The Foraker Group

Note: Most of Alaska’s nonprofit workplaces are fairly small. Only one-third of Alaska’s nonprofits have staff, and more than 85% of those with staff have fewer than 50 people. As you read this article, note that the trends we see in staff we also see in boards and volunteers. So, keep reading, and if your organization has no staff, the ideas will still hold, perhaps with slight adjustments to make the tools work for your unpaid team.

In the last six years, we have gone through The Great Resignation, The Great Reshuffle, a workforce shortage, and now what I might call The Big Decision. All these trends have taken place against a backdrop of shifting generations in the workforce, which amounts to more multigenerational employee groups operating together.

The Great Resignation and The Great Reshuffle were a result of workplace impacts from the pandemic including the loss of childcare, homeschooling, remote work requirements or return to office demands and more. The workforce shortage came with already low unemployment numbers resulting in a competitive marketplace for job seekers many of whom went outside the nonprofit sector and carefully chose workplaces based on pay, healthcare benefits, flexible hours, hybrid opportunities, and culture. Now, based on statistics from our statewide jobs board, national nonprofit trends, and a national and statewide environment of economic instability and political division, I am stepping out to call this period The Big Decision.

The “choice to have more choice” is the hallmark of The Big Decision. It’s the choice to center the locus of control in oneself and not wait for what will happen next for the organization. The characteristics of this moment are showing up at both ends of the decision spectrum. To stay is characterized by an intentional decision to commit, to persevere, to dig in, to make it better, to make it work, or to make it stronger. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s the choice to take a big intentional leap to something new where possibilities seem exciting, less stressful, or just different.

In my judgment, neither choice is good or bad, or right or wrong. However, it does seem like fewer employees are hesitating or unsure about which is the right choice for them, and they are unwilling to wait for the organization to figure it out. The need to stay or go is strong, overarching, and clear. Conversation after conversation points to clear-eyed intention. “I am leaving!” or “I am staying!” are declarative statements with very little wavering or uncertainty in their particular choice.

Making choices about work status is not new in any way. But it used to look different from what we see now. When we saw it at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, nonprofit leaders were quickly assessing if they had it in them to lead through so much uncertainty. Generationally, this group of leaders had already been through a lot, and many chose this moment to step out and do something else – many of them choosing consulting or another path to use their years of experience. But it was with more hesitation. At the same time, we watched leaders stay who had previously said they were leaving, again with hesitation but with a commitment to seeing their organizations through the uncertainty. In both cases, the clarity was less present. Still, also at these moments, we had more support for the sector as a whole. Then, sector leaders and staff were often seen as the people “on the front lines” serving communities in new ways. Organizations were adapting and learning as a whole, and the people inside were, too. We were the source of inspiration, celebration, and adaptation. And there was plenty of funding coming from a variety of sources, along with federal and state policies adapting to help us stay in the work. In many ways, The Great Reshuffle was the first big indication of workforce decisions moving toward employee needs and away from organizational strategies.

Those power shifts moved with us into a new era where organizations and the sector are threatened in new ways by partisan political rhetoric, antithetical grant requirements that clash with mission delivery and ethos, funding cuts, and policy shifts. All of this has left the sector in “protect and defend” mode or at least a “rethink business model” mode. Pile on the job cuts that happened as a result, and all these dynamics left an air of overall uncertainty in many workplaces. These cuts and reorganizations, too, have led us into The Big Decision where the people, not the organizations, are where clarity lives. This is where we are.

As nonprofit employers, how we respond matters. Our goal should always be tending to our workforce, never taking staff, board, and volunteers for granted or assume they will stay or go. Even as we battle with instability, we must focus on creating and sustaining a healthy work environment that fosters a positive team dynamic, competitive compensation (even if money is not how we can compete), and a transparent set of decisions that our Foraker team years ago coined as “the early and often” approach to staffing decisions. The latter means that if change is coming, give plenty of notice, have many conversations, and avoid surprises for everyone.

Importantly, since instability is driving this trend, it is not the time to either hide the facts or brush over the challenges with positivity. Jim Collins in Good to Great in the Social Sector reminds us to “confront the brutal facts.” My reframe is “to tell all the truth” with data and trends, not just with your heart and observation. This is hard for staff and harder for boards. At the same time, there is a difference in our sector between crisis and urgency. Crisis when turned inward is a sinking ship not worth saving, a mismanagement of people or funding, and a thing to often leave. Urgency, on the other hand, is the opportunity to be part of a solution, to reposition for success, to address the external factors, to come together. Understanding and communicating the difference is essential, not just to offer stability to the team but to keep investors engaged and strategies rolling forward.

