As a nonprofit manager, it is important to be able to give constructive feedback effectively to your employees. Being able to share and receive feedback is vital to self- improvement.  Examples of how to give constructive feedback  include, discussing appropriate behaviors, asking questions, creating an action plan together and building trust, just to name a few. On the other hand, there are a number of ways that your feedback could end up causing more damage than doing any good.

Listed below are five bad habits your nonprofit organization should avoid when giving constructive feedback:

1) Waiting for the annual performance review to give feedback– This method can cause confusion and make things more challenging to work through. Waiting too long to provide feedback could make people feel caught off guard or defensive, rather than being open to having a productive conversation.

2) Not providing specific examples –Concepts like “be more of a team player,” “be more professional” and “show more initiative” don’t typically sink in without the use of specific examples to illustrate them. Labels without examples can leave people feeling at a loss of how to go about making changes because they are unsure of what you’re looking for. Make sure to be specific with your feedback.

3) Lack of preparation – Making an assessment or judgment call prior to gathering all the facts and examining the logic of your assessment, can lead to a very negative outcome. Situations like these could lead to resentment or lose of respect for the manager.

4) Making an assumption of how to praise an employee– A natural tactic is to praise an employee the same way you like to be praised. However, what may work for one type of person or personality may not have the same impact on another. This is one of the many areas of managing where learning personality styles can be extremely useful.

5) Only giving corrective feedback without any positive feedback – If the only time you give feedback is to say something negative, employees will inevitably develop an automatic defensive reaction the moment you try to give them any type of feedback, whether it be positive or negative. Such conditions could be deemed hazardous for a constructive conversation and effect the overall culture of the workplace.

Leaders in the nonprofit sector can share in the same sentiment when it comes to concerns surrounding the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit organization—especially with marketing. While marketing can affect many aspects of your organization, the most vulnerable could be your reputation and financial well-being.  In the light of such concerns, some nonprofits have managed to achieve marketing success by using the services of a third-party marketing firm. While this option is not feasible for all nonprofits, having some type of marketing strategy in place is crucial for your organization.   Creating a well-organized and strategic marketing plan that remains true to your mission and keeps your organization within budget, will bring your nonprofit to new heights.

While there are many effective marketing strategies, discovering which one is beneficial for your organization is key to ensuring you receive the most from your efforts. Learning how to use analytics, and accessing different testing methods can help point you in the right direction of what your organization may need to get started on its marketing journey. Also, integrating the latest tools into your website and social channels will help your organization stay relevant and current.

A good marketing plan is interlined from top to bottom. For each goal, there are objectives, every objective has strategies, and each strategy has tactics.  Without good tactics, a strategy will not successfully complete an objective, rendering the success of a goal. A true marketing plan should employ the right mix of experience with critical thinking.

If your nonprofit has allocated a portion of their budget towards marketing, they’ll typically put it towards “outbound” marketing, i.e., email marketing, newspaper advertising, and press releases. Where “inbound” marketing, i.e., social media marketing, can be beneficial for nonprofits to generate leads, it can be difficult to turn these leads into donors. With marketing being such an essential part of the nonprofit framework, it requires participation from all aspects of the organization in order to see any return from such efforts.

Nonprofit marketing is an ongoing commitment that requires the development of new ways to keep your following engaged and willing to donate. Nonprofits are well-positioned to tell stories that have the ability to make an impact. By creating a comprehensive content marketing strategy, realigning your marketing dollars, and ensuring your goals, objectives and tactics are in place, your great stories will go further – attracting and motivating your audiences to do even more.

Talent plays a critical role in the overall performance of a nonprofit. However, according to the 2016 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey, 84 percent of nonprofits don’t have a formal retention strategy in place and the turnover rate has gradually increased over the past few years. Behind all this data, there is a noticeable pattern across these nonprofit organizations of why this is happening—limited budgets.

Allocating a portion of your operating budget to invest in talent will ensure that your organization has an engaged team to guide your mission in the right direction.  To achieve true sustainability for your organization, you must compensate your talent appropriately and commit both time and resources to strengthening your culture.

Fortunately, there are many ways to foster a healthy and effective workforce that won’t have a direct impact on your budget. Besides compensation, there are other important factors that drive employee satisfaction—culture, values, organizational leadership, work-life-balance and career opportunities. Here are several cost-effective solutions to use when finding talent regardless of budget constraints:

1) Define Your Culture- Regardless of your nonprofit’s budget, you can have a strong organizational culture and, in turn, will encourage advancement of your mission. The most effective nonprofits tend to have employees that have the highest level of culture satisfaction. In order to have a positive corporate culture, nonprofits should apply the following components:

• Vision
• Values
• Practices
• People
• Narrative
• Place

2) Implement Diversity Initiatives- According to a recent Glassdoor survey, 67 percent of jobseekers indicated that a diverse workforce is an important factor when considering a new employer. While diversity has an impact on recruiting, it also plays a significant role in organizational performance. According to McKinsey & Company, diverse companies are 35 percent more likely to outperform less diverse companies.

