Taking For-profit Know-how to the Nonprofit Sector
However, commitment and interest alone are not enough. Skills and passion need to be matched in equal parts. To find the right fit, managers need to think about how the unique experiences potential employees have can relate to the kind of work you need them to do. Their experience in real estate, banking, IT, communications, management or law could be needed by organizations that work on environmental protection or health care reform.
2. Nonprofit managers should offer better compensation so that they can recruit and retain highly skilled individuals. There’s a convention about working in the nonprofit sector: that it must entail a major pay cut. This is changing, however. Business models are being recognized as the most efficient and productive ways to achieve overall success in many nonprofits, and what’s needed now is managers with private-sector experience who can oversee and manage the roll-out of programs that save lives and build capacity. In order to attract the right skilled specialists, managers need to adapt salary levels. Otherwise, it will be extremely difficult to attract the talented MBAs, successful results-oriented managers, and even the experienced high-level executives who are needed to drive projects to successful conclusions.
3. Consider pass-along skills. Often, we hire to fill an immediate need and look no further than a narrow skill set. But often an employee with broader experience can more positively impact an organization’s capacity. Consider employees who have varied backgrounds as a means of improving your team’s skills overall. An employee with broad business experience can share it and help create more depth and ability in your organization.
For example, we recently took on an intern from Pfizer who brought a decade of business experience to helping run our operations in Rwanda with fantastic results. Her IT and management experience not only was valuable in itself, but she was able to pass her expertise directly onto those Rwandans who worked alongside her in the health center in Mayange. Her presence made them better workers, and now they are passing what they know onto others.
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