un-

Redressing the Balance 13 employed (10.4% for women as opposed to 6.2% for forms have impacted mothers. In July 2006 the Par- men) (DESSFB, 2019b). Underemployment refers to enting Payment age threshold for the youngest child the proportion of the labour force who desire more dropped from 16 to 8 years old. Once the young- work than they currently undertake. Not surprising- est child reached 8, the mother would be moved to ly, then, women however account for the majority of Newstart. A number of grandfathered arrangements part-time employment however (68.7%). As of Jan- ceased in 2011. The fortnightly impact of this reform uary 2019, there were 2,753,600 women in part-time when implemented in 2011 reduced fortnightly in- employment as opposed to 1,255,100 men. come support from $648.50 to $529.80. The Parent- Certain categories have higher and lower unem- ing Payment Single was first introduced in 1973 as ployment rates within these ‘headline’ figures. The the Supporting Mother’s Benefit (Yeend, 2012). This unemployment rate for recent migrants and tempo- policy reform was designed to increase female labour rary residents (these are 2017 figures) was 7.4%, two force participation. percentage points above the overall average. Mi- This background of challenges for women in the grants with Australian citizenship have lower unem- workforce is tempered by signs in recent years of pos- ployment rates than the broader population, while itive trends. The most recent labour force statistics, temporary residents have rates higher than even the for January 2019, show almost 6 million women em- migrant average. Amongst the migrant population, ployed in Australia, an increase of 2.4% increase over gender produces a sharper divide than in the broader the 12-month period. The female unemployment population. Here, men show a much higher labour rate appears to have improved, dropping from 5.6% force participation rate than women (90% to 71%), to 5.2% in the 12 months to January 2019 (DESSFB, and that scale of difference reflects a range of subcat- 2019b). The drop in unemployment complicates egories including those on temporary visas (74% to analysis, because those who remain in the cohort will 54%) (ABS, 2017). be more difficult to place as the market contracts (Da- In the ten years since DFS-S was founded, the tail vidson, 2002). As unemployment drops, competition end of a sequence of income support payment re- for the remaining pool of work inevitably increases.

14 Redressing the Balance The Commonwealth Government is projecting that financial incentives existed for non-government (i.e. in the 5 years to 2023, employment is projected to in- not profit and commercial) job-placement provid- crease across most industries, with the Department of ers. There were also incentives for securing durable Jobs and Small Business Female Employment Projec- placements. The cut-off then, as now, was 26 weeks tions 2018 Report (December 2018) suggesting that or more of continued employment. The evidence is female employment (admittedly off a lower base) will clear that the introduction of the ‘job network’ system continue to outpace male employment growth. Fe- worked with Department of Education, Employment male part-time employment is predicted to comprise and Workplace Relations figures showing dramatic the largest proportion of total employment growth in and sustained falls in cost of placement (calculated as the period and will rise by 31% as opposed to male the total cost of all programs divided by the propor- projection rates of 15%, according to the DJSB calcu- tion of participants in employment three months or lations. However, the picture on long-term unemploy- more after leaving the program) in the second half of ment per se is both different now—and is projected to 1997 (DEEWR, 2007). The increased efficiency was be problematic in the years to come. The number of confirmed by researchers external to the government long-term recipients remains higher today than it was (Davidson & Whiteford, 2012). before the recession of 1991 (Davidson, 2011). The reforms have, however attracted their share of Researchers have attempted to understand what criticism. The system has been criticised—with evi- makes the ‘long-term unemployed’ a particularly dif- dence—for lacking flexibility, with providers seeking ficult population in which to implement effective -in routinisation and standardisation in order to achieve terventions. Caddy et al (2010) for example provide profitability. “Agencies adopted more conservative evidence that absence from employment leads to practices over time in response to more detailed ex- disengagement. They identify a group they label the ternal regulation and more exacting internal business ‘discouraged’, who lack training, skills, experience or methods,” noted one assessment (Considine, Lewis, & education to tackle available jobs, have difficulties be- O’Sullivan, 2011, p. 811), and some critics have argued cause of cultural or language barriers, are regarded as that the performance metrics associated with the pri- ‘too old’ by employers, or perceive there being ‘no’ or vatisation process have led to risk aversion in relation ‘no suitable’ jobs in their geographical proximity. The to some of the groups that are the focus of this study, Caddy study shows women are no more likely to be notably single mothers (Brady, 2018). Critics also ar- ‘discouraged’ except in two regards: they see no jobs gue that the approach encouraged by the ‘new’ model in their line of work and they see no jobs in suitable favours superficial understanding of clients by service hours, a particularly key criterion for women with providers, and the savings realized by the system have household responsibilities. largely been achieved through shifting costs from the public sector to the private. Quirk (2002) argues that Employment interventions

Co-ordinated government and non-government The evidence is clear that the introduc- efforts to reduce unemployment have a relatively tion of the ‘job network’ system worked short history, and credible impact assessment is of even more recent vintage. Australia is considered with Department of Education, Employ- an innovator in introducing market competition for ment and Workplace Relations figures provision of employment assistance services to the unemployed (Jarvie & Mercer, 2018), and the nation’s showing dramatic and sustained falls in experiment with applying market forces to this sec- cost of placement but as these reforms tor of social services has been subject to considerable evaluation, albeit relatively sparse scholarly research. have settled in, ceiling (or basement) The Commonwealth Employment Service ceased effects are emerging which will limit operating in 1998 (Australian Productivity Commis- sion, 2002), as part of more general neo-liberal re- ‘returns’ that can be ascribed to the form of government. The rationale was to achieve privatised job assistance agencies. not just cost savings, but greater client focus (Jarvie & Mercer, 2018), and one of the ‘levers’ operated by the Commonwealth government of particular relevance here was that for the long-term unemployed, greater -15 Redressing the Balance clients deserve a much greater level of sovereignty in viduals from access to assistance is fraught. ‘Natural’ the process, to compensate for the losses at a client lev- experiments help to overcome the ethical challenges. el associated with the system. The British “New Deal’ program of the 90s, for exam- Putting aside these criticisms, it is evident that as ple, saw the inevitable uneven roll out of measures these reforms have settled in, their ceiling (or base- across regions, and enabled regions where the pro- ment) effects are emerging which will limit ‘returns’ grams were yet to be rolled out to be used as controls that can be ascribed to the privatised job assistance for regions that were given the early benefit of reforms. agencies. Evidence that new programs are delivering Card et al (2017) conducted the largest and most re- diminishing returns on investment has emerged in cent meta-analysis of active labour market programs. work by Borland and Wilkins for example (2003) on They statistically analysed over two hundred studies the impact of the ‘improved’ successor to Newstart ac- and concluded that overall impact of programs de- tivity interviews—or lack of incremental impact. signed to assist those unemployed into the job market The new measures are increasingly being asked to was “close to a zero in the short but tend to become respond to the needs (or improve the outcomes) of the more positive after two to three years after completion long term unemployed, and Borland and Tseng found of the program”, although there was sufficient varia- that measures tended to have differentially weaker im- tion to come to a number of firm conclusions about pacts on this particular group (Jeff Borland & Tseng, relative effectiveness. 2011). To express the issue differently, intervention Individually, studies showed significantly differing programs work ‘best’ on populations that have been levels of impact, and, interestingly, from the perspec- previously subject to few interventions. As implied tive of this current evaluation, their relatively larger earlier, the long-term unemployed present challenges effect sizes for programs involving females and in par- to those seeking to ‘help’ for a number of reasons. Dis- ticular those drawn from the ranks of the long-term engagement from employment also has social effects unemployed. This is likely to be due to relatively less that can loop back to reduce future access to employ- ‘ceiling’ or ‘floor’ impacts, due to the relatively larg- ment. Employment can lead to social isolation, and er ranks of female/long-term unemployed. The type social isolation can in turn decrease access to employ- of programs that showed the greatest impact were ment opportunities (Gallie, Paugam, & Jacobs, 2003). those that emphasised what the authors called ‘hu- Methodologically it is difficult to disentangle one man capital’ (i.e. supported the unemployed through intervention from another in the non-laboratory con- training) rather than ‘work first’ approaches (where, ditions presented by the job search context. Individ- for example, simply searching for jobs was the focus uals have access to an idiosyncratic range of formal or where applicants are given incentives to get a job) and informal resources that make interaction between even though the latter seem to have more rapid impact different programs almost impossible to determine. than the former, with Australian approaches offering In many instances, individuals may make sequential a blend of both types. The ‘human capital’ approach, choices on gaining access to help, and order effects are taken by DFS-S, is statistically more effective with the rarely taken into account in assessments. In overcom- long term unemployed than relatively more superfi- ing limitations to assessment, the temptation is to turn cial ‘work first’ approaches. Finally, all approaches to experimental or quasi-experimental approaches, were more effective during recessions. assigning individuals to different combinations of in- The effect sizes that the Card meta-analysis are terventions, however ethically depriving at-risk indi- talking about are small in absolute terms, with short

