The pandemic – and return to work afterward – taught us many lessons. One of the most powerful for me was the importance of organizational culture and meaningful employee engagement. Our research revealed a clear correlation: nonprofits with strong internal cultures were better able to weather the pandemic successfully. Now is the perfect time to redouble our employee engagement efforts to build and retain a productive, energized nonprofit workforce. 

The modern workplace has shifted power from employers to employees, who can apply for new jobs with a simple click. With attrition costing nonprofits and social entrepreneurs at least 20 percent of each employee’s salary in lost productivity, morale and institutional knowledge, keeping our teams energized and invested in our work benefits the social sector and our clients. Employee engagement isn’t just about salary or job satisfaction scores – it’s about employees’ emotional commitment to their colleagues and the organization’s mission, vision and goals. 

To help you jumpstart a team discussion or planning session on how to engage employees at the highest level, we are sharing insights from Deloitte University Press’ Becoming Irresistible: A New Model for Employee Engagement, along with lessons from our work in the social sector. In our experience, the biggest driver of nonprofit recruitment is passion for the work, but the biggest driver of retention is enjoyment.

Here are five keys to boost your social sector organization’s engagement and retention:​

Meaningful Work 

Employees want to know what they do makes a difference to your clients and communities. This is often easier for frontline employees, but it’s just as important for those in administrative roles. To close this gap and ensure everyone feels they are on a unified team, consider offering annual job shadowing or volunteer rotations, and holding mission moments at each staff meeting.

Employees also want to be empowered to decide how they will reach goals. It is essential for employees to be included in the strategic planning process through surveys and task forces. This way, they can provide firsthand intelligence that will not only inform the plan, but also ensure that action plans and dashboards are realistic and meaningful. Consider giving staff regular opportunities, such as a comment box, polling/surveys or design thinking sessions, to provide feedback to the management team to bring fresh ideas to the table. When employees see how their work connects to the mission – and feel empowered to contribute ideas – they’re more likely to stay engaged.

Supportive Management 

Supportive management doesn’t mean micromanaging your team’s every move; it means having managers who are fully invested in supporting and coaching employees on their paths to achieving their performance goals. It requires providing regular and customized feedback (vs. annual feedback) and building jobs around employees’ strengths. To accomplish this, consider having a competency assessment for each role. When an employee gets a position, have them fill it out and compare their answers to yours – it will spur conversations about expectations and needs. Then, develop a robust professional development plan, including trainings and mentorship, to bolster their strengths and assist with challenges. Revisit this assessment regularly to show progress and add new areas of growth. We have even begun seeing managers use ChatGPT to customize feedback and plans to each employee’s individual learning style and personality. Nonprofits also should consider an internal leadership pipeline – it supports the organization’s goals around succession planning and encourages employees to learn and grow outside their direct area of work. Keep in mind that it’s important for frontline employees transitioning into management roles to receive leadership development beforehand, so they can effectively coach their team to success from day one.

Positive Work Environment

People want flexibility to work individually or in teams as their work demands. They also want to be authentic at work and recognized by (and give recognition to) their superiors and peers for a job well done. Employees differ in the type of recognition they need to feel fulfilled. If you want a fun activity at a retreat or staff meeting, have employees take the online Five Love Languages quiz to find out which “love language” makes the biggest difference to them. Then, use this information to tailor your recognition efforts to their preference. Employees also want to be part of workplaces that value their unique point of view. To accomplish this effectively, you may want to start a staff culture committee to make suggestions (and take action) on creating a culture that values diversity and promotes belonging. When these elements are incorporated into your organization’s core values, it sends a strong message to applicants as well as employees about the work environment.

Growth Opportunities

Employees, particularly those under 35, want jobs that push them to grow and acquire new skills. This does not necessarily mean they want a promotion every year. Younger employees desire formal and informal professional development, opportunities to try something new and the chance to grow once they’ve mastered certain skills. If your budget is limited, consider hosting “lunch and learns” where employees lead trainings in areas of expertise or book clubs where you discuss relevant professional books/podcasts connected to collective organizational needs. Our favorites for clients are The Five Choices, Dare to Lead and The Speed of Trust. And get creative — we have a client who launched an internal Toastmasters to help employees strengthen their presentation skills.

Trust in Leadership

Luckily for the social sector, people want to work at organizations with a purpose, but they also want leaders who are transparent and invest in their development. In the social sector, because employees lead with their heart, decisions are often more personal and emotional, so transparency is essential. To that end, leadership must openly share when mistakes occur and how decisions are made. To gauge how you are doing in this area, we recommend an annual survey of employee satisfaction. We suggest using simple quantitative and qualitative questions to get to the heart of this issue and produce measurable results that can be tracked annually. Then, as with every survey, employers need to share the results, celebrate achievements and take steps to improve when needed.

All of this effort really works! Organizations with a highly engaged workforce have been shown to be 30 percent more innovative and 200 percent more effective than ones without an engaged workforce. We need high-functioning teams in the social sector to produce excellence for the communities we serve. If you have low-cost and effective employee engagement ideas, we hope you will share them with us.

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