Impactful People Search: Elevating Your Nonprofit’s Mission Through Transformative Recruiting Solutions

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Lindsey Otto: Hello everyone, and welcome!

Thank you for joining us this afternoon for Nonprofit HR’s virtual learning educational event.

Today’s session is entitled Impactful People Search: Elevating Your Nonprofit’s Mission Through Transformative Recruiting Solutions.

My name is Lindsey Otto, I am the Marketing & Communication Associate for Editorial Content at Nonprofit HR, and I will be your conversation host for today.

We have a lot of great content to cover on this very important topic.

Before we get started, though, I would like to go over a few items so you know how to participate in today’s event.

You have joined the presentation listening using your computer’s speaker system by default, if you would prefer to join over the telephone just select telephone in the GoToWebinar audio pane, and the dial-in information will be displayed.

You will have the opportunity to submit text questions to today’s presenters by typing your questions into the questions pane of the control panel.

You may send in your questions at any time during the presentation. We will collect these and address them throughout, as well as during the Q&A session at the end of today’s presentation.

Today’s event is being recorded, and you will receive a follow-up email within the next few days with a link to view the recording.

And now, just a brief note about Nonprofit HR.

Since 2000, Nonprofit HR remains the country’s leading and oldest firm, focused exclusively on a talent management needs of the social sector, including nonprofits, associations, social enterprises and other mission-driven organizations.

We focus our consulting efforts on the following practice areas: Strategy & Advisory, HR Outsourcing, Total Rewards, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Justice, and Search.

Again, you will have the opportunity to submit questions to our presenters throughout the webinar, and we will get to your questions as soon as we can. And now, a little bit about our presenters.

Patty Hampton.

She’s nationally recognized as a beacon of light for social sector people management. And since 2001, Patty has served in a dual leadership capacity as Managing Partner & Chief Social Impact Officer. Among her many accomplishments with a firm, Patty helped build its infrastructure, culture and workforce. She is the creator of the firm’s social enterprise collaborative, and spearheads, multiple strategies and business initiatives. In her role as managing partner, she also co-leads the firm’s business and financial strategy, and is a member of the Senior Management Team.

Mimi Asfaw, a Team Leader & Senior Consultant on the Recruitment Outsourcing team with over 18 years of experience [as] an extraordinarily successful recruiting professional. Mimi has differentiated herself with a 98% placement ratio, while providing full lifecycle permanent recruitment for healthcare, administrative, IT, accounting, and finance, legal, and call center professionals.

Alicia Schoshinski. As Chief People and Culture Officer, Alicia leads the development and execution of the firm’s talent management strategy. She partners with other leaders to implement programs and policies that drive employee engagement, attention and development. Alicia enjoys bridging relationships with employees and managers and fostering a values-led culture.

Stephanie Zavislan. As a Consultant on the Recruitment Outsourcing team, Stephanie serves as a key point of contact with clients and candidates. She is responsible for assisting with candidate and client requests and skillfully manages all detailed and logistics related to open job requisitions.

And, now Patty, I’d like to turn it over to you to get us started with our main presentation for today.

Patty Hampton: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Lindsey. Appreciate it.

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone. Welcome to today’s webinar, as Lindsey already pointed out, its titled Impactful People Search: [Elevating] Your Nonprofit’s [Mission] Through Transformative Recruiting Solutions. Again, my name is Patty Hampton. I’m the Managing Partner here at Nonprofit HR, and I’ll be your moderator for today.

I’m so thrilled to have each of you here. We have people from across the world that have joined us, as to why you heard me say, good evening. We do have people in that time zone right now. I am thrilled to be here with my colleagues, Mimi, Alicia and Stephanie. And why don’t we have them each come off of mute and introduce themselves and just tell us something that you want the audience to know.

Mimi?

Mimi Asfaw: Certainly. Thank you, Patty, my name is Mimi Asfaw, and I’m the Team Leader & Senior Consultant for the Recruitment Outsourcing team. And I’ve been in the recruitment industry for now over 20 some years and love the nonprofit sector. And I’ve done international recruiting, and this is my passion, and this is my love. So, whenever a candidate comes to mirror or a client comes to me. I handle everything, as I call it, “Consider it filled,” or “Consider it taken care of.” So that is me in a nutshell. Thank you for meeting with everyone.

Patty Hampton: Thank you. Alicia?

Alicia Schoshinski: I like that, Mimi, thank you. And thanks, d Patty. As Patty said, I’m Alicia Schoshinski, I’m the Chief People & Culture Officer within Nonprofit HR, so I lead our HR strategy and our internal HR function.

And I’ve been with the firm for 14 years, coming up on 14 years, and I’ve been in human resources for over 30 years, 16 of those years were in the nonprofit space. So I definitely have a passion for nonprofits, and I’m excited today to talk with you all about trying to make sure you do the best to build a robust workforce to help meet your mission, the mission of your organization.

Patty Hampton: Stephanie?

Stephanie Zavislan: Thanks, thanks very much. My name is Stephanie Zavislan, I’ve worked here for 2.5 years. I love recruiting, and I love nonprofits. I’m very passionate about this sector. And I worked as a nonprofit employee, a true generalist, for over 10 years before joining Nonprofit HR.

Patty Hampton: Thank you so much. Lindsey, we’ll go to the next slide now.

So … you’ll hear me as the moderator continue to say, “Next slide,” with Lindsey driving for us. But I also just wanted to thank my colleagues once again for joining me in this impactful webinar. [I] want to go over the agenda for today. Today’s agenda is carefully crafted to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how an impactful people search can truly [elevate] your nonprofit’s mission.

Let’s take just a few minutes to understand, for you all to understand, what we’re going to be covering today.

So, one is the importance of impactful people search. It’s going to be focused on understanding the significance of finding the right talent. All of us have heard that before. Exploring methods for an impactful people search. Identifying gaps and opportunities in nonprofit hiring practices, recognizing areas of improvement in your current hiring processes [and] discovering opportunities for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

And then, third, we’re going to cover enhancing the candidate experience, the evolving candidate experience and growing expectations, strategies for ensuring a seamless interview and negotiation process.

Then, four, we’ll touch on, optimizing the talent acquisition resources, which is all about leveraging applicant tracking systems, your ATS. And the thing that we all love to talk about right now, is AI, and other HR tools, evaluating and optimizing recruitment budget for strategic hiring goals.

And then finally, we’ll touch on strategies for building robust teams, the strategic importance of cultivating a robust workforce [and] purposeful team building strategies that align with organizational vision.

Next slide, Lindsey.

So here, I just want to make sure that before we dive in, we’re going to just cover really quickly the learning objectives, many of you probably signed up to join this webinar because of our learning objectives. I don’t want those to get lost by any means. So, throughout our webinar today, our goal is to equip you with practical insights and actionable strategies.

By the end of this session, you should be able to understand the strategic importance of cultivating a robust workforce and how to identify gaps in current hiring practices. Leverage applicant tracking systems and HR tools, we’ll talk about AI, as I mentioned, for your recruiting success. Evaluate and optimize your recruitment budget to align with strategic hiring goals. Enhance the candidate experience for advanced jobseekers, ensuring a seamless interview and negotiation process, developing strategies for purposeful team building that propel your organization toward [your] overarching vision. Navigating the evaluate, the evolving candidate experience, and growing expectations in today’s job market, competitive job market.

