Too often hiring organizations treat the reference check stage as a necessary evil, as the last “required” stage before the excitement of finalizing an offer.  It is important to realize, however, that reference checking is not the end of the hiring process but rather the bridge between the hiring and onboarding processes.  Not only will reference checking help you make the best hiring decision possible but it will also support the hired candidate’s successful transition into his or her new role. 

Checking references is the last step of a process designed to help you identify the candidate who will be most successful in a specific role and within the organization as a whole.  At the beginning of the process, you should have outlined the competencies required for success in the role.  During the interview stage, you gathered data about each candidate’s ability to be successful in that role.  The résumé and cover letter gave you some information, the in-person interviews gave you a lot more, and your ongoing interactions and any assignments you had the candidate complete added to the picture.  The reference check process is your first opportunity to gather data from an outside source; take advantage of it! 

The Process
Checking references begins with requesting references from the candidate.  For a lower-level position, 3 references should be sufficient; for a more senior position, 5 are appropriate.  For the most senior positions, 7–10 references are ideal. 

When requesting references, think about the position and what you need to learn about the candidate.  Typically, reference lists include mostly previous supervisors.  This is fine, as you are certainly interested in the past performance information that a former supervisor can provide.  Don’t feel, however, that you need to limit yourself only to former supervisors.  For example, if you are hiring for a management position, it will be important to ask the candidate to include as a reference someone she has managed.  If the position is a senior-level one, you might want to consider requiring the candidate to list a board member or other high-level constituent from her professional experience.  If your organization is highly team-oriented, you may want to speak with a former peer or colleague of the candidate. 

Structuring Reference Checks
Reference letters are a thing of the past.  Think about it; a reference letter is static and tells you only what the reference wants you to know about a candidate.  Similarly, reference letters do not address the needs of the particular position for which you are hiring.  Performing reference checks by phone allows you to direct the conversation to gather the data that you need in order to make the best hiring decision.

When you are ready to start your reference checking, remember the following tips:

Be persistent: When you are reaching out to a reference, remember that these are busy people and that providing a reference is not part of their daily job.  It is important to be respectful of their time and reasonable about your expectations in terms of availability while also persevering, as returning your call may fall to the bottom of a reference’s priority list.  Sometimes it is more efficient to schedule reference calls over e-mail instead of relying on catching someone by phone. 

Be purposeful: Plan the calls in advance.  Take some time to create a reference-checking template for the specific position.  This template should open with an introduction of yourself and a short overview of the organization and the position, then proceed to such standard questions as “What has been your relationship to this candidate and how long have you known him/her?” 

The next few questions should ask the reference for specific examples of times when the candidate has successfully demonstrated the core competencies required for the position.  For example, one question for a director of development position might be “Please give me an example of a time when the candidate successfully identified a prospective donor and worked with that donor through the cultivation stage to a contribution.” 

Toward the end of the call, ask if the reference would rehire the candidate.  Close the call with the simple yet effective “What else should I know about the candidate?”
 
Be consistent yet flexible:  Just as when you are interviewing candidates, it is important to maintain a consistent and equitable process while checking references.  Using a template as described above can ensure consistency.  That being said, consider individualizing your template based on what you have learned about a particular candidate to date.  For example, your organization may be very team-oriented, but teamwork is not identified as a core competency for the position in question.  If you have a concern about how the candidate would fit into the culture, ask the reference.

Be aware:  The absolute most important part of a reference check is listening; let the reference talk.  Give the reference time to digest the question and then give a full answer.  Then listen carefully to not only the words the reference is using but how they are using them. 

For example, if you ask, “Would you rehire this candidate?” think of all the ways that someone can say the single word “Yes.”  It can be completely and utterly enthusiastic and sincere.  There could be a long pause and some hesitation before the reference finally squeaks out a mild “Yes.”  Listen for pauses and hesitation; they could be signs that the reference is trying to find a way to put a positive spin on his or her answer.  It is usually fairly evident when a reference is struggling to find a positive answer rather than raving on about the candidate. 

Keep it legal:  Remember that the same discrimination laws that apply to interviewing apply to reference checking, so do not ask about marital status, age, disabilities, religion, ethnicity, or other personal characteristics.  Remember that all questions have to relate directly to the candidate’s ability to be successful in the position that you are filling. 

Final Thoughts
Increasingly, organizations have a company policy that prevents their employees from providing references; instead, they are only able to verify employment, including dates of employment and title.  Don’t judge the candidate because his or her former employer has this policy; it does not mean that the candidate was not successful.  Instead, go back to the candidate to get the name and contact information for an alternative reference. 