16 Redressing the Balance term effects in the 1 to 3 percentage points, stretching the enhancement of sexual interest through artful use to 5 to 12 percentage points in the longer run (over of clothing), adornment (removed from any sexual three years). While relatively small, at the upper end function) and the utility/protection theory (where, of these long-term impacts is similar to the impact of for example, blacksmith’s clothes serve to protect the an additional level of education. body from bruising, or alternatively, its function in The impact of the success of Australia’s measures relation to hygiene). Later scholars shifted the dis- to reduce unemployment could be regarded as quite course about clothing to its symbolic role in signifying striking when subject to global comparisons of unem- individualism, a form of non-invasive cosmetic body ployment rates alone. Australia has one of the lowest modification designed to make ourselves appear more unemployment rates amongst OECD members and unique (Lee, 2003), or less unique, if the situation re- has held this advantage for most of this last decade, quired, for example, in the defence forces, where con- although the difference is reducing significantly. The forming to social norms had perceived or real bene- OECD unemployment rate in December last year fit (Gronow, 2002). In recent decades, the discussion stood at 5.2%, with Australia’s at 5% (OECD, 2018). about the role of clothing beyond mere protection has Ten years prior, the OECD average was 6% whereas shifted to symbolic role in relation to commercial sta- the Australian rate stood at 4.3% (Davidson, 2011). tus (‘power dressing’) (Owyong, 2009) and wealth (‘la- bels’) (Nelissen & Meijers, 2011). Evaluation of the Australian Jobactive program is underway with an interim report very recently re- Not surprisingly, consumer research also focus- leased (DESSFB, 2019a). The interim report not only es on these latter aspects: how individuals identify aims to measure improvement in employment out- themselves through consumption targets (Brown & comes for job seekers, but also assesses two more modest variables: engagement of job seekers with Jobactive services and reduction in “regulatory and administrative burden” (i.e. ‘red tape’) by Jobactive Most scholars agree that clothing plays providers. In the main, the findings of the interim an important role in social settings report are positive. The current iteration of the Jo- bactive program seems to be more effective than its and is one of the most overt means of predecessor of 5 years ago in achieving the prima- non-verbal communication ry aim of assisting the unemployed to gain work or at least achieve the more modest outcomes that the government has set, that is, participating in activi- - ties such as Work for the Dole, education and training, or work experience. Jobactive does appear to be more effective with the long-term unemployed than Coupland, 2015; Descatoires, 2017) what Descatoires its predecessors. With the post-Commonwealth Em- (2017) calls the “I shop, therefore I am” phenomenon. ployment Service era now entrenched, the gains are These processes of identifying themselves with the becoming less substantial, but remain measurable. To products they consume is also not entirely positive. put it another way, efficiency gains have largely been So, whereas fashion may have become about making realised. Future gains are subject to diminishing re- independent choices or choices that signify indepen- turns. dence, even popular culture portrays women as being the ‘subject’ of fashion, as ‘victims’ or ‘slaves’ of fashion. Heart (2011) argues this speaks to the uneasy re- Why a focus on clothing lationship between fashion and self-esteem, with the might ‘work’ when it comes public (rather than individual’s) acceptance of a clothing style being a key driver of fashion ‘choice’ (Banis- to employment outcomes ter & Hogg, 2004). So, clothing may have emerged as a means of protec- Clothing has begun to play an increasingly complex tion from environmental factors and immodesty, but role both in society and the business sector. Dunlap’s it has developed beyond that: clothing accrued a sym- early seminal work on the function of fashion (Dun- bol role differentiating between social, cultural, ethnic lap, 1928) has recently been returned to the forefront and socio-economic groups (Sybers & Roach, 1962); of thinking in the field. He argued that clothing has denoting both individualism (Lee, 2003) and confor- four functions: modesty, (deliberate) immodesty (i.e. mity to social norms (Gronow, 2002). From a theo- Redressing the Balance 17 retical psychological perspective the process involves ment. There has been substantial scholarly work in symbolic interaction (Blumer, 1986): we assign mean- this field, particularly in relation to first impressions ing to items without those items necessarily having in- (Davis & Lennon, 1988). Clothing appears to rapidly trinsic meaning, and then draw on those symbols in determine the impression formation process of oth- organising aspects of life. Through the lens of social ers (Todorov, Pakrashi, & Oosterhof, 2009). A large semiotics (the science devoted to the study of signs) well-conducted study by Howlett, Pine, Orakçolu, and and more particularly clothing semiotics (Rubinstein, Fletcher (2013), for example, investigated 274 partic- 2018), clothing also signifies social status and gender ipants’ first impressions of personal attributes based (Aghaei, Parezzan, Dimiccoli, Radeva, & Cristani, solely on modifications to the style of suit on the same 2017). As such, clothing does not denote meaning in male model. Participants were given five seconds and itself but is a form of nonverbal communication that were not shown the models’ faces. They found that the is “context dependent”, in that the specific meaning male in a tailored as opposed to ‘cheap’ suit ranked communicated by clothing symbols depends on the more highly on a range of attributes. In their work social context in which it is perceived (Davis & Len- based on a sequence of five studies, Slepian, Ferber, non, 1988). Thus, most scholars agree that clothing Gold, and Rutchick (2015, p. 661), looked at constru- plays an important role in social settings and is one of al-level theory, paying particular attention to the cor- the most overt means of non-verbal communication relation between formal clothing and abstract cogni- (Graham & Jouhar, 1980). The non verbal domain is tive processing. They asserted that “formal clothing is arguably more influential in determining outcomes, often worn to follow norms, but also serves to obtain with studies showing that relative to verbal channels, respect, signalling…professionalism and maintenance non-verbal processing is prioritised by a factor of over of social distance”. Conversely, they found that casu- ten (Archer & Akert, 1977). al clothing is more closely related to familiarity and a Bannister and Hogg (2001), in contrast to previous more relaxed, intimate setting. work on symbolic consumption and self-congruency, While there is extensive research examining the im- suggest that individuals do not just ‘read’ and interpret pact of how clothing influences interpersonal percep- positive meanings from consumption decisions such tion, intra-psychic impacts of clothing are relatively as clothing choices, but also take on negative mean- under-researched. There are exceptions. For exam- ings. Their qualitative study suggests that the negative ple, research examining the wearing of uniforms have self, assembled through this process, is more complex found an impact on the wearer, as well as third parties and multifaceted than positive selves. They believe that (Heart, 2011). Much of the work focuses narrowly we define ourselves, and are defined by others, just as on self-esteem, however, the idea of external modifi- much by what we reject as what we consume; although cations of image changing more fundamental inter- this can be a lot more difficult to quantify (Banister & nal states has been touched on, for example, in very Hogg, 2004). Banister and Hogg (2001) chose cloth- limited work on hair colour (Divya & Mayuri, 2014) ing as a consumer category because of the high degree and tattoos (Widdicombe & Wooffitt, 1990). Studies of symbolic salience to the wearer: the wearer wraps of ‘self-signalling’ have included work in the field of her- or himself with the product and is enclosed in clothing, with Rocha (2018) noting that a number of the product. Thus, being ‘dressed’ in certain ways can studies have been conducted showing how the use of impact negatively on the way we see ourselves. ‘brand’ clothing can improve a sense of self-efficacy. Rocha’s study, for example, looks at the impact of us- Clothing and ing branded football uniforms to improve psychological wellbeing of fans. impression management Turning to the commercial sphere, Heke (2010) built on previous work looking at first impressions, The degree to which clothing signifies membership and the degree to which they determined recruitment of a group, i.e. a uniform, can have an impact on an outcomes. Heke (2010) looked at the influence of a individual’s acceptance into the group. Nash (1977), variety of factors such as cosmetics, hairstyle and eye- for example, found that runners who wore similar glasses, and how these variables impacted perceptions running clothes interacted more, whereas those with of applicants and their suitability for certain roles, discrepant styles were less likely to converse. This particularly managerial positions. These markers also ability of clothing to signal membership of a group have an intrapsychic role. A study by Heart (2011), can be deliberately manipulated by the individual or albeit limited to a group of fifty students in a particular others in a process known as impression manage- campus in Scotland, found the clothing category indi-

18 Redressing the Balance cated by respondents as making them feel felt best was ism’ touched on in the previous section is an example dressy/formal attire, with the mean response being of this transition from mere perception to measurable 4.45/5; conversely, loungewear received a mean score outcomes. In a relatively recent review (Johnson, Yoo, of 3.02 – the lowest rating of all categories. Kim, & Lennon, 2008), suggests a majority of litera- Literature on the role of clothing in determining em- ture looking at clothing focuses on impression forma- ployment outcomes has been generally framed around tion or person perception, and how this in turn leads a discrimination lens: ‘lookism’ (a term that has taken to subsequent behaviour. These processes can be un- root in the research sphere since Hamermesh and Bid- derstood, as Davis and Lennon (1988) argue in their dle’s influential working paper Beauty and the Labor review, within three theoretical frameworks from the Market) (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1993). They note, field of cognitive psychology: social perception theo- in the less politically correct language of the time that ry, attribution theory (which models how people try “holding constant demographic and labour market to find causes for the behaviour of themselves and oth- characteristics, playing people earn less and people ers) and impression formation theory (which typically of average looks who are less than the good-looking.” deals with the manner in which ‘inputs’ are assembled Based on earlier scholarly research, they note that the into a holistic impression). penalty for “plainness” is 5 to 10% while premium for The way in which these elements (perception, attri- beauty is a little larger than that. Surprisingly, the ef- bution, and impression) work together can be illus- fects are larger for men than for women. Their semi- trated through both scholarly studies and anecdotal nal paper spends little time focusing on the impact of accounts. In the latter category, a report by employ- clothing or other means of enhancing attractiveness or ment firm Jackson Lewis, which explored the results physical suitability for an employment role. However, after implementing dress-down policies, 44% of 1,000 Hamermesh and Biddle’s work did spawn a significant companies surveyed noticed an increase in tardiness, body of research looking at the impact of superficial absenteeism, and flirtatious behavior (Araneta, 2001). factors on employment outcomes. Similarly, a more recent account noted a shift to casual The suit as a ‘suit of armour’ has been touched on attire lead to lowered work quality and productivity in in scholarly research, with Hollander for example, a workplace (Armour, 2011). Fortenberry, MacLean, beginning her book Sex and Suits: The evolution of Morris, and O’Connell (1978) found those who are modern dress with a quote on how the suit transforms formally dressed have their personal space invaded the man (if not the woman): “male heads of state wear less than those in casual attire. suits at summit meetings, male job applicants wear them to interviews, and men accused of rape and murder wear them in court to help their chance of ac- quittal“ (Hollander, 2016, p. 3). Hollander argues that similarly for the woman, the suit offers a “self-perpet- uating symbolic and emotional force” (p. 4), lending the wearer instant ‘authority’. Ironically, the suit’s image as ‘armour’, as a ‘disguise’ can work against it, with Black and Van den Broek noting (in an article that touches on the work of DFS) that the suit has come to be associated, at least amongst those of lower socio- economic status, with appearances in court (Black & van den Broek, 2014). The DFS-S focus on the ‘suit’ as a means to a number of ends (both internal psychological change and increased agility and efficacy in the job market) is thus backed by existing research. Clothing as a therapy

Research has also investigated the role of clothing on behaviour, both of the individual wearing the clothes, and that of the receiver, perceiving meaning from the symbolic nature of the clothing, and the work on ‘look-