All right, let’s begin.

Now that we’ve all, now that we’re all on the same page, let’s dive into our first agenda item, the importance of an impactful search.

Lindsey, if you could go back just one slide.

I’m looking at two screens, everyone. So, I can see Lindsey through my peripheral vision, but I’m looking ahead at my colleagues as well.

So, our goal is to help you focus on intentional process, for mining for talent, and share transformative recruitment activities that are proven for nonprofit organizations, emphasizing the significance of a robust workforce. We know that nonprofits have such a worthwhile mission, but hopefully recognize that they can only achieve, you all can only achieve, these missions with a strong team. Alicia, I like to lean into you a little bit. Can you share a little bit more?

Alicia Schoshinski: Sure, thanks, Patty.

As Patty mentioned, we all know nonprofits have wonderful missions, wonderful causes, and are filled with a lot of people who are very passionate about those causes, but that really can’t be enough. We try to emphasize that you have to really be intentional and align your organizational strategy with your people strategy.

We like to talk a lot about talent optimization. In most nonprofits, your greatest assets are your people, whether they’re knowledge workers, service workers, et cetera. They are the ones that are propelling your business forward to achieve your mission. So, you have to be very intentional when thinking about that strategy, and just making sure you have the right people on the right teams, and you want to maximize the talent that you do have.

So that includes everything from not only in hiring, which we’re going to talk a lot about today, but it also includes making sure you’re developing your employees, you’re engaging them, and everything along the whole talent lifecycle, so that they are doing their best and feeling their best in your organization. And we’ll talk a little bit, too, about measuring. So to be most effective in talent optimization, you really need to be data driven, measure things such as turnover and engagement, some of your recruiting metrics, and then, really thinking about whether you’re aligning somebody properly within the job, within your culture, within your team.

And I know … all of us, who’ve been doing hiring, have stories, or even anybody who’s managed, everybody has a story of when you’ve not had the best hire, and it hasn’t been the best, it hasn’t worked out as well. So we’re going to hopefully give you some strategies to really think through that and make sure that you are really focused on making sure you do have the right people, in your right teams, to be able to propel your mission forward.

Patty Hampton: Great. Thanks so much, Alicia. Lindsey, next slide.

So here, we’re going to discuss the changing landscape of nonprofit recruitment. It is specific, so we want to dive in deep here. As you see the bullets on your screen there, many nonprofits are still recruiting the same old way and we call it here at Nonprofit HR, post and pray. [I] would love to see in the chat if we could, how many people are still posting and praying, using that method?

But the landscape for recruiting has certainly changed, right, Mimi and Stephanie? Can you share how the landscape has evolved?

Mimi Asfaw: Certainly.

So, the landscape for nonprofit recruitment has undergone significant changes in recent years, prompting a need to move away from the traditional methods, like [the] post-and-pray approach, like Patty shared. I believe … I would say over 20-year career of my career, I’ve witnessed organizations struggle with limited resources in numerous open positions.

So, a few trends I’ve experienced as a recruiter are the growing influence on compensation, the importance of employer branding, the need for strategic soft skills, and also, of course, the collaboration with learning and development.

So, these trends aren’t just relevant to general recruitment, but also crucial for nonprofits, So, they help [you] tailor strategies to attract, to retain, to develop, and also, definitely, working within [those] sector needs. As the last time that I checked the data, nonprofits play a significant role in the economy [from] the … data that came out. Twelve point four  people yet face challenges and compensating [with] competitions within other private sectors, essentially, in the talent sectors.

So, and another trend we are dealing with, especially nationwide, [is] there’s a significant gap. More open jobs than skilled talent [are] available, so organizations, especially nonprofit, must invest in training and innovate programs to bridge this gap.

So, I would say, this would be the overall changing landscape of nonprofit recruitment, [it] reflects the shift towards more strategic, tech savvy, and inclusive practices aimed at attracting and retaining top talent in a very competitive environment.

Patty Hampton: Thank you, Mimi. Stephanie, what more can you add about the evolving landscape?

Stephanie Zavislan: Well, I worked in [a] nonprofit for 10 years, and when I worked as an employee, the typical process I saw was, you have a job opening, you put it on Indeed or LinkedIn, you wait to see who applies and you hope for the best. And they’re just so much more intentional and strategic time savvy ways to go about that these days. One of my favorite strategies being targeted job boards, one of our clients right now, is trying to hire for an HR Generalist, and rather than just putting that up on, Indeed or LinkedIn, they’re looking for someone who is SHRM certified, so we’re going after the SHRM job board. That is a great way to attract the candidates that they want with the skill set that they want, rather than just posting and praying.

And then the other thing I would add is, there’s so much more noise.

One of my nonprofits that I worked with last summer, it was a basic people operations and office manager role, and I got over 3,600 applicants for that role. So we’re having to sift through a lot more applicants. It’s very easy to apply for jobs these days and so to recruit, you have to be prepared. And so, going about it strategically and not just posting and praying is really the best way to not give yourself brain damage in this process.

Patty Hampton: I love it, Stephanie, thanks so much for sharing. So, on your screen, you do see some bullets there. We’re going to dive into some other areas as well.

But all of these are still really crucial: the landscape of the labor market normalizing, automation technology, we’re going to dive into that in just a second, process efficiency, all of our clients want speed. It’s not always about a butt in a seat. But it’s about, where are we looking? So we identify those individuals who are passive job seekers. That’s still a thing, that [they’re] passive job seekers. Are they happy where they are? Can you have and build a relationship with these candidates, so that they are looking at other opportunities, that they might not even have been comfortable with? So that speed, and then talent pipeline, again, the passive candidates, they are looking, believe it or not, they just don’t know that they are, until we tap them.

Then, candidate expectations. Those have certainly changed over the years, especially since COVID, right? Many of us are still dealing with some fallout around candidate expectations, and people ask me about hybrid work versus remote versus, why is the role remote? Why is the role hybrid? Why do I need to go into an office two times a week? And so, we’re managing all of those questions with the candidate expectations and sharing more about the role itself. Then virtual hiring. That has certainly ticked up over the last few years, as well. We’re in a Zoom room now, continuing to do webinars and continuing to interview people in a Zoom room or in a in a Teams room, if some of you use Microsoft teams.

And then, transparency, I don’t know about you all, but over the years, in my 20-plus years of experience across the talent management landscape itself, people want transparency. When they are asking you about the culture of your organization, they’re asking a much deeper … They’re looking for a much deeper conversation. They want to know, how transparent will you be with them? And can they find out more about your organization, then you’ve already shared?

And then finally, it’s really focused on purpose. Our nonprofits across the country have so many passionate goals and vision for their stakeholders, the communities that they’re working with. They want to focus on purpose. Why should I come and work for your organization? What are you offering that my organization isn’t offering, especially when you’re talking with passive candidates?

Alright, let’s move on. Lindsey, next slide.

So, one of my favorite topics right now, and I’m sure it will be yours too by the time we end with this particular slide, is really focused on AI.

