Overcoming Staff Shortages: Part 1
It is not uncommon for nonprofits to do more with less. In fact, it sometimes feels like the mantra for the sector. Many nonprofits are understaffed, and thousands of organizations across Canada have few paid staff, while others are run entirely by volunteers.
An understaffed nonprofit is one where the organization does not have enough workers to perform the tasks necessary to run operations effectively. Understaffing can happen for multiple reasons including budget constraints, inability to attract new talent, long-time employees leaving, or inadequate determination of how much work actually needs to be completed to effectively run the organization. In addition, some organizations are uncertain about how to properly delegate tasks to those best suited to perform the work.
Challenges of understaffed nonprofit organizations
Understaffed organizations face numerous challenges such as dissatisfaction with the workplace and high levels of stress which can lead to employee burnout, low morale, and being unable to complete the work required to adequately serve the community. With programs to deliver and services to provide, often the strategic work, such as having time to develop strategies for growth, fundraising to raise enough money for important initiatives, or time to recruit new staff and volunteers to help lighten the workload will suffer. Additionally, being perpetually understaffed can impact the quality of the services of the organization.
Assessing your nonprofit for understaffing
It is valuable for an organization to be able to identify where capacity is lacking. This can be done in several ways.
Feedback from staff. Do you survey your staff and volunteers or ask for feedback? Are they happy? Or do they feel underappreciated or unvalued? Taking time to seek feedback is important to understand so changes can be made. Feedback can inform where personnel is lacking and where your organization may need to direct more resources to better support your people.
Concerns regarding workload. Are staff frequently required to work overtime to finish their day-to-day tasks? Does your organization track the amount of overtime worked by employees? If so, consistently high overtime can indicate that the team is understaffed. Your organization may need to seek short or long-term resources that will allow the work to be done more efficiently.
High rates of turnover. How long do staff and volunteers stay with your organization? Do you meet with people for exit interviews when they leave? Understanding how frequently people leave and why can provide important information that informs changes or improvements you can make to better support workers.
Strategies nonprofits can use to overcome staff shortages
Even if your nonprofit has a small team, there are strategies your organization can use to ensure the workload is managed effectively.
Strong board leadership. One of the most important qualities of strong nonprofits is strong board leadership. Leadership starts at the top, and it starts with the board of directors. The board are visionaries that set the direction and tone of the organization. When recruiting board members, it is important to seek people who are committed to the work of the organization, committed to serving out their term, and share a value that the people they work with are important. A board that is erratic and has frequent turnover often leads to plans not being implemented, and can severely impact morale and lead to other staff and volunteers questioning the commitment of leadership.
Focused staff and volunteer retention. All nonprofits, even small ones, should consider having at least two people responsible for seeking regular feedback from staff and volunteers. Having more than one person with this responsibility helps people bounce ideas off of each other, reduce the opportunity for bias, and collaboratively develop a plan for improving processes, reporting back so team members know feedback is being listened to, and ensuring changes are implemented that best support the team. These activities go a long way in helping your people feel valued, thereby reducing turnover and keeping people in their positions for a longer period of time.
Leveraging technology to streamline operations. If your staff and volunteers are reporting that processes are taking them a long time to complete, this can signal that there is likely a better way to ensure tasks are completed. There are many options for using technology to improve efficiency of the work. From switching from spreadsheets to software to manage donor data, or using artificial intelligence to automate time-consuming work, many tasks can be automated. This can go a long way in managing a small team, allowing them to get more work done in less time.
Sharing resources. Often, small organizations are limited by small budgets. It can be difficult to hire staff, purchase technology, or manage office space when your organization is unsure whether it has the funds to afford these resources long-term. Collaborations are a great way to alleviate lack of resources and capacity. Does your organization have partnerships with other groups doing similar work, or in a similar geographic area? If so, you may be able to share resources such as having shared staff support, shared office space, or even shared board members. When two or more organizations get together, this can allow for enough resources to band together, while increasing capacity for all.
Hiring a consultant. As we shared earlier, technology can often help automate work so it can be done more efficiently. Similarly, hiring a consultant to work with your nonprofit can often accomplish this same work. Consultants are valuable resources that work with many nonprofit organizations, and uniquely understand the pulse of the sector. They can often recommend new and improved processes that help your organization reduce its workload. Consultants can also recommend strategies and plans, or even implement new processes that remove this workload from your organization’s staff and volunteers. In addition, consultants can often provide training that help staff and volunteers complete their work more efficiently, and many times, having a professional development budget improves morale of staff and volunteers alike.
While having a small team can feel like a daily challenge, by implementing some effective strategies, nonprofits can still accomplish their tasks and ensure that the work gets done for the communities they serve.
