Talent Acquisition for Nonprofits

A critical component of any successful talent management strategy is a strong plan. For many nonprofits, talent acquisition efforts are limited to placing ads, sifting through resumes, interviewing, and ultimately hiring and hoping for the best. To ensure your nonprofit is making the right hire, serious time should be given to developing an acquisition plan designed to attract qualified candidates, and effectively assess those candidates for skill and cultural fit. Here are four things your talent acquisition strategy could be missing:

Strong Employee Value Proposition

Have you defined your organization’s employee value proposition (EVP) in a way that clearly defines the value, rewards, and benefits your employees enjoy? Effective EVPs are simple, focused statements that summarize why someone would want to work with your organization.

To create an EVP, compile data from Employee Engagement, Onboarding, and Exit surveys. Work to identify key trends from these three types of employee/company interactions. This information might touch on the benefits your employees value, aspects of the workplace culture that help them succeed, or simply what they enjoy about working in your organization.

Strategic Sourcing

Are you placing ads on Indeed or LinkedIn and thinking that’s all there is to it? Or are you carefully targeting candidates on industry-specific or function-specific career sites? Strategically and proactively sourcing a talent pool for your organization’s current and future positions is paramount to building a robust and successful talent pipeline.

Review the data you’ve received from hiring sources to determine where you’re finding the best applicants. Review the resumes of current high-performing employees to revisit their backgrounds. Think back to where you found them, then use that information to streamline which sources you use for your latest searches.

A Candidate-Driven Focus

A positive candidate experience can be the difference between a failing talent acquisition strategy and one that routinely delivers excellent hires. To stay competitive, your organization needs to think about what applicants want; what will turn them off; what will attract them and encourage company loyalty; and what will result in the candidate selecting your organization over others.

It’s a good idea to stay in close contact with your applicants. Collect feedback from those who have been through the application process, and gather information on their attitudes toward your organization. You’ll want to ask what they thought of your particular application process, as well as what they think you could improve upon.

Culture

Review the vision for your workplace culture. Do you value having a group of employees who know, like, and trust each other? Is your company a place where employees feel valued and supported? Are there mechanisms in place to help employees work through difficulties? Are you striving to create an environment where work-life balance is prioritized? And finally, it’s a good idea to ask: what defines your company’s culture? Once you arrive at a fair and truthful answer, do everything you can to achieve it.

It can be hard developing your organization’s talent acquisition on your own. That’s where the expert help of JVS Careers can come in. To learn about the wide variety of executive services JVS Careers provides to Nonprofits, click here.