Finally, many employers like to include “back-door reference checks” in their process, which means that they call people known to them who may have experience with the candidate but have not been listed by the candidate as a reference.  Although back-door references can provide important information, it is essential to recognize and be respectful of the position that this could put the candidate in.  The nonprofit sector is a particularly small world, and letting someone know that a candidate is on the job market could easily get back to the candidate’s current employer and put that candidate at risk. 

Nonprofits hiring entry-level talent often face a difficult “Catch-22” situation as they need people looking to enter an organization on the ground floor, but also want candidates who bring relevant professional experience to the table. This reality is a frustration for first-time jobseekers as well.

For organizations seeking entry-level candidates who possess demonstrated experience, graduates of year-of-service and leadership development programs can present a well positioned talent pool. Candidates coming out of these programs have been tested in challenging environments and generally come out of their service impassioned and committed to the social sector. Because of the skills and experiences that participants in these programs gain, more organizations are looking to leadership development programs as “the new entry-level”.

This article will discuss a few of the major leadership development programs serving the social sector, as well as share some real-life examples and recommendations for how organizations can leverage this unique talent pool.

What’s Out There?

There are hundreds of nonprofit leadership development programs currently operating in the United States and they vary widely in their scope and programming. This article will focus on the programs that the team at Commongood Careers has found to be the most valuable talent sources for a range of nonprofit hiring needs. As illustrated in the chart below, these programs offer emerging nonprofit leaders practical experience in areas like community development, education, consulting and management while also providing organizations with talented candidates who are committed to the sector.

Achievement First: Tapping into Alumni Networks

Achievement First is a charter school management organization started in July 2003 by the leaders of Amistad Academy, a high-performing charter school in New Haven, Connecticut. As a nonprofit, Achievement First is creating a network of achievement-gap closing charter schools in Connecticut and New York to bring to scale the dramatic, life-changing student achievement results produced at Amistad Academy. Achievement First currently operates 12 schools and has plans to open 1-3 schools per year over the next several years. Over the next decade, Achievement First will support 25 schools serving over 7,000 students.

With such rapid and successful growth, Achievement First looks to hire high-performing individuals with experience in education. Achievement First recruits teachers and school leaders as well as internal management staff. Whether the position is school-based or in the management team, Achievement First actively recruits seeks out alumni from programs such as Teach For America, Education Pioneers and the New York Teaching Fellows program.

Maia H.M. Levner, Achievement First’s Vice President of Talent Development, strongly believes in the value of these programs. “Teach For America, the New York City Teaching Fellows, and other like-minded organizations bring in talented individuals who may not have been originally drawn to the field of education. We value the past leadership experience and accompanying results that these candidates bring, as well as their zeal and passion for closing the achievement gap in this country. Our Teach For America alums in particular come in hungry for a district that values data-driven instruction. They also hold themselves to a high bar of excellence for student success, and it comes out in every part of their interview process. In addition, Teach For America and alums of similar programs bring a passion for social justice, and they wholeheartedly believe that this is the most important work they could be doing for our country.”

To date, Achievement First has hired over 100 Teach For America alumni into teaching and leadership positions, and looks to tap into more leadership development alumni networks in their future recruiting efforts.

Life After Peace Corps: Thomas Peng’s Story

Thomas Peng joined College Summit, a nonprofit that prepares low-income students for the college admissions process, as a Senior Application Support Analyst. Three months before accepting this position, Peng was finishing two years of service with the Peace Corps in the Philippines as an Information Communications Technology volunteer. Peng views his Peace Corps experience as a powerful form of professional development.

“Professionally, I wanted to work in an unstructured environment and succeed despite the various challenges. I learned to develop assets in a community rather than focusing on its deficits. I also discovered that from an outsider’s perspective many things may seem broken, but you have to also focus on what works well. You should improve on the things that work well so that you can grow. If you stop to fix everything and make it perfect, you will stunt your growth. You must also listen to the people and get their thoughts and input and let them drive the change they want in their community. Patience, perseverance, careful observation, and the ability to truly listen to others are invaluable skills that I learned during my service as a volunteer.”

In Peng’s opinion, the Peace Corps was integral to his successful transition into the nonprofit sector. “My experience in the Peace Corps demonstrated to College Summit my commitment to working in the nonprofit world and gave me experience in education. I worked for four years in the private sector before joining the Peace Corps, and my Peace Corps experience demonstrated to nonprofits that I was serious about working in the sector. I had dedicated two and half years of my life to serving as a volunteer. Also, prior to Peace Corps, I had never worked in education. Because College Summit works with teachers and students, my ability to understand the challenges of teaching and common issues in education aid me in my daily work. With the experience and background from Peace Corps, few would doubt my dedication to this field.”

