Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions

Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions
Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions brings our network the best new thinking on workforce development and people strategy.
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Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions scales MACC’s critical Human Resources expertise around workforce concerns and builds capacity for next generation thinking in our network around workforce issues like: improving our employer value proposition by focusing on employee well-being, investing in our current workforce, evolving our hiring strategies, and centering IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) in our workplaces.

The unrelenting trauma, burnout, fatigue, and market pressures on our workforce since 2019 have converged to create an unprecedented set of workforce challenges for MACC members. A thriving workforce is essential to our community organizations’ ability to continue the work of serving and supporting their communities.

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New Featured Content:

NEW! Helping Non-Profit Leaders Thrive: Tune in to hear from Julie Bluhm, interim CEO of Bluhm Forward, joining Laurel Hansen, MACC's Program Manager. They'll discuss what methods can help nonprofit leaders succeed!	NEW! What to Expect When a Long-Term Nonprofit Leader Leaves: A change in leadership can leave an organization with a lot of unknowns and leave holes in productivity and connections built before the transition process. To move forward, it's important to understand where growth opportunities may be and to set the next leader up for success.	NEW! Top 10 Tips for New Executive Directors: There are challenges that come with acting as an executive director at a new organization. For new leaders, consider these tips on running a successful nonprofit organization. With a new leadership position, having supportive resources can set you up for success.

Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions

Episodes, Guides, and Resources

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Click to jump to a specific section:

Podcast: Episodes		Resources: Links, toolkits

	Recruitment Strategies		Recruitment Strategies

	Investing in a Skills Based Workforce		Investing in a Skills Based Workforce

	Strengthening Workplace Culture		Strengthening Workplace Culture

	Strengthening Our Employer Value Proposition		Strengthening Our Employer Value Proposition

Listen to the Full Playlist on Youtube!

Recruitment Strategies:

Trends and resources in nonprofit recruitment: developing inclusive and accessible recruitment and hiring strategies, pivoting to skills-based hiring, and ensuring retention through rapid and effective onboarding.

Recruitment: Podcast Episodes

		New Approaches Around Pay Equity and Succession Planning: Tune into hear from Executive Director of Avenues for Youth, Katherine Meerse, and Program Manager, Laurel Hansen, putting a magnifying glass on pay equity in regards to youth experiencing homelessness. Katherine goes into Avenues wage equity journey and implementing new practices like succession planning. They discuss the importance of laying the foundation for new hires to come into a position with a standard for what their position will entail. They highlight the importance of uplifting and investing in your workforce and considering why adequate pay is essential for our whole workforce.

		Trends and Resources in Recruiting Tune in to hear Jamie Hawkins, Human Resources Coordinator and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. This session goes into how to retain and sustain recruitment in an effective manner going into why less people are participating in the labor force and what challenges are presenting themselves. This discussion goes into how skill-based hiring/recruiting process can increase the candidate pool and overall being more flexible and center skill-based hiring and recruiting processes.

		Diversity and Inclusivity in Recruitment Tune in to hear Jamie Hawkins, Human Resources Coordinator and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager look closer at accessibility to increase diversity in the recruitment process. What having a skill-based recruitment process to encourage this would do. Some tactics include identifying the changes in language to attract applicants and being careful to not push forth bias.

