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Attracting Top Talent in the Nonprofit Sector
August
23, 2004
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
One of the observations in the recently released Passion
and Commitment Under Stress: Human Resource Issues in Canada's Non-profit
Sector report by the Canadian Policy Research Network is that:
"Competition for highly educated, highly-skilled workers
is expected to increase over the next few decades as the baby-boom generation
reaches retirement age. Retention and recruitment will therefore become
crucial human-resource issues for employers in all sectors, but especially
in the non-profit and quango sectors [i.e. nonprofit organizations in
'quasi public' industries such as universities or hospitals] where reliance
on these kinds of workers is high."
What is the current situation, though? Is there already competition in the sector
to attract top talent? "Absolutely!" answer both Lynda Ducharme,
president of the Ducharme
Group Inc. - a nonprofit executive recruitment specialist, and Karen
Iddon, national director of human resources for the Canadian
Red Cross Society. That means that attracting top talent requires
a variety of creative strategies. According to Iddon, "It's like a toolbox.
Different times call for different measures."
Recruiting by word of mouth or through professional associations is very
useful for technically specific jobs. Ducharme finds it helpful to pay
for broadcast faxes sent out by associations to their membership. She
also advocates asking for referrals from those who are knowledgeable in
the sector. "I seek out the top people in the field and they will steer
me to good people," she says.
What tangibles and intangibles attract top talent?
When it comes to compensation, "there is salary and then there is everything else,"
says Iddon. "You need to be competitive with salaries in other similar
organizations. That's the price of doing business. Money is baseline important,
but what really works in attracting top talent are the intangibles." Ducharme
explains that a huge motivation for top candidates is when their values
align with the mission of an organization. For Iddon, working in an organization
with a strong mission and 100-year-old practices and principles is very
helpful in this regard.
Flexibility is another key intangible - especially for those with families.
The organization's environment is also extremely important to top candidates.
"Top candidates ask pointed questions of me about the work environment,"
relates Iddon. "If you stumble on those questions, it sends a signal."
Ducharme finds that top calibre job seekers want to know what the organization's
leadership is like and they want information about the team they'll be
working with. They want insight into the dynamics and challenges of an
organization. "They have lots and lots of questions before they wade waist
deep. And when top talent is moving from one organization to another within
the nonprofit sector, I find they are even more demanding because they
just don't want to trade apples for oranges."
Internal and external recruits
Nonprofit organizations find some of their top talent from within the nonprofit
sector, but not always. The Canadian Red Cross recently completed an analysis
and found that they recruit fairly evenly from the for-profit and nonprofit
sectors. Iddon explains that the skills needed in the areas of finance,
human resources and public affairs are transferable, while program-based
positions almost always require hiring from within the nonprofit sector.
When Ducharme cannot find the skill set from within the sector, she will
recruit from outside. However, she is aware that this brings inherent
challenges, including the fact that a senior level executive valuing a
new challenge in the nonprofit sector can take a 50% salary cut and still
be sitting at the top of the nonprofit salary range.
Growing the pool of talent
There are a growing number of nonprofit-specific programs at the college and university
levels. So, unlike in the past where many people transferred their skills
into the nonprofit sector or built experience around a general degree,
today's students can take an entire program of study focused on the nonprofit
sector. Mount Royal College, based in Calgary, offers Canada's
very first bachelor of applied
nonprofit studies as part of its Institute
for Nonprofit Studies. The program provides graduates with a theoretical
background in areas such as nonprofit law, program planning and assessment,
statistical analysis, board governance, ethics, volunteer management,
strategic management, and fund development. Plus, students complete two
four-month long placements during their four year undergrad program.
The decision to offer a bachelor's degree was strategic, explains Keith
Seel, director of Mount Royal's Institute for Nonprofit Studies. In
Canada, there are a number of nonprofit-related certificates, but from
there educational offerings leap to the graduate degree level. Seel says
one concern was how to attract youth to the sector as an employer of choice.
"Most would be looking at the bachelor level."
The Institute was made possible by a large anonymous donation to create
educational programming for the nonprofit sector and to fund research.
What this means, says Seel, is that the research results can be quickly
linked into the courses offered and the curriculum can keep pace with
changes in the nonprofit sector. "Our curriculum review happens every
two years," he explains. "This is the only way you can increase
the talent pool because the pace of change is much faster in the nonprofit
sector than the norm of reviewing curriculum every five years."
Knowledgeable and heartfelt
The first participants in the new bachelor degree program will graduate in a year's
time and David Johnston-Ball will be among the ranks. He fits Seel's
description of a young person choosing the nonprofit sector as an employer
of choice. Johnston-Ball didn't know much about the nonprofit sector before
enrolling in the program after high school, some travel, and odd jobs.
He did know, however, that the for-profit world wasn't for him. From listening
to a guidance counselor at Mount Royal, he realized that the nonprofit
sector and this new applied bachelor degree aligned with his values. The
guidance counselor told Johnston-Ball that the "aim of the program was
to get people into the nonprofit sector who had knowledge as well as their
heart in the right place." This sounded attractive to Johnston-Ball and
he enrolled.
While Iddon agrees that it is always positive to have university programming
specific to the nonprofit sector, she adds a word of caution. "I think
there are other factors that will work against this impact. There is a
shrinking pool of talent because of demographics and competition - particularly
from government jobs. So, yes, these programs are helpful but we may not
see expansion." This caveat underscores the message in the Canadian Policy
Research Network report and highlights the need for nonprofits to use
a variety of creative strategies to recruit top talent.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines
her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national
levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit
www.luchuk.com.
