Hiring Q&A with Lara and Katyra
Did you know that 76% percent of hiring managers admit attracting the right job candidates is their greatest challenge!
Lara and Katyra teamed up to answer questions, provide recommendations, and share insights into their experiences.
Did you know that 76% percent of hiring managers admit attracting the right job candidates is their greatest challenge!
Lara and Katyra paired up to answer questions, provide recommendations, and share insights, and resources to make the hiring and recruitment process a little more efficient.
Lara and Katyra are two professionals with lots of experience and insight into the toils of recruiting, hiring, team management, and much more. Lara Smith is the Director of Organizational Development Services at Purpose Possible. She oversees hiring and recruitment for the Purpose Possible team and our clients. Katyra Remmenga works with Same Page HR as a People Person and provides HR support for our firm, some of our clients, and other organizations. This duo teamed up to answer questions, provide recommendations, and share insights into their experiences.
Question 1 - How do you find quality candidates?
Katyra says: Look beyond the typical search.
Broaden your search by posting on multiple platforms. Sites like Workable.com will automatically post to all of the free job boards which significantly increases the number of candidates for a position. Also consider sharing the position with relevant groups on social media, professional networks, friends, or colleagues. Job seekers can be just as challenged and overwhelmed by positions as you are in searching. Sharing a position with industry specific networks can connect you with candidates that may not see your position on other platforms.
Lara says: Think outside the box with requirements.
Education, titles, and years of experience are often the first things hiring managers consider with an applicant. Everyone does not have the same access to resources, education, and opportunities, but this does not mean they aren't qualified to fill the role.
For education, consider what you want them to have gotten from their education instead of the degree, education level, or the school they attended. Are you looking for applicable skills or teamwork? Could they have received those same skills in another way?
Every organization uses different titling structures so look at what applicants do in their role and not just the title. Also consider what you are seeking in years of experience and not just the number of years. Covid and non-covid years may mean different types of experience depending on the company and the role. Consider the full picture of what’s needed before requiring education levels, tiles, or years of experience.
Also, 50% of applicants are looking exclusively for fully remote positions. A full time in-office requirement can drastically limit applicants.
Question 2 - What are ways to stay organized during the hiring process?
Katyra says: Automate the process as much as possible.
Automating the hiring process can save you time and energy. Most hiring platforms have a way to send automatic responses, invite candidates to interview, decline applicants, and much more. Many payroll systems also have automated processes for hiring – you may need to check with the provider about additional features. Workable.com, the system that posts to multiple sites, also has steps that can be automated. The goal is to move quickly through the hiring steps and be consistent with every applicant.
Lara says: Create an internal process before publishing the position.
Have a clear process laid out before the position is shared. Decide who else on your team will be a part of the process, let them know the plan, and hold time for meetings and interviews in advance. Create a checklist, folder, and/or spreadsheet to easily see where candidates are in the hiring process.
Purpose Possible uses Google Suite – we create folders for candidates, save recorded interviews, and link files in one central location.
Question 3 - How do you maintain consistency and fairness in the interview process?
Katyra says: There are a few things you can do:
1 - Have a clear understanding of what you need in a role ahead of time. This will eliminate guesswork when looking at qualifications.
2- Ask each candidate the same questions and don’t deviate! This saves time but it also ensures that every candidate is reviewed and considered equally.
3- Create a scorecard to rate each candidate's application and interview. The scorecard can be completed for each candidate by everyone in the interview and include any notes or questions to follow up on or discuss internally.
4- Be clear with the candidate about timeline and urgency to fill the role. If you need to hire quickly because of a vacancy or plan to hire in the future, let every candidate know that and when they can expect to hear back from you (whether that’s for next steps or declining).
5- Make sure your team knows what not to ask in an interview. Questions about age, family, ethnicity, and religion are illegal! Gusto.com has a great blog with a list of questions you shouldn’t ask and a few that you should.
Question 4 - What questions can be asked to determine applicant qualities like leadership, self sufficiency, and proactiveness?
Lara says: Ask about real experiences and interactions. Avoid hypotheticals.
Hypothetical questions are interesting but how we think we will react and how we actually react in situations tend to be very different. Asking about real experiences can give you a sense of how a person truly performs. If you're interested in someone’s ability to manage, think about what that entails. If you wonder if they need supervision, ask questions about taking the initiative or leading. Here are a few example questions:
Can you talk about a time when you saw a problem no one else did? How did you handle it?
Can you talk about a time when your work depended on other’s meeting deadlines and they weren’t?
Here are some additional notes from Lara and Katyra to help with the hiring process:
Salary transparency is important in today’s hiring landscape. This transparency also extends to sharing benefits, working location, and expected hours of work.
Prioritize the needs of the position in the job description. Let candidates know what the role entails, what skills are needed, availability necessary, and any other details that may impact the decision to apply.
If you aren’t getting applicants or quality applicants, review the job description, position title, and requirements. Compare your position to others in the market and seek feedback from colleagues.