If you have not, as a nonprofit, dove into AI, we have a wonderful tool as a resource on our website that the team will certainly provide to you as a resource. Where do I start? Do I just start using Chat GPT? But, again, it’s all about AI. It is the elephant in the Zoom room. I know it is. And we’re offering training workshop [around] leveraging AI in recruitment strategy, but for now, here’s just a few benefits of why AI is really important there on your screen. So, I’m going to briefly talk through them … try not to take too many notes, but also lean in where you know your organization needs to focus on.

So, time [and cost] efficiency: AI is powered — has powered tools — that can automate time consuming tasks in the recruitment process. If you don’t know what those are, it’s OK. All of us have to start somewhere, so start with the resume screening, candidate sourcing, and initial assessments that you can use AI-powered tools to do.

I’ll also provide you at the end of this session, a resource of tools that you can use, so you’ll have access to some of those as well and be able to identify if they work for your organization. And then enhanced candidate matching. This is what we call an AI algorithm that’s going to work on your behalf. And it can analyze vast amounts of data from resumes to your application process, through online profiles to identify the most suitable candidates for specific roles. By leveraging machine learning, AI can learn from past successful hires that you’ve already done, and consistently and continuously improve candidate matching, ensuring a better fit between the candidates and the nonprofit’s requirements.

How about diversity [and] inclusion? All of us have our own value, definition, and what that means to your culture. But did you know that AI can be programmed to reduce bias, not eliminate bias, it’s reduced bias in the recruitment process, promoting diversity and inclusion. By also focusing on the skills, experience and qualifications, rather than the demographics that we all love to track. We need to track some of them for legal purposes, totally understand that, but it goes beyond that when you use an AI tool that’s focused on the recruitment process to help you. AI helps create a more inclusive hiring environment.

There are some tools that I won’t mention here. If you just Google or use Chat GPT to help you identify some tools that you can currently use to help you through some of these processes, I encourage you to do so. Nonprofits often committed to diversity [and] inclusion [in] workplaces can benefit from AI’s ability to make merit-based unbiased decisions.

Then, our fourth bullet is more on improved candidate experience. We talked about that. How do you improve the candidate experience through AI? AI can enhance the overall candidate experience by streamlining communication. Go to your website after this session. Do you have a chatbot that’s listed on your website? We do. Is it program to say certain things? Yes, you can even program it to say certain things. Interact with the overall candidate, the candidate experience and really use those chatbots and virtual assistants that we heard about way before AI even came on the scene. It was about virtual assistants, powered by AI, can actually help you keep the candidate engaged.

Did you know, I will throw this out here for you all. Did you know, of all the positions you have open, roughly, roughly 85% of the candidates that you do not speak to or you do talk to them, there is no community for them. At Nonprofit HR, we try our best to create a community. You have to dig back into that pipeline, which I think is so important, so keep that in mind.

Then, finally, everybody likes data, right? So, data-driven decisions can be made through AI, which enables you as a nonprofit to collect and analyze data throughout the recruitment process. This data approach, this data-driven approach, helps identify patterns, evaluate recruitment strategies, the effectiveness of them, and help you make informed decisions to optimize your hiring process. Nonprofits can gain so much more insight into the success of their recruitment campaigns. We use it here at Nonprofit HR. The performance of different sourcing channels as well. How are they performing? I always say, lean into your MarComm team, your Marketing & Communications team.

Give them an opportunity to help you understand how those channels are performing for you all when you post your position, or when you use a campaign, via LinkedIn. Whatever the case may be, your MarComm team is there to support you. If you do not have a MarComm team, certainly lean into your IT team if you have one, who can certainly help in that regard as well to help you track some of those metrics that Alicia mentioned earlier and that she’ll mention later on as well.

But here’s a short list of some AI tools, that, like I said, you don’t have to write them all down. I’ll go through them pretty quickly, but here are a few AI tools that Nonprofit HR uses, and others, on the call may be familiar with several of them already.

So, the first one is that we mentioned is Chat PPT. Either it’s the free version which is 3.5 or it’s the paid version, which is the 4.0. The other one is called Botpress. Another one is called Anthropic Claude, so … short for Claude, that’s the name of it. And then Notion (AI) and Perplexity AI, and then Imagica AI, and then make.com and then a formula bot. So, we use all of those right now to help our clients identify, I hate to say it, right, Stephanie? Unicorns. Some of our clients ask for a unicorn. Well, we can help find them just by simply putting some of these chatbots to work, programming them, as well. So, it’s exciting to me, because I’ve been in recruiting for a long time, and I love the fact that we can leverage AI to our advantage.

Earlier, I mentioned a little bit about diversity and inclusion, and how do you focus on that? We also have a webinar that we did back in October, Harnessing AI for EDIJ or DEI: Navigating the Bias Challenge. There are challenges with respect to AI. You need to know what they are so that you don’t run into any stumbling blocks there.

All right, Lindsey, next slide. That was exciting.

OK, so, I’m going to chat more with Mimi and Stephanie. What are some of the other transformative recruiting solutions that nonprofits should be utilizing? Some of them are on the screen, but I’m sure you’ll have more to add.

Mimi Asfaw: Certainly, I would say nonprofits can explore several transformative recruiting solutions to enhance their talent acquisition efforts.

Talking about the big one, which is technology. Adopting [an] applicant tracking system, which is the ATS and recruitment software, can rewind the hiring process from sourcing candidates to managing applications. Additionally, what Patty just went over, the utilizing AI, data-driven tools for resume screening and candidate matching can save time and improve efficiency. The other one, I would say, would be, building strong employer branding with all that’s going on with social media. Instagram, Twitter, everything that you can think of as far as social media is concerned. Developing a compelling employer brand helps nonprofits stand out in a competitive market.

Highlighting their mission, value and impact can attract candidates who are aligned with their organizational goals. I mean, we can go on. Another one I could think of is probably expanding outreach. Definitely, nonprofit organization might seem small, but it’s huge at the same time. So, you can broaden your candidates pool by actively engaging with diverse communities and networks. This includes attending career fairs, partnering with educational institutions and leveraging social media platforms for targeted outreach, and then also implementing remote work policies. Embracing remote work options can expand the talent pool beyond the [geographic] boundaries, allowing nonprofits to assess a wider range of skilled candidates.

Another one that’s very, very important in the nonprofit organization arena, is offering competitive compensation and benefits by providing competitive salaries along with attractive benefits. [A salary] package is very, very essential for attracting and retaining top talent in the nonprofit sector. So, overall, just embracing these transformative recruiting solutions, nonprofits can effectively address their talent acquisition challenges and build a very high performing teams to advance their missions.

Patty Hampton: Thanks, so much, Mimi, Stephani, anything to add?

Stephanie Zavislan: I would add a lot about the first bullet point, Patty, which is the thought partnerships.

The traditional old-school hiring: You get a job requisition, you post it, you see who comes in the door and you do a little fact checking about, do you do meet the minimum requirements? And then you hire this person. But it can go so much deeper than that. Finding out more about the role. Why is it open? What is this person going to be doing? Who’s going to fit well? What are professional development opportunities? Career advancement opportunities? Developing a really effective phone screen, so that you’re only interviewing a few people as opposed to taking everyone who walks in the door or shutting off the faucet once you find one person you think might fit the bill. There’s so many other ways to go about this than just barebones, what you might be used to.

