The great resignation is real, and it comes on the heels of other challenges facing nonprofit leaders who are trying to recruit and retain top talent amid rapid turnover. Pandemic-induced remote work and a national reckoning on racial justice have sparked seismic shifts in nonprofit workers’ expectations about flexible scheduling and organizational culture.
To help nonprofit leaders better understand the current recruiting climate, recent hiring trends in the nonprofit world, and tactics that are working to retain talented people, Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, held a virtual discussion with:
- Fagan Harris, co-founder and CEO of Baltimore Corps.
- Heather Kirkpatrick, president of Alder School of Education.
- Deb Taft, CEO of the recruiting firm Lindauer and a former fundraising executive
Here are some of the recommendations the panelists shared. Watch the video to hear all their advice firsthand.
Create an inclusive culture. Staff diversity and retention will follow. An inclusive organizational culture means people feel welcome no matter how they identify, says Harris. Therefore, it is important to invest in managers who are experts at coaching and supporting all kinds of people, he advises.
“When an organization raises its hand and says, we want to embark on this quest towards diversity, the first thing they do is say, OK, the next hire has got to be someone Black, or the next hire has got to be a woman, or the next hire has got to be someone who self-identifies as LGBTQ — whatever the gap is they’re trying to fill,” Harris says. “That’s tokenizing. And it really isn’t fair to that person, because the culture hasn’t done the work to make that environment ready for the diversity.”
The onus to change an organization is on its leaders; don’t expect your new hires to do it for you, Taft says.
Your organization’s culture is likely to come up in interviews, Taft warns. “Our organizational cultures are known out there,” Taft says. “They’re not hidden. Good candidates do their own research. We want them to ask questions, and they will,” so prepare for that.
To determine whether your organization’s culture is moving in the right direction, Kirkpatrick says, answer questions such as, “What are we spending our time on? What sort of shared vocabulary are we deliberately building across the organization? ... How are we living the values that we say our company values?”
An example of how her nonprofit spends its time, Kirkpatrick says, is in weekly meetings in which staff members discuss ways in which the culture could be more inclusive and welcoming, and the meetings often include topics such as acceptance of all forms of ability and disability, race, gender, and sexual identity.
Recognize and upend “performative” recruitment efforts in favor of genuine outreach that will boost diversity. Too many nonprofits are still engaged in superficial adjustments to their search processes, Taft says, that don’t amount to genuine changes in how they find qualified candidates and decide whom to hire.
Prospective employees of color are tired of taking phone calls that are mainly about checking a box on a list of search criteria. Organizations that take this approach often end up choosing the same kind of candidates that they have always hired. “It is heartbreaking and exhausting for candidates right now, being found on LinkedIn because of what their pictures look like, versus being found for their expertise and talents,” says Taft.
That feeling of exhaustion and futility extends to people involved in the hiring process, such as “the one Black person who has to sit on every search committee,” Taft adds.
The panelists agreed that you shouldn’t expect a couple of diverse hires to change the culture of your organization; it places an unfair burden on them, and it’s not enough to ensure lasting and pervasive change. “It’s not something that you just do overnight and flip a switch,” says Harris. “It’s a long-term commitment. You have to really understand what needs to be in place for this to happen sustainably. Otherwise, you’re really putting people in a difficult spot, and this contributes to the toxic cultures and the burnout, and all of the ugly things that we tend to see when we get this so wrong.”
Rethink the kinds of candidates you’ll consider hiring. For example, evaluate whether the positions you’re trying to fill truly require a college degree, says Taft. Also, be wary of metrics that don’t tell the whole story. For example, some fundraisers get a head start by being handed premium portfolios of major-gift prospects, Taft says, while others fight an uphill battle by being assigned a list of challenging prospects. Those kinds of inequities can result in bad data that paints an unfair picture of someone’s performance.
It’s also important to seek a balance among skills, opportunities for a person’s growth, and their personality or character traits when considering prospective employees, they say. “Make sure the perspective on character traits is rounded out with perspective on skills, so people are equipped or can quickly become equipped to do the job,” says Harris.
When lightning strikes and the right candidate becomes obvious, don’t hesitate to make an offer. Be ready to move fast in this tight labor market when a search yields an obvious choice, Taft says. Although many groups are taking time to ensure they evaluate a diverse pool of candidates, things can accelerate quickly once the field is narrowed. “All of a sudden, there’s intense competition,” Taft says. “Somebody has three job offers, and we need to be super nimble and move fast, and that’s not always our strongest suit.”
Create mechanisms for transparency and accountability. The experts stressed the need for salary transparency as a way to support a fair and diverse workplace. “We know that when you don’t do that, and then people have to negotiate, we know that that is absolutely sexist, and it’s probably also racist, and it’s definitely classist,” says Harris.
Kirkpatrick also says she reports annually to her board about things like promotions, attrition, and salary ranges, with all of it including demographic data.
Kirkpatrick says the data helps answer the question, “If we say we careabout this, what does it look like?” When approached with a data mindset, she adds, publishing salaries or salary ranges “doesn’t feel scary. It feels like an honest and really important conversation to have.”