Hebba Youssef has a great newsletter and social media presence with a lot of resources and tips for HR professionals and hiring managers.
Ashle Herd is a trainer and coach offering employers and employees tools to learn, grow, and work better.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published an interesting article “Desperately Seeking Fundraisers.” This article discusses the wants and needs of fundraisers, the challenges they face which make the role stressful, and ways to improve the position for staff satisfaction and retention.
If you have any other questions or need support please let us know! Purpose Possible offers recruitment services and interim development for a range of organizations. Same Page HR offers full-service HR administration for small businesses without a dedicated HR department. Reach out to us if we can help with your hiring or organization needs.
Susannah at the Science of Philanthropy Initiative Conference
In September, I had the opportunity to present at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Science of Philanthropy Initiative Conference alongside our partner, Mailchimp. While one of our key takeaways from the conference was the realization that we did not take enough data analytics courses in school, others had some valuable takeaways for application in more practical fundraising efforts.
In September, I had the opportunity to present at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Science of Philanthropy Initiative Conference alongside our partner, Mailchimp. While one of our key takeaways from the conference was the realization that we did not take enough data analytics courses in school, others had some valuable takeaways for application in more practical fundraising efforts. As a note, it’s also important to remember that researchers and not practitioners primarily gave the presentations we watched. My takeaways are envisioning the real-world application of the data shared in presentations.
Donors don’t trust the communities they are funding to make appropriate decisions about how dollars are spent. Several presentations looked at test data regarding how donors directed funds, and despite knowing that recipients would prefer simple cash to be able to direct resources toward their needs, donors still preferred the paternalistic approach to giving. As organizations, donors, and foundations it is our responsibility to take a more intentional and community-led approach to our fundraising and giving, allowing those we serve to take a more active role in guiding the programs and campaigns we lead.
Crypto donations need to be available as an opportunity to smaller organizations. While I still tend to glaze over when I hear conversations about crypto, even I must admit that it is too large of an opportunity for nonprofits to ignore. Both at this conference, as well as The Giving Institute Symposium in July, there are countless studies and actual data on the growing opportunities here. However, what also is notable is that this often is administered and only available to organizations that are large enough to afford the platforms that can manage and process these donations, or the staff capability to add another type of donation to their portfolios. If this is to become a true opportunity for the nonprofit sector, it’s worth exploring how it can be further democratized to be accessible to all sizes of nonprofits, and not just those at an institutional scale.
The way we talk about and present the needs of the communities we serve is critical in how we fundraise. UC Berkeley professor Julianna Schroeder gave a great presentation on donor psychology and the ways in which donors tend to dehumanize the communities they contribute to which leads to donors prioritizing funding to services that lean towards more physiological benefits as opposed to supporting the psychological-based needs of communities. As fundraisers, it is of course easier to gauge the power of a donation in pounds of food, the number of people housed, or any countless other ways that communities can be served. However, it is imperative that we also not overuse the things that are easier to gauge in place of discussing the needs that may be less quantifiable, such as mental health services.
Do you have thoughts or experiences related to these topics? I’d love to hear about hear about them! sdarrow@purposepossible.com
Collaborative Budgeting
How fiscal and development teams can work together to create a proactive budget for the next year.
On September 22, 2022, Laura Hennighausen was joined by Germeen Guillaume for a live webinar discussing 5 tips fiscal and development teams can use as they collaborate on budgeting. Germeen and Laura gave perspectives from both sides and used real world examples and solutions that can organizations can begin to implement immediately. Questions and comments were accepted and answered through the live streaming platforms.
If you have any questions about this webinar or the tips discussed please email info@purposepossible.com or reach out to the presenters directly.
Laura Henninghausen
Purpose Possible Director of Strategic Philanthropy
Germeen Y. Guillaume
CEO and Founder of Visionary Accounting Group
Why Commit to Continuous Quality Improvement
In May, we began the conversation on the importance of committing to a formal Continuous Quality Improvement Strategy (CQI) with an initial blog post on this relevant topic. In it, we posed the question “Do you have a clear strategy on how to track, evaluate, and articulate your impact?” If you remain unsure of your answer to this question, we want to share four reasons on why you should invest in a strategy to affirm delivering mission-aligned successful programs are top of mind at your organization.
4 Reasons to Track, Evaluate, and Articulate your Organization’s Impact
Chris Brodnan collaborates with Purpose Possible on a new suite of services, offering support to clients in tracking, evaluating, and articulating their organization’s impact. With more than 10 years in the nonprofit sector in Atlanta, including the last four as the Regional Program Director at a summer learning organization, she has extensive experience developing and leading quality improvement strategies. She is excited to share why this work is important to help fulfill your mission and ensure program quality and fidelity.
In May, we began the conversation on the importance of committing to a formal Continuous Quality Improvement Strategy (CQI) with an initial blog post on this relevant topic. In it, we posed the question “Do you have a clear strategy on how to track, evaluate, and articulate your impact?” If you remain unsure of your answer to this question, we want to share four reasons on why you should invest in a strategy to affirm delivering mission-aligned successful programs are top of mind at your organization.
