By Carol Gee

Regardless of the state of the economy, the best and the brightest will always be in great demand; making retention of top-notch employees a major challenge for all industries/ professions. The reasons that individuals voluntarily leave positions are varied. These include changes in family dynamics, unsolicited job offers, or simply a desire to do something different. Decisions may also be influenced by such organizational dynamics as being passed over for a promotion, or asked to do something perceived as unethical. While the decision to leave is frequently about the money, often it’s not. This does not mean that money is not important.

In truth, employee turnover can have serious financial and other ramifications on a company or organization. For example, departing employees often take with them valuable knowledge and expertise. Other inherent costs often include payout of unused leave time, the hiring of temporary workers, and the added cost of overtime for employees asked to fill in. Placing ads, interviewing and hiring new employees also contribute to costs. Factor in the lost of productivity before an old worker can be replaced, as well as the lost productivity associated with getting new employees up to speed, and the financial impact of turnover soars.

So what can organizations do to keep employees from leaving? A simple answer might be to create workplaces that make employees to want to stay. The five practical tips below may go a long way toward accomplishing this.

• Begin by getting new hires off to a great start by ensuring that they have the equipment and other resources necessary for them to perform their jobs.


• If career development or educational benefits are lacking within your organization, consider the development of such programs in-house, or work to develop programs with area colleges, or consider providing tuition reimbursement to those whom attend classes off-site.


• Regular Town Halls or staff meetings are excellent ways to communicate company goals and achievements. Ask questions and demonstrate interest in employees’ answers. There is no substitute for getting ‘face-to-face’ with employees on a regular basis and listening to what they have to say. For example, have some workers expressed a desire for more flexible policies, flexible schedules or more autonomy? If at all possible, take action based on what you hear.

Many of today’s more successful organizations offer incentives tied to longevity. Such incentives or perks might include access to a company-owned condo in a specific locale for use when traveling. Tickets to sporting or other events are also typical. Coveted office space and often coveted parking spaces are often based on tenure. Tuition assistance or free tuition for spouses and children of employees who have been employed for a specified number of years has resulted in increased longevity at some companies.

• Limit restructuring departments or sections to only when it’s absolutely critical. Constant restructuring can drive employees bonkers. Remember, every structure has its advantages and disadvantages.

On the other hand, if restructuring benefits the employees by giving them more support, resources, or control over their work situations, then the changes can have a positive effect on retention. Likewise, make employees a part of restructuring plans or decision-making whenever possible.

• Investigate or develop new technologies that save time and increases productivity.

Another way that companies may establish and maintain retention is to capitalize on the strengths they already have in place. In today’s organizations, age differences, life experiences, and ethnic backgrounds also tend to impact an organization’s employee retention goals. This is particularly evident in organizations where employees of varied ages and other demographics work side by side. For some employees flexibility is important, as is movement in their careers and compensation. For others, telecommuting, parental leave to care for aging parents, or in-house child-care facilities are important.

Granted, there is no perfect solution for all organizational problems. When it comes right down to it, the reason that employees stay at a particular organization is a no-brainer. They stay because they feel valued or feel that they fit. Still, offering a menu of options for scheduling, compensation, benefits, etc., tends to be great motivators for establishing a culture of retention.

About the Author
Carol Gee, M.A. has worked in education for 28 years in positions ranging from teaching to administration. Currently she is an editor and business writer at Goizueta Business School at Emory University. She is also the author of books, The Venus Chronicles and Diary of a ‘Flygirl’ Wannabe (Life Lessons of a Cool Girl in Training)
www.venuschronicles.net

If you want to work for a non-profit organization, it goes without saying that a passion for the organization’s mission and a genuine desire to contribute your time and effort toward helping others—even if it means doing mundane tasks—are an absolute must.

That’s because non-profit organizations, unlike public or private companies, don’t operate under the premise of earning the highest profits possible for owners or shareholders. Rather, they’re working toward a specific cause or goal, whether it’s finding a cure for breast cancer, providing disaster relief, or improving education.

So what kinds of work might you do for a non-profit? Recruiters and employees say it’s crucial to be a versatile, Jack- or Jill-of-all-trades type, because you’ll likely be expected to pitch in on a variety of responsibilities, from fundraising and organizing volunteers to tracking expenses and completing paperwork. You’ll need to be able to work collaboratively, but also be a leader and a self-starter, because non-profits don’t always have the funds to hire more staff if workloads increase.

