The nonprofit sector is a significant driver of the labor market, employing around 10.7 million workers across approximately two million nonprofit organizations in the United States. However, hiring and retaining experienced staff poses a major challenge for many nonprofits.

According to a survey conducted by nonprofit human resources management, more than half of nonprofit organizations do not have a formal hiring strategy, and one-third of these organizations confirm that recruitment is among their biggest challenges.

On the other hand, a quarter of nonprofits reported that their biggest challenges related to employee retention were due to their inability to offer competitive salaries. The survey emphasized that smaller nonprofit organizations benefit from having a documented formal retention strategy. Here are 14 simple strategies for retaining employees in nonprofit organizations.

  1. Put Strategies in a Written Document

Document the employee retention strategy, which will enable your organization's leadership team to reach an agreement on the strategy and activities that contribute to retaining employees. Additionally, the board will be able to monitor how retention expenses relate to the organization’s goals and the outcomes it aims to achieve.

  1. Calculate Employee Retention Rate

Before investing in employee retention strategies, you can measure your current retention rate to see if your existing efforts are effective.

  1. Calculate Turnover Cost

Alongside calculating your nonprofit's employee retention rate, measuring turnover cost is another useful metric that helps your organization understand the returns on investments such as benefits and perks offered to employees.

  1. Evaluate Compensation Annually

While studies have shown that pay alone is not a primary motivator for productivity, most nonprofits strive to make employees feel they are receiving fair wages. Therefore, assess employee salaries annually and compare them with the salaries offered to employees in similar nonprofit organizations.

  1. Promote Self-Care

Burnout is one of the main reasons employees leave work in the nonprofit sector. In this regard, combating burnout involves providing training for employees to improve their self-care skills, as well as encouraging employees to take paid time off.

  1. Hire the Right People the First Time

Nonprofits often face pressure related to hiring the right people on a limited budget. In reality, hiring individuals who possess skills and traits that align with the organization's goals, as well as those who believe in its mission and vision long-term, makes the hiring process organized and thoughtful.

  1. Understand the Reasons for Employees Leaving

There is an easy way to understand the reasons employees leave their jobs by conducting exit interviews. This method helps take appropriate actions to reduce voluntary turnover.

  1. Identify the Benefits Desired by Top Employees

Nonprofits should strategically allocate benefits to employees. Before making investments in benefits or perks, it is important to determine what employees want by conducting a simple survey.

  1. Evaluate Benefits

According to a survey on the benefits enjoyed by nonprofit sector employees in 2015, the most common benefits among the nonprofit organizations included in the study were health insurance and life insurance, which were provided by more than 90% of participants.

  1. Provide Different Benefits for Different Employee Groups

The secret to retaining employees within the organization lies in investing in programs and activities that appeal to key employees who are hard to replace. Consequently, benefits should be tailored to different employee categories, which would motivate new employees to continue working for the organization. This targeted approach to benefit allocation helps utilize the nonprofit's limited resources more strategically.

  1. Set Clear Goals and Expectations for Employees

When it comes to employee satisfaction and retention, a nonprofit should question whether its goals align with those of its employees. If not, steps should be taken to communicate the organization's message and establish clear goals and expectations with each employee.

  1. Offer a Clear Career Path

The next idea is to provide a clear career path by creating opportunities for employees to gain skills on both professional and personal levels.

  1. Invest in the Leadership Team within the Organization

About 80% of employee resignations in nonprofits are attributed to poor leadership. Therefore, investing in this team is essential for overseeing the organization’s operations.

  1. Create a Positive Organizational Culture

Most nonprofits have a clear vision and mission, and

there are many inexpensive steps that can be taken to create a positive culture within them. For example, employees should be involved in team-building activities to enhance positive relationships among colleagues.

Overall, nonprofits that adopt a well-thought-out employee retention strategy can feel more confident about recruitment while reducing the costs associated with employee turnover.

Source: Zane Benefits