| Date 14-Dec-2022 to 16-Dec-2022 |
Location |
Format Institutional |
Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) introduced a workshop on Talent Management in Non-profit Organisations for the first cohort. It was conducted virtually from 14-16 December 2022. 24 participants from 11 organisations of the cohort participated in the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Rajan Sinha, CEO, Mantrana Consulting Pvt Ltd., an integrated HR solutions group, since 2005, and also Managing Partner, Asia Coaching Network LLP.
Non-profits existed in the country since time immemorial and were dominated by volunteering and charities from those who ‘have’ to those who ‘haven’t’. It was intertwined with the social and religious values within the country. During Colonial times, reformers who usually came from the elite class led the social movements and development work in the country. It was post-independence and more so ever, with the establishment of Institutions like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), and Delhi School of Social Work, that nonprofits emerged as a professional-driven sector. It is a very recent phenomenon where the sector is looking at individuals from different social, economic and academic backgrounds joining hands to create an impact.
Non-profits are mission-driven organisations set up to bring about social change and involve deep engagement with human lives, so the context they operate in is extremely uncertain and dynamic. Since the working conditions are such, the requirements of professionals or those carrying out these development interventions are also very different from those of any other sector. Alignment of value systems, motivation, commitment, flexibility and adaptability would be some of the core priorities for professionals working in non-profits. As suggested by Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy, these professionals from varied backgrounds operate with different motivations including good compensation, growth & learning opportunities, belief in the purpose, etc. It is of utmost importance to get the best possible fit between the requirements of the sector and the motivation and preferences of the available resource pool. In traditional volunteerism, the motivation was primarily self-driven or customary. In the new era, volunteers have to be inspired to believe in the purpose. The best way to inspire people is by making them see the connection between their work and their own dreams and aspirations.
The process of finding the right fit for the organisation starts with sourcing potential candidates before the recruitment process is initiated. The narrative around non-profits has to change. Being a non-profit is just incidental, it is rather a social change-making organisation. The most critical part of a non-profit is its purpose. Effective communication of the purpose plays a very important role in attracting the right kind of professionals, motivating current employees and maintaining team dynamics. Another important aspect is the espoused values in an organisation. The values imbibed by the organisation answer the question of how it gets where it wants to go. Most of the time, these values are ‘aspirational’ and ‘permission to play’ values. But sometimes, values are accidental too. Decision-making in an organisation is guided by its values. The culture of an organisation is derived from its values. This culture in turn affects the entire functioning of an organisation, including team dynamics and work performance.
While sourcing for a job, a general trend is to post an advertisement with details like job responsibilities, eligibility and compensation. But once the candidature is accepted, an individual is expected to imbibe aligned values and passion for the purpose. This is a miscommunication of expectations. It is suggested that a job advertisement should be branding the reasons why a suitable candidate should be interested in the job - the work that the organisation does, the values that the organisation stands for and the employee value proposition. The advertisement should appeal to a focused target group and not necessarily should be attractive to the entire labour market. For e.g., the Facebook career page starts with “Do the Most Meaningful Work of Your Life.”
After shortlisting, various methods like the Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI) Technique help employers to identify the right fit for the organisation as part of the hiring process. The theory behind this particular technique is that past behaviour predicts future performance. The STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) method is a structured manner of responding to a behavioural-based interview question by discussing the specific situation, task, action, and result of the situation you are describing.
Once the candidate is finalized, ensuring smooth onboarding is crucial in providing higher job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and performance level, lower turnover, lower stress, and career effectiveness. Compensation and benefits design also influences employee satisfaction and retention. There are accepted limitations in the remuneration of the non-profit ecosystem. One of the strong reasons for the same could be that the primary motivation for social workers in past was the cause. Though the scenario of non-profits has changed in past decades, compensation is still driven by the traditional view of the non-profit ecosystem. A study by ISDM reveals that empathy is an integral part of compensation and benefits in non-profit organisations. (CSIP; ISDM, 2022). Considering these factors will give more employee satisfaction and improve productivity and retention. For e.g., flexibility in salary composition, working from home, flexible timing, etc.