Recruiters say they are looking for college students who have previous volunteer or internship experience at a charity or non-profit. “The more experience that you have in a particular area of non-profit work, the better off you’re going to be,” says Karen Dempsey, the vice president of development and administration at the Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Brother’s Brother Foundation, which provides medical and educational aid in over 80 countries with a staff of just 14 people. “And since you can volunteer to work for non-profits, that makes getting experience that much easier.”

The most common worry you might have about launching a career in the non-profit field is the salary, which typically isn’t as high as those in fields like business or law. For example, the average starting salary for a development manager at a non-profit organization is $40,100 per year, and a business administration manager at a non-profit earns an average of $42,600, according to data from PayScale.com.

“You’re never going to get rich working in non-profits,” says Ms. Dempsey, “but you will have a very rewarding life.”

And non-profits do try to stay competitive with the private sector by offering their employees special perks like education stipends or generous paid time off. Mirla Urzua, a 2007 graduate of Harvard College who taught second graders in the same school district she had attended in South Central Los Angeles, Calif. as a Teach for America corps member, was thrilled with the extra benefits she received with the program, such as two years of college loan forbearance and a $10,000 educational grant that allowed her to earn her master’s degree without racking up debt.

“I loved having the opportunity to make such a strong impact and do it right after college,” says Ms. Urzua, who now works as a recruitment director for Teach for America in San Diego. “And I loved the fact that it wasn’t easy.”

Common Majors: Business and Liberal Arts

Personality Fit for Non-Profits: Natural leaders with a strong sense of empathy, a passion for helping others, and unlimited perseverance in the face of setbacks will be successful in the field.

Non-Profit Career Trajectory: The career path for non-profit work can vary wildly—some organizations barely hire at the entry level and others are looking for lots of help from recent college graduates. Getting a sense of the size and scope of the non-profit organization that interests you can better help you figure out whether have a chance of getting hired full time, or whether you’ll need to start as a volunteer or intern.

Getting Started: Some entry level non-profit titles include program assistant or development assistant. In those roles, you’d be helping higher-ups to plan events, raise money and track donations, or coordinate outreach efforts. At other organizations, you’ll be leading groups of volunteers from the get-go; at Boy Scouts of America, where director of diversity and executive recruitment Carolyn Altemus hired 400 entry level employees last year to run operations at the organization’s 247 local offices, entry level recruits receive three to six months of training and are then charged with managing an entire local volunteer corps. “We teach you, basically, how to run a business,” she says.

Get on the Fast Track: The most important thing you can do to rise in the ranks of a non-profit is to display willingness to be a team player and be eager to help out at both complicated and mundane tasks, “even if it’s just pulling tables and arranging a conference room a certain way,” says Lucy Dettl, the recruiting manager for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a Dallas, Texas-based organization dedicated to education about and treatment for breast cancer.

Next Up: After a few years of strong performance, you might end up managing other employees or directing projects on your own, depending on the structure and size of the organization. For example, at an organization with an international or policy focus, you might be a senior associate or project manager for a particular region or policy focus, directing other associates and spearheading fundraising, writing memos, or planning events.

Phase Three: As you gain more management experience, you might become a director of a department, such as development or policy, or even the head of an entire non-profit organization. You’d likely deal more extensively with the macro issues faced by your organization and its direction as a whole, and could also serve as its spokesperson in media coverage.

Non-profits are increasingly looking for employees who have the business savvy to maximize profits and cut losses so they can remain sustainable, so you may want to consider an M.B.A. with a focus on corporate social responsibility or non-profit management. That would equip you to work as a strategist for a microfinance organization and eventually as a director of business development or a chief financial officer.

Some programs, like those at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, will forgive part or all of students’ tuition loans if they commit to post-graduate work in the public service or non-profit sectors.

Alternatively, with a master’s degree in public policy, you could become an organization’s director of public policy, and eventually move up to becoming a vice president or president. But consider whether you need the business or policy skills—especially if you have a liberal arts background—for the degrees and decide whether full-time or part-time study is best.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Make a Gift Today
In response to the devastating fire in San Bruno dislocating hundreds of our Peninsula community members, an emergency response fund has been created by Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The community foundation is offering an initial $100,000 match on all gifts to aid in the response and recovery of this neighborhood.

