Commongood Careers has definitely experienced the uptick in hiring in the last 6 months and we have also experienced the challenges of hiring in an environment where turnover is very low.  Jobseekers today tend to be more hesitant about making a transition – why would you leave the known to go to the unknown in a time of uncertainty?  And when they do consider a transition, they are looking at positions that would represent a upward move, are being extremely selective and doing significant amounts of due diligence on potential employers, and are seeking increases in salary and benefits.  Overall, we have seen candidates declining job offers at a higher rate than ever before.

What does this mean for organizations that are excited to finally be hiring again?  First, you need to make sure that your positions are scoped to be very appealing to the right types of candidates.  You have to recognize the dynamics at play and understand that jobseekers will be looking for career progression as opposed to a lateral move.  You need to ensure that your organization is stable, leadership is strong, and that the position is not at risk of being cut.  Finally, you need to be prepared to offer very competitive salaries and benefits in order to get someone to leave their current position.

Overall, even with such high unemployment rates nationwide, recruiting and hiring in the nonprofit sector is more challenging than ever, as organizations really only want to hire professionals who are actively employed.  So get prepared to invest in a hiring process that is longer and harder than you might have expected a couple of years ago.

According to the report, many of these programs strive to balance racial disparities in leadership roles. However, these programs often take approaches that look at a singular – and often culturally biased – vision of leadership. As a result, people of color – who are already underrepresented in many leadership programs – end up feeling like they must conform to leadership styles that may not reflect their personal beliefs and values.

We spoke with Deborah Meehan, Executive Director of Leadership Learning Community, to learn more about the findings from the report. Here’s what she had to say:

1. What was the impetus for this research?

A few years ago, the Annie E Casey Foundation commissioned us to explore why there aren’t more people of color leading nonprofit organizations. We were able to access data about demographics in the nonprofit sector in general, but not about leadership positions. The lack of data indicates a problem in and of itself. While there is consensus that people of color are underrepresented in leadership positions, the need for hard data drove this research.

Looking at leadership programs was one way for us to collect data and explore these issues. While leadership programs have stepped up their effort to recruit more people of color, we need to do better. We partnered with organizations in the racial equity field to better understand some of the racial issues that existed within leadership programs.

Many leadership programs focus on specific issues like the environment, education, or health reform.  Some programs believe that work on racial justice is another program’s issue or that they need to focus.  Everyone working in leadership on any social issue needs to understand the ways in which opportunity structures in this country often produce different outcomes for people based on race within all of those issues they are focused on. There is no race neutral approach. We saw this research as a call to understand these issues more deeply.

2. What were your ideas about leadership styles going into this research?

When we did listening groups with current or developing leaders of color, we learned that there are many leadership styles that looked different from more dominant approaches We observed that there appears to be a bias towards individualism – like one leader out in front – in many organizations. Some of the people of color we spoke with tended to take more collective approaches, such as honoring the work of a team and not taking individual credit for accomplishments. As a result, these people were sometimes criticized by supervisors for not displaying strong enough leadership skills. This led us to believe that “one-size-fits-all” models of leadership limit opportunities for people of color.

3. Was there a big “aha” moment in your research?

Definitely. The big “aha” for me seeing the influence the dominant culture of individualism has had on the way we think about leadership in this country. Our attachment to the ideals of individualism has led to a rather distorted view of what it means to be a leader. We tend to think leaders alone are responsible for achieving great things by virtue of their talent.  We miss the point that a lot of talented people don’t have equal opportunities and we don’t act alone. The reality is that leadership often emerges from our social and racial identities that give rise to shared frustrations and aspirations that motivate collective action..

4. Why should leadership programs and nonprofit organizations care about this issue?

If we do not help people in leadership understand the system that is stacking the cards against people of color we won’t help to change it.  School leadership that is only focused on school performance without looking at achievement gaps for different populations in the school will probably contribute to the problem of growing disparity. We’re either going to help solve the problem and we’re going to be part of it.

This is an opportunity for leadership programs to learn how to have conversations about racial and culturally driven values. Leadership programs offer a safe place to look at these issues.

