If you are a nonprofit leader, I hope you spend some time each day on social media and review posts and comments from people who work in the industry.
Even though I have a busy travel and meeting schedule, I try to see what’s going on in social media non-profit groups because it helps me stay on top of what’s going on in the industry straight from the source.
I have been attentive to how team members who work for nonprofits are treated and based on my unscientific experience, I have seen a pattern related to the main reasons they quit the organizations. Turnover has been a problem in the nonprofit sector for a long time, and it appears to remain a challenge.
The following are five of the reasons I have seen that they continue to create a situation of high levels of turnover within charities and nonprofits.
- Money: Are you surprised this is at the top? Non-profit teams care about society, which is why they choose careers in the sector. Team members in nonprofit organizations earn less than someone doing the same or similar work in the for-profit industry.
Your team is the most valuable asset you have in your organization and you must treat them as such. What does that mean? It means giving them everything they need, all the resources, to get the job done. That could be a comfortable work environment, modern hardware and software, and, yes, competitive salaries.
Cash flow is not only important to your organization, but also to your team members.
- Leadership: I wish things were different, but they are not. Many nonprofit leaders (including board members) don’t know how to be leaders. Leadership is a quality that you recognize when you see it.
There are many definitions of leadership, but they essentially share the following qualities: vision, transformation, excellent communication skills, caring and concern for team members, respect and consistency.
There’s no way to avoid it. You can’t be successful at anything, including having a thriving and sustainable nonprofit without leadership. CEOs must set the course, as should boards of directors. And once they have established the vision, they must constantly abide by it every day. Leadership involves inspiring and motivating others to follow.
- Too much workload: I believe in hard work, but some of the stories I’ve seen on social media groups and heard over the years are honestly ridiculous. If you work at one of my social enterprises, you know that we encourage our team members to take the time they need to recharge their batteries and deal with things in their personal lives. That means we encourage weekends off, if team members are sick, we’d rather have them recover at home than come to the office, and of course when there are critical personal issues, we tell them to focus on that, and we’ll be here when they come back.
I often see employees of nonprofits who are giving their time because they have unreasonable workloads. Weekends and late hours are common because in many groups there seems to be an expectation that well-meaning team members should be giving their time without expecting anything (i.e. money) in return. The workloads are too heavy, but people want to keep their jobs because they need it and they also care about the cause. It’s like a long guilt trip.
Saying there is no money for overtime, creating unreasonable workloads, and then having unspoken expectations of work without money is simply wrong, and is something that I think is very common in the industry. Leaders tell their team members, “Go home.”
- Without mobility: Many nonprofits are so small. The fact that many nonprofits cannot grow and scale limits job opportunities for employees within the charitable sector. I have known many organizations that have had team members that they have loved, but because they don’t have the money for expansion, there has been nowhere for bright, energetic, and committed staff to go within the organization, even when they do. have made. wanted to stay.
There is one group in particular on one of the social media platforms where there are members who are energetic and committed to the work they do. However, I have often seen within this group someone who is asking colleagues for advice on how to stay within a cause they love when there is no movement to any position in management or elsewhere.
Talented, hard-working, and committed team members are essential to any workgroup or organization. It’s a significant loss when they leave, but they would have wanted to stay because they no longer face challenges (or get paid very little) and there is no place to move within the organization.
- Communication: I am a great believer in communication. I am someone who prefers to pick up the phone or eat with a team member and talk to him. Why do so many CEOs miss out on the opportunity to communicate and interact well with their direct reports and also with junior staff?
Communication, especially by directors and managers, is essential to increase productivity. Walking around the office, being respectful, seeing people face to face, and cutting down on emails and texts are “old school” ways of communicating, but here’s the thing: they work. Even in the digital age, people are people.
Teams still want to be inspired by listening to their leaders and managers speak and motivate them. People still want to hear the tone of your voice and see your body language to provide context. The art of personal communication is not dead. It is a differentiator and distinguishes great leaders and managers from the rest.
There are other reasons I’ve seen why nonprofits quit, including lack of mentors, culture, and lack of recognition. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you probably have more. Whatever happens, leaders and managers in the nonprofit sector must realize that it is better to retain their high-quality employees than to lose them.