Please make a gift now to help residents who have been overwhelmed by this catastrophic event.

The San Bruno Fire Fund is designed to help rebuild the community today and in the weeks to come. All contributions will be granted to qualified nonprofit organizations and programs serving those whose lives have been impacted by this emergency. For any questions about the fund or how to make a gift, please contact the community foundation at 650.450.5444 or donate@siliconvalleycf.org.

To double the impact of your gift, make a gift to the San Bruno Fire Fund by clicking on the donate button.

Anyone can make a contribution. Community foundation fund advisors can make grants out of their funds by logging into DonorConnect. Silicon Valley Community Foundation, along with the residents of San Bruno, thank you for your generous support.

Source: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

A new hiring index predicts more hiring of accounting and finance employees during the last three months of the year.

Nationally, 8 percent of CFO respondents reported plans for financial employee hiring in the fourth quarter, and 7 percent expected to trim staff, resulting in a net 1 percent lift in hiring activity — the first positive figure since the first quarter of 2009. Most remaining CFOs interviewed didn’t expect changes, according to the Robert Half Financial Hiring Index.

The index pointed to the Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas region as the one that will be doing the most hiring late this year, with a net 6 percent increase in hiring activity.

The weighted index is based on interviews with more than 1,400 CFOs, randomly selected from companies with at least 20 employees. Robert Half International, a staffing services firm that specializes in accounting and finance, has been tracking hiring activity in that area since 1992.

Nationally, 86 percent of CFOs interviewed have at least a somewhat optimistic outlook for their companies; 39 percent are very confident.

“While employers remain cautious about adding staff, more firms also are concerned they could miss out on business opportunities by not having adequate human resources in place,” Robert Half Chairman and CEO Max Messmer said in a release. “Rising customer demands are placing added pressure on companies that made deep personnel cuts in recent years. Some businesses not in a position to hire full time are addressing the gap by bringing in professionals on a temporary or project basis.”

The quarterly index is part of the Robert Half Professional Employment Report.

Source: Kansas City Business Journal

If you’re just itching to jump ship at your current employer, you’re not alone. A new survey finds that one in five employed Americans are willing to change jobs if given the opportunity.

At the same time, the GfK Employee Engagement Pulse Survey of 533 employed adults also found 53 percent would prefer to stay with their current company, even if they were offered a good job elsewhere.

“During recessions, employees are far less likely to change jobs, while employers tend to lessen their investments in employee training and development in an effort to keep overhead lower,” GfK Custom Research North America stated in a news release.

Thomas Hartley, VP of GfK customer loyalty and employee engagement, said employees are more likely to stay put during a recession. At the same time, employers tend to take them for granted. As a result, employee retention may wane.

“Since it takes up to 12 months to improve employee engagement, companies need to plan ahead and take the proper steps to ensure their employee retention rates remain high,” Hartley said.

Among other findings:

• Forty-seven percent of employed adults are confident that the economy will recover in the next year.
• Eighty percent of fully employed adults are confident they will be able to keep their job for at least the next year.

Source: South Florida Business Journal

Late last month, tens of thousands of runners who are registered for this year’s New York City Marathon got an e-mail from Mary Wittenberg, the president and chief executive of New York Road Runners.

Ms. Wittenberg wanted to introduce them to a person whom many had already heard of: the actor Edward Norton. But the words “Hollywood movie star” didn’t appear once in her message. Instead, she implored the runners to join a social networking Web site that Mr. Norton and three partners started in May that she says has the potential to revolutionize charitable giving. It’s called Crowdrise.com.

“They’ve built a phenomenal platform to help us really broaden our reach,” says Ms. Wittenberg. Thanks in part to Crowdrise, she says, the marathon has a shot at raising a record $26.2 million, or a million a mile, for charity this year. That would be up from $24 million in 2009 and $18.5 million in 2008.

As for Mr. Norton, she adds: “You should see him standing in my office at the whiteboard. Seriously, Edward is as passionate about our vehicle, the marathon, as I am. And I’ve never said that about anyone.”