I love talking to nonprofits about, who are you as a manager, and what can your direct reports expect from you? How often do you have one-on-ones? What does high performance look like in this role? What does diversity mean to you? What can people get from you, because this really is a two-way street these days? I know a lot of you probably have noticed, we’ve come a long way from just getting a job and being in it for 50 years. People are looking for so much more.

And in the nonprofit world, people are really willing to take a little bit of a lower wage. I don’t know. Most of you on this call probably didn’t go into [a] nonprofit for the money. You probably went into it, because you want it to feel good, so doing recruitment really well and having a thought partner in your recruiting helps you hit the mark and be able to find the talent that wants to be part of your organization and knowing what you can offer them in return.

Patty Hampton: Thanks so much, Stephanie. I think one of the largest benefits of transformative recruiting is really, like you said, it’s thought partnership, but it’s also building relationships in looking at the final candidate evaluation and selection. Alicia, I don’t want to leave you out. Is there anything else you want to add on in this space?

Alicia Schoshinski: Yeah, thanks, Patty.

I just wanted to tag on to what Mimi said about remote work, and we have a bulletin on here about remote hiring and onboarding, and that’s definitely something that has changed in all of our processes. Now that we’re doing more remote work, that comes with remote hiring, so your process has to be a little bit different and you really have to think through, how are you going to get the most impact with your candidates? And, how are you going to give them a good candidate experience through that hiring process that you do remotely? And that extends all the way through from the hiring process to the onboarding process, and just making sure that that’s a very well-thought-out process that yields good results for your candidates.

I think that’s just something to always keep in mind. And then the other thing I would add, I think Mimi was talking about compensation, is that a lot of states, and somebody mentioned transparency, and a lot of states do have pay transparency laws where you do have to post the salary for the job. So, that’s something to also keep in mind, and it’s also helpful to the candidates. It goes along with that candidate experience of them knowing what they’re getting, what they’re getting into, et cetera.

Patty Hampton: Exactly, thank you so much, Alicia, for adding that as well. And the last thing I wanted to add, before we move on to the next slide. We didn’t talk much about some things that are our clients ask us for. The number one thing that we always hear is, can you offer a diverse candidate pool? We ask them, what is your definition of a diverse candidate pool?

It’s important that we understand what does diversity and inclusion look like for them and their cultures? So that we can communicate that as well. We also want to know what type of tools [they are] using … if they have a thriving DEI practice and values that support their culture, what kind of EDIJ tools or DEI tools that they’re using. And I know we talked almost a decade ago, it seems like a decade ago, about the blind hiring platforms. There’s one that came on my radar, because I’m the kind of person that goes down a rabbit hole, if you will. And one is called Entelo, E-N-T-E-L-O. And it focuses on underrepresented groups that help diversify your candidate pool. We’re getting that a lot, especially in the political scene and all of that. How are we focusing on underrepresented groups? And you’ll need to define that for yourselves, but perhaps a tool like Entelo could certainly help.

Lindsey, next slide.

OK, so identifying gaps and opportunities in nonprofit hiring practices, just to follow up on these transformative solutions, let’s discuss some gaps and opportunities for nonprofit hiring practices; insights on evolving candidate expectations, they have grown over the years; and the candidate experience. What has changed from the perspective of candidates in the marketplace that should inform you as a hiring manager or a leader on the call in your hiring practices?

I’d like to open this up to all three of you.

Can you explain — I’m sorry — explore on that a little bit more in what has changed from your perspective, in relation to candidates in the marketplace? And where should it inform nonprofits about their hiring practices? So, I’ll start with Alicia, and then go to Mimi and Stephanie.

Alicia Schoshinski: Sure, and thanks, Patty. I would say, Mimi alluded to this, I think it was Mimi alluded to this before, about your employer brand and how important that is.

And I think that’s something that a lot of nonprofits and organizations forget — to really talk about their brand, help candidates understand what their brand represents what they do and that includes your culture, your values, all of that. And that can be done through your website, you can work with your marketing team to make sure your website really articulates that. That can be done on your social media posts. It can be done through making sure everybody who touches the candidate in interviews and such, is able to represent your employer brand and share what that is because to Stephanie’s point, you want your employees to come and really understand the organization that they’re coming to work for, and to really be able to see themselves in it or not see themselves in it, so that you are making that right fit, that right match.

Patty Hampton: Great, thanks so much. Mimi, Stephanie?

Mimi Asfaw: Certainly, so this is my favorite topic because I would say. I keep saying 20 years ago, 20 years ago, but I remember, I’m coming from recruiting recruitment world where candidates could walk-in and drop off the resume. We get to meet them. We get to talk to them. We get to really experience that moment with them, but now, everything is online. Everything. So, how do we make them feel special? How do we make them feel like, they’re right in front of me, you know?

So, that personalized communication is key. Candidates now expect personalized communication throughout the recruitment process. Nonprofits should strive to provide timely updates and feedback demonstrating respect for the candidate’s time and interest. So, if there is an open position at organization, that is key. We need to feel that. So we need to make this applicant, as important as they can feel, so ensuring like timely email acknowledgements, confirming receipt of application. Nowadays especially, if you utilize the applicant tracking system as soon as a candidate applies, they would automatically receive an email stating that we have received your application, it’s under review. Just [make] sure that if you get that ATS to make sure that it has that type of processes.

And then, also, during interviews, providing clear details on the next steps timeline and stages of the interview process, [and] sending a thank you email to candidates after interviews. We should not just sit back and relax and wait for them to send us a thank you. Let’s thank them because you know, they might have, they don’t usually sometimes tell us, but they might have three or four other positions that they’ve applied for or had offers for. How do I make them special? When they close their laptop, and they move on with their day, how did I make them feel? That has to be very important. So, sending them a thank you email to say, “Hey, I really had a great interview with you,” is great.

Notify applicants who … have gone through the interview process well in advance. If they’re not moving forward to the next stages, don’t hold them back until the position is filled, avoid keeping them waiting and provide timely feedback.

And then also being very transparent and authentic [in] employer branding. Alicia spoke about it, and also Patty spoke about it and regards to your branding.

Candidate’s value transparency and authentic employer branding. So, we see every time we turn on the TV, we see advertisements, sometimes that’s false. So [make] sure that your employer brand is as authentic as it can be. Nonprofits should really clearly communicate their mission, values and organizational culture to attract candidates who align with their purpose.

And then there’s, of course, flexible work arrangements, remote work or the hybrid type of style. All [those], I feel like, are very important things that you really have to think about. So, I would say that would be [the] overall points to think about.

Patty Hampton: Great. Thanks so much, Mimi. Stephanie, I’m sure you have something else to add.

Stephanie Zavislan: The candidate experience is really important.

It’s every touchpoint that a candidate has with your organization, from how they find the job, what it looks like, how easy it is to apply, how quickly and effectively they hear back from you, how they move through the interview process, how many rounds you have, what negotiation feels like and then getting them set up to enter the workforce. All of that requires intentionality.

And so, I think it could be easy to say, “We’re [a] nonprofit. We don’t have the funds. We’re small. We don’t have that kind of time. We’re not corporate.” And to let some of this stuff slide, but rather than let that be an excuse, I would encourage you to use that as a reason to do it well.