		New Recruiting Approaches Tune in to hear from Ingrid Sabah, the Managing Director of Impact, Evaluation, and Learning for the African American Leadership forum and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager to discuss the importance of marketing your organization, benefits flexibility, and how your people can be recruiters. Sabah shares her perspective on how shaping culture around an organization' talent and creating a healthy culture that really listens to employees can impact recruitment early on and improve retention. They'll remind us not be afraid of an unseen or unknown outcomes when you're making positive changes in recruitment strategies.
		Community Partnerships for Filling Open Positions: Tune in to hear from Chamille Edmonds, Program Manager of DARTS, and MACC's Senior Human Resources Consultant, Diane Seep, joining Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager as they talk through challenges in retaining employees in the workforce, finding the right candidates, and pinpointing those community connections. They discuss the importance of networking and employers recruiting with new methods in mind. This podcast emphasizes the idea of pursing partnerships to benefit everyone.
		Recruitment Workforce Challenges and Recruitment at MACC Social Enterprises: Tune in to hear members of MACC's social enterprise cohort talk through the challenges of running a business within a nonprofit. They discuss the multiple hats they wear, hurdles in hiring, keeping positions filled, and fueling volunteers so they see the value in their work. Hear from Amy Haddy, Director of Thrift Business of PRISM: Shop for Change, Marge Sutcliffe, Manager of Thrift Business of Valley Outreach: StyleXchange, Sonja Carr, Manager of Thrift Business of Interfaith Outreach: Resale Select, Yudi Montes, Manager of Thrift Business of Neighbors Inc.: Clothes Closet,

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Recruitment: Resources

Best Practices in Recruiting and Hiring

2023 Trends in Nonprofit Recruiting - DHR Global
13 Effective Ways To Recruit Nonprofit Talent (Even With A Talent Shortage) - Forbes Nonprofit Council
Crappy hiring practices that need to die, and some new ones we need to adopt - Nonprofit AF
10 ways to make executive leadership searches and transitions better and more equitable - Nonprofit AF
19 tips for making your job posting so amazing, unicorns will weep tears of joy - Nonprofit AF
The Push and Pull: Declining Interest in Nonprofit Leadership - Building Movement Project

Diversity and inclusivity as a strategy to address workforce shortages:

Drive Your Nonprofit’s Mission by Investing in Your People-Blue Avocado
https://fundthepeople.org/hiring-revolution/ - Fund the People Podcast with Hiring Revolution
10 Ways to Improve Equity and Increase the Effectiveness of your Hiring Process - Blue Avocado
7 Skills-Based Hiring Best Practices: Hire for Skills, Jot Just Degrees- Workforce Hub

Early Retention through rapid and effective onboarding:

Effective Onboarding to Improve Employee Retention - Berry Dunn
33 Quick Wins to Improve Employee Retention During the First 90 Days - Blue Board

Building Professional networks to support competitive recruitment:

4 Ways to Stay Ahead of Competition in the Recruiting Game - NPA Worldwide
How to Use Networking in Recruitment - Radancy

How to promote/market your organization as an employer:

Hire With Your Values - National Council of Nonprofits
Employer Branding: A Communication Imperative for Nonprofit Organizations - National Council of Nonprofits

Inclusive and accessible recruitment strategies:

Low Pay: An Obstacle To Attracting Nonprofit Leaders - Forbes
It’s Complicated: Nonprofit Organizations and Wage Equity - Nonprofit Quarterly
Diversity Recruiting: Importance and 12 steps to improvement-Recruitment Blog
15 Ways to Build a Truly Diverse Talent Pipeline=Lever
10 Diversity Recruiting Strategies That Support Inclusive Hiring-Bamboo HR
Inclusion first: how social enterprises are rethinking recruitment-Pioneers Post
The Great Attrition is making hiring harder. Are you searching the right talent pools? - McKinsey Quarterly
Partnerships to Support Nonprofits and Interns: Expanding the Pipeline of Diverse Talent for Nonprofits - National Council of Nonprofits

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Investing in a Skills Based Workforce:

Investing in the skills of our workforce: building pathways for growth and development, using skills based promotion, how to cultivate core competencies, and develop strategies to leverage skill building as a retention tool.

Skill Building: Podcast Episodes

NEW! Helping Non-Profit Leaders Thrive

Tune in to hear Julie Bluhm, Interim CEO of Bluhm Forward and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. They'll discuss what methods can help nonprofit leaders suceed and working to make leadership transitions as smooth as they can be. They go over the steps that new leaders can take to have strong start and make the onboarding process less stressful.

