Recruiting and retaining talent is a big challenge for nonprofit organizations. With limited budgets and resources, nonprofits find it hard to compete with for-profit companies when it comes to salary. Unfortunately, private companies enticing your employees with better offers can cost your nonprofit its top talent and can lead to a high turnover rate. One way to turn the tide, however, is to provide creative nonprofit employee benefits that contribute to a desirable workplace culture. By nurturing employees’ professional growth, helping them achieve a healthy work-life balance, and, yes, adding some fun, you can attract employees, encourage them to do the work they believe in, and support your nonprofit’s mission with a stable, experienced workforce.
Interestingly, however, Nonprofit HR’s 2017 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey found that 64% of nonprofits have no formal recruitment strategy, and 81% lack a formal retention strategy. If your nonprofit is one that lacks a solid plan for attracting talent and encouraging long-term careers with your organization, it’s vital that you develop a strategy now that will help you compete.
Use Nonprofit Employee Benefits Surveys as a Benchmark
Creating an employee benefit package is a challenge common throughout the nonprofit world, so turning to industry sources for guidance may help you frame your organization’s policies. For example, PPI Benefits issued a Nonprofit Employee Benefits Report , which shows which nonprofit employee benefits organizations most commonly offer:
Nonprofit Employee Benefit | % of Nonprofits that Offer |
Group medical | 98.7% |
Group dental | 94.9% |
Employer-paid life insurance | 92.8% |
Paid holidays | 93.6% |
Flexible spending accounts | 74.6% |
Sick leave | 74.4% |
Vacation days | 72.4% |
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) | 68.0% |
Personal days | 58.3% |
Vacation rollover | 50.0% |
Flu vaccinations | 43.4% |
Gym membership discounts | 38.5% |
Paternity leave | 36.5% |
Bundled paid time off (vacation, sick, personal) | 32.7% |
Tuition assistance/continuing education | 28.0% |
Parental leave/elder care | 27.6% |
Accident insurance | 26.7% |
Health screenings | 18.9% |
Telemedicine services | 14.8% |
Onsite gym | 13.9% |
Source: PPI Benefits, 2016 Nonprofit Employee Benefits Report
As you build your recruiting and retention strategies, it’s important to select nonprofit employee benefits that support your overall business goals. The PPI Benefits survey revealed that the top objective among nonprofits when selecting benefits is controlling costs (96.7% of respondents) followed by “attracting and retaining employees” (90.1%).
After you have considered the benefits your nonprofit could offer, an added step that could help you put together a truly competitive nonprofit benefits package is to ask your employees for their input. You can gauge the value your employees place on the benefits you’ve selected, with a formal nonprofit employees benefit survey (online templates are available, such as this one from 123 Form Builder) or with informal discussion.
The advantage of asking your staff directly is that their values may not align with national trends, so their insights may be more valuable than benchmarks from a survey. In addition, since the work and environment of nonprofits can run the gamut, the benefits that would provide your staff with the greatest value may be unique — they may appreciate an additional personal day rather than an onsite gym, for example. Choose a strategy that will support the optimal work environment and encourage long-term employment.
Creative Nonprofit Employee Benefit Ideas
A discussion with your own staff may also inspire some creative ideas for nonprofit job benefits, or more, specifically job perks, that can mean the difference between an employee who is content and one who is looking for employment elsewhere. The annual Staples Workplace Survey revealed that 46% of millennials say more office perks would improve their happiness.
This list of job perks is different from benefits, which are considered part of the compensation package and which employees would probably have to fund themselves if you didn’t provide them. Perks, on the other hand, improve an employee’s quality of life, often without requiring a large investment — or, in some cases, any investment. Examples include:
When an applicant is comparing job opportunities, perks or creative nonprofit employee benefits may be the difference between the job opportunity that you offer vs. what a competitor is offering — and the deciding factor that tips the scale in your favor.
Nonprofit Employee Benefits’ ROI
If you are able to achieve the perfect blend of compensation, benefits, perks and work environment that makes employees want to remain with your nonprofit long term, you will certainly see a return for your investment into an employee recruiting and retention strategy. But what you may not anticipate are the additional benefits your nonprofit organization will receive.
First, happier people are more productive. Research performed by the Social Market Foundation found happier people were about 12% more productive than people who were not happy. You may find that helping your employees enjoy their work more and achieve greater balance in their lives may result in their ability to accomplish more.
In addition, your HR team will have a lighter workload with less recruiting, onboarding, offboarding and other tasks related to high employee turnover. Recruiting may even become easier since employees may make word of mouth referrals to tell others how your nonprofit is a great place to work.
To administer a strategy that provides additional benefits and job perks, you need a full service workforce management solution. Contact the team at Paypro to learn how easy it can be to manage time, payroll, and HR, even with flexible schedules, telecommuting, volunteer hours, and reimbursements for training and certification. Let us help you create the workplace culture that attracts and retains the talent you need to operate successfully. inquiries@payprocorp.com | 631.777.1100