3) Incorporate New Management and Feedback Processes- While an overhaul to your approach on performance management can be costly and time consuming; you can now make incremental improvements even with a tight budget, and see major results. Improvements may include switching to quarterly reviews, encouraging employee feedback and evaluate current performance management tools. 

4) Encourage Self-Care and Work Life Balance- Actively promote self-care and let your team know that even in times of budget restraints, you value their well-being. Educate your team members regularly on how they can incorporate better wellness practices into their daily routines.

Being a part of the working world, we’ve all encountered moments of failure. Take this scenario for example: You’ve been assigned a task, you’ve completed your research, and you believe you’ve done all you could do to prepare—however, things still don’t work out in your favor. While we all recognize the importance of learning from our mistakes, employees can struggle to bounce back from missteps. From a project that didn’t meet its target objectives to an important missed deadline, what is the best course of action to take to help your employees recover?

Employees can take on failure in one of two ways:

1)      People can bounce back from their mistakes with a clear mind and resolve.

2)      People can feel crushed, lose confidence and even stop doing the things that made them successful.

How you communicate with your employees can have a huge influence on their performance. For the nonprofit sector in particular, it’s crucial to maximize what limited bandwidth there is—in order to achieve steep mission objectives. When building resilience in your employees, you must consider the tactics that work and don’t work when restoring an employee’s confidence.

While building up an employee’s self-image or giving a pep talk is harmless, it doesn’t seem to provide much help to the situation at hand. A pep talk can gloss over the failure rather than addressing the problem (and potential solution) head on. To be their guide to move on from the disappointment and better manage his or her emotions is essential. Also, encouraging people to forgive themselves, while still holding themselves accountable for their mistakes, is a beneficial tactic for people to build upon their mishaps.

Follow this simple 3-step model to bounce back from failure:

1)      Acceptance- People need to come to terms with the fact that they made a mistake and understand why.  This helps people own their failures.

2)      Forgiveness- Encourage employees to forgive themselves. Use empathetic wording, such as “This is a tough job; you’re not the only one that is having a hard time” or “Try not to beat yourself up over this.”

3)      Planning- Help employees plan their way forward. Figure out what they can do to fix the damage, if possible, and how to avoid making a similar mistake in the future.

Once you’ve processed the emotional aspects of losing a star employee, you’re then faced with the challenge of making sure things run smoothly through the transition. The following steps can help you effectively manage your staff during an unexpected staff departure:

1. Accept and reflect - Don’t take it personally, oftentimes employees resign for growth opportunities and if their reasons are related to your management style, they usually won’t say so. How you act now is pivotal in maintaining a good standing with them and sparing the company from any backlash once the employee is officially gone.
2. Show your support – A good manager will support and wish its employee well. Don’t hesitate to offer a recommendation if the employee deserves it.
3. Confer with your Human Resources department – It’s important to understand company procedure as related to resignations so you are prepared on how to handle any specific questions that may arise.
4. Explore the merits of a counter-offer – You should be selective about who to give a counter-offer to and who to let go. Whether or not to make a counter offer comes down to how critical this person is to you and how much of a disruption their absence will cause.
5. Develop a transition plan – Deciding how to divvy up responsibilities while you are short-handed can be difficult. Start by determining which tasks just can’t go unattended and if any can be put on hold. Discuss those priorities with your staff to divide among existing employees and ascertain if additional interim help will be required.
6. Communicate – You can’t control how others will react to the news, but you can control how it gets communicated. Be positive and show respect by acknowledging the work the departing employee has done. Being honest about the impact on the team and offering a temporary plan of action will go a long way in easing the minds of your remaining staff.
7. Transfer knowledge – Once you have figured out who will take on what, it’s a good idea to arrange time for training during the notice period before the departing employee leaves. Capturing unique knowledge the employee has developed over the years isn’t always as easy to capture but having an extensive shadowing mechanism can help in obtaining that information.
8. Review the current job description and revise if necessary – Transitions are a good time to review a job description. You want to ensure company needs are being met and possibly add new responsibilities. Asking employees for input on what skills, experience and qualities they would like to find in the new hire can help ensure any gaps are covered.
9. Post the job opening ASAP – Coordinate with HR to formally post a job listing in an effort to show your staff this transition period is temporary.
10. Throw a Going Away Party – This small gesture should never be overlooked. It’s important to gather your team and say “thanks” to the person leaving. Failure to acknowledge an employee’s departure and his or her contributions sends a bad message to the rest of your team.

