Many Benefits of Working with a Nonprofit Staffing: Nonprofits often hire temps during peak periods for fundraising, event management, and the inevitable financial reconciliation that follows. Contract staffing is also used on a project-by-project basis to access talent that might not exist within the organization. If you use or are considering using short-term staff, here are tips for success.
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Be open about your culture.
What’s the pace in your office? Is it a collaborative environment with strong teams and active managers? Helping short-term staff understand the organization’s culture and processes enables them to manage their responsibilities more effectively.
Be specific about the work to be performed.
The best relationships happen when you provide absolute clarity about required skill sets and desired outcomes. When your expectations are clear, it’s easier for individuals to hit productivity and to quickly fit into the flow.
Onboard your temp staff well.
The best way to reduce a learning curve is to communicate—no matter how short or long the employment period. Tell your current employees that you are bringing in temporary help, and make certain that you have assigned a manager to oversee the work.
Today, many nonprofit organizations choose to partner with nonprofit recruiters to improve their talent acquisition strategy and attract top talent in a variety of ways:
Access to a Vast Talent Pool
Nonprofit recruiters maintain a large talent pool of qualified, pre-screened candidates with a variety of skills that can be leveraged once a position at a nonprofit becomes available.
Many of these candidates are passive candidates – those who are not actively engaged in a job search but are interested in hearing about new opportunities. These candidates are typically not available to most in-house recruiters since they don’t apply to job postings and are less likely to attend networking events than active job seekers.
By partnering with nonprofit staffing can access a vast talent pool including passive candidates who they may not otherwise be able to connect with.
Cross-Industry Knowledge
Nonprofit recruiters who understand the nonprofit sector can also help identify transferable skills that can be applied to hard-to-fill positions. A candidate with experience in for-profit investor relations may be a good fit for a nonprofit communications director, having acquired the skills necessary for the position in a different role.
A nonprofit recruiting agency can leverage its knowledge of a number of different industries to expand the search radius and help a nonprofit find the best candidate fit, even if the candidate hadn’t previously worked at a nonprofit.
Access to Extensive Recruiting Resources
Nonprofits, especially smaller organizations, are often limited by budget and resources. This can impact their ability to recruit since they may not have the proper number of team members or time required to attract top talent.
Nonprofit recruiters provide nonprofit organizations with the recruiting expertise, resources, and team members of a large enterprise, allowing them to better compete with for-profit organizations for highly skilled candidates. By allowing nonprofit recruiters to handle the hiring process, nonprofit organizations can instead focus their time and dedicate their resources to daily tasks required to grow their mission.
Minimize Nonprofit Recruiting Costs
A bad hiring decision can cost a nonprofit organization an estimated $17,000 per bad hire. Nonprofit recruiters help organizations avoid costly hiring mistakes and reduce employee turnover by taking the time to find and match the right candidate to available positions within a nonprofit organization.
Staffing agencies also provide more flexible workforce options, including temporary staffing, temp-to-hire, and contract-to-hire employees. This can help a nonprofit organization manage budgetary constraints by providing workforce scalability options without a commitment to regular full-time employment, saving the company time and money.
Temporary staffing is a go-to option when looking to fill skills gaps, handle unusually high workloads, close fundraising events, or manage between permanent hires. Reach out to agencies that specialize in nonprofit temp and short-term staffing to help you through.