How Training Addresses Skilled Worker Shortage in Nonprofits

Sehoon Kim

Assistant Professor of Human Resource Development

​

March 29^th, 2022

John Bricout

Professor of Social Work

1

Presenters

Sehoon Kim, Ph.D.

​

Assistant Professor

Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development

​

Areas of interest

• Training effectiveness
• Employee well-being
• Workforce development

John Bricout, Ph.D.

​

Professor

School of Social Work

​

Areas of interest

• Social technologies and the engagement
• Disability and employment
• Workforce development

2

Workforce Development and Research Lab

• Develop actionable research, tools, and strategies to meet emergent workforce challenges facing organizations and communities in Minnesota, nationally, and internationally.

​

https://innovation.umn.edu/workforcelab/

3

Table of Content

• Labor market trends
• Challenges in nonprofits
• Possible HR-related solutions
• Why training?
• Useful practices for nonprofits
• Importance of needs assessment and evaluations

4

Labor Market Trends: National Statistics (1)

• Nationally, the job market is recovering constantly.
• The gap between job opening and hire exists.
• The separation rate is stable and greater than pre-pandemic.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://bls.gov/jlt

5

Labor Market Trends: National Statistics (2)

Source: McKinsey & Company, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours

6

Labor Market Trends: State Statistics

• The Minnesota job market is getting better as well.
• Recently, the job opening rate exceeded the unemployment rate.
• The separation rate is not available, but the Midwest average rate in 2021 is 4.0-4.4.

Source: Minnesota Employment and Economic Development, https://mn.gov/deed/data

7

Labor Market Trends: Nonprofits (1)

• Nationally, the missing jobs rate in nonprofits is rapidly decreasing.
• In this trend, nonprofit jobs will fully recover by the end of 2022.
• However, huge pace differences exist by field.

Source: Center for Civic Society Studies Archive, Johns Hopkins University, http://ccss.jhu.edu/research-projects/nonprofit-economic-data/

8

Labor Market Trends: Nonprofits (2)

• Some nonprofits fields will take longer than a year to fully recover.
• The other fields like educational service, arts, entertainments, and recreation will require a shorter time.

Source: Center for Civic Society Studies Archive, Johns Hopkins University, http://ccss.jhu.edu/research-projects/nonprofit-economic-data/

9

Implications of the Statistics

• Scarer human capital
• Why labor shortage remain?
• Health concern
• Layoff
• New opportunities
• Seeking for a different lifestyle
• Back to “Human”

10

Challenges in Nonprofits

‘Pandemic epiphanies:’ 4.5 M Americans left jobs in November 2021 ~ .50 M nonprofits workers still missing in March 2022*

​

“The Great Resignation: Retention and hiring challenges pose unique threats and challenges to nonprofits…communities”(p.5)**

​

“Don’t shortchange the staff. Mission work requires staff that are compensated well, feeling like they make a difference, and are part of the decision-making process.” (p.12)**

​

​

*Eakin, 2022 ** MCN, 2021

​

​

11

Challenges in Nonprofits

Biggest Challenges/Opportunities

​

“Maintaining staff. Everyone is experiencing so much stress in the past 16 months that depending on personal life, they may not be able to continue in this work as it requires in-person and a lot of physical and mental energy.” (p.11)*

​

75 percent of Minnesota’s nonprofit workforce are women or female- identifying people, who disproportionately serve as caregivers to either small children and/or vulnerable adults (p.5)*

​

*MCN 2021

12

Challenges in Nonprofits

Burnout

• Accelerating pace of change, challenge to keep up*
• Conflicts/competition strategic high performance vs. values**
• High engagement & chronic high stress can also create it***
• Low morale, higher turnover, hiring challenges****

​

*Rotatori, et al., 2020 **Baluch & Ridder, 2021 ***Gabriel & Aguinis, 2022 ****MCN 2021

13

Challenges in Nonprofits

More attention needs to be paid to career ladders and leadership development – COVID 19 effects, awakening to systemic racism, generational differences, gender effects/family and leadership, differential mission-specific (i.e., healthcare vs. arts) effects*

​

Nonprofit leaders need to know more about how their employees feel about COVID 19-related organizational changes - perceived control, perspectives, and decision-making inputs*

​

*Keunzi, et al., 2021

14

Challenges in Nonprofits

• Low level of engagement: “…vigor, dedication, and absorption – positive, fulfilling, work related state of mind.” Affects employee performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions and attitude *

​

• Need for better addressing inequities and enhancing inclusion**

​

• Employees salaries & training benefits not adequate***

​

*Park, et al., 2018 **Khulmann, et al., 2021 ***MCN, 2021 ***Slatten, et al., 2021

​

15

Possible Solutions

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”

​

(Peter Drucker)

​

16

Possible Solutions

Recruitment

• Strategic DEI hiring plans*

Retention

• Inclusive workplaces**
• Mentoring programs*
• Organizational values and mission enacted***
• Building teams and team building skills for managers*

​

Castillo & Trinh, 2017 **Park, et al., 2018 ***Slatten, et al., 2021

​

​

17

Possible Solutions

• Development resources (including training)*
• Show worker’s impact – making a difference**
• Meaningful work, changing the world (Generational)**
• Flexibility/Digital/Hybrid (Gender & Inclusion)**
• Relationship building with employees (Empathy & Events)**

​

* Slatten, et al., 2021 **Keunzi, et al., 2021

​

18

Possible Solutions

• Work redesign*, employee decision making & innovation**
• Job autonomy***
• Organizational and social support**
• Fair & equitable performance management *
• Transparency*

​

*Chang, et al., 2013 **Gabriel & Aguinis, 2022 *** Park, et al., 2018

19

Why Training and Development?