When an employee resigns it creates uncertainty which creates stress. While losing some of your best people is inevitable, it doesn’t have to wreak havoc on the entire infrastructure. Managers set the tone for what happens next and with clear communication and mindful delegation; you can ensure an unexpected departure doesn’t turn your business structure upside down.

When people communicate effectively, in a way that makes all parties feel heard, even conflict and criticism can be constructive and lead to positive results. In business, a lack of effective communication can be detrimental. People are hired for jobs that they are knowledgeable about and have the skills to perform - but if they can’t interact with those around them in a productive manner, the whole team suffers and so does the bottom line.

Communication isn’t just about the words we say. It also includes the way we say it and the physical signals we use. Being able to read people’s nonverbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions, can give a much deeper understanding of the message being transmitted. Often times, conflict arises when written text is taken out of context because there are no visual signs that come along with it. Say the wrong thing, and the infrastructure of a team can quickly fall apart - effective communication can actually help build trust and employee engagement.

Tips on how to increase positive communication:

1. Listen carefully – pay attention and ask clarifying questions
2. Speak clearly – be concise and show confidence
3. Watch your body language – make frequent eye contact
4. Be respectful– put away the distractions
5. Up your empathy – verbal or non-verbal feedback

People communicate differently depending on their personal and professional backgrounds. Some may need more mentoring than others on best practices. It all comes down to getting to know the people you’re communicating with and being able to adjust your communication style accordingly. Developing good communication skills is a must and good managers know that communication is a key factor in success and a vital part of teamwork.

Here at UST we've put together our Top 10 guides for 2017 Nonprofit Human Resource management. And for a limited time we're giving them away for FREE.

You can use these tools to make sure your nonprofit is in compliance all year long. Plus, you'll learn the top trends in nonprofit job satisfaction so you can retain your mission's best assets: your staff. Click below to download the full toolkit, courtesy of UST and ThinkHR:

1. Quick 2017 HR Practices Checklist
2. Federal HR Compliance Chart
3. Federal Recordkeeping Requirements Checklist
4. Small Employer ACA Checklist
5. Large Employer ACA Checklist
6. Workers' Compensation Audit Checklist
7. 2017 State and Federal Minimum Wages
8. 6 Reasons Nonprofit Employees QUIT eBook
9. Webinar Recording: Updating Your Employee Handbook
10. Unemployment Cost Analysis Form

Still have questions? Don't forget we're here for any of your unemployment cost questions or to set you up with a free 30-day trial of our HR Workplace, where nonprofits can get HR questions answered in just 24 hours, and explore our step-by-step Employee Classification, Handbook, and Salary Tools.

With $30 million in potential unemployment liability mitigated last year for over 2,100 nonprofits, it's likely that your nonprofit could be overpaying.

Nonprofit Executives, Directors, and HR staff with 10 or more employees should register to learn about:

• Reducing unemployment tax liability as a 501(c)(3)
• Benchmarking unemployment costs
• Protecting funding from claims and liability
• Efficiently managing unemployment claims, protests, and hearings
• Avoiding costly HR mistakes
• Enhancing goodwill by utilizing outplacement services

The webinar will also explore UST's holistic program, created by and for nonprofits, which can help further lower your unemployment and HR liability. You can also get your questions answered live by an expert HR advisor at UST.

Register for your preferred webinar date at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/3707595373010251522

Even if you can't attend live, when you register we'll send you the recording as well as any handouts you'll need to make sure your nonprofit is in compliance.

Marilyn Stemper, National Director of CareerArc, reveals how nonprofits who are utilizing outplacement services can more effectively reduce unemployment claims costs while establishing goodwill among former employees. (With CareerArc, you can help your displaced staff members find work up to 73% faster!)

CareerArc can help your former employees find new jobs quickly, with:

•   Online & on-demand professional career coaching
•   Interactive, flexible resume building and job search tools
•   Networking guides and automated social media searches
•   Interview tips and practice tools

As a nonprofit, every dollar that you're not paying in unemployment benefits is a dollar in support of your mission.

Watch the webinar recording today and learn how you can generate great savings and goodwill.

This webinar series is part of UST’s efforts to educate the nonprofit sector. For more learning opportunities, tips and legal updates just for nonprofits, sign up for our monthly e-News today!