Redressing the Balance 19 Analysis

Study 1: An analysis of the ‘dress’ component of DFS-S

Methodology stakeholders to gather qualitative data that addresses those gaps, assembling a model of impact, bringing a This study was subject to review by the Hu- preliminary model to the agency, and then data analy- man Research Ethics Committee (HREC) at Cen- sis, and finally delivery of the report. tral Queensland University (application reference: Some of the data (de-identified) as noted earlier was 0000021156). collected from the agency. This is not person-specific data but general data of an aggregated nature, and in- Overview cludes client numbers and client characteristics, weight in kilograms of clothing donated and dispensed, staff hours, staff numbers and salary costs, voluntary staff This study focuses on at-risk women, including the hours. In addition, federal and state government data long-term unemployed, victims of domestic violence, relating to employment and disability, as well as eco- refugees and new migrants. Traditional approaches nomic data, are likely to be included in final model- to therapy tend to focus on understanding internal ling, but this data will not be linked specifically to the states through versions of ‘talking cures’, that hinge participants. on verbal interaction between therapies (Jaffe, 2014). Sajnani and Johnson (2014) divide these tradition- This study examined the Dress for Success inter- al psychological approaches into three: expressive, vention and asked women to describe and explore through psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic treat- their experience of the intervention. Dress for Suc- ment; educational, where the person is educated about cess provides a very focused intervention that pro- their ‘illness’ but most commonly suppressive, where vides self-sufficiency and employability of women in the patient is encouraged to ‘just get on with life’. The need by providing, free of charge, professional cloth- latter approach is often paired with pharamacological ing, a network of support and the career development interventions designed to mask or suppress symp- tools (Dress For Success, 2017). This study addresses toms. Comas-Diaz (2003) suggests that more recently, a broad research aim rather than a focused research traditional approaches to clinical psychotherapy have question. That aim was to explore the broader impact been modified to encompass pragmatic approaches, of clothing-focused interventions on wellbeing and partly in response to changes to the cultural diversity employment outcomes of disadvantaged women. of society. That is, psychotherapy’s aim in some cases As part of this project, DFS’s founder, CEO, direc- is narrowing to achieving more pragmatic aims such tor, head of operations and volunteers, head of career as investigated in this study, where there is a strong support, and three clients were selected for interview. return-to-work focus of the DFS-S project. Participants were purposively selected by the man- This data was supplemented by qualitative data agement of Dress for Success Sydney on the basis of sourced from two groups of participants: staff of representativeness of the client base, availability and Dress for Success (including, potentially, volunteers), willingness to participate. This analysis makes use of and clients. The general approach followed the NSW the data of three client interviews and interviews with Government Program Evaluation Guidelines (January three volunteer styling specialists, who were inter- 2016), which involves meeting with the agency, and viewed during a preliminary stage of the larger study understanding the key variables and potential exist- and is informed by the full range of interviews con- ing data sources, identifying data gaps, meeting with ducted. All participants were de-identified, and given

20 Redressing the Balance code names, V1, V2, V3 (for volunteers) and C1, C2, There was at times a distinctly different tone to the and C3 (for clients) and were analysed through the- way the volunteers described engagement with the matic analysis (Joffe & Yardley, 2004).1 clients to how the clients themselves describe the encounter. Volunteers saw the role of the interven- The volunteer’s viewpoint tion in process terms, where the act of dressing the client is backgrounded, and the process of providing multi-faceted assistance to the client foregrounded— The volunteers recognised the extreme vulnerability despite the organisational name placing the focus on of their client base, women who have “forgotten who the clothing component. Even when they did focus [they] are, you know, who am I? They’ve lost them- on clothing, the emphasis was more functional than selves” (V1). This sense of loss included the clothing emotional. “They’re needing warmer clothes to get itself: “[they] don’t have any clothes left, lost their cloth- them through winter,” as V1 described one case. An- ing along the way, lost their family connections…” (V2). other described a case where a client was “grateful to

1. Further detail for readers interested in methodologi- emerged, one theme which was labelled “magic”, which experience (Smith, 2015). cal details: Interviews were conducted in person, and involved a sense of unexpected transformation that res- Phenomenology is focused on exploring for patterns and digitally recorded. Upon completion of transcription, the onated across a number of domains of life for the wom- connections between themes that emerge from data, as transcripts were closely read twice as part of an initial ex- en clients, and the other, a broader ““flow-on/dispersion” well as points of disconnect or tensions. This search for ploration of themes, prior to coding. Transcripts were then theme. The methodological approach taken needs to be themes and connections between themes does not rely, coded using inductive analysis which allows meaning to responsive both to the theoretical perspective or paradigm like typical quantitative approaches, on rejecting the ex- be abstracted from the text (Joffe & Yardley, 2004). This of the research, as well as ontological and epistemologi- ceptional case and isolating only those that have general second, more detailed stage of coding sought to identify cal perspectives (Grix, 2010). The current study takes a applicability. The value of the exceptional case can illumi- themes that were shared between the two groups (clients qualitative approach. Qualitative studies can be placed nate the limits of normative classifications, and suggesting and volunteers) as well as those that were clearly discrep- within an interpretativist tradition (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011) relationships between variables that might be usual, but ant. The key theme identified included the state in which in that they seek to understand the perspectives attached still have significance for a sub-population, for example the clients found themselves upon encountering Dress for by a particular person to a particular experience (Pope & (Ermakoff, 2014). Success, which was labelled “lost” (and related to a loss Denicolo, 2000). This study aimed to take a phenome- of social contacts, material wealth, skills and general dis- nological approach. Phenomenological analyses aims to connection with society). In terms of impact, two themes explore participants’ understanding of a particular event or

Redressing the Balance 21 get some clothing so she’d have some spare money to The client’s viewpoint buy [her son] a ball that he’d requested that he could play with the other kids at school” (V3). That the Magic: The clients all saw the transformational mo- clothing be seen as a step on a path of transformation, ment of ‘being styled’ by Dress for Success as a pivot- rather than a moment of transformation is summed al point in their emotional recovery, and not just as a up in the following case where the volunteer spoke functional means to an end: about the client negotiating with client services and government agencies: It was nice because when I was wearing this [dress] people said it was very nice and I told them ‘I got it It’s often building that bridge, there’s lots of barriers from Dress for Success’. They said it was very beauti- that the world puts up, that we can’t necessarily get ful. I think it changes your life (C1). It just felt like rid of, and Governments are very reluctant to change magic. Susan told me and I started and it just worked policies ... and so very often you’re just creating a out, it was just magic (C2). little bridge, or you’re helping those women build bridges to get through those hurdles of life (V2). Client 3 spoke about the transformation of self in that moment, and how it changed something inside her and how she perceived herself and her own abilities: The same volunteer later put the limitations of the ‘dress’ component of DFS more bluntly. “An outfit doesn’t actually overcome all the structural and socie- So to put on this frock that they gave me, it was quite tal barriers that are there for a lot of our clients, but it overwhelming actually to look at myself [in the mir- helps and it’s something.” ror] because I’d actually forgotten who that person was over all those years and through the hardship Like the clients, the volunteers recognise that there that I’d been going through. And from there, I went is a strong social signalling aspect to clothing: out and I had the confidence (C3).

They don’t want to feel that ‘I don’t fit anymore be- Of course, it is hard to argue that a single dress solves cause everybody else is wearing designer clothes, all issues, as alluded to by Volunteer 2, but it can and and I’m just wearing my stuff I’ve bought’. This want- has made a difference for these women and is articu- ing to be a part of the community and not feel that lated well by Volunteer 1, “just creating a little bridge, you’re isolated and separated because in some way or you’re helping those women build bridges to get life has thrown you a whole heap of curveballs (V1). through those hurdles of life.”

The volunteers did however recognise the emotion imbued in the styling process. “It’s not unusual to have people burst into tears about how they can see I got the interview and I actually wore themselves in a new life” (V2). The closest that the volunteers came to recognising the ‘magic’ of the task the dress that I’d been given at Dress they were ringmasters to was when they talked about for Success and the shoes and everything the difficulty in finding an alignment between the client and the clothing. Volunteers spoke of clients else, and I walked in there remembering resisting the ‘right’ clothing for them—to the point that you had to – that first impressions of refusing to wear clothing that did not match the ‘size’ that they actually were (imagining themselves count – that was really, really import- to have a different body shape to the one that they ant; so, I did feel poised and confident now occupied). Finding “that right thing and kind of making it work” was a collaborative art that did because I felt good; I felt really well not always end ‘well’, even though findings from DFS presented… one dress can make a dif- internal surveys suggests a large majority of clients end up being satisfied with the outcome. ference because it really did for me (C3). - 22 Redressing the Balance The transformational moment of being dressed and to the workforce and feel a stronger sense of self-worth, seeing the results in the mirror was clearly a catalyst and a more clear-cut definition of self. This in turn for the positive change in life events and it can be seen lead to impacts on their life, through greater financial that this moment positively impacted sense of self and freedom as seen in the account of Client 1 above. The others’ perceptions, as the clients attribute their ability moment in front of the mirror at Dress for Success is just to obtain work to the impact of a dress (impression a moment, but the residual impacts ‘flows on’ through management): the client’s subsequent transformation. Client 1 for example notes that the transformation lead to work which I got the interview and I actually wore the dress that lead to social independence and strong interpersonal I’d been given at Dress for Success and the shoes and connection, at work: “oh, it was an amazing thing in my everything else, and I walked in there remembering life. I was praying to have good friends…at work.” that you had to – that first impressions count – that The impact on other family members and friends was was really, really important; so, I did feel poised and also a domain of influence noted by the clients. Client 2, confident because I felt good; I felt really well pre- who had recently relocated from overseas and was very sented… one dress can make a difference because it unsettled at first in Australia, talked about the positive really did for me (C3). impact of the intervention had not just on herself, but her friends and family.