20

Useful Practices for Nonprofits

21

Reskilling and Upskilling

• Employees are provided with training and learning opportunities to ensure they can succeed in their new roles.
• Make employees partners in the reskilling/upskilling process.

​

When a person is building a higher level of competency in a skill or set of skills to better perform in the current role.

When a person is building a different skill or set of skills to be able to perform in a different or significantly evolving role.

22

Onboarding

• Main goals
• To get new hires operational as quickly as possible
• To have them shape positive first impressions of the organization
• Onboarding is not orientation but a comprehensive process that can start from pre-boarding and last up to 12 months.

• Employee onboarding is the process during which new hires get familiar with the organization, the people, and the culture of the organization they’ve just joined.

23

Cross-Training

• Training employees to perform different role tasks.
• Two basic steps
•  Identifying the key knowledge and skills needed for each role through cross-references.
• Training other employees with experienced trainers
• Benefits

• Workforce flexibility, employee motivation, teamwork improvement, and organizational sustainability

24

Apprenticeship

• Structured on-the-job program to develop their future workforce.
• Organizations take advantage of the apprentices' skills while apprentices gain knowledge and expertise to help them advance their careers.
• Different from internships

25

Partnering with Schools

26

Importance of Needs Assessment and Evaluations

• Needs assessment by surveying employees and tracking employee skills.
• Should close the loop by supporting their employees’ needs.
• Make sure that employees’ developmental efforts are paying off
• Update job descriptions and performance appraisal metrics.
• Measure organizational differences (before vs. after)
• Eliminating skills gaps is a never-ending process; another needs assessment should be followed.

27

Sehoon Kim

kimsh@umn.edu

John Bricout

jbricout@umn.edu

Thank You!

28

References

Baluch, A.M., Ridder, H.G. (2021). Mapping the research landscape of strategic human resource management in nonprofit organizations: A systematic review and avenues for future research. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 50(3), 598–625. DOI: 10.1177/0899764020939653

Castillo, E.A. & Trinh, M. P. (2019). Catalyzing capacity: absorptive, adaptive, and generative leadership. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(3), 356-376. DOI 10.1108/JOCM-04-2017-0100

Chang, W.J., Wang, Y.S., & Huang, T.C. (2013). Work design-related antecedents of turnover intention: A multilevel approach. Human Resource Management, 52(1), 1–26. DOI:10.1002/hrm.21515

Eakin, E. (2022, March). How to turn the ‘great resignation’ into the ‘great attraction’. Philanthropy News Digest, Author. How to turn the ‘Great Resignation’ into the ‘Great Attraction’ | The sustainable nonprofit | Features |PND

​

29

References

Gabriel, P.G., & Aguinis, H. (2022). How to prevent and combat employee burnout and create healthier workplaces during crises and beyond. Business Horizons, 65(2), 183-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.037

Khulmann, E., Dussault, G., & Corriea, T. (2021). Global health and health workforce development: What to learn from COVID-19 on workforce preparedness and resilience. International Journal of Health Planning Management, 36(s1), 5-8. DOI:10.1002/hpm.3160.

Kuenzi, K., Stewart, A.J., & Walk, M. (2021). COVID-19 as a nonprofit workplace crisis: Seeking insights from the nonprofit workers' perspective. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 31, 821–832. DOI: 10.1002/nml.21465.

MCN (2021, December). Minnesota Nonprofit Economy Report: COVID-19 Impact, Update 5.0. St. Paul, MN. Author.

​

30

References

Park, S., Kim, J., Park, J., Lim, D.H. (2018). Work engagement in nonprofit organizations: A conceptual model. Human Resource Development Review 17(1) 5–33. DOI: 10.1177/1534484317750993.

Ralls, D., Bianchi, L., & Choudry, S. (2020). Across the Divide’: Developing Professional Learning Ecosystems in STEM Education. Research in Science Education, 50, 2463–2481https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9789-5.

Reuveni, B. (2021). Careers are no longer ladders to climb. Here’s how to develop professionally instead. Fast Company. Retrieved at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90668481/careers-are-no-longer-ladders-to-climb-heres-how-to-develop-professionally-instead

Rotatori, D., Lee, E.J., & Sleeva, S. (2021). The evolution of the workforce during the fourth industrial revolution. Human Resource Development International, 24(1), 92-103. DOI: 10.1080/13678868.2020.1767453

​

31

References

Sagawa, S. (2020). Civic Apprenticeship: Build the talent pipeline for the nonprofit sector by expanding national service and recognizing its role in workforce development. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 11(4): 20200031.

Searing, E.A.M., Wiley, K.K & Young, S.L. (2021). Resiliency tactics during financial crisis: The nonprofit resiliency framework. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 32, 179–196. DOI: 10.1002/nml.21478.

Slatten, L.A., Bendickson, J.S., Diamond, M., & McDowell, W.C. (2021). Staffing of small nonprofit organizations: A model for retaining employees. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 6(1), 50-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2020.10.003

Tursunbayeva, A. (2019). Human resource technology disruptions and their implications for human resources management in healthcare organizations. BMC Health Services Research 19, 268. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4068-3

​

32