Yes, Mr. Norton is a runner. More on that in a minute. But this two-time Oscar nominee — known to many as the Incredible Hulk’s alter ego or the guy to whom Brad Pitt explained the first rule of Fight Club — is also a believer in marrying technology and philanthropy.

He knows that a majority of people who now donate to charity don’t do so online; they write checks. But he and his partners contend that Crowdrise, with its mix of edginess, silliness and good-humored competition, can change that habit, especially for young people.

“The ’60s were the era of people realizing they could rally together to express their priorities,” says Mr. Norton. But today, he says, social networking offers “a new way of getting people together to create power in numbers.” More than that, he said, it can help users express themselves through the causes they support.

Mr. Norton added: “One of the things we’re trying to say at Crowdrise is plant a flag. Raise a fist. Declare yourself.”

Crowdrise aims to make raising money for a cause not just easy, but also fun. Setting up a page to support something you care about takes less than a minute. Then, friends and family can be invited to be sponsors by donating any amount of money, large or small. You don’t have to run a marathon. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen or do whatever strikes your fancy. But Ms. Wittenberg, who has already sent her e-mail to 33,000 runners based in the United States and will soon send one to the 27,000 or so based elsewhere, hopes that anyone running in New York on Nov. 7 will use Crowdrise to do it for charity.

Once your Crowdrise page is up, anyone can donate to it and join your team.

Crowdrise isn’t the only site that helps with online fund-raising. There are a handful, with FirstGiving.com among the best known. But Crowdrise is different, its founders and users say, because it seeks to build community in much the way that Facebook does.

Irreverent in tone — one of its slogans is, “If you don’t give back, no one will like you” — Crowdrise also appeals to anyone with a gaming sensibility. Users compete for prizes, earning points for every dollar they raise and more points for every vote they get from members of the Crowdrise universe.

On July 31, top scorers on the Crowdrise Points Leaderboard won prizes including two MacBook Pros, a Kindle, a Wii and two $500 gift cards. “One of the most unexpected parts of Crowdrise since we launched is how obsessed people are with their points,” says Robert Wolfe, another partner in the venture. (The other two are Mr. Wolfe’s brother, Jeffrey, and the movie producer Shauna Robertson, whose films include “Superbad” and “Knocked Up.”)

Crowdrise and its partnership with the New York City Marathon both sprang from the same event: last year’s race, in which Mr. Norton ran to raise money for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust in Kenya.

The Wolfe brothers, who had recently sold their company, the online retailer Moosejaw.com, and were looking for a new challenge, helped Mr. Norton and his team create an interactive Web site. Inspired by the online fund-raising machine that Barack Obama used in the 2008 presidential campaign, it sought to make Mr. Norton’s supporters feel engaged and included in the team’s quest.

Daily contests for donors were announced via Mr. Norton’s Twitter account. The result: $1.2 million raised in two months for the trust, which supports a 280,000-acre wilderness reserve.

MR. NORTON said the experience taught him how social networking could be “productive, not just pointless chatter.” The founding of Crowdrise sought to enable anyone to do what Mr. Norton did, and to make new friends in the process.

The site, which is run not as a nonprofit but as a business, takes less than 8 percent of total money donated, including about 2 percent for credit card fees. “We need serious scale to make this business work,” Robert Wolfe said. “But we’re in this for the long haul.”

The actor Seth Rogen is using Crowdrise to raise money to fund research of Alzheimer’s disease. Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is trying to build support for basic music education for young people.

But the Crowdrise team is as excited about its nonfamous users — people like Jaime Haughey, 27, an out-of-work M.B.A. candidate who lives in Abington, Mass., and Amanda Darby, 33, a model-maker at Aardman Animations in Bristol, England. Ms. Haughey and Ms. Darby, who have a mutual love of Africa, found each other on the site.

While they haven’t yet met — they talk regularly via Skype — they are planning a trip to Kenya to volunteer at the Maasai reserve, probably in 2011.

Crowdrise “brought the two of us together, to support and help each other,” Ms. Haughey, who has raised nearly $9,000 for five charities in chunks as small as $5, said in an e-mail.

A few hours later, when the sun came up in England, Ms. Darby added, “Before Crowdrise, fund-raising was difficult, tedious and you felt like you were fighting to swim upstream.” Crowdrise, she said, “makes it personal.”

Source: The New York Times