A huge part of an effective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy is developing an inclusive, supportive culture among your staff and board. This week on the Nonprofit Jenni Show, nonprofit executive Brenda Jimenez joins us (for the second time!) to offer her advice for hiring and retaining awesome team members. We also talk about how to attract the right type of candidates so you don’t make a bad hire, and how to promote an inclusive culture.
Hiring Tips for Nonprofit Leaders
Last month, I had so much fun talking to Brenda Jimenez (Executive Director of MENTOR New York) about her experience with pro bono volunteers that I had to invite her back for another podcast interview! In fact, in our last interview, she told me about how consultants from JP Morgan Chase helped MENTOR New York strengthen their hiring strategy. I know a lot of nonprofit leaders struggle with recruitment and retention for their nonprofits, so I asked her to come back on the podcast to share her advice.
How Your Nonprofit Culture Impacts Your Recruiting
Something Brenda and I discussed at length in this week’s podcast episode is the fact that even the best hiring practices will fail your organization if you don’t have a supportive workplace culture that makes your staff feel successful. How do you get that kind of culture? Brenda explains, “Cultures that are inclusive, equitable, and diverse have intentional leaders who are looking at how to create those cultures.”
How to Recruit a Diverse Staff and Board
Thanks to recent events including the COVID-19 pandemic and highly-reported instances of police brutality, nonprofit leaders now have a better idea of how inequitable systems disproportionately impact people of color. Brenda has this advice for leaders who want to implement more equitable recruiting practices to attract a diverse team:
Reach beyond your own network. Think about the types of people you want to attract to your team. Where are those professionals reading their news and connecting? Who are the leaders in the sector who would know and influence those individuals?
Write a job description that isn’t mechanical. It’s pretty obvious when you’ve used a stale template to develop your job description, and descriptions which feel mechanical won’t attract the vibrant, passionate people you’re looking for. Brenda’s team not only writes heartfelt job descriptions, but also developed a video which shows off their workplace culture to appeal to professionals with the right skill sets and attitude.
Check your internal biases before interviewing anyone. Brenda explains that hiring managers (like all of us) want to be around people they feel comfortable with, and this can lead to accidental favoritism of candidates who look like and act like they do. You can use Harvard University’s free implicit bias tests to become more aware of how your biases may be impacting both your personal and professional interactions.
Reflect on why you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with each candidate. Do you feel comfortable with one candidate because they offer valuable perspectives and skills which meet your hiring needs, or could it simply be because you feel like you have a shared background with that person? Do you feel uncomfortable with another candidate because they acted inappropriately, or could it be because they adhere to a different set of cultural norms than you do?
Retention Tips for Nonprofit Leaders
As Brenda mentioned, developing an inclusive workplace culture requires intentional, continual work. She believes every team member wants to be heard, to be able to contribute, to develop their skills, to provide meaningful work, and to feel successful. Here are some of her tips for fostering an inclusive culture:
Have clear management systems and guidelines. Everyone (including your staff, board, and volunteers) should be able to easily understand what is and isn’t acceptable in the workplace. Everyone should also know who is able to access which resources, including specific managers.
Develop, and consistently implement, accountability systems. Guidelines and rules aren’t meaningful if they aren’t upheld.
Be able to articulate your decision-making processes. While everyone should feel like they have a voice at your organization, not every decision can be made by consensus. If you are a decision maker at your organization, it’s important to be able to listen to others’ input, talk out new ideas, and clearly explain why you have come to each decision.
Expect pushback. If you have a diverse team full of people who come from different backgrounds and cultures, you’ll inevitably have conflicting ideas come to the table. This doesn’t have to be viewed as a bad thing! Set up communication systems which allow people to respectfully contribute new ideas and offer constructive criticism.
Have a growth mindset and open mind. Brenda and I talked about how young or new staff members are likely to approach senior leaders with ideas that have already been tried in the past, but quickly shutting down the idea by saying “We already tried that and it didn’t work” doesn’t help those new team members feel included. Try talking through their ideas to find out if there’s a new approach you can take, and/or be able to explain why the idea isn’t feasible.
How to Handle Microaggressions in the Workplace
Unfortunately, nonprofit leaders can’t control every interaction in the workplace. Brenda and I both shared examples of microaggressions we have personally experienced in the workplace in this podcast episode, and I would highly recommend you listen to our full interview so you can hear how we break those down.
Brenda explains that microaggressive statements are hard to deal with because they are typically rooted in facts, so they’re not necessarily disputable. The problem with microaggressions is that they are used to avoid uncomfortable situations by shifting the focus to a smaller, more manageable (and often petty) issue instead.
As a nonprofit leader, you should work to develop a culture which helps team members get to know one another, feel comfortable being vulnerable with one another, and understand how healthy HR policies support them.
If you become the victim of microaggressions, you need to prevent them from becoming part of your personal identity. Brenda and I discuss how a trustworthy network of peers who are in similar circumstances can help you process through your reactions to microaggressions.
Get Professional Help Deciding Your Next Steps
Do you feel like you need one-on-one support to strengthen your nonprofit’s team and processes? Schedule a free initial consultation call to chat with me about your challenges. I would love to help you figure out the best next steps to take to promote your organization and mission. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Nonprofit Jenni Show for free so you won’t miss any new episodes about nonprofit management, marketing, and development!
Also, I want to thank Little Green Light for sponsoring this episode! Little Green Light is my favorite donor management system because it was built by nonprofit development professionals who know what features and metrics nonprofits really need for their fundraising and relationship building. LGL is also extremely affordable for small nonprofits and offers free fundraising resources for my podcast listeners! Visit www.littlegreenlight.com/jenni for free ebooks like “How to Retain Donors After Your Giving Day”, “Six Steps to a Successful Appeal”, and more.