One client described it as ‘magic’: “Now I have a job. Every time I came back from a Wednesday workshop, Wow, that is amazing, I mean I can’t…it just worked I was happier, more positive, so *laughs* it’s good for out, it just felt like magic” (C3). “I looked a million him…it was all better for him [husband]… he loved it bucks – I have to say” (C3). and he’s like ‘now you look so classy maybe you won’t even talk to me *laughs*’. The way they dressed me felt like a princess moment, it just was beautiful you know? It just gives that feel- Her young son even noticed the change: “it was just ing when you are not trying to get your bridal toss, or amazing, he was like “Mummy, are you going to start people running around; and it was just beautiful. So, I a business, are you going to be a CEO?” and I said “no, just felt that amazing vibe (C2). not the CEO as yet, just a business analyst hopefully” *laughs* (C2). Flow-on effects:If the transformative moment has As with other immersive intervention experienc- planted in these women, on a quest to obtain work, with es, the impact of these programs is highly emotional a new-found confidence, then this has in turn had other (Walk, Greenspan, Crossley, & Handy, 2015)—partici- intended, or even unintended, positive consequences. pants (volunteers and clients) we spoke to were effected Client 1, a new migrant and student living in Austra- at times to the point of tears. lia, had been very constrained by financial pressures and emphasised the freedom that having an income Discussion, Study 1. from a stable job provided; she was able to pay off her debts and: The focus of the intervention that DFS-S offers is unusual, insofar as it is not a direct response to (for ex- [Having an income] allowed me to go out with these ample) the state of being unemployed or otherwise dis- friends and colleagues to have lunch and maybe could advantaged. It is primarily an opportunity to re-clothe be something very common when we are working and at-risk women, although the non-profit also offered we don’t get worried when we are spending about ten ancillary support services which have not been directly or fifteen and having a coffee…not every day…but it analysed in this component of the study. The study gives you freedom. Even one of my best friends in that found that for the clients interviewed, and the volun- job, she’s from Hong Kong, and she’s very nice and she teers, the impact of the intervention was profound and told me “do you want to go to somewhere?” and I said went beyond immediate self-esteem or self-concept en- “yeah, that could be nice,” so we went to Fiji. hancement for the women. The clients acknowledged that the moment of being dressed and seeing themselves transformed in the mirror in the dressing area There was a link between the ‘magic’ and the ‘flow- was a pivotal moment, but it was merely the beginning on’ themes, in that the transformation wrought to the of other changes that they were able to observe in their women’s self-identity gave them the strength to return lives. Redressing the Balance 23 Social innovation approaches, on the other hand, ever, the quantitative component of this study will go avoid directly tackling the problem but instead ana- part-way to addressing this limitation, in exploring lysing the problem and look for relationships between the impact of the DFS-S interventions as a whole and elements, and a point of intervention. Emunah (2013, contrasting them with the more conventional services p. ix) advocates dramatherapy as one such technique offered by alternate suppliers of support to the long- which has been applied as an alternative to the ‘nor- term unemployed. Thus, it can be argued, the quan- mal’ therapies which help promote positive mental titative component of the study does begin to capture health, combining theatre and psychotherapy to help the impact of the ‘special sauce’ in the DFS approach. people “recapture the freshness of their early child- hood’s excitement and vitality…and re-engages these more primal modes of interating via physical action and direct interaction which contrasts with the more Analysis artificial and restrained context of traditional verbal therapy in which the patient narrates to a therapist.” The power of seeing oneself in the mirror has been Study 2: Quantifying identified as a central component of self-awareness employment impact: Overview and attitude change in both positive and negative contexts and directions (e.g. Freysteinson et al., 2012; The quantitative evaluation component of this study Hutton & Baumeister, 1992), and there is an extensive will largely use secondary/archival data, collected scholarly literature on feedback effects and their role as part of the operations of the non-profit, as well as in self-reinforcing behaviour that supports the notion (where publicly available) government agency data to that the ‘mere’ clothing element of the Dress for Suc- calculate effects. In order to be more responsive to its cess intervention can have a profound effect. client needs, DFS-S has an unusually intense focus on collecting information about clients and eliciting feed- Limitations back on its services. The affiliate uses SurveyMonkey (an online survey service) to identify gaps in its service There are a number of obvious limitations to the and refine its approach, reviewing results on a fort- current study. The study is based on pilot data and nightly basis (DFS, 2018). is thus small and is also purely qualitative. The study This study provides an initial quantification of the ra- can also be criticised for having participants who were tio of net economic benefit to costs of DFS-S programs. not selected by a formal or random selection process. It is the first stage in developing a comprehensive artic- This was not merely a convenience sample, but a sam- ulation of the organisation’s impact. It is important to ple selected by the non-profit, for the purposes of il- note that this comprehensive answer requires more and lustrating impact. So, it is possible that these women’s better data over time. However, a clearly staged pathway account of what occurred to them is not representa- for developing more precise and well-informed answers tive of the broader sample of clients of even this single is also provided. charity. More broadly, the impact found in this case may not extend to other non-profits in other cultural contexts, or even in cases where the target client is an- Data journey other gender. DFS-S has embarked on an organisational journey to Another limitation of this study is that it is difficult, collect data that can be used to better inform decision on the narrow data base obtained, to distinguish im- making. As a central element of this journey is captur- pacts that can be related to the transformation wrought ing output and outcome data from past participants. by clothing, from the broader impacts caused by oth- DFS-S started surveying past participants from 2018 er elements of the Dress for Success intervention. It and has identified that 75 percent of participants find is possible that the therapeutic ‘ingredient’ is not the employment after receiving dressing and makeover re-clothing element, but the broader and much more services. Without the support of DFS-S, 48.6 percent of conventional services that Dress for Success offers in unemployed women who participated in the Jobactive the form of retraining, for example. Traditional means suit of jobseeker support services would find work three of assisting women at risk in a non-therapeutic sense months after accessing these services (Department of are commonly funnelled through skills-based inter- Jobs & Small Business, 2018). ventions, designed around pragmatic training such as job search skills (McQuaid & Fuertes, 2014). How- 24 Redressing the Balance Jobactive the measure of how many people got a job following program participation. The Department tracks par- The Commonwealth Department of Employment ticipant outcomes three months after the participant Skills Small and Family Business (2019) (hereafter has completed the Jobactive program (Department ‘the Department’) publishes four now well-estab- of Employment Skills Small and Family Business, lished performance measures for the operation of the 2019). Whether participants secure employment is Jobactive suite of employment services it operates to tracked based on the assessed level of participant la- support unemployed Australians to find work. The -Jo bour market disadvantage. Figure 1 identifies three bactive program is delivered through 1700 locations separate streams A, B and C that correspond to the nationally commencing in 2015 replacing the former level of assessed disadvantage. Stream A participants Job Services Australia employment services program. have the lowest level of assessed disadvantage with 59 Each of the measures seeks to chart the process of out- percent securing work three months after completing puts transforming into outcomes. the Jobactive program. Stream B identifies a moderate level of assessed disadvantage. On average 43 percent n Program participation of stream B participants are in work three months af- n Employment ter program completion. Finally stream C describes highly disadvantaged program participants with only n Retention 27 percent of participants landing a job three months n Reduced income support post completion. Current figures suggest that on av- These four well-established benchmarks are in- erage 48.6 percent of all Jobactive participants have formed by the Department’s Post-Program Monitor- secured employment after completing the Jobactive ing surveys as well as Departmental administrative program. data. The benchmarks have been adopted in this study Figure 1 -Jobactive placements by stream three to enable readily comparison of the net benefit of months post commencement DFS-S work using similar survey measures. Program participation

Foundational to any program assessment is the question: are people participating? The answer does not necessarily provide insight beyond offering a necessary precondition for subsequent success. Without participating there is little hope of delivering additional benefit to potential participants. Assessors are typically more interested to know how the program changed participants’ lives based on independently verifiable evidence. A personal reflection on how you feel after The Department also reports employment outcomes participating in the program, while interesting, does by disadvantage factor. Job seekers in these categories not itself objectively indicate program success. may face greater challenges in securing work than other job seeker participants. Figure 1 shows outcomes 385,000 participants were registered with Jobactive as a function of a range of categories known to be as- between January and December 2018 as a result of sociated with disadvantage. receiving income support payments from the Austra- lian government (Department of Employment Skills Small and Family Business, 2019). Jobactive providers Retention meet with participants on a regular basis and receive assistance with training, work experience, resumes, job Once a participant has secured a job, the Depart- search, strategies and assistance overcoming personal ment tracks how long the former participant remains barriers to working (Department of Employment Skills employed. Jobactive provider remuneration is heavi- Small and Family Business, 2019). ly weighted toward participants securing sustainable employment. The principal employment retention Employment milestones reported by the Department are at four, A key variable required to establish independently 12 and 26 weeks. It is not surprising to learn there- verifiable outcomes in an employment intervention is fore that these benchmarks have become the industry Redressing the Balance 25 standard and a job that lasts 26 weeks is accepted as of jobs participants secured and in what industries. being sustainable by the program. Three main types of employment have described in the data. Figure 2 – Retention by outcome milestone n Casual, n Part-time, n Full-time. The industry classifications were applied by DFS-S and provided as a complete data set. There may be some inconsistencies as a result. For example, self-employed is not an industry classification but rather describes a mode of employment. The results appear based on the DFS-S data categories and the impact on the study findings is assessed as largely immaterial. Casual/contract/temporary roles describe insecure Figure 2 above describes the percentage of jobs work that may for example be seasonal or temporary. that reach each successive milestone. Following com- Importantly this type of work cannot be considered mencement 65 percent of participants reach four ongoing or sustainable. Ordinarily casual workers are weeks. The figure then drops to 58 percent at 12 weeks paid a premium, commonly 25 percent, on top of the and finally dipping further to 41 percent at 26 weeks. ordinary applicable hourly award wage to compensate for the fact that there are no paid leave entitlements Reduced income support covering illness, holidays, parenting nor long service (Fair Work Act 2009). Casual employees enjoy no The Australian government uses income support fixed pattern of work from one day to the next. These payments as a measure of outcome and targets a 60 roles are often useful stepping stones to more perma- percent reduction. Reducing payments such as New- nent work with fixed entitlements. Moreover, they start and Youth Allowance to participants is a primary provide employers with a low cost means of correcting objective justifying the Department spending $769m poor employment decisions. The uncertainty associ- in 2017/18 delivering the Jobactive program. There are ated with casual work (Keuskamp, Ziersch, Baum, & many other benefits for Australia helping participants LaMontagne, 2013) has consequences, being associat- find work. There are of course additional benefits ed with poor physical health (Keuskamp et al., 2013) more difficult to capture in monetary terms in reduc- and poorer mental health outcomes (World Health ing unemployment. Organization, 2008). Hospitality and tourism is the primary employing in- DFS-S data dustry for past DFS-S participants who are employed casually. Figure 3 details that more than a quarter of DFS has started collecting outcome data from for- surveyed participants are now employed casually. Ed- mer participants using a telephone survey. Partici- ucation and training account for over a fifth of casual pants are asked whether they are working, how they jobs. The remainder are spread across government, are employed, what industry they work in as well as a retail, medical and administration. This spread of range of demographic and administrative questions. occupational categories is not typical of outcomes for This study draws on this first cohort interviewed by graduates of the Jobactive program. Most Jobactive phone. It is used on the simple basis that it was avail- participants in streams A to C end up in casual, tem- able. It does not represent a well-constructed rep- porary or seasonal work (55%), with a further 9.8% resentative sample. However, the data set is the first exiting to a self-employed role. Just 35.2% end up in a systematic collection of participant data undertaken permanent role (DESSFB, 2019a). by DFS-S. The data is used in part to demonstrate the importance of systematic data collection to inform evidence-based decision-making as well as articulating the impact of the organisation’s work. Perhaps the most interesting data derived from the DFS-S post program survey results details what type

