WORKING FOR LOVE Attracting and supporting the career development of professional staff in the Not-for-Profit sector. For The Association of Community

WORKING FOR LOVEAttracting and supporting the career development of

professional staff in the Not-for-Profit sector.For

The Association of Community Access Broadcasters Conference 17th October 2009

Career and Transition Consulting 1

Covered in this presentation

• Working for Love – what does this mean?

• The NFP as an Employer

• Employee alignment and retention and the

importance of your organisational Mission

• Work engagement - what you can do

• Career motivation – why work for less?

• Career development - a little career theory

• Career and Performance management - What you can do

• The Employer – Employee Psychological Contract

• The Future World of Work

2Career and Transition Consulting

Working for Love? A.A.A

Because they love the work they do

Because you and the community love them

Because they love to serve community


Some perceptions about attraction to work NFP sector


The NFP sector

The voluntary and not-for-profit sector accounts for an

important and growing proportion of employment in the OECD

countries.

In NZ we have more than 97,000 NFPs

Contributing 2.6% to our GDP

Non-profits have over 105,000 paid employees

but only 10% of all non-profit organisations employ paid staff

90% rely entirely on volunteers

Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector website


NFPs as employers

• Rates of pay being relatively low, necessitates

non-financial means of eliciting employee

motivation and commitment.

• Organisation needs to tap into the intrinsic commitment to

the job held by employees

• Risks involved - competing commitments and ambivalence

towards organisation, existing power structures and group dynamics –

employee asks “why do I do this?”

• Meeting the unexpressed expectations coming from idealism can be a

challenge.



Evoking a Powerful Mission



Mission

Employee Motivators

• Knowledge – Learning and developing new skills

• Career - Enhancing one’s career prospects through

experience

• Value – expressive - Making a difference

• Social – adjustive - Desire for acceptance

• Ego-defensive – Need to escape personal inadequacies

• Esteem enhancement – Growth and self-actualisation

needs


Employee Needs



Intellectual “I think”

goals

Emotional “I Feel”

Self-monitoring

Creative/Unconscious “Identity”

Individual potential to self-actualise

Commitment to activitiesDisciplinePlanning

Time ManagementKnowledgeView of RealityGoals

ConfidenceEnthusiasmPassion

EnergyOptimismSteadiness

Self ImageLife programmingView of PossibilitiesServing attitude (relationship with authority)

ValuesConviction about serviceView of abilitiesFeelings of worthinessAchievement drive

Context of meaning

Context of meaning

Employee Engagement


• 14% Fully Engaged

• 62% Moderately Engaged

• 24% actively disengaged

“Dissatisfaction with pay

tended to override

employee’s mission

attachment as

explanation of why they

may leave the

organization.” B & Y

Employee considerations for leaving? Personal /Career Factors

• They are not clear about their role and how their contribution matters

• There is a lack of alignment between organisational mission and person’s values

• There is lack of challenge or stretch on the job

• Employee / manager relationships are wanting – lack of trust etc

• They don’t feel included – or have a sense of belonging

– relationships are not well formed

• High stress and work / life balance is compromised

Situational / Environmental Factors

• Current employment market

• Current business / economic confidence

• Personal security needs


Career and Transition Consulting

Mis

sion

Alig

nmen

t and

Ch

alle

nge

High

HighLow

Skills, Support and Trust

15

Engagement

Understanding Strengths and Interests

Potential

stressors or

de-motivators

Low relevance

I n t e r e s t sCareer and Transition Consulting 16

The risk of people not enjoying what they do…!

DOOM!!

Enjoy/not good at

Enjoy/good at Don’t enjoy/notgood at

Don’t enjoy/No longer good at

Skilled

Unskilled


Building an Engaged Workforce

• Get to know your people – who they really are

• Build transparency and trust

• Find out where they are naturally drawn to contribute

• Show appreciation for their contribution

• Provide challenges AND give them the support to succeed

• Give constructive feedback

• Foster a sense of belonging and community – and interdependence

• Make the workplace FUN – celebrate together

• Grow a culture passionately aligned with your organisational mission


Psychological Contract


I need you to make the organisation look good

Manager

New Employee

This job will give me security and extra pay potentially

Career conversations• Pride: The employee describes what they are most proud of and recalls what

made the experience so motivating and successful.

• Passion: Values, beliefs and interests present in that and other experiences are

identified .