Investing in Skills for Promotion and Retention

Tune in to hear Diane Seep, Senior Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. This discussion goes into how to find the right tools to remain sustainable and competitive. The benefit of investing in skill building to provide opportunity to learn and grow with the end goal to retain employees. The Importance of employee to employer communication and evaluating the roll to make the best candidate match up.

Training Managers to Adjust to New Workplace Expectations

Tune in to hear Diane Seep, Senior Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager talk through why managers having the tools to build skills in a leadership role can fulfill that responsibility of being a manager. In order to lead a team, managers need those resources to manage a team first. The go on to discuss that investing time and space to develop managers creates room for people to grow.

Moving to a Skills-Based Workplace

Tune in to hear from Ingrid Sabah, the Managing Director of Impact, Evaluation, and Learning for the African American Leadership Forum and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager where they'll discuss building a skills-based workplace. Sabah shares why learning and skill building goes hand-in-hand are foundational to organizational professional development. Dig into how self-taught experts can sometimes be a better fit for a position instead of gauging qualifications with a college degree, and how this opens up the opportunity to more potential candidates. Organizations can learn to rethink about what is really needed to reduce barriers in the hiring process in this episode.

Community Impact in Skills-based Workforce and Youth Skill Building

Tune in to hear from Ignite After School Staff: Kari Denissen-Cunnien, Ignite Executive Director, and Darian Lofton, Ignite Program Associate and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager, on how to cultivate leadership development in youth. They'll touch on how to build opportunities for youth leaders by increasing their skills. This discussion will focus on why it's important to have development that's impactful for young nonprofit leaders. Young people can change the world and having that knowledge base is powerful and brings forth change in the nonprofit sector.

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Skill Building: Resources

NEW! Setting Up Nonprofit Leaders for Success Through Transitions

What to Expect when a Long-Term Nonprofit Leader Leaves - Valtas Group
Top 10 Tips for New Executive Directors - Growth Force
Nonprofit Leadership Transitions: Four Ways Funders Can Support Leaders of Color - The Bridgespan Group
Executive Leadership Transition: What We Know - Nonprofit Quarterly
5 strategies to help nonprofit leaders amplify their impact (and avoid burnout) - WIPFLI
The Nonprofit Board's Role in Onboarding and Supporting a New CEO - The Bridgespan Group
Fewer People Want to Lead Nonprofits. What’s the Answer? - The Chronical of Philanthropy

Making the pivot to skills-based hiring:

How Learning and Development Can Attract—and Retain—Talent - SHRM
7 Skills-Based Hiring Best Practices: Hire for Skills, Not Just Degrees - Workforce Hub
The Emerging Degree Reset: How the Shift to Skills-Based Hiring Holds the Keys to Growing the U.S. Workforce at a Time of Talent Shortage - The Burning Glass Institute Harvard Business School
Skills-Based Hiring Is on the Rise - Harvard Business Review
Skills-Based Hiring: The Future of Talent Acquisition- Beamery
You Need a Skills-Based Approach to Hiring and Developing Talent- Harvard Business Review

Building programming and pathways for employee growth and development:

Want to Retain Employees? Invest in Training and Upskilling - Reworked
The Importance of Career Progression in Retaining Talent - The Adecco Group
3 Ways to Boost Retention Through Professional Development - Harvard Business Review
How Learning and Development Can Attract—and Retain—Talent - SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management
On-the-Job Development Opportunities for Nonprofit Staff - The Bridgespan Group
Taking a Skills-based Approach to building the Future - McKinsey and Company
The Skills Based Organization, Podcast - Deloitte
A Skills-Based Approach to Workforce Training-Skills Base

Leveraging Skills-based promotion:

Breaking from tradition with skill based rewards - Deloitte
Skills Focused: A Guide to Improving Recruitment, Retention, Advancement and Equity - Business Roundtable
A Guide to Improving Recruitment, Retention, Advancement and Equity - Business Roundtable
Nonprofit Employee Retention – Keep Your Top Talent - Inside Charity
Skills: The New Workforce Operating System- Deloitte

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Strengthening Workplace Cultures:

How to adapt to market trends and the employee expectations of a long-term pandemic workforce. How to train managers to evolve with new workplace expectations, improve their continuous coaching and employee engagement approach and focus on building strategies that center employee mental health, wellbeing, and overall belonging.