26 Redressing the Balance Figure 3: Casual Dress for Success job placements Full-time jobs enjoy the full range of minimum entitlements detailed in the National Employment Stan- dards. The pattern of work may vary, but 38 hours is the standard full-time working week. Many roles may require additional hours. Employees enjoy the same certainties and similar peace of mind as part-time employees in terms of access to paid leave. However, full-time work is associated with some negative effects as well, such as increased work-to-family conflict (Hosking & Western, 2008) particularly for women with care responsibilities (Rushing & Schwabe, 1995). Part-time employment is ongoing in nature and at- DFS-S survey data reveals a wider range of indus- tracts legislated minimum entitlements known as the tries employing past participants on a full-time ba- National Employment Standards and defined under sis. Figure 5 shows that for full-time employees, s.61 of the Fair Work Act 2009. The Jobactive program Government and Information and Communication defines part-time work as being less than 35 hours per Technology categories are relatively more prominent week with a stable pattern of hours worked. The provi- while Healthcare and Hospitality remain significant sion of paid leave entitlements provides a stable plat- employing industries. It is fair to say that that job form for employees. They enjoy paid sick leave, recre- categories that emerge in this analysis show that the ation leave and eventually long service leave. Living full-time employees emerging from DFS-S are more with the knowledge that you have a stable work pat- likely to be placed in white collar roles. tern, minimum hours of work and that you’ll be paid if you or your child is sick is life improving. These jobs Figure 4 – Part Time Dress for Success job placements are especially important for working mothers who need to balance the requirements and costs of working and family responsibilities. One third of DFS-S part-time jobs are in administration and office work according to the DFS-S survey classification detailed in Figure 4. A further quarter were in the healthcare and medical industry. Self-employment, government, advertising, hospitality and consulting sectors made up the balance.

Redressing the Balance 27 Australian Bureau of Statistics data Complete picture

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) records Using the ABS distinction between employees with Australian employment patterns in significant detail. and without benefits it is possible to construct a rela- In practical terms, accurately differentiating between tive picture of how DFS-S and Jobactive employment casual, part-time and full-time roles is quite challeng- outcomes relate to the wider pattern of employment ing. Casual employees may work full-time hours but of employment in the Australian population. The not receive access to paid entitlements. Similarly, a ABS record that 75 percent of employees enjoy paid casual employee may believe their stable hours of 20 leave entitlements regardless of their pattern of hours hours per week determine they are employed part- worked. Figure 7 places Jobactive and DFS-S employ- time. To guard against these potential errors, the ABS ment outcomes in the context of the wider Australian differentiates between employees with paid leave and workforce. Jobactive participants overwhelmingly se- those without. cure insecure casual work with 59 percent classified casual. DFS-S records that 35 percent of its past par- Figure 5 – Full Time Dress for Success job placements ticipants landed insecure casual work. Both these figures are charted against the ABS result of 25 percent of the wider Australian workforce is in insecure work. Similarly, 41 percent of Jobactive participants who do secure work (Stephen, you had this just as ‘41% of Jobactive participants, but I think that isn’t right… because 41 + 59 = 100, and there is no way 100% of participants…) secure permanent work, defined by the ABS as in receipt of paid leave entitlements. DFS-S participants secure permanent work in 62 percent of cases, much closer to the Australian ABS average. Figure 7 – Employment outcomes Figure 6 charts the steady rise of part-time hours for employees without access to paid leave entitlements. The moving four quarter average, charted as a dot- ted line, shows a steady rise over the past five years. Because casual employees are paid a 25 percent load- ing on their hourly pay rate, they are theoretically no worse off than part-time employees that are paid lower hourly rates but receive paid leave entitlements. The financial difference is thought to be ‘only’ a matter of timing. In reality, this timing has significant consequences on the quality of life enjoyed by workers. It also has impacts at work, including reducing influence over characteristics of work and reducing sense of control (Corwin, Lawrence, & Frost, 2001). Figure 6: Part-time employees (000s) without paid Stylised model leave The focus (but not the exclusive focus) of DFS-S services is, as previously noted, quite particular and narrow: helping women be at their best for a job interview. Provision of business clothing is the most readily identified element of DFS-S support for its participants. There are in fact may components of support that ultimately come together around receiving a new outfit. This study develops a highly stylised model that simplifies the potentially complicated network of supports provided to women at DFS-S.

28 Redressing the Balance All DFS-S activity expense for 2018 is assumed to be dividuals impacted by all these programs including divisible by employment outcomes alone. This is to DFS programs. Thus, the counterfactual in this case is put aside, as we shall note later, all other possible im- ‘contaminated’ (in a manner that underestimates the pacts of the DFS-S interventions—both positive and incremental impact of the DFS intervention) with par- negative. Employment outcomes are sourced from the ticipants who have received the benefit of DFS’ work. data collected through telephone surveys by DFS-S It is also worth noting that participants in the DFS-S from the 2018 cohort of program participants, ABS program very probably have received a range of both employment earnings data and performance report- formal and informal support in addition to Jobactive ing of the Jobactive employment services network and DFS-S interventions. from the Department of Employment. This data is The four performance milestone measures identified then used to quantify the net impact of DFS-S on par- above from the Jobactive network annual reporting ticipant earnings as a result of employment. provide the counterfactual for this study. Without any additional effort 48.6 percent of women on average Counterfactual will find employment through the Jobactive network alone. DFS-S survey data identifies that 75 percent Central to valuing the impact DFS-S has in the fu- of program participants, based on the sample, secure ture earnings of women is the reality that that many work. The benefit measured in this study will be the women successfully find employment without the net benefit of 26.4 percent (= 75 – 48.6). assistance of DFS-S. In valuing the DFS-S impact it The counterfactual has one principal benefit for de- is necessary to acknowledge some of the benefits cision makers; it ensures that DFS-S does not claim claimed by DFS-S participants would have, in all like- outcomes arising from the work of other unrelated lihood, occurred without the intervention of DFS-S people and organisations. It ensures that benefits are (or associated expense of organisational funds). The not materially overstated and are therefore more reli- answer to the question – what would have happened able. Another way of describing this is to trace the de- without the effort and expense anyway? – is referred cision-making logic of an unemployed woman. There to in the literature as the counterfactual. Understand- are four levels of decision-making in this stylised ing the counterfactual explicitly acknowledges the model (see Figure 8). complexity of change in human behaviour and that a certain amount of change will take place anyway, In turn, each layer of decision can be referenced on without effort or expense. This study seeks to value the the decision tree as follows: net beneficial impact over and above what would have n Each unemployed woman can choose to partici- happened anyway. pate in the DFS-S program (or not). Walk et al (2015) refer to this as the ‘deadweight’ n Women, regardless of the program participation (“measure of the amount of out- Figure 8 - Decision tree come had the job and skills training program not taken place”) (p. 138). Walk et al separately account for a factor they call ‘attribution’, which reflects the contribution made by other parties to the improvements in outcomes that they measured. We have accounted for these ‘attribution’ factors by interrogating ABS figures which reflect the total pool of in- Redressing the Balance 29 either have a job interview or they do not. However, the concept of time preference (HM Treasury, 2004). without an interview it is not possible to get a job and they remain unemployed. Opportunity Cost of Capital n The outcomes of job interviews are by no means assured. The most common outcome of a job inter- An Opportunity Cost of Capital (OCC) approach to view is remaining unemployed. discounting benefits and costs reflects the value of the next best alternative use of the resources in question n Not having a job results, logically, in not having and typically comprises some combination of three el- wage income. Typically, employers interview a num- ements (Argyrous, 2013), in particular: ber of applicants and then decide on one applicant to be employed. The consequence of a getting a job is n Long term reference rate, earning a wage while the consequence of remaining n Market movement and sector adjustments, unemployed is to continue not earning a wage. n Project risk. Discounting The Commonwealth, Victorian, New South Wales and Western Australian governments all use an OCC derived approach (Argyrous, 2013). Despite its popu- The process of discounting allows decision makers to lar use in Australia, there is by no means a consensus compare flows of costs and benefits that take place at on what should be the appropriate OCC discount rate. different points of time. Project investments frequent- Abelson and Dalton (2018) and Argyrous (2013) pro- ly involve a series of upfront expenditures that result in vide useful summaries of Australian discussions. Not future benefits over time. Rarely do investments yield surprisingly OCC approaches require specialist skills immediate returns. This is particularly true of invest- to calculate the appropriate rate for each project. ments in human capability development. Discounting allows for the equitable comparison of benefit and cost Social Time Preference Rate flows without regard to their timing. Essentially discounting gives mathematical form to our very human The Social Time Preference Rate (STPR) describes bias toward immediate rather than distant future ben- social preference for consumption now as opposed to efits. Decision makers should be aware that discount- consumption in the future (HM Treasury, 2004). STPR ing does not involve adjustments for inflation rather

Table 1 - Variables used in developing estimate.