You want good talent in your nonprofit. You don’t want sloppy seconds. You don’t want to just get anybody. You don’t want butts in seats. You want talent, you want passion, you want dedication. And you want longevity, and that comes down to presenting a really good candidate experience that’s going to be attractive to people and keep them engaged.

You can be 100% certain that whoever has applied for your job has not only applied for your job. They are in the process with many organizations, and depending on how well you do with the candidate experience, that could dictate what kind of talent you are landing.

Look at the job description. Look at — don’t just use a template. Be intentional about how you’re crafting a job description and what experience you’re asking for it. Are you asking for a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree? Why? What is that going to bring to the role? Know what you’re asking for, know what you can provide, and be intentional about it. And I would also encourage all of you, apply for a job at your organization. Apply for your own job that you have posted. How easy is it? How clunky? Is it?

How much information do you have to input manually, or how easy is it? Are you asking any kind of intentional screening questions that can help you identify talent faster as you sift through the noise? All of these things can add to a much better candidate experience, and also, a better recruiting experience for you.

Patty Hampton: I love that, Stephanie. love the fact that we encourage people all the time to apply to your own open positions, and you can have, what we used to do, I don’t know, folks still do this, but you can pay someone to apply to one of your, or two of your, open positions and give you feedback on what the candidate experience was like, right? And I love that, you mentioned that, as well.

So, Lindsey, let’s move on to the next slide.

And we’re going to look at identifying common gaps in hiring practices. Some of this on the list, we’ve already mentioned about chatbots. You’ve heard us talk about ATS tracking, as well.

But based on today’s candidate expectations and everything that we just shared, let’s talk a little bit more about, what can nonprofits do differently with respect to the recruiting practices themselves? Then insights into leveraging the applicant tracking system, which we already talked about and touched on briefly. We recognize that not all nonprofits have the same access or budget, even. So we’ll even touch on that. But let’s first focus on identifying the gaps in the hiring practices. I’ll start with Alicia first, and then Stephanie and Mimi.

Alicia Schoshinski: Thanks, Patty. I think one thing that I would say, that certainly has changed with what candidates expect is speed. And I think we might have touched on that before.

But just the process, as somebody mentioned, like they’re applying to many, many jobs, and it’s so easy now, compared to how it used to be to apply for a job. You just push a button, and you’ve applied to 20 jobs or something.

And so, you really do want to weed out and make sure you’re getting the best candidates. But at the same time, you also want to make sure you’re being responsive to what they expect. So you want to make sure you help manage their expectations throughout the whole process and really communicate well about, “OK, this is our timeline. This is what you can expect.”

And then, think about your process, be very intentional. For instance, if you have multiple rounds, or they’re meeting with different people, that’s certainly very helpful, as opposed to just meeting with one person, for many reasons. But, also, think about when you’re doing that, don’t make it too process heavy that it takes them months to get through the process because you’re going to lose candidates, they’re going to leave because they’re going to find other roles, and they’re not going to want to rate wait around for your more laborious process.

So, that would be something, I would just say, to be very mindful of, is that the process, the speed and just really being intentional about that.

Patty Hampton: Yeah, I love that, Alicia. I literally applied for an opportunity, probably 15, 20 years ago, just to see what the organization was experiencing by way of a candidate experience.

And I stopped mid-stream. As you said, can the process just to apply based on what they’re asking through their ATS — is it laborious? It was taking me, I’m not joking, almost an hour of my time. We … still get, not us, but organizations, where we talk to candidates sometimes, they’ll ask us, how long is this process going to take?

They usually will start there, and I understand it, because I’ve done it myself, stopping in mid-stream and applying for an opportunity, I’m like, “If this is what it’s like, for me, guess what the culture is probably like, as well.” So thanks for sharing that.

Stephanie, anything else to share? And then, Mimi?

Stephanie Zavislan: Yeah.

I would encourage all of you out there in talent acquisition, make sure you’re paying attention to laws around recruitment. There are federally protected classes. There are probably laws in your state, be it pay transparency, or additional protected classes of people. We don’t have a way around that, nor should we. We can’t make decisions on who to hire based on race.

I know that we all want a diverse pool of candidates, but be careful about how you’re making decisions, and why. You definitely don’t want to check a box or hit a quota. You’re looking for someone who’s going to give their best to your organization. And one best way to do that is to be in compliance with how to recruit effectively.

And then, I would really encourage everyone to focus on your employer value proposition. It really is a two-way street these days, and … ask yourself, why should someone be excited about this opportunity? Why is this a good opportunity for someone to join this team, and have this manager, and be able to do these tasks? And how can we invest in them, and what are we expecting from them? And have all of that pretty clear upfront, so you’re not figuring it out as you go.

The best way to attract and retain good talent is to have clear, honest answers to a lot of those questions.

Patty Hampton: And thanks so much, Mimi, anything else to add?

Mimi Asfaw: Yeah … Alicia and Stephanie covered [a] majority of it, but I think transparency is the number one thing.

It just being very clear: the way we create [a] timeline, for candidates. One thing that we’re really good at Nonprofit HR when we get a client to work with us. We try to sit down with our manager and not just educate them in regard to what’s happening at the current time. But also giving them information about timeline, “OK, so you do have this position, all right? We’re not going to take 120 days to fill it. This is how long we’re going to take, the reason is…” And then going into detail [on] why. Especially if it’s a position that is like highly, highly needed to fill, there’s all these candidates that … probably by the time they come to me … have already interviewed. So, I have to make sure that I educate my hiring managers and the nonprofit organization that hiring us to work with them to say to them, “OK. Let’s create a timeline that’s aggressive, so we can process them through the whole interview stages, as needed.”

And then Stephanie had mentioned earlier as well, let’s not talk about five interviews, or all these panel interviews, What are the purpose[s] of that? Making sure we have these clear conversation[s] with the organization, so that way, it starts from there, and then it goes to the candidates. And then, letting the candidates know during interviews, as well, “These are the timelines … This is when I’m going to be hiring for this position, and are you able to work with that?” And making sure each stage of the interview process to communicate with them and be very transparent with them.

Patty Hampton: Great. Thanks so much, Mimi. All right, Lindsey, next slide.

So, let’s talk a little bit more about enhancing the candidate experience. We do think it’s super important. Like we mentioned, it’s a two-way street as well, and so we aim to explore some strategic aspects of roles and understand the needs of advanced job seekers. Yes, there are advanced job seekers out there. [We’ll] discuss strategies and ensuring a seamless interview and negotiation process. And then ultimately, it’s about improving the overall candidate experience. It’s not just about the nonprofit anymore, it’s about the candidate experience. And they are pairing that up with, how will they be treated once they’ve onboarded with you all as well. 

So let’s look at the next slide, Lindsey.

So here’s a few boxes around the candidate experience. And I wanted to start with Alicia. With any of the boxes, but in your experience, how can nonprofits strategically explore roles to align with both the organization’s mission and the expectations of advanced job seekers?

Alicia Schoshinski: Yeah, Patty, I’d say that one of the most important things we’ve been talking about being very intentional on, aligning your people strategy with your business strategy.