Strengthening Culture: Podcast Episodes

		Adopting a Mental Health Mindset in the Workplace Tune in to hear from Molly Peterson, Director of Adult Mental Health Programs at NAMI Minnesota, joining MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen to talk about the importance of overall mental health and how it relates to the workplace. Peterson explores what it means to set boundaries for your well-being and that it's okay to uphold them in the workplace. It's okay to say "no" if it means the overall health of your well-being Being conscious of your own mental health and what capacity you have to keep it healthy is what matters most and that shouldn't stop at work. Learn more about practicing mental health and what that looks like in the workplace.

		Creating a Trauma-Informed Workplace to Sustain and Strengthen Teams Tune in to hear Holly Henning, Executive director of Women's Advocates joining MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen, for this all-new culture episode! Hear how one organization intentionally develops a team-centered workplace culture, how they make the commitment to their staff's well-being, and making sure to value its importance for a better workplace culture. They discuss the intentionality behind trainings and discuss boundaries for the purpose of improving self-care in the non-profit sector. They dissect what it means to center the well-being of a team and create space for more staff voices to be heard.

		Market Trends and Expectations of the Post-Pandemic Workforce Tune in to hear Amanda Golly, Vice President of Human Resource Services and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager for this session on Culture. Employers need to be looking at everything in order to retain high performers and identify and emphasize why your organization is so important. This session further Discusses how manager's role in maintaining a healthy organizational culture.

		Remaining Competitive Amidst Shifts in Post-Pandemic Workforce Expectations Tune in to hear Katie Berg, Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. In this session the difficulty to keep workforce positions filled is highlighted. Nonprofits have to remain competitive with for profit organizations and emphasize the importance of the work that nonprofits do hold on to the workforce. Some tactics presented are making benefits more of a status quo, discussing higher wages, and making it so workers can have a healthy work life balance.

		Creating a Culture That Cares Tune in to hear Amanda Golly, Vice President of Human Resource Services and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager on why centering employee mental health and overall well-being is so important. This conversation goes in depth on organizations creating spaces for employees to take some downtime and have spaces for people to be their whole selves will promoting a healthy work environment. This session dives deeper into workplace culture and encouraging managers to dig deeper and get to know their employees and overall how to make an organization that's grounded in well-being.

		Exploring Workplace Power Dynamics Tune in to hear MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen and Co-Founder and President of Team Dynamics, Alfonso Wenker dive into new ways of thinking about workplace culture and how people leaders are using their power. They talk through why it's important to be honest about hierarchy and different types of power, and how re-balancing power in the social sector economy will help our workplaces.

		Developing an Effective Workplace Culture Tune in to hear MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen in conversation with Carl Schlueter, Executive Director of Banyan Community as he talks about the power of intentionally cultivating workplace relationships. Learn how he builds relationships to strengthen his organization for the long run.

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Strengthening Culture: Resources

Improving retention and strengthening workplace culture:

42% of Employee Turnover Is Preventable but Often Ignored - Gallup Workplace
How Leaders Can Transform Workplace Mental Health Culture - Psychology Today
How to Build a Successful Nonprofit Culture - Mission Met
Are You Part Of The Problem? Five Ways To Positively Impact Culture - Forbes
How to Build an Intersectional Approach to Talent Management - Harvard Business Review
Stay Interview Guide - University of Victoria
Creating a Culture that Cares in Five Nourishing Steps - National Council of Nonprofits
How to Build a Compassionate Workplace - Blue Avocado
Now is the Time to Form a Retention Strategy for your Nonprofit - Nonprofit Hub

Market trends and expectations of the long-term pandemic workforce:

Culture in a Nonprofit – You Need It Too! - GrowthForce
How to Create a Thriving Nonprofit Culture in the “New Normal” - CSS Fundraising
What does Workplace Culture Mean in 2024? - Vouch
Thinking Differently About Flexibility in the Post-Pandemic Workplace - HR Collaborative

Continuous coaching and employee engagement:

How Fast Feedback Fuels Performance - Gallup
Ongoing Coaching and Feedback - MIT Human Resources
Increase Employee Engagement Through Coaching - Insala
A Key to Retaining Employees: Continuous Coaching and Upskilling - From Day One

Centering employee mental health and overall wellbeing:

Psychological safety in the changing workplace: Work in America 2024 report - American Psychological Association
The 2024 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll - NAMI
Quiz: Is Your Workplace Mentally Healthy? - NAMI Minnesota
Promoting Mental Health at Work - NAMI Minnesota
Signs and Strategies for Navigating Mental Illnesses in the Workplace - NAMI Minnesota
Navigating Workplace Accommodations for Mental illnesses - NAMI Minnesota
How Leaders Can Transform Workplace Mental Health Culture - Psychology Today
Your Nonprofit Culture Can Be Ruined by These 3 Common Traps - WildApricot
How (and Why) Nonprofits are Supporting the Mental Health of their Employees - National Council of Nonprofits
Are your Benefits Super White? - Hiring Revolution from Team Dynamics

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Strengthening Our Employer Value Proposition:

How to strengthen our employer value proposition by building practices for more timely and regular total compensation evaluation and developing pathways to internal pay equity, engaging employees in benefits design, and centering diversity, equity, and accessibility in employee engagement practices.

Value Proposition: Podcast Episodes

		Overview Tune in to hear Theresa Bernard, Human Resource Generalist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager discuss how to help organizations invest in a strong value proposition. They go on to finding ways to listen better to staff so they feel that their organization is making changes on their behalf and showing them how they care.

		Fresh Thinking About Shared Leadership Tune in to hear from Mandy Ellerton joining Laurel Hansen, MACC's Program Manager, to discuss the state of employee burnout, resource scarcity, and historical wrongs, all to show the need for stronger leadership and reimagining what that looks like for our organizations. They discuss making efforts to increase the durability of our nonprofit organizations. Dive into this conversation to get into building trust between colleagues and leaders and truly believe in the people that you work with.

		IDEA Tune in to hear Theresa Bernard, Human Resource Generalist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager speak on the importance of implementing IDEA in an organization. This session takes a dive into what can be done for organizations that want to implement IDEA so it works with their mission as an organization; highlighting the value proposition of IDEA and how it has positive impacts on an organization.

		Compensation and Pay Equity Tune in to hear Theresa Bernard, Human Resources Generalist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager discussing how to increase value proposition as an employer to increase recruitment and retention. This session answers the question of: Are compensation amounts reflecting the skill level and position and duties? And, what are the benefits of doing a compensation analysis?

		Trends in Benefits and Engaging Employees in Benefits Design Tune in to hear from Quinn Daley, Human Resources Specialist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager in the episode of Ask MACC. This session dives into compensation looking past just the rates and salary. Benefits packages are becoming something that people are looking at ad using as consideration when looking at a position. They further discuss applying real-life experience to a benefits design.

		Disrupting Workplace Norms: Tune in to hear from Ashley Oolman, founder of AlliedFolk, and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager as they talk about why it's important to be aware of social norms and how to challenge, disrupt, and confront them. Workplace norms can be difficult to shift because of their familiarity, but unaddressed they can establish unrealistic expectations and lead to exclusion. Tune in to hear about how people-centered change can bring forth transformation.

		Making Compensation Competitive and Equitable Tune in to hear from Claudia Waring of AWUM and Diane Seep, MACC's Senior Human Resources Consultant, as they discuss with MACC's Program Manager Laurel Hansen all about highlighting the employees doing the work and making sure to accurately compensate them and center pay equity. Wages have a large part in whether employees choose to stay with an organization or not and making those wages competitive and equitable is a strong benefit to appealing to employees.