Going above and beyond is often part of the culture in many NFPs. Employees answer messages out of hours because a client is in crisis, stay back because an event needs to run, or volunteer extra hours because they believe deeply in the mission.
But when passion quietly becomes an expectation of being constantly “on”, even the most committed employees can reach their limit. Burnout, resentment and staff turnover can follow – particularly in organisations already stretched by limited resources.
Every workplace will, at some point, be affected by grief. An employee loses a parent, grandparent, pet or friend. They take compassionate leave and, before long, they’re back at work.
But while workplace policies can determine when someone’s leave is over, they can’t determine how long their grief lasts, or how it affects their work.
Given how prevalent grief is in our lives, the support we receive in the workplace after a loss can make a real difference to how we process it. We spoke to Dr Kelly Gough, president of the Australian Psychological Society, about the different ways grief can affect employees, and what managers can do to help them feel seen and supported.
Right now, a dedicated case worker who’s spent years supporting vulnerable people is quietly updating their résumé – not because they’ve lost their passion, but because rising living costs are making it harder to make ends meet.
It’s a familiar story across the NFP sector, where 1.6 million employees are feeling the squeeze of rising living costs, and many organisations are unable to ease the pressure through pay rises alone.
But pay isn’t the only lever employers have to financially support employees. So, what does good financial wellbeing support look like when employers can’t provide a salary increase? We spoke to Helena Jakupovic, General Manager of the WA-based Financial Wellbeing Collective to find out.
Chances are that at least one in four of your colleagues is experiencing burnout. That’s according to the latest workplace wellbeing survey by leading research NFP, SuperFriend. Now in its 11th year, the Indicators of a Thriving Workplace study is the largest of its kind in Australia and provides one of our most comprehensive snapshots of workplace mental health.
So, what are Australia’s biggest workplace wellbeing challenges – and what can NFP organisations do to help employees thrive? We take a closer look at the report’s key findings.
What are the leadership lessons that stay with us long after the books have been read and the courses have finished? In this series, we sit down with some of Australia’s most influential NFP leaders to explore the defining moments and insights that shaped how they lead.
First in the chair is Grant Bayldon, CEO of World Vision Australia. Grant has spent much of his career in leadership roles for purpose-driven organisations across New Zealand, including World Vision New Zealand, Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand and Oxfam Aotearoa.
Here, he reflects on the most important leadership lesson of his career: that the role of a leader is not to be indispensable, but to build an organisation that can fulfil its purpose without depending on any one person.
A box of chocolates from a grateful supplier, a bottle of wine at Christmas, a thank-you lunch from a client – gifts at work can seem like small gestures, but in NFPs especially, even the most well-meaning gift can create complexities.
So how can you be sure that exchanging a gift won’t land you in a compromising situation? We asked employment and workplace relations lawyer Warwick Ryan to explain where the line sits, and how to stay on the right side of it.
35.7 weeks. That’s the average length of time an employee will miss while recovering from a work-related psychological injury – nearly five times longer than for any other type of workplace injury.
To help address this challenge, a new toolkit has just been released with tools designed to help employers better support staff recovering from psychological injury. Take a look.
Your organisation might already have a great mental health policy in place, but it’s probably a “one-size-fits-all” document. Have you ever considered implementing an action plan tailored to each employee’s individual wellbeing needs?
UK mental health charity Mind has created a tool to achieve just that.
Mostly, discrimination is something people want to avoid – because it’s unfair, and can be incredibly harmful. But what about situations in which discrimination might actually be helpful – either for candidates or for your organisation?
In some circumstances, particularly for NFPs, the law does provide carefully defined exemptions to state- and federal-based anti-discrimination laws.
But this is a complex area, with different rules in different states and territories, so it can be difficult to work out what exactly the laws and exemptions are, and how they apply to your organisation.
You’ve identified a great candidate and emailed them the next steps in your recruitment process, but you get no response. A few days later you wonder whether they’ve even seen the message.
With top applicants increasingly receiving messages from employers across several platforms at once – emails, texts, voicemails, social media – it’s becoming more common for messages to get lost in the noise, or even mistaken for a scam.
So what do hiring managers need to consider to ensure their communications are seen and responded to by the best candidates?