30 Redressing the Balance is used to assess future benefits and costs on the basis some time and cannot expect to command premium that valuations of utility vary over time. Governments wages paid to experienced and qualified staff. in both the Queensland and United Kingdom use an Future growth in wages and inflation is determined approach based on STPR that approximates a real rate in line with the published Reserve Bank of Australia of 3.5 percent (Argyrous, 2013). HM Treasury (2004) Statement of Monetary Policy estimates. recommends a lower rate for projects with an expected life exceeding 30 years. Program costs: Jobactive program costs are calculated on a per outcome basis, that is the total costs This study utilises the STPR approach to discounting are divided by the number of employment outcomes. project benefits and costs. The STPR does not require DFS-S costs, including the profit is divided by the to- specialist knowledge to accurately calculate initially or tal number of employment outcomes. This results in subsequently adjust and is stable overtime. Addition- an assumption that all expenditures incurred by both ally, a real rate of 3.5 percent exceeds the likely return programs support the achievement of employment on the next best short-term use of funds, a bank term outcomes, directly or indirectly. All program costs are deposit. Indeed, DFS-S has a significant balance of assumed to be all incurred upfront as a lump sum. $696,000 of funds on deposit (Dress for Success Syd- ney Inc., 2018). Calculation Additional assumptions This report seeks to quantify the impact of DFS-S A series of simplifying assumptions are necessary to programs using currently available DFS-S adminis- inform calculations derived from this stylised mod- trative and survey data. Current DFS-S data limits the el. The key assumptions are described below and are ambition of any possible calculation. The report iden- summarized in the table of variables (Table 1). tifies a pathway of developing further the data available to DFS-S and appropriate counterfactual benchmarks Selection of an appropriate investment time period toward a comprehensive calculation of social impact. is always a difficult decision. An appealing approach is to adopt a working lifetime, perhaps 40 years for a young woman in her twenties. The compounding ef- Approach fects over 40 years would easily generate huge benefit flows when compared to the societal costs of un- A ratio of net economic benefits to program costs employment. Many impact studies rely on long time has been selected as the most appropriate initial cal- frames. culation given available data. The calculation has the principal advantage of identifying the unique value The limited and exploratory nature of the data col- adding benefit of DFS-S, net of the counterfactual. lected to date compounded over long time periods This unique value adding approach ensures the work would simply amplify inaccuracies and risk credibil- and impact of other programs and services is not un- ity. While acknowledging the very real limitations of reasonably claimed by DFS-S. The work of the na- the data, a shorter time frame narrows these potential tional network of Jobactive providers can reasonably impacts. Additionally, in the real world of lived exis- be expected to continue, regardless of the presence of tence, four years is a long time. Lives can change in DFS-S programs, and as noted earlier in this report, unpredictable ways. has been independently shown to have substantial and A project time frame of four years has been selected measurable impact. Further, the referral of registered to demonstrate the impact of compounding net bene- Jobactive participants to DFS-S provides practical fits but also limit the risk of overstatement. Coinciden- demonstration that DFS-S operates to add value to the tally, four years is the notional term of the New South operation of the Jobactive network. Three main ele- Wales Parliament and therefore a useful administra- ments are calculated using our stylised model over a tive timeframe. period of four years. Wages: The ABS publishes weekly wage data by n Total present value of wages earned by DFS-S past decile and quartile (Australian Bureau of Statistics, participants (benefits) 2019) for full-time and part-time work. In discussion n Total present value of wages that would have oth- with DFS-S an assumption of entry level wages being erwise been earned with DFS-S (counterfactual) paid at the 25th percentile reflects the fact that participants have ordinarily been out of the workforce for n Total upfront program costs of both DFS-S and Jobactive (costs)

Redressing the Balance 31 Benefits resourced and delivered nationally by a mix of con- tracted non-profit and private organisations. Using an- The primary beneficiaries of DFS-S and Jobactive nual performance reporting provided by the Australian programs are the participants themselves. Past partici- Government it is possible to quantify the counterfac- pants who are employed have more money in the form tual. On average, 48.6 percent of Jobactive participants of wages and salary. The ABS estimates gross wages be- find work three months after completing the program. fore tax for full and part-time employees. Using gross The same ABS gross weekly earnings data from the wages captures the immediate economic benefit arising 25th percentile is used to calculate the wage benefits from employment. The fact that a portion of the wages that would otherwise have occurred in the absence of are collected as tax and paid to government is an issue DFS-S services. of distribution not value creation. In the stylised model this report is interested in the economic benefit created Costs not how the benefit is distributed. DFS-S and Jobactive program costs are calculated on a per-outcome basis. This ensures that the total cost base of the programs is captured. All such costs are divisible by the number of employment outcomes The ratio of up front program costs to secured. The relative program cost basis of the two the present value of real future net gross programs is, of course, very different. Jobactive enjoys huge economies of scale across 1700 locations nation- wages is $5.11. ally. DFS-S on the other hand operates with material economies of scale. Accordingly, the unit costs are very different. The Jobactive is significantly cheaper per unit as a result. Importantly all DFS-S participants are - assumed to be Jobactive participants too. This assumption implies that both sets of costs need to be included. The model takes into account what portion of past participants are employed full-time versus part-time Benefit-Cost ratio and in either case assumes a wage level at the 25th percentile reflecting the entry level nature of jobs secured Netting the discounted present value of earnings from by past participants. This estimate may plausibly un- DFS-S past participants against the discounted present dershoot reality; as noted previously, the profile of jobs value of earnings from Jobactive participants over four obtained by participants in the DFS-S program suggests years identifies the unique value add of DFS-S. Wag- a good portion are securing (presumably entry-level) es are calculated on a real basis adjusting for inflation white collar positions. separate to discounting future benefits reflecting time preferences. Costs are assumed to be incurred up front Counterfactual while the earnings accrue over the full four years. See Table 2 for overview.

The unique value adding approach requires the A ratio of up front program costs to the present value identification of the counterfactual, i.e. what would of real future net gross wages is then calculated as $5.11. have happened anyway? This report uses data on the This measure does not seek to calculate the entire performance of the Jobactive network as a robust and net impact on Australian society. There is simply not well-documented counterfactual. The program is well enough data currently to support such calculations. As

Table 2 - Overview of values.

32 Redressing the Balance DFS-S develops its data collection it will be possible to dramatically enhance the sophistication of the model and include a much wider range of data elements that more precisely calculates the impact of DFS-S programs. Walk et al (2015) conducted an SROI on a Ca- nadian an intensive six-month employment intervention program that included (as does DFSS) elements of resume preparation and mock interviews) and found a 70% post-intervention success rate, not dissimilar to the employment rates achieved with the current, DFS-S cohort. However, the input costs of the intensive Cana- dian approach were much higher than those observed in our Sydney sample. Walk et al (2015) for example calculated a SROI ratio of 2.08 (range 1.81 to 2.37). Summing up

1. The data is calculated for the single cohort of DFS-S Key Findings participants in 2018. It does not cover any other past program participants, of which there are many. The Three key findings emerge from calculating the ratio data may not be an accurate representation of all ‘grad- of net economic benefits to costs. uates’ of the DFS-S program in 2018 but is likely to un- 1. DFS-S is expensive derestimate the number rather than overestimate it. Jobactive, with its vast economies of scale cost $2188 2. This is a highly stylised model relying on basic data. per employment outcome in 2018. DFS-S programs With more sophisticated data, the model can become costs are additional. Each DFS-S employment outcome more sophisticated and precise. adds $7855 to the Jobactive cost of $2188. In total each 3. DFS-S data has been used on face value. The data DFS-S employment outcome costs $10,043. has not been audited. There will be errors. However, we 2. DFS-S is highly effective have sought to be conservative in assumptions to limit Despite the high cost, DFS-S places 75 percent of its the consequence of errors on over-estimation. participants into work while Jobactive places 48.6 per- 4. The Australian government Jobactive metrics have cent of its caseload into work after three months. This been unquestioningly adopted as appropriate bench- superior performance more than justifies the high per marks. As more data becomes available perhaps their unit outcome cost. appropriateness may be reassessed, for example, as not- 3. DFS-S and Jobactive are complementary ed earlier, in the profile of jobs obtained by DFS-S participants relative to the counterfactual. There is no significant duplication between DFS-S and Jobactive services. Indeed, DFS-S is highly in- 5. This calculation details how economic benefits are tegrated with local Jobactive providers and partner accrued by the DFS-S program suite but does not iden- providers. The cohort of participants were referred by tify why the programs may work. The qualitative com- over one hundred individual provider locations in New ponent of this report identifies a plausible pathway for South Wales. impact, however. Limitations and qualifications Discussion, Study 2 and Recommendations As with our qualitative work, there are a number of limitations that need to be taken into account when in- This report earlier identified four key milestones and terpreting the above results. accompanying measures that are well established and

Redressing the Balance 33 in wide use. These milestones (see Figure 9) are: development and investment in data collection, cap- n Participation ture and analysis will be required to evolve the calculations to include retention and income support. n Placement Initial indications in relation to retention are ex- n Retention tremely encouraging. DFS-S appears to secure sub- n Reduced income support. stantially more permanent placements than would otherwise be the case in the Jobactive network. It is reasonable to assume that this should translate into Figure 9: Four key milestones in measuring impact of superior retention rates at the six-month mark that is employment assistance interventions. ‘industry standard’ within the Jobactive context. This report identifies that four and 12 weeks are useful in- termediate indicators to guide expectations and monitor progress toward 26-week objectives. With long term job stability, past participants are able to reduce their reliance on government income support payments. While reduction in these expenditures is a tremendous potential multiplier of benefits, so too is the switch to paying income tax. These elements are readily quantifiable. However, the retention data is an essential next step before wider benefits can be included. With a clear pathway for goal setting, monitoring progress and eventual outcome achievement, DFS-S has the opportunity to articulate this framework into investment decision-making.

Product development

Current DFS-S programming is mainly focused on employment preparation. The next stage of organizational development focus is retention until 26 weeks post placement. However, remaining in contact with past participants can be difficult. The program has a natural preoccupation with current participants. Also, past participants often want to ‘move on’ and want to secure their new-found foothold in the workplace. Some participants retain feelings of insecurity and do not want to chance upsetting their newfound stability. This makes the challenge of preparing a high quality and complete dataset difficult. DFS-S could choose to anchor new product development to the 26-week milestone and develop a new post placement product that extends support to past participants. It is clear from interviews conducted with DFS-S staff that attempts are made, both formal- These milestones present DFS-S with a pathway to ly and informally, to retain contact between DFS-S future evidence-based program monitoring and eval- staff and volunteers and clients ‘graduating’ from the uation. Currently DFS-S has implemented adminis- DFS-S program. A new, more formal post-placement trative and survey-based data capture and collection offering might recognise that many participants that systems that inform measurement against milestones have lived on income support payments accrue debts one and two. This data has been central to the initial that need to be repaid before life can move on. Pro- calculation of service net economic benefit. Further viding assistance that reduces costs could be a critical

34 Redressing the Balance means of supporting past participants but also allows identified in this report, tracking organizational prog- continuing contact. ress will be essential to ensuring decision making is Such a new placement support product would also evidence based. Current practice indicates approxi- represent a new potential donor engagement oppor- mately five percent of program expenditures should tunity. Developing a new conversation with donors be allocated in program budgets to data and evalu- around post placement support that might take the ation. This figure is aspirational but will typically form of a monthly sponsorship for six months could fund sound data collection systems and practices as build and strengthen donor engagement as well as well as expert external evaluation services. Such an helping maintain contact and support. approach will ensure that when DFS–S approaches donors it does so with optimal clarity related to the impact that donors are likely to make in considering Investment decision making investment with the non-profit.

