Hello, fellow nonprofiteers. There was a tradition at about this time of year in my family when I was growing up in New York City. My father, who was Latvian, would launch into his best NY accent and say: “Spring is sprung, da grass is riz. I wonder where dem boidies is. Dem boids is on da wing! Absoid! Da wing is on da boid!” Welcome, Spring, you’ve been a long time coming.
In the theme of spring and life returning, we held our third Fireside Chat a few days ago. This one was about Nonprofit HR in Times of Change. A very good group of people gathered around the virtual fireplace to talk about how things are going in Human Resource issues with the sector a year after the pandemic hit. We know there have been some significant job losses in our sector, but what are people feeling and seeing right now?
A theme that emerged for me is one of hope and feeling that things are about to get better, or maybe they already are. That kind of surprised me, but I was really glad to hear it since many of the people in the group are HR professionals and they might actually know what they are talking about. Good news is really welcome after the last 14 months we have lived through.
Our first once-around question was “What is the biggest HR hurdle or question you have experienced or heard about over the past year?” As always, the responses were varied, but very thoughtful. One person said she felt the biggest hurdle came from bosses losing trust in their team. How can I be sure you are doing the work if you are at home and I can’t see you? Maybe this is less a question of losing trust than it is of revealing that there has always been a lack of trust.
Related to that were other questions like one participant saying she struggled to find ways to help employees find balance. If they are working from home, how to stop work from invading every part of your day and, vice versa, how to keep them motivated. Another said he was thinking about issues of trust from the bottom up – the reverse of what the first person had said. Without the day to day contact with their Exec, are employees losing trust that their organization is being led effectively and that it will survive this crisis?
Other people, myself included, asked questions about what is next. For one, the issue was how nonprofits will react if and when the minimum wage is raised, as is being discussed in Washington. Will they be able and willing to handle it or will they cry poverty and try to fight it? Another person asked how the nonprofit workplace will look when this is all over. What will we do if we are never able to fully go back to where we are? I echoed that, asking how will women be affected in the long term – women seem to be the ones remaining home as schools slowly re-open, so will they get their jobs back and at the same level as before?
Finally, one person talked about an organization she had worked with that struggled with whether or not to make the vaccine mandatory for their workforce. This is something that a few Execs I have talked to have struggled with. In this case the decision was to make it mandatory since almost all of the work was direct, hands on work with a population that is very much at risk with COVID-19. What I found interesting was that the policy was written into the personnel handbook as a policy regarding respiratory issues – that the organization would following CDC guidelines around respiratory issues which in this case recommends vaccines. However, acknowledging that these guidelines are fluid, a document detailing any ongoing changes from the CDC was inserted at the beginning of the handbook. A strong response, and a creative approach.
After this we decided to talk about what is coming – trends that we see in Nonprofit HR. This is where the positive things began to emerge, and where it seemed like spirits were lifting and the sun is rising.
One person spoke about her experience in leading an organization through hiring an Executive Director in a process that was completely virtual. We asked what the response to the posting was like. She said that she was very pleasantly surprised about how good the response was and that the quality of applicants was very high. She commented that it seemed like people were taking a thoughtful position in response to the pandemic. It seemed to her that people were realizing that life is really fragile and cannot be taken for granted. Coming out of the pandemic, they are thinking about how to make the best of what is left, and take a job that involves work they really want to do because of the impact they can have on their community. That brought tears to my eyes.
And that was not the end of the good news. Other things people pointed out in our conversation included:
This seems like a time of opportunity. Nonprofits are reimagining everything: how can we take what we have learned over the past year and apply that to make us better, stronger, and more responsive?
Employees are using this period of change to demand that their organizations pay attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. This is true for HR issues like hiring, but also for issues across the board at their nonprofits.
We are realizing that we are not alone and are finding ways to connect and share. We realize that we are all in this together and are working that way – can we maintain that as things open up?
I always end these Fireside Chats feeling better than I did when they start. The people who join are so good, smart, and committed to doing well in our sector that it lifts my spirits. I learn so much from them also. And I love it that they appreciate these chats. They seem to truly enjoy meeting people they have never met before, and realizing they have much in common, much to share, and much to learn from each other. To those who have participated, I say “thank you.”
The next chat in April on the topic of Nonprofit Advocacy in Times of Change. How has lobbying and advocacy changed over the past year, and what are we likely to see in the future? Have legislators become easier to reach because of virtual communication or are they hiding? How do you communicate your message as a box on a screen or through a mask? These and more are sure to come up. I hope to see you there: Register here.
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