1. Clear metrics demonstrate program strengths and opportunities
Without having an evaluation plan with clear and measurable data and outcomes, you cannot clearly define where your program is succeeding and in need of improvements. This can be particularly useful if you are running multiple programs from different locations - you may know some sites are more successful than others but without benchmarks, can you clearly articulate why? With a dashboard of aligned Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to compare sites to one another, you can lean into what aspects of each program run well and where potential opportunities exist. Examples include number of attendees/participants, percentage of returning attendees/participants, and percentage growth of new attendees/participants.
2. Data provides power to make key decisions
Once you have developed KPIs and have clear benchmarks of what is working and what is not, you can be empowered to make potential tough decisions. Need to close a program site? The data can be a clear indicator of the rationale and arm you with the evidence you need to make a difficult call. On the flip side, have you discovered your secret to success that will allow you to scale your program? Now you can share that with funders and explain why they need to invest further in your work!
3. Evaluations tell a story of your impact
There is always a story behind the data that goes beyond quantifiable numbers. Just because you served a specific number of individuals how do you know were they better off because they came to your program? Evaluations, whether external assessments or internal surveys, provide complementary qualitative data that allow you to build on successes and share more broadly with stakeholders.
4. Improvement over time demonstrates long-term success and sustainability
When you are collecting year-over-year data as part of a CQI process, you are ideally setting the performance goals higher each year and adjusting your work to align with the feedback you received as part of your assessment. The longer you engage in this process, the more you can demonstrate annual improvements and ideally growth and sustainability in your work.
If your organization needs support with evaluation and metrics let us know! We are here to help! Feel free to contact Chris at cbrodnan@purposepossible.com or send a message to info@purposepossible.com to get more information on how we can help!
5 Tips For A Binge-worthy Nonprofit Newsletter
While social media can be a powerful tool for building awareness, it’s not great for getting people to actually take action. To build a relationship with your audience that motivates them to attend events, volunteer their time, or donate to the organization, an engaging newsletter can’t be beat.
Want to engage supporters, drive donations, and build rapport with your audience? A newsletter does all that and more.
While social media can be a powerful tool for building awareness, it’s not great for getting people to actually take action. To build a relationship with your audience that motivates them to attend events, volunteer their time, or donate to the organization, an engaging newsletter can’t be beat.
For one thing, newsletters allow you the space to go deeper into the stories that create emotional connection with your organization. And we all know when it comes to decision-making, emotion is a powerful force. Also, allowing an organization into your inbox requires more commitment than simply following on social media. So subscribers are already showing greater interest in hearing about the work and how they can be a part of it.
Whether you’re just beginning to collect emails for your list, or you’ve got subscribers who haven’t heard from you in awhile, these five tips will help you build an engaged audience who opens your emails every time.
1. Create an intriguing subject line.
You’ve heard it before but first impressions matter. And when it comes to getting your emails opened, nothing’s more important than the subject line. Try writing your subject line after writing the body of the email. Chances are you’ll come up with something that ties back to the content of the email and lets readers know what to expect. It’s also helpful to do some A/B testing. You’ll discover whether your audience prefers lines like “Summer Update” or “The craziest thing happened at our July meeting…”
2. Don’t worry about sharing a ton of content.
Your updates don’t need to be long think pieces every time. Decide on your overall objectives and then design a simple template (Canva has great options) that helps you meet those objectives. If you want to drive website traffic, create a “teaser” that leads people to click and read more on your website. If you want to get more donations or more volunteers, a brief intro can lead to a prominent signup button. In general, three to five short paragraphs linking out to other content is more than sufficient.
3. Be conversational.
Your newsletter isn’t an academic paper so make sure it doesn’t sound like one. Don’t sacrifice your organization’s unique voice and culture trying to sound too “official” or “professional.” At the end of the day, organizations depend on human-to-human interactions to succeed. Your newsletter can be an important part of building that connection.
4. Make it quick, fun, and interesting.
If you’re bored reading about the quarterly meeting, it’s all but guaranteed your readers are, too. The objective of your newsletter is to keep supporters engaged in the mission so be sure to keep the content easy-to-read and not too granular. Everyone is busy so make sure things are informative but also “snackable.”
5. Always include a call to action.
To make the most of your reader’s limited attention, give them a clear idea of what they should do next. Whether you want them to click a link, buy a ticket, or make a donation, keep your call to action brief and straightforward. And be sure to use active language that communicates some urgency. Make it as seamless and uncomplicated as possible for your reader to take action. If your newsletter objective is soliciting donations, a button that says “Donate Now” does the trick!
Newsletters are an invaluable tool for building rapport with your organization’s stakeholders. With valuable content, opportunities to become involved, and timely information about your work, they keep your mission top of mind with your most engaged supporters.
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