A positive and healthy workplace culture is not a unicorn, and it is not a checkbox. It is a practice and a commitment by everyone on the team, not just those with leadership titles, to ensure it is working.

For those of you looking for ways to retain your team, you might consider one or all of these steps:

• Recommit to what is core. Use the Foraker Nonprofit Sustainability Model to dive in and look deeply as a team to identify, document, and celebrate the Core Purpose, Core Values, and deep beliefs that lie at the foundation of your organizational culture. Being clear as an organization helps employees be clear on their own choices.
• Engage in strategic planning to not only confirm who you are as an organization, but also where you are going. Again and again, we see that organizations remaining stable in storms all have long-term goals (7-10 years) to guide them in uncertain times. Annual goals are great too, but often they are not enough for employees who are looking for more opportunities to be a part of greater change. Need help? Call us.
• Update your job descriptions to reflect your organizational values and culture. Here is a template and steps to get you started.
• Commit to the team – again and again. This is a journey that begins but does not end.
• Conduct employee evaluations in ways that ask each person to explore their own goals and dreams beyond the current workday. This can look like professional development goals or opportunities, or something beyond the workplace. You might not be able to meet them 100% of the time, but you can’t try if you don’t know what it looks like to them. Since most workplace budgets are flat and limited in revenue to increase pay, think broadly about how to meet these goals. The best solutions are the ones you think of together. Don’t forget to create space for employees to gain peer support for these goals, too.
• Articulate “total compensation.” Employees know how much they get paid and their benefits, but they don’t know what that all adds up to in total financial investment for each person. Most organizations can take a new approach to fully articulate the value and investment in the team. If you do have room to move in pay and benefits, be on the watch for our newest salary and benefits report coming this spring to chart your benchmarks and goals. If you haven’t checked out the latest suggestions on how you, as an employer and an employee, can help close the gender pay gap in Alaska’s nonprofits and beyond, review our report and share it with all the groups you care about. Alaska can lead the nation if we all do our part. Want support to take these steps? Call us.
• Write a leadership succession plan for key leaders (The one for the CEO/ED is board approved). This is a prevention and risk management tool. It also sets clear expectations and understanding of what matters most about the role and the work while also setting out expectations so no one panics and rushes to search when transition occurs.
• Explore a reset with the way the team is organized to meet the new environment. Sometimes called a staffing plan, this is an opportunity to rearrange the roles and functions of the team to work better together. Of course, this process is also full of change, which creates its own anxiety and stress so walk very carefully and with some outside support. We can help. Call us.

For those who are looking to recruit new team members, you might consider one or all these steps:

• All the items above work here, too, just use them to front load the process. Plus…
• Too often this is a “rush to search” effort. To do it differently means consciously making the choice to slow down knowing the results will be longer lasting for both the person and the organization. If you are ready to do it differently for a better result, consider Foraker’s Leadership Transition services, which focus on the full cycle of transition, including “prepare-search-thrive” and a variety of options to engage with us or on your own.
• Get your own house in order. Before hiring is a great time to look at your employee manual. This collection of policies is also a great place to articulate workplace culture and commitments. Did you skip that part? Now is the time to look again and reinvest – and it’s a wonderful way to engage your board in the strategic policies that matter most.
• Talk total compensation, not just salary. Yes, for sure a livable wage is essential for attracting employees but so are other benefits including flexibility, hybrid or “off campus” working environments, retirement, etc. Health insurance was always a barrier to nonprofit employment, but now, with the changes to Medicaid and the elimination of support to offset the Affordable Care Act, those of you who offer insurance should highlight that. This is an even more attractive offer in your total compensation package than it was before. Still can’t access health insurance for your team. You are not alone. Know it is always on our radar as an area to fix. We are committed to continuing our pursuit for Alaska’s nonprofits.

For those who are saying good-bye on positive terms (which is not always the case), these steps may help with a graceful exit. Or, if you are presented with a challenging exit, give us a call for HR support.

• Live out a clear acknowledgment plan that matches organizational culture to thank people for their service (formal and/or informal)
• Define a culturally appropriate way to say thank you – gifts of things, words, or actions
• Determine if there are special or additional ways to thank long-tenured team members
• Ensure a clear process to keep the people engaged as mission investors and ambassadors

The era of employee-centric decision making still leaves room for employers to get it right and make a difference for people every day. Our goal should be the right people at the right time to move mission forward. As nonprofits, our missions are set up to be bigger than a single person. We need each other as people and organizations to make it all work. Focusing on how we recruit and retain and yes, sometimes, saying goodbye is part of our mission work. Some days it is harder than others but investing in people is always worth it.

-Laurie