May 22, 2017 Human Resources, Interviewing, Recruitment

Five hiring strategies to reduce staff turnover at your NFP

Keeping staff for the long-term is difficult for any organisation, but high turnover is a pain that many not-for-profit organisations know better than others.

The negative effects of high turnover are numerous and well-documented: lower productivity, declining morale and significantly higher costs to train newcomers. Organisations also miss out on the huge benefit of institutional knowledge when key people leave.

So what can your organisation learn from one company that has a 95% staff retention rate?

March 27, 2017 Recruitment

How Google is addressing unconscious bias in its recruitment – and how your NFP can too

Google is renowned for its ability to put together some of the world’s most innovative and effective teams.

But that doesn’t make its recruitment staff immune to unconscious biases – the assumptions and decisions our brains make without us even realising it.

Unconscious biases actually effect all of us, every minute of the day. And they can have a huge affect on an organisation’s recruitment activities.

March 15, 2017 Recruitment

Five important things to know about recruiting fundraisers for your NFP

Fundraising is critical to the survival of almost all not-for-profit organisations. And with more than 50,000 NFPs registered in Australia, the demand for fundraisers far outweighs the supply.

But because almost every organisation is looking for them, attracting fundraising staff is notoriously difficult. So what do you need to know to recruit talented fundraisers to your organisation?

March 8, 2017 Human Resources, Recruitment, Workplace Diversity

Unconscious bias is keeping women out of senior NFP roles, but we can get around it

Most people would not consciously decide to hire candidates based on whether they remind them of themselves. But one unconscious bias – affinity bias – may lead people to favour candidates who are like themselves, research shows.

If senior managers and NFP boards are made up of mostly men who unconsciously engage in such bias, it stands to reason that more men than women will continue to be hired and promoted – particularly men who share the same background with current managers. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of men outnumbering women in leadership positions.

So what can be done?

February 22, 2017 Recruitment

The three recruitment metrics that Australian NFPs say it’s most important to track

More than one quarter of Australian not-for-profit organisations aren’t tracking even basic data about their recruitment processes, according to the latest Not-For-Profit People survey. But for the other three-quarters, which metrics are the most – and least – tracked, and which are considered the most valuable?

February 10, 2017 Interviewing, Making Decisions, Recruitment

Five unconscious biases that could be ruining your NFP’s recruitment process

Hiring the right people for the right job is arguably one of the most important responsibilities in any not-for-profit.

But what if there was something interfering with your ability to do just that – and you didn’t even know it?

January 9, 2017 Interviewing, Recruitment

If a candidate turns down your job offer, do this next

You’ve gone through a thorough recruitment process, interviewed some exciting applicants and you’re ready to make an offer to the standout candidate.

But when you call to give them the good news, they turn you down. Now what?

December 7, 2016 Interviewing, Recruitment

The most revealing interview questions that NFPs ask their candidates

What are the best interview questions to ask to get the clearest insights into your candidates?

Last month, we asked our NFP People community to share exactly that – and here are the results.

November 23, 2016 Interviewing, Recruitment

How this simple scorecard can significantly improve your recruitment decisions

Have the hiring decisions you’ve made this year been a success? How do you know?

Few organisations measure the success of hiring managers in their decisions about who’s the right person to hire. But this simple process can help interviewers to improve their skills over time, as well as helping to prevent unconscious biases and stereotypes from creeping into your recruitment decisions.

November 7, 2016 Recruitment, Recruitment & HR Technology

Take the ‘gut feeling’ out of your NFP’s reference checking

Every new recruit needs at least a couple of reference checks. But no matter how excited you are about your new colleague, after leaving voicemails, sending emails and playing phone tag, it’s easy to get a little frustrated.

Surely there’s a better way to do your reference checks?