Workforce Learning

A newsletter by Alice Waagen (Spring 2008)
Photo by Heraklit, flickr.com

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Why Volunteer? To Help Employees Grow

When you can’t afford to hire someone to help your staff with professional development, help them grow personally and professionally by encouraging them to volunteer at the nonprofit of their choice. But be careful: Choose the right organization to work with — one that matches their goals, skills, and schedule.

One of the questions I am most frequently asked by managers is: How can I provide professional development for my staff when my organization won’t fund or support it? What a good question, for this is indeed a dilemma. Fortunately, one of the most overlooked ways to provide staff development is by encouraging your staff to volunteer.

Whether it means serving on a taskforce for a professional association or giving time to a nonprofit organization focused on creating positive social impacts, volunteering can be a goldmine for skill building and professional and personal enrichment.

Consider the testimony that a colleague of mine recently offered: “I always wanted to make a difference in my work, help people or the organization in some meaningful way, but the politics of my job frequently undermines the work I try to do,” she said. “So I seek out ways to give back in the community. I get much greater return for my investment outside of my paying job.”

My colleague is not alone, for giving back is always healthy — for the mind, body, and soul. However, the key to success is to match your goals with the needs of the organization you choose.

I know from experience that choosing the wrong nonprofit to work with can be as bad as picking the wrong full-time job. A few years ago I rashly committed to a volunteer assignment without doing my homework. I quickly discovered that I wasn’t comfortable with how the organization was managed — and then found out that my assignment entailed a three-year commitment. I had to resign, for I had bitten off more than I could chew. Unfortunately, all involved viewed my resignation poorly.

Since then I have put the following simple guidelines into practice, and have had only positive experiences as a volunteer. So before jumping into a situation, encourage your staff members to do their homework and ask themselves some tough questions.

• “Pre-engagement” questions: What is your personal goal or objective in serving this group? How will it be met by this effort? What are the job duties? How do they match your key competencies and interests? What is the tenure of the engagement? How does one resign? Will you be expected to recruit your replacement? Will you be expected to do fundraising? How do you feel about that?

• Throughout the engagement, ask yourself: Are your talents being fully utilized? Does the work match your pre-engagement research? Are you getting something back for your giving? Is this a valuable experience? Do you have a sense that you are making a difference? Are you making new friends? Learning new things? Having fun?

• “Post-engagement” questions: Would you recommend this organization to a friend? And would YOU work for them again?

Is Your Company Driving Away Talent? Try These 25 Creative Ways to Reverse the Trend

At the April HRA-NCA Conference, “Retrain to Retain,” I led a session with several dozen HR professionals who specialize in the nonprofit arena. Together we devised a list of 25 creative ways to develop staff members’ skills and experience. These include:

• Mentor an employee in a different department.
• Have internal experts talk about topics important to the organization.
• Schedule sessions with the CEO to discuss the organization’s mission.
• Establish and promote an article library.
• Establish new, more useful metrics for important programs.
• Publicly acknowledge successful projects and the project team. Identify them as your “internal gurus.”
• Encourage membership in professional associations.
• Encourage use of tuition reimbursement (often tremendously underutilized).
• Create a “recommended reading list” of relevant books.
• Develop an individual career development plan.
• Use job shadowing as an important tool.
• Find ways to enrich your present job.
• Team up with a manager in another area to act as your mentor.
• Identify a career mentor in your profession (outside your organization).
• Take on a new position while another staff member is on extended leave.
• Research free online technical training (such as vendor tutorials).
• Create ways to cross-train within and across departments.
• Volunteer to lead an ad hoc work team.
• Take a one-day community college course.
• Invite employees to serve on a new committee or taskforce.
• Organize company events, such as retreats and parties.
• Have a brown bag lunch once a month where senior managers speak and inspire staff members.
• Allow individuals time to work in other departments that interest them, especially when large, important projects arise.
• Host a panel discussion with other nonprofits in your area.
• Offer how-to sessions, such as “How to create useful development goals.”

Books for Leaders: Forces For Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

One of my first consulting clients was a small, struggling nonprofit. Being recently sprung from a career in the for-profit corporate world, I was certain that I could “fix” this organization’s internal issues. After all, I had a long career solving workplace issues for large businesses and believed the nonprofit world would certainly benefit from all this wisdom and experience.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Although there may be parallel functions and processes in for-profit and nonprofit enterprises, in truth, the two sectors are distinctly and profoundly different.

That is why I consider Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits such an important read. Authors Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant have produced a groundbreaking work that shifts the focus away from traditional metrics for measuring nonprofit success (such as operating ratios and management efficiencies) and looks instead at social impact.

Methodology: The authors went looking for “high-impact nonprofits,” and after conducting dozens of intensive surveys and interviews to determine which organizations had the most positive impact, they selected 12 organizations that are most effective in accomplishing their missions.

The Top 12: America’s Second Harvest, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, City Year, Environmental Defense, The Exploratorium, Habitat for Humanity, The Heritage Foundation, the National Council of La Raza, Self-Help, Share Our Strength, Teach for America, and YouthBuild.

The findings: Interestingly, Crutchfield and Grant initially hypothesized they would find some distinct quality inherent in the leadership of successful nonprofits. Instead, however, they found that the real secret to these organizations’ success was their ability to work with and through other organizations and individuals — the “it takes a village” concept.

Try this for yourself: Their advice is to borrow from the best in the business and adopt these six strategies:

• Work with governments and advocate for policy change.
• Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner.
• Convert individual supporters into evangelists for the cause.
• Build and nurture nonprofit networks, treating other groups as allies.
• Adapt to the changing environment.
• Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good.

The bottom line: Crutchfield and Grant have provided us with a new way to evaluate nonprofit management, one that will yield real results in the worlds nonprofits seek to serve. For anyone involved in the nonprofit sector — whether as a staff member, volunteer, or donor — this book is a must-read.

For more information about the book, visit: www.forcesforgood.net.

Join me: The Emerging Leader Institute (ELITE)

Starting in September, Alice Waagen will be leading monthly leadership training classes at the Emerging Leader Institute (ELITE), a hands-on development program that provides employers with targeted management training for their key, high-potential managers.

Topics to be covered include:

• Leveraging Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Leading & Managing Change
• Effective Communication
• Performance Management
• Building Effective Teams
• Managing Conflict

For more information, contact Alice and visit HeliosHR for program details and registration information.