Question: Can we include language in our handbook that limits and/or prohibits employees from discussing their pay and other incentives with each other?

Answer: While employers expect their employees to be professionals and not discuss their pay or other perquisites with others, it is not a best practice to add a policy or language to your employee handbook prohibiting or limiting employee discussion about pay or incentives. For instance, the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), enforced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), specifically provides that employees cannot be prohibited from discussing compensation and other working conditions because such discussions are protected concerted activity under the law.

Further, the federal Department of Labor released a fact sheet detailing how pay secrecy increases an employer’s risks for liability in equal pay claims. Finally, it is important that you research local or state laws to ensure compliance with this delicate legal issue.

Q&A provided by ThinkHR, powering the UST HR Workplace for nonprofit HR teams. Have HR questions? Sign your nonprofit up for a free 30-day trial here.

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Organizations can spend several months and significant resources searching for and interviewing a new executive leader. Yet, after the position is filled, the onboarding process often does not receive the same level of effort and energy as the hiring process which leaves new leaders vulnerable - a costly risk for any organization but more so for a nonprofit whose funds are already limited.

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In line with a recent Bridgespan report, the 2015 UST Nonprofit Employee Engagement & Retention Report revealed that nonprofit employees have a high level of job satisfaction and engagement—with 85% of non-supervisory respondents reporting being “Satisfied,” “Highly Satisfied” or “Extremely Satisfied.” The Bridgespan Report, which was based on a Leading Edge “Employee Engagement Survey” specific to Jewish nonprofits, showed us that there are striking similarities with nonprofit organizations in general when it comes to employee engagement regardless of sector.

Both reports show that employees are motivated first by the organizations mission. Having a clear understanding of how employees work directly contributes to advancing the company mission is key to job satisfaction and can be fostered by reinforcing a culture with mission-based accomplishments.

In descending order, the Bridgespan report listed management practices, work-life balance, advancement opportunities and good leadership as ways to keep employees engaged. This information aligns with the UST survey results that ranked job satisfaction factors as culture, flexibility, a sense of purpose in work and benefits.

It’s imperative that nonprofit organizations continue to educate themselves on the latest engagement and retention strategies. By defining your organization’s core values, communicating them regularly, establishing rewards for demonstrating them, and ensuring they are part of an employee’s experience from the interview all the way through their career will help to foster a more positive workplace culture at your nonprofit,

Want to learn more about the latest nonprofit turnover and employee engagement trends? Get your free copy of the “2015 UST Nonprofit Employee Engagement & Retention Report” today.

UST helps nonprofits efficiently manage such risk through its industry-leading HR Workplace—a cloud-based compliance library that keeps you up-to-date on urgent regulatory changes that can impact your nonprofit’s operations.

Rather than wading through thousands of internet search results, UST participants can readily view which laws are applicable to them by utilizing the HR Workplace’s state-specific search engine. Additionally, the newly added compliance calendar automatically notifies employers of key filing deadlines at both the state and federal level.

Wouldn’t you like the confidence that comes with having the latest regulatory requirements, specific to your nonprofit, at your fingertips?

To test-drive the most popular HR tools, including the live HR hotline, employee handbook builder and compliance calendar, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial today.

If you’re a 501(c)(3) with 10+ employees, submit a free Unemployment Cost Analysis online and find out whether UST can help your nonprofit avoid costly legal fees and save significantly on administrative costs for 2017. For more information, contact a dedicated UST cost advisor at 888-249-4788.

If you are an applicable large employer (ALE) that employed 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees during the current reporting year, you must report to the IRS whether or not you did or didn’t offer healthcare coverage by completing Form 1095-C and 1094-C.

The requirement to report enrollment information on each covered individual, including dependent names and SSNs, only applies to employers that self-fund a minimum essential coverage health plan (e.g., major medical, PPO, HDHP). For an ALE, the self-funded plan enrollment information is reported in Part III of Form 1095-C while a “small” (non-ALE) employer reports the information in Part IV of Form 1095-B.

You can review a copy of the IRS proposed regulation on TIN solicitationhere.

This article was adapted from ThinkHR, powering the UST HR Workplace provided to UST members at no additional cost. Get answers to your HR questions and sign your nonprofit up for a free30-day trial. 

Question: Is there a federal law that requires employers to provide employees with a certain amount of time off for voting?

Answer: Currently, no federal law requires employers provide employees with time off to vote. However, most states require employers to allow voters time off to vote and prohibit employers from disciplining or terminating employees for taking time off to vote.