All the employees have four kinds of potential, marginal, lateral, promotable, and high. Based on their performance, employees can be misfits, solids, keepers, and super keepers. Performance should be rewarded with financial rewards, but the potential has to be rewarded by growth/promotion.
The engaged employee is identified by the discretionary effort an employee applies to accomplish tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals. To improve the engagement of the employees, their needs have to be satisfied. There are 8 areas for employee expectations: Development, Appreciation, Remuneration, Communication, Authority, Personal, Social and Work/Life Balance. All the employees would have different expectations or a combination of few.
The talent management framework includes 1. Talent strategy and planning, 2. Sourcing and recruiting, 3. Performance management, 4. Learning and development, 5. Succession planning, 6. Leadership development, 7. Compensation. Generation Z (born between the mid-90s and 2010) thinks and how to attract, train and retain them. They prefer dynamic and fast-paced working environment, are visually oriented, and prefers to consume content through mobile. They prefer a microlearning environment. Millennials want self-actualization and hence 28 per cent of learning comes from coaching, 21 per cent from role rotation, 18 per cent from collaboration and only 6 per cent from classroom training.
Performance management is usually limited to appraising one’s performance while the focus should be on improving the performance. Criticism and suggestions are not sufficient for bringing improvements in the performance of employees. They need to be guided. Performance Management enables managers to manage effectively by ensuring that people and teams:
Timely feedback is very important for performance management. Feedback is referred to employees’ verbatim statements and observable behaviour and it focuses only on changeable behaviour. Use of the sandwich approach, which says commend, recommend and commend again, for giving feedback is suggested. Feedback summary follows the BIFF (Behaviour, Impact, Feelings and Future) approach for giving feedback and the LEAD (Listen, Empathize, Apologize and Do something) approach for receiving.
The appraisal also plays an important role in performance management. The appraisal meeting has to be initiated by laying out the agenda and encouraging input and giving good news first. During the review meeting, performance is reviewed based on previous goals and achievements against them and improvements made by the employee. Appraisal meetings also include setting goals for the future and building upon areas of improvement. Feedback again becomes a very critical part of the appraisal.
In case of poor performance or misconduct, counselling, discipline or a combination of both are applied. Discipline also has two theories. The Hot Stove principle is based on the same burn every time for everyone. This theory doesn’t distinguish between the first or serial offender, gender, age, etc. The Yudhishthira principle believes that the one who is aware of the consequences should be punished more severely than the one not aware of it. In an organisation, an employee should be aware of what is or isn’t acceptable in an organisation. Punishment has to be proportionate to misconduct. Both in the case of misconduct or poor performance, evidence-based documentation is required.
A team is defined by its purpose, not by its members. The purpose of a team is to continuously co-create greater beneficial value, with and for all, their stakeholders.
The team undergoes 4 stages- forming (testing), storming (infighting), norming (getting organised), and performing (mature closeness). Teams with a very stable membership deteriorate in performance over time, because members become too similar in viewpoint to one another or get stuck in ruts. The most important aspects of a team are trust, psychological safety, diversity and inclusion.
TALENT MANAGEMENT IN NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS
14-16 December 2022
COURSE OUTLINE
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Wednesday, 14 December 2022 |
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Session 1 09.30 am to 10.30 am |
Introduction and Expectations Mapping |
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Session 2 11.00 am to 01.00 pm |
Organisational Purpose and Values
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Session 3 02.00 pm to 04.00 pm |
Talent Acquisition
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Thursday, 15 December 2022 |
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Session 4 10.00 am to 12.00 pm |
Talent Management
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Session 5 02.00 pm to 04.00 pm |
Performance Management
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Thursday, 15 December 2022 |
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Session 6 10.00 am to 12.00 pm
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Discipline Management
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Session 7 02.00 pm to 04.00 pm |
Employee Morale and Experience
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