While the very smallest nonprofit organizations may not find it necessary, any organization with more than one or two employees should consider creating a written handbook outlining non-contractual employment terms and work conditions.
“Where are they going to go?” “They’re lucky to have a job.” These are, unfortunately, actual statements I’ve heard in the past year from nonprofit managers offered as rationales for not taking steps to advance human resources practices within their organizations. While there is no question both the economic downturn and its effect on labor [...]
My post last week explored some of the challenges facing fundraising professionals and their employers. This week, we’ll take a look at current staffing trends in another important function that has traditionally received less attention in nonprofit settings.
For the vast majority of the country’s more than 1.2 million registered 501(c)(3) organizations, the development function, and therefore development professionals, has always been of critical importance.
In part 1, I outlined a model of human resources maturity among nonprofit organizations based on the clear delineation of position, person and performance. I also examined the first two phases of this maturity including their implications for the design and the effectiveness of key human resources processes. These processes include recruitment and selection, compensation, performance management, professional development and career/succession planning.
During my years working as a consultant to nonprofits, I have observed three basic phases of organizations’ human resources maturity. This maturity can be defined in terms of how much delineation exists between position, person and performance. Each phase has implications for the design and effectiveness of key human resources processes including recruitment and selection, [...]
In my previous post, I made a case for the use of salary ranges as the foundation of a formal compensation program for nonprofit organizations. Particularly for organizations experiencing or have experienced significant growth, the use of salary ranges can go a long way toward ensuring salaries are equitable and competitive while, at the same [...]
In a recent post, compensation consultant Ann Bares questions whether salary ranges, long a staple of compensation programs among America’s companies and organizations, are still a useful tool given the relatively slow pace of salary annual growth during the past two decades. There is no question that administering salaries — and, in particular, differentiating rewards according [...]
“Why?” “Because I said so.” This exchange, perhaps a staple of parent/child relationships, has no place in management. In fact, communicating to employees the why of their work — the context, value and relevance of their work — is vital to both training efforts and to effective coaching. Further, recent research, including a study conducted [...]
A recent survey found that 73% of nonprofit organizations have a formal policy to review executive compensation. As a human resources and management consultant to nonprofits, what I found striking about this statistic is that it means 27% of organizations do not have a formal policy.