This report also introduces time preference into social investment decision-making for Dress for Suc- Overall discussion cess-Sydney. DFS-S is typical of Australian non-prof- and conclusions its in that it exercises a highly cautious approach to retaining reserves. This report presents the results of two studies. Australian charities and not for profits weathered The first study examines a potential mechanism of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is remarkable impact for the Dress for Success intervention, focus- health with only 7 percent of charities accessing more ing on a unique component of the DFS–S approach, than half of their reserves and 83 percent accessing where women are provided with professional clothing less than 25 percent of reserves (CSI, PwC, FIA 2010). advice, and professional clothes suited to a job inter- Since 2008 and the GFC, the Australian Prudential view. Putting aside whether this is indeed the ‘active Regulation Authority (APRA) records a tripling of ingredient’ of the intervention, this element of the bank deposits to more than $32b in June (2019) re- DFS-S approach is unique and intuitively relates to flecting the dramatic growth in not for profit organi- improved employment outcomes. This study provides sations adopting formal reserves policies and building qualitative evidence that the act of assisting women to their pool of reserves (CSI, PwC, FIA 2010). Building ‘re-dress’ professionally is indeed transformative in a additional reserves occurred despite the sufficiency of way that potentially could plausibly have long-term the pre-existing balances reflecting cautious and con- impacts on their wellbeing and improve their chances servative decision-making. of gaining employment. Awareness of discounting future benefits provides The Dress for Success intervention takes place in a a best practice methodology to inform management non-clinical setting supervised by lay (and in this case decisions. Importantly this report does not recom- volunteer) ‘therapists’ but appears to have clinical im- mend a full market derived opportunity cost of cap- plications. The clients interviewed for this study may ital approach to benchmarking but rather the social not have been at the extreme end of psychological and time preference rate approach. STPR provides a stable physical distress, and thus responsive to a sub-clinical rate that requires no specialised expertise to calculate intervention. However, it is possible that the Dress and maintain but disciplines decision making where for Success intervention has a significant therapeutic the benefits are expected in the future. Coincidently function because unlike traditional measures to assist STPR currently exceeds the available term deposit in- the long term unemployed for example, which place terest rates available from major banks. This discus- the ‘trainer’ in a position of power and reinforcement, sion, then, is particularly relevant at a time of historic non-verbally or directly reinforcing the client’s ‘in- low interest rates. adequacy’, the message that a re-dressing intervention sends is almost an intrinsic, rather an extrinsic Funding data message: that is, the client looks at themselves transformed and says to themselves “I am OK”, as opposed collection and evaluation to an external source that says the same thing. There is an extensive and growing literature on the greater This report strongly recommends that DFS-S con- impact of intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivators tinue investing in data collection, storage, analysis, (Pink, 2011) and it is possible that intrinsic messag- monitoring and evaluation. Against the benchmarks es in a therapeutic context have significantly greater

Redressing the Balance 35 power. More research will be required to explore this economic (Mood & Jonsson, 2016). The impacts cas- possibility further in the context of non-therapeutic cade into domains that can in turn be measured in interventions. It is also worth pointing out that the economic and social terms: poorer physical and men- DFS-S intervention takes advantage of the very preju- tal health (Turner, 1995), repressed fertility (Currie & dices that underpin disadvantage. Indeed, job appli- Schwandt, 2014), crime (Chiricos, 1987). Research cants clearly and demonstrably are victims of ‘look- identifies that people who work are healthier, live ism’ if they present to job interviews in ways that do longer (Blair, 2009; Cecchini et al., 2010; Friedland & not conform with the employer’s concept of the ideal Price, 2003) and are less likely to be imprisoned (Laf- employee. DFS claim that their approach is designed fargue & Godefroy, 1989, p. e.g. ). to overcome ‘lookism’ but some scholars have reason- There is a substantial body of evidence showing the ably suggested that the approach can tend to reinforce positive intergenerational impacts of working moth- a focus on appearance (Cummins & Blum, 2015). ers, particularly in the case of women who return to The second study takes a quantitative approach ex- work one year after the birth of their last child (De- ploring whether there is evidence in the data that the DFS-S intervention has an impact on employment outcomes in excess of that that achieved by Jobactive and other background support that the unemployed DFS-S actively reach out to groups of might have access to. Here there is evidence to sug- women at higher risk of unemployment, gest that there is a distinct difference between the results achieved by DFS-S and the balance of the pop- such as those attached to the court sys- ulation of women seeking employment. This study tem and refugees. The outcomes that focuses on a single highly constrained set of inputs and outputs relating to impact measurement. It uses DFS-S achieve a particularly remarkable wage income on the one side of the equation, and the when seen against this backdrop. cost inputs associated with DFS-S on the other, but this stylised model does not take account of a number of other elements that are more difficult to quantify— for example, on the cost side, the value of substantial volunteer input.2 The approach is deliberately con- - servative, defensible, and objective, and the finding of a ratio of over 5 to 1 is not designed to give a veneer sai, Chase-Lansdale, & Michael, 1989). Daughters of precision over the result, but to indicate that the of employed mothers go onto have higher academic evidence suggests that DFS-S intervention is highly achievement and greater career success (including life- effective and in terms of its multiplier effects (con- time earnings) than daughters of those not employed sidering the high time and money investment in each outside the home, and employed mother’s daughters, client) and surprisingly efficient. in particular, have a different view of women than On the benefit side, focusing on wages is a justifi- daughters of mothers who do not have outside em- able, objective way to quantify impact, but there is a ployment, seeing women as more competent (Hoff- substantial array of benefits that accrue to society as man, 1998). Working mothers raise children more result of increased employment and reduced reliance likely to finish school, enjoy better health outcomes on social support. Unemployment has direct im- (Jones, 1988) than children raised by mothers who are pacts on individuals and indirect, referred impacts on unemployed. those in the individual’s social group, including fam- We have recommended that DFS-S expand both its ilies. These impacts are felt through social (Gallie et investment in and scope of data collection in order al., 2003) and financial pathways (Waters & Moore, to better understand impact in future financial years. 2001), as well as an interaction between social and It is possible, for example, that the DFS-S cohort dif-

2. Note we have not discussed the impact of the DFS-S ed that the organisation has no difficulty obtaining volun- ticipating in the DFS-S operation and the surplus of vol- approach on volunteer wellbeing, as this is beyond the teers for the client-facing component of the organisation’s unteers confirms the value of the work to the volunteers. scope of this study. Compared with other providers in operations, although it does have difficulty obtaining vol- the employment-assistance field, DFS-S provides a very unteer support for less ‘glamourous’ elements of its oper- open-ended, time-intensive approach, subsidised by high ations, including clothes sorting. It is worth noting that the levels of volunteer commitment. We have previously not- volunteers we spoke to indicated the intrinsic joys of par-

36 Redressing the Balance fers in some systematic way to the broader cohort of but measurable employment implications (Eckhard, women who present to the Jobactive network. The 2018). length of their unemployment for example, is a sim- It is possible and indeed likely that the DFS-S cohort ple metric that has broad implications. As noted in is systematically different to what we have referred this report, unemployment predicts unemployment. to in our counterfactual population of unemployed The longer one has been unemployed, the longer one women engaged in the Jobactive network. DFS-S is likely to remain that way. Older, less education, actively reach out to groups of women at higher English-as-a-second-language and migrant women risk of unemployment, such as those attached to the have special challenges and understanding the DFS-S court system and refugees. The outcomes that DFS-S cohort at a more granular level is helpful: it is help- achieve a particularly remarkable when seen against ful in more accurately quantifying impact, but also at this backdrop. However, it is also possible and indeed designing better and new interventions that enable plausible that those who step forward to take the as- DFS-S to improve its service. Our qualitative study sistance that DFS-S offers differ in a systematic way suggests that it is plausible that some of the potency that improves their employment opportunities. At- of the intervention relates to its impact on social con- tending a session at DFS-S requires the participant to fidence. The long-term unemployed present special taking public transport or drive to one of its outlets. challenges to agencies tasked to assist, in that disen- That requires time. Participants must also overcome gagement from the workforce leads to disengagement any feelings of shame associated with reaching out for from society itself, which in turn restricts access to help. To do so indicates determination and initiative. networks that can be a source of job opportunities These characteristics plausibly improve a woman’s (Gallie et al., 2003). chance of obtaining a positive employment outcome. Thus interventions that ‘merely’ improve the degree to which individuals are reintegrated into society, such as DFS-S’s work in part, are likely to have subtle

