Tanalah · Job quality

A score out of 10 for the quality of a job

We built the Tanalah Monitoring platform. It takes surveys of workers collected in the field and turns them into scores by criterion, by dimension and overall, which can be filtered, compared between groups and exported.

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A demo survey in Madagascar: the overall score, then men and women compared dimension by dimension. Demo data.

In short

Tanalah, based in Bordeaux, measures job quality in developing countries with a method built on the ILO's decent work agenda. Its teams survey employees, self-employed and informal workers in the field. We built the platform that takes in those surveys and turns them into a score out of 10 by criterion, by dimension and overall, with filters, profile and survey comparisons, and exports. The screens on this page use demo data.

Client: Tanalah · Job quality
Sector: International development · employment
Where: Bordeaux, France
Deliverables: Versioned scoring engine
Results dashboard with filters
Profile and survey comparison
Country reference data
Interface in 3 languages
Services: Web applications
Data solutions
Custom software

6job-quality dimensions

30core questions, about a 30-minute survey

3languages: English, French, Spanish

2profiles compared side by side

The context

A research method that had to become a tool

Tanalah's method draws on the job-quality literature and boils it down to 6 dimensions: income, material conditions, working time, social protection, voice and representation, and satisfaction. Around 30 core questions, asked in about 30 minutes, work for a formal employee as well as an informal trader or a self-employed worker. Surveys run on KoboToolbox, which works offline in areas with poor coverage.

In 2023 the method lived in an Excel workbook: a repertoire of indicators with criteria, thresholds and calculation rules. Tanalah needed its clients (HR teams, funders) to see each survey's results without going through an analyst, and to compare them across groups, years and countries.

Design and build

From questionnaire to score

Every answer is scored criterion by criterion, out of 10. Criteria roll up into the 6 dimensions and those into an overall score, with five levels from “very low” (under 2) to “very good” (over 8). Some criteria are measured against the country's law: the median salary is compared with the legal minimum wage, agricultural or for other sectors. Each survey keeps the scoring version it was calculated with, so a change of method does not rewrite past results.

A project dashboard has four tabs. Global score, with the strongest and weakest dimensions and how respondents spread across levels. Context, with the country's national indicators. Selected sample, with the profile of the people who answered. Dimensions, with every criterion in detail. On the right, filters by sex, age, education, region or activity type, and two profiles compared side by side: men and women, for example.

To compare surveys, you pick two or more and the platform lines up scores, criteria, context and sample. It warns when the surveys use different scoring versions or legal frameworks, because those scores don't read the same way. Amounts are converted to purchasing-power-parity dollars with World Bank factors, which the team refreshes from the platform. Every chart can be copied or downloaded, and a comparison exports to CSV or PDF.

01
Two profiles side by side

Men against women, younger against older, one region against another: the whole dashboard splits in two, with the score, the radar and every criterion for both groups.
02
The scoring has a version

Each survey stays tied to its scoring version. Comparing a v3 survey with a v4 one is possible, and the platform flags it.
03
The country's law as the benchmark

Income and working time are read against the country's legal minimums, set by country and by sector of activity.
04
Amounts comparable across countries

World Bank purchasing power parity factors turn ariary or CFA francs into one unit.

Gallery

The project in pictures

8 images · Open any image to see it full size.

Overall score 4.2/10 (“intermediate”), the strongest and weakest dimensions, the radar of the 6 dimensions and how respondents spread across levels. Demo data.

Profile 1 against profile 2: men at 4.3/10 and women at 4/10, with the detail by dimension. Demo data.

The “income amount” criterion: the median salary against the country's legal minimum wage, and income by quintile. Demo data.

Material conditions, “security over time” criterion: premises ownership for entrepreneurs and contract length for employees. Demo data.

Context tab: national indicators for the survey's country, such as the informal employment rate or pension coverage, to read the results against their setting.

Three surveys compared, with warnings when they use different scoring versions or legal frameworks, plus CSV and PDF export. Demo data.

Reference data: World Bank purchasing power parity factors, refreshed with one button, used to compare amounts across countries.

The same dashboard in French; the interface also runs in English and Spanish.

Outcomes

What Tanalah delivers today

Tanalah's clients open their project dashboard in English, French or Spanish and see the job quality of the people surveyed, dimension by dimension, without a spreadsheet. A longitudinal project adds one survey per wave and is compared with itself over time. The Tanalah team manages clients, collaborators, projects, country settings and reference data from the same platform.

The screens and video on this page come from a test environment with demo surveys.

Score out of 10 by criterion, by dimension and overall
Demographic filters and two-profile comparison
Survey comparison with version and legal-framework warnings
CSV and PDF export, interface in 3 languages

Frequently asked questions

The questions we hear often

How do you measure the quality of a job?

With around 30 questions covering 6 dimensions: income, material conditions, working time, social protection, voice and representation, and satisfaction. Each criterion gets a score out of 10, and the scores roll up by dimension and into an overall score.

Does it work for informal employment?

Yes. The questionnaire adapts to each person's profile, whether employee, self-employed or informal, and data collection works offline.

Can you compare different countries?

Yes. Amounts are converted with World Bank purchasing power parity factors, and the platform warns when the compared surveys follow different legal frameworks or scoring versions.