Attracting Professionals: Finding the Right Volunteers and Workers in Today’s World

A continuing struggle for any organization is finding the right talent who can be part of the team and drive the organization's agenda. It might be mistaken that the job market is choke-full of qualified university graduates ready to fill out the vacancies. However, education qualification is only one cog in the engine for a nonprofit.?

With diverse goals different from the corporate world, non-profits still need specialized market expertise, and herein lies the challenge.?

With limited funds, getting the right people to work in your non-profit can be tough, especially at the onset.

As an article from Forbes discussed, nonprofits often have to fight it out with other corporate bodies in getting highly qualified talent to join their team.?

"Volunteers and employees together are crucial to the success of a nonprofit. Unfortunately, in recent years, the increasing number of nonprofit entities has made competition for employees and volunteers a significant concern. If a charitable organization aims to remain viable in the future, it needs to figure out the most effective way of attracting new talent," Eight Ways A Nonprofit Can Attract More Employees Or Volunteers added.

There is still hope that non-profit organizations can up their game to be more appealing to talent and prospective employers beyond the remuneration offered.?

Dig in on the Internship Experience

How To Create An Internship That Attracts Nonprofit Talent , another article from Forbes, further championed the creation of effective internship programs to grow a talent pool for non-profits.??

"Nonprofits can set up a proactive internship and returnship program to serve as part of the company's recruiting efforts. This way, the employer gains new valuable?team members, while the student or young professional builds their knowledge and skills," the article noted.?

An internship can be a formidable tool to attract future employees to your non-profit and has proven to be so. Unfortunately, most employers view internships as lowly positions. Interns are usually "misused" to do menial jobs around the office and hardly learn relevant market skills.?

For a nonprofit, after vetting a suitable candidate for the internship journey, it would be prudent to ensure they get the core idea of why the organization exists in the first place. Having the intern rotate in a different section of the company while observing how things are done is a sure way of nurturing interest.

Provide relevant remuneration for the interns to keep them motivated and feel valued. Often than not, most organizations would overlook providing a stipend for their interns. This might not be attractive to most of the students looking to volunteer. Even if cash is not an option, providing them with transport or lunch will make them feel welcome.

Finally, integrate your interns into the work culture. Ensure that it is a place they would want to work in the future. For example, a work environment that is tensed up with constant friction will not be something they would look forward to in a workplace.

Fix the Work Culture

Work cultures are something that millennials and Generation Z take quite seriously. They make part of the new talent that is flooding the market, graduation after graduation. Even talent from another company would prefer a friendly, stress-free work culture.?

Fixing the work culture does not only mean bringing down the office walls for easier communication, fitting in a pool table, or installing a bouncing castle in the office. It could simply mean creating an environment where junior and senior executives can have open communication. It could mean ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and that there is a mechanism for conflict resolution.?

Having a great work culture improves employees' confidence, knowing that it is a safe place to practice their skills.?

Favoritism, victimization, and impatience are abhorred traits and could lead to a toxic work environment. In the end, a non-profit organization's goals can be duly interrupted by a high turnover of employees.?

On-the-Job Training and Scholarships

Offering part scholarships to students studying in an area of interest to your nonprofit can kickstart the kind of visibility you need to attract top talent. It can be a scholarship sponsored by several organizations if funds are a challenge.?

The criteria for giving out these scholarships can isolate the kind of talent that an organization needs in the future. Also, providing scholarships to university or post-university graduands can put your nonprofit in a good light, showing it as a place to grow.?

In some instances, training can be done in collaboration with a local university or college as the nonprofit scouts for relevant talent. Many online tools can also help organizations create virtual or in-person courses. The courses don't need to add to the student's coursework but merely be an additional source of knowledge in the specific area of expertise.?

Following close vetting, nonprofits can offer internships or fully absorb qualified candidates to join the team.

Continuous training within the organization can also be a morale booster for employees as they can have an avenue of growth. For the organization, it can be a tool to sharpen employee skills while making their skills more appealing.?

Automate Your Organization to Attract Tech-savvy Talent

In a world ruled by technology, non-profit leaders should also focus on business and enterprise innovation to ease workflow. Having an old and manual business system can be a turn-off for prospective employees. People want to make arduous tasks easier and get rid of repetitive work.?

Relevant software and hardware can save a lot of time for employees. Nonprofits can also concentrate on their core business rather than chasing its tail completing non-core tasks.?

A Harvard Business Review analysis even recommends using smart technology such as AI, machine learning, and robotics to help nonprofits fare well in a heavily digitized world.?

"At many nonprofits, smart tech is becoming integrated into internal workflows, fundraising, communications, finance operations, and service delivery efforts. Smart tech is currently best used for rote tasks in nonprofit organizations, such as reconciling expense reports and answering the same questions online using a chatbot (e.g., "Is my contribution tax-deductible?") — freeing up staff to focus on other activities," the business review observed.

The review furthered that free time can reduce staff burnout and create a more human-level focus on the organization's primary mission.?

Conclusion

There is much more organizations can do to bring in the best talent, including offering part-time work for professionals or considering donations in kind from these professionals rather than cash.?

A shift in thinking for non-profits can change how they view talent and ultimately onboard better-skilled staff to push the organization's agenda forward.