This is an opportunity for people in a hiring position to think about question of opportunity structures and their assumptions about people having had equal opportunity.  What someone has achieved by virtue of position isn’t necessarily an indicator of their ability. Some people because of their race or economic status haven’t had access to get into doors to help them establish credentials. It’s important to bring that awareness to creating opportunities for people from different backgrounds when you are hiring.

A free PDF of the report and a list of resources are available at http://bit.ly/LeadershipRaceForm.

Well, now is your chance to make your voice heard and shape the future of AH’s credentialing program. The good people at AH are conducting an important study that will help determine what competencies are needed to credential effective managers and leaders. Your input will drive the continued development of the American Humanics Nonprofit Management and Leadership credential. This is the largest survey of its kind and seeks the input of all segments of the nonprofit sector.

The results of the survey will be published and distributed publicly in the fall of 2010. More so, the findings will support curricular development in our network of colleges and universities.

On behalf of our friends at AH, we thank you in advance for your support.

Take the American Humanics survey.

As part of theirwork to increase the impact of volunteering, they are examining the current practices in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors.  This research will help inform the design of potential solutions to improve volunteer management. 

For the nonprofit sector they are reaching out to Volunteer Management departments of all sizes from all over the country to participate in this research and have assembled a volunteer team who is fielding this study.

For their research, they are asking Volunteer Management departments of all sizes from all over the country to participate by taking 15 minutes of your time to complete the survey linked below.  The objective of the survey is to collect information on the tools and resources used by nonprofits in Volunteer Management to help identify where challenges/opportunities lie in the sector.  Your candid responses will be integral on developing an understanding of the Volunteer Management sector and will help shape the work of this cross-sector national effort.

They plan to share the findings from this research and potential volunteer management solutions at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in June 2010 during the Reimagining Service Forum. 

Please complete the survey by Friday, April 2, 2010: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AEAXPJHRS

Published in April 2009, the report “Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits” suggests that the leadership deficit previously forecasted by Bridgespan in 2006 has widened. According to the report, senior job openings grew to 77,000 in 2008, a figure that is 43% greater than what had been predicted in Bridgespan’s 2006 survey report, “The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit.”

Additionally, and despite the current economic conditions, 28% of organizations surveyed plan to fill over 24,000 senior management roles in 2009.

Where will these leaders come from? While Bridgespan suggests that talent recruited from the corporate and government sectors can step in to fill these roles, that is just one piece of the puzzle. The need for organizations to develop leaders from within has never been greater. The ability to identify “next generation” leaders within your own organization, and then provide career ladders, mentoring and other professional development opportunities will also help to address the leadership challenge. By thinking creatively and broadly – both within and outside of our organizations—there are solutions to the leadership gap.

BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)
Citizen Schools
Civic Builders
College Summit
DonorsChoose.org
New Leaders for New Schools
Points of Light Foundation & HandsOn Network
Reach Out and Read
Room to Read
Year Up

We are honored to help each of these organizations build stronger teams, scale operations, and ultimately create deeper impacts in the communities they serve.

Read the full list of winners.

To address this challenge, Commongood Careers has a few suggestions:

  1. Know the skill sets you seek. Create a list of common skills and competencies required for hires, both for specific roles and for all employees. If you build these profiles today, you’ll be better prepared when a position opens up in your organization.

  2. Be able to connect quickly with candidates who possess those skills. Smart organizations are always “recruiting” to some extent; keep track of and keep in touch with any potential employees you may meet even if you’re not hiring for an open position today. Then, when it comes time to fill an open position, you’ll have a few leads in mind from the start.

  3. Elevate talent acquisition planning to a strategic level. Your organization wouldn’t launch a new fiscal year without a budget, right? Planning for new hires is just as important. Build hiring plans, even if they are just forecasts or estimates, into your yearly planning process. A little work on an organization chart in advance will help to avoid hiring “fire drills” down the road.

Other suggestions for how nonprofits can best plan ahead for hiring? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment to this blog entry.