Risk Management Topics
Employees: Your Most Valuable Asset
The adage, “employees are our most valuable asset” may sound like a cliché, but it’s also true. Employees can also be a nonprofit’s most significant liability. Any employer faces potential liability from former or current employees, but nonprofit employers face unique challenges because of a “social contract” inherent in the public benefit focus of a nonprofit’s mission.
Biggest Areas of Human Resources Risks for Nonprofits
Some of the biggest areas of human resources risk in the charitable sector include:
Equity
To meet their mission and best serve their constituents, nonprofits need to hire and retain employees from a variety of backgrounds that reflect the communities they work with. Nonprofits need thoughtful, inclusive hiring approaches to attract a diverse mix of candidates, as well as organizational practices that ensure a welcoming and open environment for employees of all backgrounds.
Multi-Generational Teams
For the first time in U.S. history, members of five generations work side-by-side in the workplace. Many factors beyond age affect a person’s perceptions, including family upbringing, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, religious or spiritual beliefs, and more. Make no assumptions, except that any group of people will include a variety of perspectives. The best way to find out what matters to any individual or group is to ask, and listen to the answers.
Hybrid Workplaces
We’re not aware of any nonprofit team that has returned to its pre-pandemic approach to the workplace. Whether you’re completely remote, semi-remote or in flux, every team is pondering how to leverage the benefits of being together and working apart.
Unions
The number of nonprofits that are unionizing is increasing, according to Gallup, and approval of unions stands at 71%, the highest since 1965.
Distributed Leadership
Many NRMC clients tell us that they are embracing distributed leadership—empowering people and teams across a large organization to make decisions about matters that affect them. Leaders tell us they sometimes struggle to implement a distributed leadership model without losing a strong sense of accountability.
Hiring Practices
If you’re using pre-pandemic approaches to hiring, you’re either failing or destined to fail. Today’s applicants expect to hear—without delay—whether they are being considered for the role they applied for yesterday. An employer that waits days or weeks to identify who will move on to reference checks and interviews will miss out on the most promising candidates. It’s time to modernize hiring, with risk in mind.
Graceful Separations
Terminating an employee requires grace, compassion and patience. Sending a longtime, trusted employee packing with no notice is both unnecessary and unkind. Limit abrupt terminations to instances where the person’s presence is a true danger.
Reference Giving and Getting
At NRMC, we believe references are the most valuable information in the hiring process. They represent the only time you have a chance to learn about an applicant from someone other than the applicant themself. Stop assuming that no one will provide a candid reference, or that an applicant will only provide references with only flattering things to say. Neither is true. And banish the belief that giving references exposes your mission to undue risk: learn how to give references safely.
Performance Management
Did you know that employees and supervisors dread—equally—annual performance reviews? If your reviews are dreaded, dreary and disorganized, you’re doing it wrong. Great performance reviews deepen an ongoing, regular conversation about performance. They are two-way conversations between a manager and an employee. And they focus on the future and how employees can reach their goals.
Supervision
Leading others requires skills that people might not have developed while working independently. Many people can become outstanding managers. When someone gets promoted into a management role at your nonprofit, don’t just celebrate them—give them the training, tools and resources they need to succeed at leading a team.
Mental Health and Wellness
The pandemic made clear that nonprofit employers must recognize and respond to employees’ mental health and wellness needs. Not all nonprofits can offer paid benefits, but all nonprofits must provide as much assistance as they can to help employees find the mental health services they need. Nonprofits also need to review their workloads and eliminate practices that take a mental toll on teams.
Want to dive deeper into the topics of HR Risk and Employment Practices for nonprofits?
Check out Risk Management Essentials: The HR Risk Issue. Inside you’ll find: