I’m thinking about this recent article in NonProfitPRO — Does the Nonprofit Industry Have an Employment Problem? — by Tracy Vanderneck.

Tracy cites two reports, one a cross-industry study and one focused on nonprofits, which converge on the exact same number regarding average annual employee turn over. It appears that nonprofits hold onto staff at the same rate as other sectors.

The magic number is 19% … one in five employees will head for the door.

Look around you … who is it? Is it you?

As Tracy notes, 19% is just an average, with some organizations performing better and some worse. Where is your nonprofit (or fundraising firm) compared to that average? If you are above, has your organization actually looked at its attrition rate and delved into the compensation and cultural issues that might drive inordinate turnover? Have you measured its cost? Is your organization “running on tired”?

As Tracy points out: “Nonprofit status is not an excuse for substandard wages (or unbalanced wages—where executives are paid well, but front line staff are at minimum wage), lack of a recruitment and retention strategy or a culture that does not genuinely value the people in its employ.”

Of course there are perfectly understandable reasons why employees leave even the best of nonprofits. In the nonprofit study, 68% of turnover is voluntary. If you look across recent departures from your organization, I hope you’d assess that the majority were positive situations.

Most of us would not hold against a departing colleague their opportunity for greater responsibility, professional development or greater compensation … especially if those opportunities simply did not exist in the present situation. Perhaps we’d like to idealise that individuals and organizations can grow together; but that’s probably more rare than common.

When should you look at being one of the one in five departing this year? Here are some reasons that occur to me …

• Opportunities arbitrarily denied.
• Abusive work culture.
• Inadequate investment in organizational growth (by design or ignorance).
• Mismatch of personal and organisational vision.

So, are you leaving or staying?

Tom

P.S. Good news … in the nonprofit study, the top predicted growth area for adding staff is fundraising/development. Or is it good news? That means more opportunities for your staff to leave!