And a lot of times, we see that if somebody leaves an organization, and everyone immediately says, “OK, we have to post that role,” without thinking through, do you still need the role? Sometimes role’s evolved because of the person that’s in them and you want to rethink based on — that person’s gone. It could be different. You want to think about the current environment. You want to think about the future [and] what you need. You may want to think about the skills, [if] you have any gaps you have on your team. So, really, just thinking before you actually do that, I think, is really key.

And then, thinking about your team, who best … what type of skills and functions do you need to complement that team. And then just really making sure, you are, when you’re recruiting, that you’re not setting somebody up for failure by not really aligning the role and aligning them to the role. Because, in the end, they may end up leaving because they’re satisfied. They had a different expectation of what it was going to be.

So, it’s always important to keep an eye on that. And then, you know, we talked about when people come on board, one of the things that we do with our staff when we hire people is we do new hire interviews at certain intervals following them being hired, and we also interview their managers just to see if there are any gaps and expectations and such. And then, we can tweak that and make sure. So it’s just being mindful of what you’re setting up, and then measuring that and getting feedback to make sure you are meeting those expectations.

Patty Hampton: Thank you so much, Alicia. Lindsey, I want to pause right here. We have ignored our audience a little bit, and we want to check in to see if we can answer a couple of questions between now and 12 o’clock. We’re coming up on an hour in our session.

Do we have any questions?

Lindsey Otto: Hi Patty, yes, we do have one question that’s come in: What advice would you give to a person who is trying to navigate recruiting for a position in which leadership wants to fill it with people who have a heart for the population and seek the organization themselves out, instead of using traditional recruiting strategies, such as proactively seeking out applicants? What advice would you give to a person who’s navigating that?

Patty Hampton: Perfect, who wants to take that?

Mimi Asfaw: Oh, well, I guess I can share and then Stephanie can share. She’s definitely our superstar for search.

But I would say, honestly, some of the items that we actually covered are key points that you have to really think about. Especially with what’s going on and how we’ve been very transparent in regard to how it has changed for the past 20 years. And then now specifically after COVID. Things have really tremendously changed. So just making sure that, using data is one. Making sure, especially executive team, they love, love to see information like that and doing research in that specific position, showing you know how many positions are out there, what are some of the job boards that we need to utilize, why are those job boards good to utilize. Just making sure that you take the time to research and to give that information to the executive team, I think would definitely help them make the decision of utilizing what’s going on now in the recruitment market.

Thank you. Stephanie?

Stephanie Zavislan: Lindsey, can you repeat that question? I just want to make sure I understand it before I respond.

Lindsey Otto: Sure.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to navigate recruiting for a position in which the leadership wants to fill it with someone who has a heart for the population and seek the organization out versus using traditional recruiting strategies?

Stephanie Zavislan: OK, that’s what I thought you said. I just wanted to make sure.

So I actually had a very interesting conversation not too long ago of trying to decide between passion and being a good person, versus talent and hard skills. And if I’m hearing you correctly, I would say that neither one of those should be compromised.

I think it’s possible to get someone who has a heart for the mission, you want that. I would not discourage anyone from hiring someone who’s passionate about the mission. But you don’t need to skimp on talent. So, there are ways to vet someone’s commitment to the mission in addition to the skills that they bring for the job. And if it comes down to an either/or, I would say, don’t settle. Don’t stop there.

And if you really are desperate to fill this role, seek out some out-of-the-box strategies, but I wouldn’t — I would never advise someone to choose just for mission alignment and passion, or just their talent and experience and skills. You’ve got to find the perfect blend of both of those to get the best talent for your organization.

Patty Hampton: Great, thanks so much, Stephanie. Let’s move on, as we are looking at the time and we’re right about an hour. We want to leave some time for our audience to start putting your questions in the chat, or the question box, I think it is. And we’ll get to those as we move on later through the presentation.

So, as we’re looking at the candidate experience, understanding the needs of the more advanced job seekers, for both Stephanie and Mimi, given your role, the needs and expectations continue to evolve as we’ve already stated. Are there any other strategies that nonprofits can deploy or employ to understand better and meet the advanced job seekers needs through the recruitment as you’re looking at the diagram? Anything that we may not have touched on?

Stephanie Zavislan: Sure — Oh, sorry, Mimi. You go.

Mimi Asfaw: You’re good.

Stephanie Zavislan: I’ll just touch on two things. One: Bee clear about advancement and professional development. Job seekers these days, that is almost every time I do a phone screen or an interview people, are intrigued of, how am I going to grow in my career?

It’s very hard to find people who just want to do the same job indefinitely. People want growth. They want opportunity. They want to be invested in. So know the answer to those questions as you entertain candidates. And if, if you’re not sure yet, be intentional about finding out the answer and finding out how you can attract talent and then retain it through developing them.

And then, the second: that little box, that gray box [of] job postings, think through what you’re putting in your job postings. Are you putting in the everyday jargon of high, fast-paced work environment, dynamic work environment? What does that mean?

Not all candidates are the same, and they don’t want all the same environment. So, if you have a really fast paced dynamic working environment, by all means, be talking about that, but if you don’t, if it’s a cubicle and this person’s going to be doing research and being online all day, it’s OK to set that expectation, because you want to draw the talent that’s going to fit that job. You don’t want to bait and switch anybody.

So, in your candidate experience, be clear in your job posting what this person’s walking into, set them up for success, and then know how you’re going to invest in them.

Patty Hampton: Mimi, anything to add before we move on?

Mimi Asfaw: I think the only other one, because we’re, specifically, within the DMV area, we have a lot of interns. We have a lot of recent college grads that are so mission driven and so ready to work for a nonprofit organization. So offering like mentorship and networking opportunities would be really a huge, huge addition. Providing mentorship programs and networking opportunities will allow job seekers to connect with seasoned professionals within the organization. This also fosters professional development and also creates [a] supportive environment for career growth.

And then, another one that I wanted to add, I think we kind of touched base on it, but customizing recruitment messages and materials. We are now in the social media market. And, the branding, tailoring recruitment messages and materials will also resonate with advanced job seeker’s interest. And I believe everything else Stephanie had kind of covered, but those would be the two key points that I would like to bring up.

Patty Hampton: OK, thank you. We’re gonna move on, and go to the next slide, Lindsey.

OK, so optimizing talent acquisition resources. We talked briefly about that earlier. We talked about budgets, want to dive a little bit deeper. As we mentioned before, all budgets for nonprofits are not the same on this call. We have small budgets up to very large budgets, small organizations, up to very large and mega organizations.

So, your strategies about optimizing talent resources, it’s going to be different. So you have to find the one that’s best for you, but regardless, it’s important to be intentional, as we mentioned earlier, about your recruiting efforts and have a strategic talent acquisition plan. So, next slide, Lindsey.

So, here’s where I want to lean into to have Alicia talk a little bit more about strategic hiring [goals] and the recruitment budget. What can you share about effectively allocating the budget for hiring? I know you mentioned something earlier about that, Alicia, so want to speak to you first and then bring in Stephanie and Mimi?

Alicia Schoshinski: Sure, Patty.  We’ve talked about the importance of making sure you have a strategic hiring plan.