Recommendations to Hiring Organizations

In closing, the following are suggestions for how nonprofits can leverage leadership development programs to source talent:

(1) Seek out advice from others: If your organization has not actively recruited talent from leadership development programs, chances are someone in your professional network has. Activate your network and speak with a contact at an organization with connections to alumni from leadership development programs. Ask them what is unique about these alumni and how they go about sourcing these candidates.

(2) Gain access to alumni networks: Gaining access to a database of program alumni can be an extremely effective tool for candidate mining. For example, Teach For America keeps extensive databases of Teach For America alumni in an effort to track their career progressions and communicate with them about job opportunities. Building an organizational relationship between your organization and a leadership development program can lead to a stronger flow of talented applicants. At the very least, many of the larger programs are now allowing hiring organizations to post jobs to their alumni through newsletters and websites.

(3) Partner with local programs: Look to local programs that offer leadership development fellowships and place participants directly at hiring organizations. For example, New Sector Alliance in Boston operates a year-long fellowship with a dual mission “to accelerate social change by strengthening organizations today, while developing leaders for tomorrow.” In particular New Sector’s Residency in Social Enterprise offers the skills and talents of twenty young professionals to twenty local organizations for a year-long fellowship. According to Kristi Komendant, a Program Manager at New Sector Alliance, “the value proposition for nonprofits is that they find the talented individuals who will help forward their work. It is an effective program because it gives them the opportunity to hire on a specific initiative that they might not have the capacity to hire for more than one year.” Additionally, a report by Nonprofit Congress entitled “Nonprofit Leadership: A Sample of Networks, Fellowships and Workshops” is a great resource for regional leadership development programs operating in a wide range of communities across the country.

(4) Devise guaranteed placement programs: The Presidential Management Fellowship program has been providing career development for emerging professionals in the public sector for over 30 years. One of the reasons why the Presidential Management Fellowship received 4,000 applicants in 2007 is because upon completion of the program, fellows are guaranteed employment in governmental departments at a pay grade above entry-level. In the nonprofit sector, organizations with similar missions could band together and create coalitions of guaranteed placements. Removing the question of “what next” for program alumni could result in an influx of talent to the sector.

This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.

The Aspen Institute, in its 2008 publication “Beyond Gray Pinstripes,” reports that over 30 percent of the 112 schools of management surveyed offer a special concentration focused on social and environmental issues. Additionally, coursework and academic research on social and environmental issues has increased dramatically in the past few years. Even with increased access to such curricula, Net Impact, a nonprofit that helps business school students use their skills for social impact, reports that only six percent of MBA graduates plan on pursuing careers in the social sector.

What will it take to get more MBAs into the social sector? Is there a demand for these types of hires? This article describes the success that two organizations have found in hiring MBAs and outlines some of the challenges associated with hiring MBAs as well as some strategies for overcoming such challenges.

Nonprofit Finance Fund: MBAs are Essential to Programming and Organizational Culture

Catherine Gill at the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) believes that hiring MBAs into nonprofit positions creates a valuable win-win proposition. As the current Director of NFF Capital Partners and former Director of NFF New England, Catherine has overseen teams that deliver financial and advisory services to community-based nonprofits. An MBA herself, she sees the unique perspective and skills MBAs bring to nonprofits.

“MBAs bring hard skills like financial know-how to NFF, but that’s not all,” Gill said in a recent interview with Commongood Careers. “They also bring a really sharp understanding of teams and how to access resources that aren’t always obvious. The MBA degree is incredibly broad and teaches people how to approach problems from different angles.”

In addition to offering business savvy, MBAs can impact an organization’s culture in positive ways. “As a result of having MBAs on staff, our culture is more operational and streamlined. There’s an organization-wide emphasis on efficiency. Our culture values processes and understands how they can help us more efficiently fulfill our social mission.”

Gill describes that one of the biggest draws for MBAs at NFF is the intellectual stimulation of the work. The advisors and analysts at NFF deal with complex business problems on a daily basis, ranging from securing funding for large-scale capital projects to helping nonprofits understand the impact of their finances on program outcomes. According to Gill, the sophisticated nature of this work requires “people with good degrees…strong educational backgrounds who understand the value of the work we do, as well as understand why this work is interesting and satisfying.”

Center for Effective Philanthropy: MBAs Bring Analytical Skills

Kevin Bolduc is Vice President of Assessment Tools at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), a nonprofit that provides management and governance resources to define, assess, and improve foundation performance. Overseeing the design of new tools and the refinement of CEP’s suite of current assessment offerings, Bolduc depends on the analytical expertise that MBAs bring to his team’s work.

