Improving retention rates and lowering turnover is a necessary consideration as part of nonprofit financial management. The biggest issue for a nonprofit human resources manager is employee turnover. According to a survey from Nonprofit HR, total turnover percent is around 19%. This is high compared to the national average of 11%.
The hiring process takes time and costs, on average, $4,129 per employee. Consider all the good work that your nonprofit organization does; how much could it do with that $4,129 back in its operating budget?
There are several things that your organization can do to reduce turnover and improve retention. Some of these actions do not cost much in terms of cash outlay but offer high value to your employees. They can help you both attract and retain top talent. Among the things you can do is offer job flexibility to your employees.
The Attractiveness of Job Flexibility
The average worker today has more responsibilities than ever before. Both men and women may share childcare responsibilities while juggling elder care needs for aging parents. They may be pursuing advanced degrees or completing college degrees after hours, juggling co-parenting duties with former spouses, and maintaining a household for their children and current spouse. Lifestyles have changed, and with these changes comes ever-increasing demands on workers’ time.
That’s why flex-time is so appealing. Job flexibility offers a benefit that, to some, may be even more attractive than money. It’s difficult for families today to work around school and employment schedules. Having options already worked out in advance with an employer gives workers peace of mind. They know that if the school nurse calls and says that a child is running a fever and needs to leave school they can leave without a fuss and take care of their family first. Such arrangements boost loyalty to your nonprofit organization and help keep employees long-term.
Job Flexibility Options
There are many ways in which an organization can offer job flexibility. These include:
- Flex-time: Let workers adjust their hours to meet family needs, medical appointments, or other obligations. Approximately 96% of the largest for-profit firms in the nation offer flex-time, and it’s a growing trend. If you compete with for-profit entities for talent, this may be a simple way to make your benefits package as attractive as theirs to potential employees.
- Reduced hours: If your nonprofit organization has seasonal peaks and valleys in its work, consider allowing reduced hours during the ‘valley’ demand periods. When demand for services drops, consider allowing people more time off, shorter working hours, or other perks.
- Telecommuting: With the amount of free technology and cloud-based systems available today, it’s surprising that more nonprofits aren’t embracing telecommuting as a job flexibility option. Telecommuting is a very attractive job option for some nonprofit organizations. While not every job can be a telecommuting job, positions in the operations, accounting, finance, membership services and other departments may be able to accommodate telecommuting.
Cloud Technology and Job Flexibility
It’s worth mentioning again how cloud technology facilitates job flexibility. Cloud technology is accessed via the internet, so any device – tablet, desktop, smartphone, laptop – can be used to access important software needed for work.
Communication services that include messenger apps, email, instant messaging, video and audio conferences can make it easy to telecommute. Employees can attend meetings, share files, and ask quick questions via their computers. Virtual offices are becoming more the norm, so people outside of your organization will likely take the dog barking, doorbell ringing, or other ambient noises during calls in stride.
New Recruiting Tools Boost Nonprofit Financial Management
These and other recruiting tools can help your nonprofit financial management by reducing the high cost of employee turnover. When employees leave, you lose more than the $4,129 previously mentioned. You lose precious time – time spent posting job notices, reviewing resumes, and interviewing candidates. You also lose a great deal of organizational knowledge and momentum as new employees must learn the organization’s culture and methodology as well as their job requirements. Embracing job flexibility can be of enormous help to the problem of nonprofit turnover.
Beck & Company
Beck & Company are Washington DC nonprofit advisors. We also are Virginia certified nonprofit accountants. We work with nonprofits of all sizes serving many different constituents nationwide, providing a variety of consulting, auditing, and accounting services. For more information, please contact us at 703-834-0776 x8001.