Fuel for Recruitment and Retention Success
Believe it or not, it was just three years ago that the country essentially closed down in an effort to contain the COVID virus. While all businesses, for profit and nonprofit, attempted to pivot sufficiently and successfully in order to survive, soon dire reporting around job losses began to fill all our media streams. Thankfully, the country’s economic prognosis eventually improved and companies shifted from significant layoffs to major hiring. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the unemployed population seemed disinterested. While government-funded financial support likely bolstered this disinterest, potential job seekers also spoke about toxic work environments: too much work for too little pay, unsupportive bosses, and a lack of work/life balance. To make matters worse, those who remained employed through the height of the pandemic started citing the same frustrations and soon, media outlets began covering the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting.. Within the nonprofit sector, these economic phenomena were even more problematic as it was clear that fewer and fewer of America’s newest generation of full-time employees were choosing careers in social services.
While it is true that today’s workforce, even in the nonprofit space, wants to be paid what they believe they are worth, they are also prioritizing a healthy work environment: a sense of belonging and inclusion; opportunities to grow; supportive and engaged supervisors; a sense that their work is impactful; and healthy work/life balance. As the title of this piece suggests, technology and more specifically the right CRM solution might also be your human resources solution, positively impacting the health of an organization as defined by both today’s job seekers and current employees alike.
Sense of Belonging and Inclusion: A quality CRM solution actually brings teams closer, even if working hybrid or fully remote schedules. All the work being contributed by various members of a team or even across teams is captured in the same client record. Further, reporting is accessible by all, so that teams can collectively engage in inclusive, data-informed decision making relative to the future program model and services.
Opportunities to Grow: A quality CRM solution can provide an employee and their supervisor the opportunity to set measurable developmental goals on annual performance appraisals. For the employee who is looking to grow in the organization, these goals can speak to the development of new skills and higher achievement levels coveted by nonprofit leadership.
Supportive and Engaged Supervisors: A quality CRM solution provides program managers with real-time dashboards that can be customized to reflect both program and employee performance. As a result, the supervisor enters team meetings and supervision sessions well-informed and ready to support both the team and the individual employee in areas in which they may be struggling, while also celebrating successes.
Sense of Impact: Dashboards are not just for managers; employees can also enjoy real-time dashboards. Again, these dashboards can be customized to reflect what team members believe to be the key variables that speak to the impact the individual employee and the program is having on program participants. For the employee seeking a mission-driven position, this daily visual representation of the work is key.
Work/Life Balance: A quality CRM solution provides the 360 degree view of an agency participant to create the job efficiencies that support work/life balance and also allows for migration or integration with other systems used within the organization. These attributes generate incredible work efficiencies, including 1) the need to collect key data points only once, despite multiple enrollments; 2) the ability to quickly track program adherence via referral follow through, progress notes, class or group attendance, or progress on service plan goals; and 3) ease in producing reports to funders and collecting key statistics for proposals for new funding. The result? Gone are the 10-12 hour work days in order to complete all direct care work and complete all the associated administrative tasks.
So, let’s go nonprofit leaders! Let’s get hiring and supporting a healthy, happy workforce with the right technological tools!