Optimizing Employee Retention in Non-profits

Transcription

1 Optimizing Employee Retention in Non-profits

2 Topics covered in the presentation Engagement and retention Innovative and engaging people practices and processes Non-profit organizations Sound people practices Deep employee involvement in creating high performance organization Teamwork, quality, leadership The Protegra Way: culture, fit, empowerment, continuous improvement Service excellence, high performing teams

3 Outline Introduction Setting the stage: about people and behaviour Why people join an organization; why they stay Long-term organizational strategy for performance A system for achieving alignment and performance Focus on the employee Employee engagement Managing behaviour

4 Introduction Non-profit organizations are businesses too! Compete for ever-shrinking resources, funds and budgets. Must build competitive organizations. The theme of today s presentation, from a participant s perspective is really on competing for employees and winning

5 Main premise You need to pay people fairly for what they do However, the key to attracting, engaging and retaining is not money. In fact, once you get over the barrier of entry, money takes a back seat to most other work environment factors Salary and benefits are only two elements in an organization s employee value proposition Key: - Clear sense of purpose for their work - Pride in the organization (high performance on all facets), and - An environment where individuals can thrive and satisfy their needs

6 Non-profit sector statistics The voluntary and non-profit sector includes some 161,000 organizations - more than half (56%) are registered charitable organizations Almost half of Canada's voluntary and non-profit organizations, nearly 69,000 of them, have paid employees (1.2 million employees). The others rely solely on volunteers. Representing 7.2% of the country's total paid workforce, the collective salaries of employees in the voluntary and non-profit sector add up to an annual payroll of $22 billion To put things in perspective, paid employees in the sector outnumber the total combined workforces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. They also outnumber employees in the country's entire construction and hospitality industries combined. Website of the HR Council for Voluntary & Non-profit Sector

7 Profile of non-profit sector employees 74% of employees in the sector are women; more than for-profit organizations (47.5%) 39% of employees are over the age of 45 years; the workforce in non-profit organizations is older than in for-profit organizations One-third of employees are in professional occupations Approximately 15% of employees are immigrants Nearly 40% of the sector's paid employees are union members or covered by collective agreements. Website of the HR Council for Voluntary & Non-profit Sector

8 Profile of non-profit sector employer Most are very small organizations Well over half of the sector's employers have fewer than five employees and three-quarters of them have fewer than 10 employees Only 3% of employers have 100 or more paid employees - but this small number of employers accounts for more than half of all the employees in the sector.

9 Challenging times ahead Project and short-term funding make it difficult to engage employees on a permanent basis Subsidies that are available for internships and work placements encourage organizations to hire workers for shorter and fixed duration (youth internships, etc.) Survey of non-profit organizations in Greater Sudbury, all of whom reported using wage subsidy programs, showed that: - At least 6 in 10 employees classified themselves as part-time or contract workers - Agency managers reported a 66% decrease in full time staff and an 83% increase in part time staff over the previous five years. Report from the Canadian Council on Social Development, Katherine Scott (2003) Report of Human Resource Needs in the Non-Profit Sector produced by the Social Planning Council of Sudbury, Ontario (2001).

10 What do people want from their jobs? Take 2 minutes to list what you believe are the 5 most important factors to your employees

11 Setting the stage: about people and behaviour Abraham Maslow Pyramid of Needs, Motivation Theory Hawthorne Effect (Elton Mayo) The Experimental Effect Frederick Herzberg Two Factor Theory: Motivators and Hygiene Factors Douglas McGregor Theory X and Theory Y Edward Deming Quality Management and Systems Thinking Peter Senge The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of a Learning Organization and Mental Models. Thinking, communicating and collaborating! Ken Blanchard Gung Ho! - The Gung Ho! model contains three central principles, which aim to create an organization of productive, committed employees who love what they do: Worthwhile work driven by goals and values (squirrel) Putting workers in control of achieving the goal; everyone contributes (beaver) Cheering each other on (goose) John Kotter The Heart of Change

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13 Surprise! What supervisors said What employees said High Wages Job Security Promotion in the Company Good Working Conditions Interesting Work Personal Loyalty of Supervisor Tactful Discipline Full Appreciation of Work Being Done Help on Personal Problems Full Appreciation of Work Being Done Feeling of Being In On Things Help on Personal Problems Job Security High Wages Interesting Work Promotion in the Company Personal Loyalty of Supervisor Good Working Conditions This survey is based on works by Susan Herrington, North Tennessee Private Industry Council in Clarksville, Tenn. Retrieved from May 18, 2009.

