Lottery, Jobs, Missions, Oh My!
When (if) you win the lottery one day, what would you do?
There are so many possibilities. You could travel, send all your grandchildren to college, start a business, buy a few acres, prepare for the zombie apocalypse… It’s common enough to find the average American gazing out of the window, dreaming about having enough money to achieve your wildest aspirations. Unfortunately, the chances of winning the lottery are 1 in 292, 201, 338, according to the lottery (it’s very sad, we know).
In that case, most of us will need to work for a long time to build generational wealth and live a semi-comfortable life.
However, not only has finding a job become rife with roadblocks and obstacles, but ideas surrounding organization loyalty and workplace culture have been shifting for quite some time now. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of September 2022, the median number of years employees stay with their current company is 4.5 years.
For nonprofits, that presents a tricky situation.
Locating talented, competent, and experienced employees usually require the funds necessary to pay them appropriately, and the nonprofit’s world of inconsistent income and shifty grant funds doesn’t exactly make for those types of conditions. That makes the fact that employees are more likely to go “job-hopping” all the more frightening.
First, you gave yourself ulcers looking for the right person, only to have them leave a few years later?
Well, the lottery might be a bit of a big ask, but retaining a well-oiled, competent team isn’t as difficult as you might think. Let’s go over some of the reasons why people stay, and then what Mission Capital can do to help your organization hit the jackpot!
Compensation
This one seems like a no-brainer, and a bit selfish if you sit with it while in a bad mood.
However, let’s do the math. According to the education data initiative, the cost of tuition at public 4-year institutions increased by 31.4% from 2010 to 2020. That’s just ten years! If your organization requires employees to have a degree of any kind, then these stats also apply to you.
The upcoming generations are beginning their cycles into the job market with larger amounts of debt to pay off – which means they need more compensation to get them squared away.
However, plenty of wiser minds are also job hunting, but their lives aren’t getting any cheaper either. Medora Lee wrote in USA Today that:
“Just 36% of the 2,178 U.S. parents surveyed said they can afford their kids’ back-to-school shopping, down from 52% last year, according to a recent Morning Consult survey, which also found that more than 37% of parents this year are stressed about back-to-school shopping – up from 32% last year.”
If an employee has kids – or even more expensive, multiple grandkids – to take care of, that means the prices of raising a family have ballooned and show no signs of slowing down. Compensation is a big deal.
It is a fair assumption to believe that most people want to make the world better for those who come after them, help their communities thrive, and advocate for those less fortunate, but it is also a fair assumption to believe that poverty will not decrease by paying people less for more work.
Grinding for decades in service of others may look satisfying on tv, but in real life, it mostly just leads to diabetes and serious mental illness. You don’t want those helping the community to be part of the community that needs help, which is why it is important for grant makers to keep in mind the words of Dan Pallotta in his TedTalk the way we think about charity is wrong:
“If we can have that kind of generosity -- a generosity of thought -- then the non-profit sector can play a massive role in changing the world for all those citizens most desperately in need of it to change.”
Meanwhile, for those who are running nonprofits at the moment, bear in mind that changing the way we view those who are seeking living wages can go a long way toward keeping employees on deck through thick and thin. Most people are willing to help, but very few are willing to starve their children. It’s a conundrum, really.
Engagement
According to Forbes, “In addition, younger generations want to feel like they are making a difference. They want to work for companies that value social responsibility.”
In today’s constantly connected world, flashes of suffering and oppression follow us everywhere. It’s impossible to look away.
Food deserts and corporate exploitation are no longer problems of a faceless stranger across the state, but the problem of your TikTok best friend, Yenny-Jenny_2567.
As such, nonprofits are appealing to incoming employees more and more. However, stating a mission and serving a mission are two different things.
Of course, we encourage you to make your vision for a better future pop! Plaster it on your website, and show what you’re doing on social platforms. Make it easy for a prospective employee to gaze upon all your hard work and dedication and say yes, I want to be part of that.
“Gallup has found that only 29% of millennials are engaged at work, meaning only about three in 10 are emotionally and behaviorally connected to their job and company. The majority of millennials (55%) are not engaged, leading all other generations in this category of worker engagement.”
But that will only attract the greatest of the greats. To keep them in your employ, it is pivotal to engage them in your mission in honest and worthwhile ways.
What does that mean?
Well, one way to engage your employees is to allow them to be their authentic selves. Rules and protocols are important to keep an organization functioning, but not at the expense of having a stellar team. Let employees lean into their natural skills, talents, and characteristics instead of expecting everyone to fit into the “perfect” professional mold.
Another example is rooted in power dynamics. Do you allow the new intern to express their opinion on the ins and outs of work life? What about the janitor? The administrative assistant?
Common folklore tells employees to “stay in their lane,” but if you’d like to engage workers, then letting them have an equal voice and opinion is paramount. After all, who pays attention to what’s going on at work if no one is going to ask them what they think can be done to fix it? Perhaps you’ll be surprised by what they suggest.
However, the last and most important way for nonprofits to earn and keep genius minds is to serve a higher cause truly and equitably. If your organization is currently serving formerly incarcerated women, yet does not provide services to trans women, that will become apparent to any prospective employees, which will in turn affect their quality of engagement.
Practice Makes… Better than yesterday.
Nevertheless, we acknowledge that this advice is easier written than done. Just as the chances of winning the lottery are slim, the chances that your organization will have the smoothest employee search and transition is just as tiny.
Do not take that as defeat. Nothing good happens overnight (except a well-stewed pot roast).
Maybe your organization is lacking the resources or knowledge to start creating a suitable environment where employees choose to stay longer than the average four and a half years. In today’s environment, that is certainly not your fault. There are many ways to go about bettering your teams, and Mission Capital has a few opportunities specially designed to help.
The first is our jobs board.
Additionally, we offer a multitude of courses designed to assist nonprofits at every step of hiring or rehiring. Check out our Employee Retention & Culture: What do people want and need in a workplace? workshop happening in June!
Are you trying to manage the transition of someone in a leadership position? Our Succession Management Workshop could be the key to what you need! It’s coming at the end of this month, so reserve your tickets soon! Unlike the lottery, chances of winning a spot are pretty much guaranteed if you claim it quickly.
Our July course on Supervising People and Emotional Leadership would also be useful for managers, directors, and administrators searching for a way to engage their current employees with relatability and fairness. It’s like they say, once you know better, you can do better!
Need some more research before you decide? That’s the smart idea. Click on the links embedded in this blog for the sources we used to get you started. Happy studying!