Redressing the Balance 37 References

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Redressing the Balance 41 Appendix Referral Agency Benevolent Society Benevolent Society (Rosebery) 121 Agency (Redfern) Benevolent Society (Summer Hill ) 121 Employment Benevolent Society (Sydney) 121 Employment - DSA (Bankstown) Break thru People Solutions (Campsie) 121 Employment - DSA (Redfern) Break Thru TTW (Wyong) 121 Employment (Blacktown) Breakthru People Solutions (Hornsby) 121 Employment (Campbelltown) Brighter Futures (Blacktown) 121 Employment (Sutherland) Burwood Community Welfare Services (Burwood) A Woman’s Place (Potts Point) CALVARY RIVERINA DRUG AND ALCOHOL CENTRE(REHAB) A4E (Bondi Junction) Campbell Page (Marrickville) A4E (Haymarket) Campbell Page (Redfern) A4E (Kogarah) Campbelltown College (Campbelltown) A4E (Maroubra) Campbelltown Tafe (Campbelltown) A4e (Miranda) Canterbury City Community Centre (Canterbury) Ability Links (Miranda) Career Seekers Ability Links SSI (Campsie) Career Trackers (Sydney) Ability Options Employment Catholic Care (Bankstown) Ability Options Employment (Hornsby) Catholic Care (Lewisham) Aboriginal Employment Strategy (Waterloo) Catholic Care Direct Employment (Campsie) ACL (Parramatta) CB Psycology (Marrickville) Advance Diversity Services CECC (Bondi Junction) Advance Personnel Management (Parramatta) Centrelink Advanced Personnel Management (Burwood) Centrelink (Merrylands) Advanced Personnel Management (Chatswood) Christian Community Aid (Eastwood) Advanced Personnel Management (Sutherland) Community Connect AES (Campbelltown) Community Restorative Centre Afford Employment (Liverpool) Core Community Services After Care (Lillyfield) Corrective Services (Emu Plains) AMEP (Wynyard) CRC (Chippendale) AMEP Adult Education Centre (Bondi Junction) CSP (Marrickville) AMEP Navitas (Wynyard) Delores house (Bondi Junction) AMES (Liverpool) Department of Education AMES (Sydney) Detour House (Glebe) Advanced Personnel Management (Campsie) DFS Work experience (Marrickville) Advanced Personnel Management (Marrickville) Direct Employment (Bankstown) Advanced Personnel Management (Redfern) Direct Employment (Kogarah) Advanced Personnel Management (Rockdale) Direct Employment (Sutherland) Advanced Personnel Management (Sydney) Disability Services Australia (Bankstown) Asylum Seekers Centre (Newtown) Disability Services Australia (Redfern) Australian Training Company (Homebush) Disabliity Services Australian (Campbelltown) B Miles Women’s Foundation (Darlinghurst) Do What you Can - Liverpool Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service (Bankstown) Dooralong Transformation (Gosford) Baptist Care (Wolloomooloo) Dress For Work Barnados (Ultimo) Drug Court Parramatta (Parramatta)

42 Redressing the Balance DSA Legal (Marrickville) Elsie womens Refuge (Glebe) Legal Aid NSW Employment Plus (Ryde) Life without barriers (Rockdale) Employment Plus (St Marys) Linked Up Employment Service Group Lou’s Place (Darlinghurst) Employment Services Group (Liverpool ) Manly Womens Shelter Eora TAFE College (Redfern) Marist Youth Centre (Blacktown) Employment Services Group ( Cabramatta) Marrickville MTC (Marrickville) Employment Services Group (Bankstown) Marrickville Youth Resource Centre (Marrickville) Employment Services Group (Campbelltown) MAX Employment (ALL) Employment Services Group (liverpool) MAX Employment Bankstown Employment Services Group (Merrylands) MAX Employment Bondi Junction Essential Employment (Tahmoor) MAX Employment Brookvale Essential Employment And training MAX Employment Burwood Exodus Foundation (Ashfield) MAX Employment Campsie Facebook/Self MAX Employment Chatswood Freedom Hub MAX Employment Liverpool Friend MAX Employment Maroubra Gender Centre (Annanadale) MAX Employment Marrickville Global Skills (Bankstown) MAX Employment Rockdale Global Skills (Blacktown) MAX Employment Springwood Global Skills (Mt Druitt) MAX Employment Sutherland Global Skills (Parramatta) MAX Employment Sydney Haymarket Centre (Chippendale) Max Solutions Employment Headspace/ Break Thru Meadowbank TAFE (Meadowbank) Homeless Connect (Sydney) Metro Assist (Ashfield) House of Welcome Mid Coast Connect Hunter Women’s Centre (Mayfield) Mission Australia Jewish House (Bondi) Mission Australia (Bankstown) Job Centre Australia (Gosford) Mission Australia (Campbelltown) Job Centre Australia (Woy Woy) Mission Australia (Drummoyne) Job Statewide (Marrickville) Mission Australia (Leichhardt) Job Statewide Employment (Redfern) Mission Australia (Marrickville) Job Support (Kingsgrove) Mission Australia (Merrylands) Jobfind Fairfield (Fairfield) Mission Australia (Punchbowl) Jobs Statewide (Burwood) Mission Australia (Surry Hills) Jobs Statewide (Leichhardt) Mission Australia (Sydney) Jobs statewide (Marrickville) Mission Providence Jobs Statewide (Redfern) Mission Providence Bankstown Jobs Statewide Marrickville Mission Providence Leichhardt Jobsupport (Kingsgrove) Mission Providence Marrickville JSW Marrickville Mission Providence Merrylands Kari (Liverpool) Mission Providence Punchbowl Killara Women’s Refuge (Gordon) Mission Providence Rockdale Konekt Employment Bankstown Mission Australia (North Strathfield) Konekt Employment Burwood Moving Forward (Bardwell Park) Konekt Employment Cabramatta Moving On Moving Out (Surry Hills) Konekt Employment Marrickville MTC (Redfern)

Redressing the Balance 43 MTC Work Solutions (Burwood) ORS Group (Ryde) MTC Work Solutions (Caringbah) Ostara (Caringbah) MTC Work Solutions (Hurstville) Ostara (Liverpool) MTC Work Solutions (Maroubra) Ostara (Redfern) MTC Work Solutions (Marrickville) Ostara Australia (Burwood) MTC Work Solutions (Parramatta) Ostara Australia (Redfern) MTC Work Solutions (Surry Hills) Ostara PRA (Caringbah) National Centre of Indigenous Excellence/ Koori Job Ready Ostara PRA (Liverpool) Navitas (Bankstown) Ostara/PRA (Caringbah) Navitas English (Sydney) Ozenham Learning Centre (Wooloomooloo) NEAMI (Ashfield) Parramatta Transitional Centre Neami (Pagewood) Partners In Recovery Neami (Seven Hills) Partners in Recovery Randwick Neami National (Ashfield) People Plus (Haymarket) Neami National (Hurstville) People Plus Australia (Burwood) New Beginnings Rehab People Plus Kogarah New Horizons (Guildford) People plus Maroubra New Horizons (North Ryde) People Plus Miranda New Horizons (Ryde) Rebound Rehab Newton Neighbourhood Centre (Newtown) Red Cross (Sydney) Northcott (Parramatta) Richmond PRA (Surry Hills) Northcott Disabilty Services (Hornsby) Rockdale Community Health Centre Nova (Caringbah) Ryde Family Services Nova Employment St Vincent de Paul Nova Employment (Bankstown) Salvation Army Nova Employment (Blacktown) Salvation Army (Surry Hills) Nova Employment (Caringbah) Salvation Army Employment Plus Nova Employment (Engandine) Salvation Army Employment Plus (Hornsby) Nova Employment (Rockdale) Salvation Army Employment Plus (Ryde) NRL School to work (Penrith) Salvation Army Employment Plus (Surry Hills) NSW Health (Kogarah) Samaritan House (Surry Hills) Oasis Youth Support Network (Surry Hills) Samaritan House (Sydney) Octec (Dee Why) Sanctuary Housing - Ashfield Octec Employment (Campbelltown) Sarina Russo Octec Employment (Chatswood ) Schizophrenia Fellowship (Campbelltown) Octec Employment (North Ryde) Self OCTEC Employment Services (Minto) Settlement Services International (Campsie) ORS Group Skill Max (St Leonards) ORS Group (Ashfield) Skillmax (Central) ORS Group (Bankstown) SkillMax (Meadowbank TAFE) ORS Group (Burwood) Skillmax (Meadowbank) ORS Group (Campsie) SkillMax (St Leonards) ORS Group (Chatswood) Skillmax TAFE (Meadowbank TAFE) ORS Group (Cronulla) Skillmax TAFE NSI (St Leonards) ORS Group (Hurstville) Skillmax TAFE NSW (Meadowbank) ORS Group (Leichhardt) Skillmax, NSI Tafe (Meadowbank) ORS Group (Liverpool) Skillme (St Leonards) ORS Group (Parramatta) South Sydney High School (Maroubra)

44 Redressing the Balance St George College, Outreach (Kogarah) Wesley Mission (CBD) St George Community Housing (Hurstville) West Connect St George Domestic Service West Connect DVS (Penrith) St George Mental Health (Kogarah) WHOS (Rozelle) St Vincent de Paul (Bondi Juction) Whos New Beginnings (Rozelle) St Vincent de Paul (Summer Hill ) Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s St Vincents Mental Health (Darlinghurst) Wise Employment (Bankstown) St. George Mental Health (Kogarah) Wise Employment (Darlinghurst) St. Vincent De Paul - Broken Bay Wise Employment (Fairfield) Statewide Employment (Redfern) Wise Employment (Marrickville) STEPS (Chatswood) Wise Employment (Parramatta) Steps Employment (Chatswood) Women and Girls Emergency Centre (WAGEC) (Surry Hills) Street Level Women’s Domestic Violence (Sydney) Sutherland Hospital (Caringbah) Women’s Homeless Support Sutherland Shire Family Services (Janali) Women’s Homelessness Service (Liverpool) TAFE - Counselling (Ultimo) Womens Homelessness Support Services TAFE (Bankstown) Workskil (Bankstown) TAFE (Brookvale) Workskil (Fairfield) TAFE (Campbelltown) Workskills (Campbelltown) TAFE (Hornsby) Yarn’n Aboriginal Employment TAFE (Meadowbank) Your Town (Campbelltown) TAFE (North Sydney) Your Town (Mt Druitt) TAFE (Randwick) yourtown TAFE (St Leonards) Youth Off The Streets TAFE (Sydney) Youthblock (Camperdown) TAFE Disability Section (Petersham) YWCA (Sydney) TAFE Eora (Chippendale) TAFE NSI (Meadowbank) TAFE Sydney Intstitute (St George) The Benevolent Society (Rosebery) The Big Issue (Redfurn) The ORS Group The Salvation Army (Surry Hills) The TLC Project Ultimo Tafe (City) Uts Careers (Broadway) Vincentian House (Surry Hills) Vinnies Vision Australia (Carringbah) WAGEC (Potts Point) WAGEC (Surry Hills) Wagec Family Services (Burwood) Wayside Chapel (Kings Cross) Wayside Chapel (Potts Point) Weave Women & Children’s Centre (Waterloo) Weave Youth Family Community (Waterloo) Wesley Community Living (Ashfield) Wesley Mission

Redressing the Balance 45