• Purpose: Other possible projects or assignments are explored which might also

involve similar interests and values that would bring meaningful focus.

• Performance: Develop, in collaboration, work strategies and resources required

that will enable similar successes.

• Poise: Manage expectations, trust and reinforce the idea

that, with practice, success is achievable.


Recruit new staff for good ‘fit’

• Aligned skills and experience (can do)

• Aligned attitude and application (can fit)

• An ability to change, be flexible and adaptable (will fit)

• Aspiration and values that align with your mission

• Competencies that add value to your operation

• A commitment to quality

– to doing a good job


ROI = Open Career Conversations Professional staff

Career planning transparency

Time for open conversations

Proactive Decision making

Resourcing Information

Employee Satisfaction

Commitment

Performance

Retention Productivity

Attrition /Succession

issues


Employer / Employee working together

Social/family environment

Individual

Market/environment

Organisation

Current role

PEOPLE

PERFORMANCE

PROFIT

Organisational plans, mission, vision & values

Succession planning

Constructive feedback

Personal goals

Open Career Discussions

INDIVIDUALDEVELOPMENT

PLAN• Job Re-alignment

• Work/life in balance

• Career development

• Personal growth

• Employability

• Increase job satisfaction

• Values alignment

• Training needs identified

ACTION

GOAL SETTING

CAREER/LIFE/OBJECTIVES

SUCCESSION PLANNING

INVOLVEMENT

Development and training ACTION


Career Decision-making

• Where do I ultimately want to be in my life? (What is my dream or life mission)

• How should I do it? • How does this fit with my life values and goals? • What are the other considerations I need to take into

account? (family, other commitments etc)

• What could be my next step? • How can I prepare for the next change as I do my current work?• What do I want for the world/my community?


?

Pro-active (Protean) model for careers


• Retraining – broadening / diversifying skills

• Valuing and seeking feedback

• Doing work-related reading – desire for work to be aligned with interest

• On-going learning through tertiary education and specific skill training

• Valuing and seeking mentoring and/or coaching

• Less upward promotion / more horizontal career development

• Increasing part-time employment / portfolio careers / flexi work arrangements

• Later entry to the workforce

• Working longer (aging workforce)

• Diversified career and other interests

• More emphasis on work-life balance – family first practices


Changing work patterns - trends include:

2009 - Reframing the World of work• Community building focus – sharing resources

• Business accountability – business ethics

• Co-operacy in business practice – learning and doing business together

• More reasons for working in the community or Not-For-Profit sectors

• Opting into reduced hours (9-day fortnight now mainstream)

• Re-emergence of the artisan - creative enterprise

• More self-employment and small businesses

• Knowledge, rather than physical labour important

• Work and life in balance – healthy lifestyle above earning capacity/potential


Society and Values• We live in a world experiencing unprecedented change

• In general people are confused – value complexity but want simplicity

• There is a need to stimulate, educate and inform public debate and call to account

unhelpful attitudes and activities remains vital to improving the state of the world

• People and communities have become disconnected from each other – and are

driven to change this

• Societies and workplaces are becoming more diverse demographically and we

need to learn to think through diverse approaches and perspectives

• Values-based leadership is becoming more and more essential


• Attraction theory is now mainstream – ‘The Secret’ found its ‘right timing’

• More people are wanting to make change happen

• There is disillusionment with corporate structures and profit making

• People want connection and shared values

• We are learning that we need communities to thrive rather than survive

• We are learning that we must work more collaboratively

• Organisations are interested in becoming more transformative

• We have an inkling now that we can reframe the our world and the way

we do thingsCareer and Transition Consulting 29

Bibliography • Mission Attachment and Satisfaction as Factors in Employee Retention, (2003)

William Brown & Carlton Yoshioka

• Statistics New Zealand website

• Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector website; Facts about the

subsectors of the community sector

• Caring for The Workers – Paper by Lower Hutt City Council 2008

• Human Resources Magazine – Feb/Mar 2009 Issue - Leveraging your workers –

Jasbinda Sing

• Career Compass, Navigating Your Career in the New Century (2000)Peggy

Simonsen.

• Integrity Selling; Winning over Negative Emotions, (2003) Ron Willingham


Documents

WORKING FOR LOVE Attracting and supporting the career development of professional staff in the Not-for-Profit sector. For The Association of Community