So, you might start off the year as you’re doing your nonprofit’s budgeting. And think through, what are your goals for the year? How many positions do you expect to hire? And then, think through that. Look at your past costs. Look at the types of things you might spend money on. I saw a Society for Human Resource Management study that showed the average cost for filling a position was around $4,700.

But then, other places talk about the cost to fill a position could really be 3-to-4 times the salary of a position. And that’s really because you take the kind of the hard costs, but then you also take all the soft costs of the interviewers time, all your hiring managers and other panelists time, the time to train somebody, all that stuff. So, it really is something that you want to pay attention to, because it can be costly, and so you want to do it right, and get the best bang for your buck.

So, really, aligning your budget with what you’ve planned [for] your hiring, and then, thinking through the different costs that you might have. And I’ll let my colleague speak to some of those costs, as well.

Patty Hampton: Mimi? Stephanie?

Mimi Asfaw: Yeah, I think some of the cost, I would say, that I would think of [for] probably investment of recruitment tools and technology, making sure that you allocate funds to invest in [an] affordable applicant tracking system, and also to subscribe to a very niche job board focused on your sector. So, creating that budget to say, for the month, this is the budget for us to do external job posting. And then also allocate a portion of your budget to create compelling job postings and develop employer branding materials and highlighting the impact in the community. So, what Patty had mentioned in the beginning, the AI would come handy in situations like this.

And then also, utilizing diversify recruitment channels, making sure that you allocate budget across diverse recruitment channels, which include online job boards, volunteer networks, and then also local communities and events. And, of course, associations. They do, a lot. If you are a member, you can post your positions on their website as well. And I think, also, probably, training and development is another key one. This investment in employee development enhances the retention and succession of planning.

Patty Hampton: Great. Thank you so much. Let’s move on to the next slide, Lindsey.

I just wanted to share with the group here, and the attendees, these are just some budget friendly recruiting tactics that we’ve already mentioned — quite a few of them already. And just wanted to bring some of those to your sight. But we’re going to move on to the next slide.

OK, and then we’ve already touched on this a little bit earlier, about strategies to align recruitment and budget to hiring goals, as Alicia already mentioned. It’s really important that just because the position is vacant, it should make you pause, not just go fill it really quickly. But really pause and work, and partner with your hiring team, or your hiring manager to understand, is the work being done somewhere else in the organization? Is there any sort of overlap that we might be missing?

Nine times out of 10, I generally say that the position, unless it is truly unique within your organization, like a specialist role, or more of a C-suite type of a role. Some of the mid-level roles, [you] really need to pause of those before you just go fill it again, and post and pray, and leverage what you know about the role. Talk to the person who’s in the role. The stay interview. This is not that conference — that webinar. We talk a lot about the stay interview. The person in the role can certainly shed some insights into that, as well.

Lindsey, let’s go to the next slide.

Alicia Schoshinski: Patty, I just wanted to quickly add, also, think about your internal talent. There’s a lot of internal talent, certainly, opportunities for them. And think about if you can upskill people. Just always be mindful of that as well.

Patty Hampton: Thank you so much, Alicia. And so, we’re going to lean in to just briefly as we’re bringing this plane in for a landing, and really want to zone in on just strategies for building a robust team. At the beginning of this session, we talked about the importance of building a robust workforce and teams in your organization. Thinking more broadly about strategies that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries as well … can we pose some questions to you all to start thinking about? Because both Alicia, Stephanie, and Mimi, of course, will add some flavor to this as well.

But how can we reshape the way nonprofits approach team building and problem solving?

Another question: What are strategies that may not bubble up immediately for folks? For example, what are your thoughts on creating teams that are more responsive, innovative and aligned with the evolving needs of the communities that you’re serving?

Again, thinking back to those positions, once they come open, how are you serving the community with that particular position? We do know that nonprofits have internal facing and external facing roles. So, really thinking through that. So, think agile team structures, breaking down silos, and being more cross functional within your organization [so] that [you] can quickly adapt to change. 

Is there an opportunity for organizations to work in partnership?

Think about this: Work in partnership with other nonprofits. We always say there’s a nonprofit for everything. Guaranteed, when clients look at us and partner with us, we ask: Who are your competitors? The reason we want to know? We poach, very well. And so, if they have another organization or a sister organization, we want to know who those organizations are and [develop] a partnership or relationship with those other organizations.

So, Alicia, what more can you share that we may not have touched on, that we may have missed?

Alicia Schoshinski: I would say, we already talked a little bit about skills, but I think what I like to do is to think about roles and break them down into skills. What are the skills you need? What are the gaps on your team? What are the skills that your organization needs that either you need to train people on or you need to hire for?

And then that’s just not your technical skills, it’s also, the term “essential skills” is used sometimes instead of “soft skills,” because you want to make sure, as Patty said, agility is key. You want to hire people that aren’t just the same as everybody else on your team but you want to hire people that can continue to grow. We know that everything changes at such a rapid pace now. You want people who can keep up with the pace of change who are interested in learning more. You want those people that have a growth mindset, where they are always constantly wanting to learn, grow, learn something new, you can upskill them. And then, I think you want to also make sure you’re involving your team members in thinking through that. You know, they’re the ones that are closest to the work. So, talk to them, really. Think through, again, before you just get out there and put that position up for recruiting. Really think through what’s going to compliment your team and your organization and what are the skills.

And then the other thing I would say, we talked before about measurement, using some data to inform a lot of this. One thing, too, is surveying your — or tracking turnover for those. Most organizations track turnover, but a lot of organizations forget to track who left within a year, so you hired somebody they left within a year. Obviously, there’s a miss alignment there of some sort. You want to look at those situations and have that inform the work you do as you’re going about this process.

Patty Hampton: Great. Thanks so much. Lindsey, we can go to the next slide and just want to ask Stephanie and Mimi. Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share on successful strategies that you’ve seen?

Stephanie Zavislan: I’ll jump in quickly and say being able to recognize and incentivize high performance is a great way to take your organization to the next level, and come up with really creative ways to serve that you may not have thought of.

As I’m talking to candidates and hiring for nonprofits, I am meeting people with more zeal and more gumption than a lot of people have in their pinkie fingers. These people are wanting and willing to give their souls to the causes that they’re joining. And we need to know how to incentivize high performance. And as a hiring manager, as a talent acquisition manager, do you know what high performance looks like in your organization?

Can you distinguish it from medium performance and low performance, and then how are you incentivizing that?

Your people can take your organization to new heights that you never imagined, but they want to know that it matters. And they want to know that there’s a difference between low, medium and high performance. So, I would encourage you to look at it from that lens, as well.

And, this person is going to bring forth breaking down silos and coming up with new methodologies for reaching your target audience, but you have to know how to recognize it.

Patty Hampton: Yeah, thanks so much. Mimi, anything else to add?

Mimi Asfaw: Just making regular communication and feedback. Establishing open channels of communication and providing regular feedback fosters trust. And what I spoke about earlier and transparency within [the] team, it also encourages constructive dialogue and active listening. [It] promotes collaboration as well and just addressing issues before it becomes an issue.