“The MBAs on our staff help round out our core competencies. Some staff members bring a deep understanding of philanthropy to our work, while others possess research design expertise. The MBAs on staff complient our institutional knowledge with razor sharp quantitative and analytical skills, as well as performance assessment experience,” said Bolduc.

Bringing a sophisticated understanding of analysis to understand foundation performance is just one asset of having MBAs on staff. Bolduc also explained that being able to quickly understand their clients is a critical piece of their work, which he finds MBAs are prepared to do. “We focus on the largest philanthropic funders, which are sophisticated and complex organizations that face unique challenges. MBAs possess the ability to develop strong relationships and communicate with these organizations effectively about their program performance.”

Additionally, MBAs are prepared for internal organizational change and growth. Bolduc said that “the MBAs on staff help us maintain and develop processes and structures that allow us to grow quickly. They understand that a nonprofit is more than just running programs. It’s also about management, leadership, and scalability.”

Bolduc believes that more and more nonprofit opportunities are opening up to MBAs, largely because of the growth of the field of social entrepreneurship. “MBA skill-sets are more relevant than ever. Looking at social problems through an analytical lens is becoming the norm for nonprofits, particularly as foundations and nonprofits hold themselves more accountable for producing quantifiable results. MBAs bring a complientary skill-set to those taking more traditional paths into the sector, and together these skills build a stronger and more accountable social sector.”

The MBA Hiring Challenges and Solutions

While some nonprofits have been successful in attracting, hiring, and retaining MBAs, there are also several key challenges involved, including:

Compensation: While there is some truth that nonprofit employers cannot match the market salaries MBAs expect to earn, more and more nonprofits are realizing that they may need to pay a higher salary or offer a signing bonus to secure MBA talent. In many instances, a salary of $75,000 is considered to be a baseline for MBA grads in major cities who have limited work experience (less than five years) outside of college and graduate school. Compensation levels are higher for those with more work experience in addition to the degree. In response to the discrepancies between nonprofit and corporate salaries, many universities are now offering funds to help match a portion of a nonprofit’s salary or to offset student loans for those who pursue nonprofit careers. In cases where higher salaries are not possible, nonprofits can offer other forms of compensation that may be appealing to MBAs, such as greater management responsibilities or more senior titles than a recent graduate would receive at a for-profit company.

Visibility on Campus: On-campus recruiting is a costly and resource-intensive effort even for corporations like investment banks and management consulting firms. Because most nonprofits cannot afford to participate in on-campus recruiting programs or form relationships with MBA career development offices, graduating MBA students don’t have access to information about nonprofits and therefore often don’t consider the option of working in the social sector. Nonprofit career fairs organized by campus social entrepreneurship clubs or organizations such as Idealist and Net Impact have successfully created more visibility for nonprofit career opportunities among MBAs. Online social networks and major print media coverage can also help to raise a group’s profile with this group. Still, nonprofits need to make and seize more opportunities to present their organizations to MBA candidates and to develop relationships with career development officers who can present nonprofit opportunities to graduating students.

Timing: Typically, graduating MBAs begin their job searches in the fall of their second year, when for-profit companies are doing on-campus recruiting, and most have secured offers by the January-to-March timeframe. Since most nonprofits do not plan their hiring that far in advance, and even socially dedicated jobseekers get nervous by March when all of their friends have jobs but they do not, the nonprofit sector generally misses out on almost all MBA hiring opportunities. One solution is for nonprofits to consider planning ahead for 1-2 key positions a year for which recent MBA graduates would be ideal. Then, structure the roles for January hires and June start dates while advertising the roles to graduate school networks.

Internship Opportunities: According to Harvard Business School, more than 30 percent of last year’s MBA graduates went on to full-time positions at the companies where they held internships the previous summer. There are some opportunities for prospective MBAs to intern at nonprofits, such as through Education Pioneers and New Sector Alliance, but the overall lack of formalized programs within organizations and the sector at large limits this form of early recruiting of MBAs.

Summer internships may easily be paid or unpaid, and an increasing number of universities are offering to cover a summer stipend for students who wish to work in the social sector. The largest challenge for nonprofits is to structure a highly valuable and engaging role for a well educated student that can be started and completed within 2-3 months. If internships are not possible, nonprofits can engage MBA students early through other programs like Wharton’s Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, which places MBA students on local nonprofit boards.