For instance, according to Cal. Election Code §§ 14000 – 14003, if a voter does not have sufficient time outside of working hours to vote at a statewide election, the voter may, without loss of pay, take off enough working time that, when added to the voting time available outside of working hours, will enable the voter to vote. However, no more than two hours of the time taken off for voting may be without loss of pay. The time off for voting will only be at the beginning or end of the regular working shift, whichever allows the most free time for voting and the least time off from the regular working shift, unless otherwise mutually agreed. If the employee, on the third working day prior to the day of election, knows or has reason to believe that time off will be necessary to be able to vote on election day, the employee must give the employer at least two working days’ notice that time off for voting is desired, in accordance with the statute.

Finally, no less than 10 days before every statewide election, every employer must keep posted conspicuously at the place of work, if practicable, or elsewhere where it can be seen as employees come or go to their place of work, a notice setting forth employee voting leave rights.

Q&A provided by ThinkHR, powering the UST HR Workplace for nonprofit HR teams. Have HR questions? Sign your nonprofit up for a free 30-day trial here.

From day one and onward, nonprofit employees look to training to feel capable at their job… and valued. Do you offer them that opportunity?

According to the 2015 Nonprofit Employee Engagement and Retention Report, organizations with high turnover also tended to have fewer training opportunities for employees—so providing new hires with the right tools at the right time is extremely important for retaining good-fit employees.

Employees want to feel like they’re making a contribution, and being trained on the job is a critical part of employee development and reinforcing their sense of worth. But in last year’s study, 29% of nonprofit respondents reported that they received NO onboard training, and about 1/3 said they got only 1-2 weeks.

Longer onboard training for new employees was linked to 1) lower turnover, 2) higher levels of employee job satisfaction, and 3) a lower likelihood of employees planning to quit in the next year. Organizations with 90-day onboarding strategies had the highest employee engagement. And when a company implements a successful onboarding program, they experience 54% greater productivity and 50% greater retention.

Here are 4 simple ways you can implement training at your nonprofit:

1. Peer training: This is a cost-effective way to onboard and helps develop comradery.
2. Written procedures and Employee Handbooks: These are critical to smooth transitions, and a handbook is also a way to document rules for when progressive discipline is necessary.
3. Online Training: There are lots of courses available at an affordable cost. Check out Lynda.com, or you can administer courses to employees via UST’s HR Workplace training platform for less than $100/month for the whole organization.
4. Conferences and seminars: In-person training helps employees network and bring knowledge of best practices in your sector back to your organization.

Overall, onboarding new employees (especially supervisors) can help them feel welcome and prepared to do their best. Ongoing training is a great way to develop skills, maintain goodwill among employees and keep your new hires from packing up their desks.

Discover a few other top reasons your employees might be headed for the door. For a limited time, download UST’s 2016 report, 6 Reasons Your Nonprofit Employees QUIT, and learn how you can improve your organization’s employee management strategies.

HR professionals across all industries have been expressing concern over the difficulty in recruiting qualified job candidates for some time but with a lower number of applicants actually applying, the task of locating individuals who possess the needed skills, experience and educational credentials, is becoming even more challenging in the current day.

The fact that organizations are saying they have had more difficulty filling full-time regular positions in the last 12 months than in previous years is a sign that conditions have changed. The top cited reasons - lack of sufficient work experience and job skills among job candidates, more competition from other employers and a lower number of applicants’ altogether.

A skills shortage occurs when there are not enough people with a particular skill to fill the needed number of positions within a particular occupation. Some basic skills shortages are writing, basic computer skills, reading comprehension and mathematics. And applied skills shortages are critical thinking and problem solving, work ethic, written communication and leadership. With that said, the most difficult positions to fill were for high-skilled medical (nurses, doctors, specialists), scientists and mathematicians, skilled trades (electricians, carpenters, machinists), engineering and architecture, IT/computer specialist (analysts, developers, programmers) and executives. Basic and applied skills are not only critical but necessary in order to build a foundation for a strong and stable workforce.

Many organizations have had to have their training budgets increased in order to fill the gap between qualified candidates and or training existing employees. While online training courses have become the most utilized option, many employers are still utilizing conferences and professional workshops and on the job training. Investing in education and training should be viewed as a way to meet skills shortfalls.

Though many organizations are utilizing social media and collaborating with educational institutions as recruiting strategies, the most effective strategies have been using a recruitment agency and training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill positions.

Organizations need not to only focus on finding and retaining highly skilled employees but also need to consider how they are going to develop the next generation of organizational leaders as the current workforce ages and the highly experienced and skilled workers retire. Making sure employees are not at risk of burnout will also be critical, taking into consideration that when they’re unable to fill some positions, their existing staff may be forced to do more with less.