So if you have consistent communication, that would definitely be able to work and be cohesive in your team. And team building activities is another one, especially with a mission-driven organization. We do a lot of things within the community, so making sure that, as a team, we’re not just in the office or online. We’re just also out there with the community and embracing the community and working actively [with] retreats workshops, things like that, I think, would make the team very strong.

Patty Hampton: Great, thank you so much to you, Mimi, Alicia, and Stephanie for joining today. I really appreciate it. But guess what? It’s Q&A time. So, Lindsey, next slide, what you have up, let’s see if we have any questions from our audience.

Lindsey Otto: Thanks, Patty, and thank you all for the information you’ve shared this afternoon. To our attendees, if you have any questions, please type them into the questions pane in the control panel. We’ll get to as many as we can in this short time we’ve got, so let’s get started.

We’ve gotten a lot about the different generational aspects, in terms of recruiting strategies. So, I was wondering if you all could share about recruitment strategies to hire Gen Z, as well as those looking to target older generations, such as Gen X?

Patty Hampton: Hmm, that’s a juicy question. Who wants to take that?

Stephanie Zavislan: Remember that we can’t hire based on age. That is not legal. So, as you’re recruiting, I’m hopeful that your candidate pools will be a smattering of lots of different generations.

One thing I know about Gen Z is they know what they want and they are not shy about talking about it. So that’s where that transparency piece is going to come in handy. You need to be able to talk about, what does this role really look like? And what does professional development really look like? and how are you creating a two-way street?

I would say careful of any bias based on age, but you can expect from Gen Z that they want the full picture.

Mimi Asfaw: Yeah. So to add onto that, the seasoned, I should say, they love the phone calls. They’re not just … specifically focused on just online situations. So, making sure that you pick up the phone and talk to them, let them know in detail what’s going on. And if you don’t receive an email back, calling them and saying, “Hey, I sent you an email.” Because they’re not online like the candidates that Stephanie was talking about, so just making sure that when you’re dealing with a candidate, don’t treat it as a mass. Treat it as an individual. And then, the way that individuals’ treatment started is the way that you need to continue in order for you to build that trust with that candidate.

Thank you so much. Alicia, anything to add?

Alicia Schoshinski: No, I think you’ve hit it on the head. I think, there are some things to try, but I think, as Mimi said, you’ll learn what your candidate in individual candidates like, and try to adapt to that.

Patty Hampton: Yeah, that’s what I would recommend, too.

Because the generations, they’re all merging them into one workforce, right? We’re all in there together. I’m a baby boomer, not afraid to say that out loud, but I work with amazing people, and their people first, then I figure out, where they fit in terms of the generation that they’re in, as well.

Lindsey, any other questions there for us?

Lindsey Otto: We do have some more coming in, but that’s all the time we’re going to have today, are closing in on at 3:30. But, I want to assure all those folks who have asked questions, we will connect with our team after this event to get you answers. We appreciate your participation.

I know you have a few more things to share, Patty, I’ll hand it back over to you for some key takeaways, and for everyone to just share your final thoughts that you’d like to leave with our audience today.

Patty Hampton: Great, thanks so much, Lindsey. Thank you all for joining us today. Lindsey, we can go to the next slide. I really just wanted — and the next slide — I just wanted to really share the key takeaways. We hope we have been transparent with you. We’re here to guide you and serve as a thought partner with you, as well. If there’s anything you need, by way of just a conversation, sometimes, that costs you nothing, right? To have a conversation. Connect with me or Mimi, Alicia or Stephanie. We do our best work when we’re partnering with you and where you may have a strategy that you just want to run by us, perhaps.

We’re here as a thought partner for you all, recruiting through a DEI lens. We get that a lot from our clients. We offer that service too. And then just really zone in on considering skills that you’ve heard us talk about here, the mission and culture alignment, as well, and that’s really it.

Lindsey?

Lindsey Otto: All right, we have a little bit of time. Does everyone want to go around and just share any final words that you would like to leave with our audience?

Stephanie Zavislan: I can jump in. I believe in nonprofits. I would not want to recruit for any other sector. I love nonprofits. I love what they bring to the world. I love the challenges that they overcome. The paths that they forged for people. You don’t have to choose between skill and mission alignment. Go for the gold. This sector is not starved for talent. I meet absolutely incredible talent every single day. I love talking to them, I want to place them in your organizations.

And nonprofits, just because you have a great mission, doesn’t mean you can afford to do recruitment badly, so take your time, be intentional, be strategic, and bring in the talent that you deserve.

Patty Hampton: Great.

Mimi Asfaw: Go ahead, Alicia.

Alicia Schoshinski: Thanks. I was just going to add to what Stephanie said.

Nonprofits do have that benefit of having that mission and people wanting to work for that mission. So, that’s kind of like you’re in the door thing, but then it is really making sure that you’re thinking of all the other pieces and not to — that person’s question about just focusing on that — but really thinking through your strategy and all the skills you need and really thinking through those roles.

So, hopefully, we helped you make sure that you think about that as you move forward and don’t just kind of repeat the same, but really give that a lot of thought as well. Mimi?

Mimi Asfaw: Yeah. I mean, everybody touched on really great topics. And so, I think with me, I always say, and I got into the career by stating that, I want to be treated the way … I like to treat other people the way I want to be treated.

So, in any positions that you have opened, we have amazing talents out there. This is not a job for people. When it’s a nonprofit organization, it’s a career. It’s their passion. It’s their mission. So it makes it as a recruiter, and as a talent acquisition person, it makes my job easy, because I’m not chasing the people that are looking for a job. So, making sure that you know that, and making sure that you have that specific culture and mission and that data in your organization will make it so easy for you to be able to find that talent [who] will be there to, say, “I want to retire here.” So, just giving that type of experience will last a lifetime.

So, I would say that would be one of the main thing[s] that I would say that you need to take away from this, besides all the amazing information we shared with you. 

Patty Hampton: Thanks, Mimi. And Lindsey, I’ll just add the fact that my colleagues are also passionate about supporting the nonprofit sector. I, too, am that person. I grew up in Goodwill, if you will, shopping at Goodwill. And that was my first taste into the nonprofit world, and I have loved it ever since. For me, it’s just about being that transformational search executive.

I love chatting with C-suite leaders, and how transformative they’re going to be within their organization, innovative in pulling together a culture if you’re that CEO as well. I love talking with them, and if you’re the right person for organizations that we partner with ourselves. So, with that, Lindsey, I’ll pass it back to you, and just want to openly thank our audience as well.

Lindsey Otto: Thank you to everyone who attended today’s webinar. We hope you found it to be valuable. Thank you, again, to our presenters for leading today’s dynamic discussion. There are more webinars coming your way in 2024. Be sure to check out our events calendar at nonprofithr.com/events.

And, if you haven’t already, go ahead and register to join us tomorrow. Our EDIJ team will be going live at 2 p.m. Eastern, for our webinar, Persevering for Progress: EDIJ 2024 & Beyond. Also, be sure to complete the feedback survey that will pop up once the webcast ended. Your comments help us with our planning and can inform future topics that we cover as well.

If you’d like more information about available services or support from Nonprofit HR, please email solutions@nonprofithr.com, or visit us on the web at nonprofithr.com. Thank you again, everyone, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Mimi Asfaw: Thank you. 

Alicia Schoshinski: Thank you, everyone.