Cultural Expectations: Because of the relative lack of information about nonprofit careers presented in business schools, MBAs may carry some misconceptions about what it is like to work at a nonprofit (i.e. they are disorganized, have no internal systems, and do not follow business best practices). On the flip side, nonprofits may be skeptical about an MBA’s ability to fit into their organizational culture. Nonprofits need to share as much as possible with MBA students and career development officers about the work of the sector and the opportunities available for MBAs. In addition, organizations need to ensure that their culture is clearly communicated throughout all materials, including their web site and job postings.

The good news for nonprofits is that it is possible to overcome all of these and other challenges in hiring MBAs. It just takes commitment, creativity and flexibility. This investment will pay off as securing talent with strong business knowledge and analytical thinking skills can deeply impact an organization’s effectiveness, efficiency and scalability in pursuit of its mission.

This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.

Hiring is one of a manager’s most important responsibilities.  Although most organizations recognize the opportunities and consequences involved with talent selection, few are prepared to lead a truly effective interview process.  This article will give you a few tips for making the most of your limited time with a prospective employee.

General Planning

First, you should develop an interviewing structure that can be kept consistent across all candidates.  As much as possible, standardize the questions, environment, and interviewers involved so that you can really compare apples to apples when it comes down to a few finalists.  This structure will not only make your interviews more effective but will also increase the professionalism, equity, and legality of the whole process.

Chose your interview format carefully.  A one-on-one meeting is more likely to set a candidate at ease and facilitate a conversational relationship, but it does not provide the objectivity gained by having two or more interviewers involved.  In the latter case, make sure that each participant’s role is distinct and mutually understood.  For example, have one person focus on employment history and experience, another on skills capacity/job requirements, and a third on culture/personality fit.

Defining the Role

Know what you want to see before the interview starts.  To the greatest extent possible, candidates should be selected for roles; roles should not be defined around candidates after the fact.

Brainstorm with colleagues about the characteristics of an ideal candidate.  Identify the core competencies that are required for success in this role and in your organization as a whole.  Keep in mind that some competencies should be based around skills and experience, whereas others should consider personality attributes and cultural fit.  Make a list that can be developed into an interview template and scoring sheet, as described later.

Interview Questions

Ensure that all your questions are:

• Relevant—centered on the required core competencies and pertaining only to areas that equal opportunity laws refer to as Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQ), which are those qualifications required to perform a job safely and efficiently and that are reasonably necessary to the operation of the business.
• Behaviorally Based—asking candidates to describe past experiences in which they successfully demonstrated specific competencies.
• Open-Ended—allowing insight into a candidate’s thought processes without ‘leading’ the answers you want or requiring unknowable, organization-specific facts.

Structure your interviews to provide candidates with multiple opportunities to prove their potential values and abilities to succeed in the role.  Interviewing should not be a throw-back to fraternity hazing, where you put a jobseeker on the ‘hot seat’ just because someone once did the same to you.  It is easy to miss out on a great candidate if you focus more on making someone nervous and setting them up for failure than you do on evaluating their potential.

The Interview Conversation

Begin with introductions, a review of the meeting goals and timetable, and opening questions designed to put the candidate at ease.  Then move into the format that you have prepared.  You may want to have a template, on which you can quickly write notes around responses, handy.  Know that your notes may be used as evidence in any employment-related lawsuit, so please make sure to keep them focused around required qualifications and competencies.

Remember that in a good interview, information should flow both ways.  Plan time in the interview to take advantage of this opportunity to tell your organization’s story to a person who may end up being important to you, whether or not they are right for this particular job.  Allow the candidate to talk for approximately 70 percent of the time and you (and your colleagues) to speak for 30 percent of the time. Watch for responsive comments and intelligent questions.

Making a Decision

Fill in a scoring sheet as soon as possible to capture your thoughts around a candidate’s capacities related to your specific areas of focus.  This information should be recorded both numerically (1-10 scale) and in short commentary form.  If multiple interviewers are involved, have each one complete the scoring sheet individually and then convene the group to compare impressions.

Try to prevent immediate reactions, premature conclusions, and irrelevant subject matter from clouding your judgment about whether or not a candidate will be able to succeed in a role.  You may not be able to gain adequate perspective on any one candidate until you have interviewed several individuals.

Although all interviews should carefully consider a candidate’s personality fit with the organizational culture, remember that you need to focus on selecting the right employee, not a new best friend.

Conclusion

A thoughtful and thorough interview process will increase your ability to evaluate candidates and make the right hires.  Remember that your interview process reflects the value your organization places on its members. Viewing the interview process as an opportunity, not a chore or challenge, will communicate a positive corporate outlook and engender goodwill between candidates and your organization.

This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.