14 Why people join an organization; why they stay How do you attract employees? - Referrals (word of mouth) - Relationships (e.g. educational institutions) - Reputation Why people stay - Reality turns out to be equal or better than advertized - They enjoy their work; they fulfill their needs - They enjoy their coworkers - They are proud of their organization - They are proud of the work they do: they are allowed to serve their clients to the best of their ability. They make a difference. - They learn and grow as individuals It s important to acknowledge that every individual is motivated by different combinations and importance of needs, and that what motivates us changes with time As leaders/organizations, we need to create and maintain a system that is tuned, and responsive (adaptive), to the needs of our employees How do you know how your system is working? ASK THEM!!! Listen

15 What Protegra s employees value From our most recent employee engagement / satisfaction survey Employee Value Proposition / Loyalty Drivers Worthwhile work Supports Work / Life Balance 2 Belief that Protegra understands what I do and how well Fair remuneration / Total Compensation Inspired/Effective leadership Control over fixing problems 2 9 Co-workers (working with people I like and respect) Sense of growth/accomplishment Making a difference 8 Opportunities to realize my professional objectives 9 Opportunities to realize my personal objectives 10 Job security Opportunities to lead Working with leading edge technology Strong sense of belonging to a team 10 4 Low stress Variety in assignments 5 12 Ownership opportunities

16 Long-term organizational strategy for performance Vision: The organization s guiding idea around which to rally and that will endure Values - Win-Win-Win - Codified culture: a behaviour contract. Respect, teamwork, quality, etc. - Professionals with integrity - Lean thinking: Value for our client, empowered workforce, drive waste out, continuous improvement Culture: - Organizations with strong cultures tend to have better control of their employees - Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of excellent companies. Moreover, the stronger the culture and the more it was directed toward the marketplace, the less need was there for policy manuals, organization charts, or detailed procedures and rules. In these companies, people way down the line know what they are supposed to do in most situations because the handful of guiding values is crystal clear. - Peters and Waterman Shared beliefs, shared norms and values (right/wrong, normal/not normal, good/bad, etc.), shared behaviours What is/will be your Employee Value Proposition? Strategy Plan

17 A system for achieving alignment and performance We call it our Value Management System it s our organizational quality assurance system. The term System is key! CLEAR EXPECTATIONS!!! P D C A. Leadership: Every employee is a leader - The art of influencing another s behaviour toward the accomplishment of the objective in a manner consistent with the organization s values - This is the true test of an organization: do you do what you say you do? Especially in difficult situations. Are leaders true to the organization s values? Sound HR Practices and Policies Teaching and trusting employees to think, solve problems, make decisions Deploy the elements of effective communication systems

18 Alignment Alignment of the organization - Board alignment: Aligned governance - Management team alignment Alignment of the teams Alignment of the individuals

19 Focus on the employee Attracting the right employees: fit, customer focus, a good heart - Employee referrals are gold! The key question: What characteristics, skills and experience are the best predictors of employee success and longevity in your organization? - Do you track employee information and conduct correlation analysis? - The Moneyball example - Know your employees; know the traits of successful ones. We all think we know but we seldom put a lot of rigour in the data gathering and analysis The interview process - This is a key process for employee retention Use of psychometric profiles The orientation process (the learning curve); Onboarding A mentor; the buddy system (career leaders, ERFs) A plan A process to take stock, reflect, adjust - High frequency, short-loop feedback system - Use your probationary period for its intended purpose. After all, you can t test-drive employees, and they can t test-drive your organization Making difficult decisions: not everyone will be a success - Parting ways with some employees

20 Engagement Engagement is behavioural you observe engagement Measurable state of emotional and intellectual involvement and commitment of the workforce to organizational success. There are a number of engagement surveys on the market; however, there are only ten common themes that are found in these blanket-wide engagement surveys (Vance, 2006): - Pride in employer - Satisfaction with employer - Job satisfaction - Opportunity to perform well at challenging work - Recognition and positive feedback for one's contributions - Personal support from one's supervisor - Effort above and beyond the minimum - Understanding the link between one's job and the organization's mission - Prospects for future growth with one s employer - Intention to stay with one's employer

21 Engagement at Protegra Protegra s results in Employee Engagement (central determinant) earned us the Best Employer in Canada Award in 2009, for Small and Medium businesses. Correlations with Engagement : - 26% less turnover - 100% more unsolicited employment applications - 20% less absenteeism - 45% less LTA (loss-time accidents) - 5% less sick time - 5% - 15% greater employee productivity - Up to 30% greater customer satisfaction - 28% higher employee morale Engaged employees: - Speak positively about the organization to co-workers, potential employees and customers - Have an intense desire to be part of the organization - Exert extra effort and are dedicated to doing the very best job possible to contribute to the success of the organization Protegra s performance: 92% engaged, 6% somewhat engaged, and 2% disengaged Queen s School of Business and Hewitt research, 2009.

22 Managing behaviour Individuals as Systems ; each is unique Based on positive reinforcement Every employee is part of the performance system Short feedback loops Structure Actions/Behaviour Performance Consequences Competencies Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace, T. Wilson

23 Thank you! For further information, contact: Daniel Perron Practice Leader Protegra Business Performance Consulting Business. Technology. Solutions. Office: Fax: