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How nonprofits can avoid staff turnover
Keep your talent and strengthen your mission!
With nonprofit organizations having a high turnover rate, leadership tends to wonder what the root causes are, as well as how they can keep their staff from leaving. Being new to a leadership role, I have witnessed first-hand valuable employees quit from an organization and feeling powerless in keeping them from doing so. What do they need? What can we provide, as an organization, to help them understand they are part of a team and their work is valued? These are the questions we should ask ourselves as nonprofit leaders.
What are the causes?
Being overloaded with work, not making enough money, not feeling appreciated, and feeling stagnant are only some reasons nonprofit employees choose to leave the manager and the mission. A lot of individuals who choose to work within the nonprofit sector do so knowing that it is not lucrative; however, they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. With the mission in mind, should they also have to experience burnout, the feeling of being frozen in one position, or feeling undervalued? No. As a worker for good causes, nonprofit employees should know that the responsibilities they hold means something, and they should receive the tangible benefits that come along with this work as well.
How can we help?
Nonprofit organizations come in all different shapes and sizes, and due to this, the resources they are able to provide their employees may be limited or not utilized to the full capacity in which they could be. No matter the budget or capacity, there is always something that can be done to help staff know their self-worth. Think about the five “love language’s” …Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Quality Time, and Physical Touch … and now consider how four out of these five languages can be utilized within an organization. Just like the love and acceptance from family, partners, and friends, individuals have a desire for their workplace to love and accept them.
- Words of Affirmation – Leaders can write their employees a simple thank you note or email, or give them acknowledgement in a newsletter, telling them how appreciative they are of their work and commitment to the organization.
- Gifts – Small tokens of appreciation, such as a gift card or balloons, can go a long way in showing your staff what a gift they are to the team.
- Acts of Service – Lunch or an afternoon ice-cream break, could help employee’s see their value to the organization. Taking one hour out of a day to enjoy everyone’s company displays your leadership style of thinking about each person as an individual versus only what those individuals can do for the mission.
- Quality Time – Allowing staff to have half-day Friday’s during the summer or half-days the day before a holiday, is a simple and doable way to give them a head-start in spending time with their family or for other commitments they may have to push aside due to their work hours.
The End Result
If we as leaders, truly take time to think about our staff and their needs, we can experience the longevity of these employees within our organizations. Imagine the nonprofits whose staff have been around for 15 years, 20 years, or 30 years … now think about how your organization could benefit from this type of institutional knowledge, team comradery, and dedication. If all it takes
is using one of the love languages mentioned above to retain staff, I think we can all agree that it is worth the time and money. Creating an official, internal process that includes an employee recognition program, can help avoid staff turnover and keep your strongest members continuing the work to help strengthen your mission.
Desiree Vasquez is a 2025 graduate of the Masters of Nonprofit Leadership and Management program at Arizona State University. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from Lehman College in New York. Desiree is currently the Program Director for the Robert A. Winn Clinical Investigator Pathway Program at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, which provides medical students with the opportunity to learn about clinical trial research by engaging with underrepresented communities. Desiree has 30 years of experience within the nonprofit sector and has contributed her skills to multiple programs within higher education. She has a great enthusiasm for providing students with scholarship opportunities so that they have little to no student loan debt after graduation.
Image by Lillian Finley
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Human Resources professionals help keep organizations running smoothly. Make sure you have the know-how for everything that goes into it, from complying with federal and state employment laws and compensation systems, recruiting, managing, motivating and rewarding both staff and volunteers in order to effectively utilize their strengths, and developing strategies to overcome internal and external conflict, with the Optimizing Human Resource Strategies in Nonprofits Certificate.