Human Resources: Recruiting, Compensating and Evaluating Your
Greatest Asset
Any organization that brings together different people to work toward a common goal faces the
challenge of coordinating and directing this group of individuals. As we have written in previous
papers, employees are every organization’s greatest asset, but it can be difficult to keep staff
aligned with the mission and motivated over the course of their career. In this Topic of the
Month, we will outline best practices of how the human resources department (or person
charged with this task) can effectively recruit staff, clearly communicate compensation and
benefits, and evaluate employees to ensure they are achieving their annual goals.
Recruiting Staff
The task of Human Resources is to set the vision for the company and develop means of
encouraging productivity in addition to removing obstacles that may prevent this. A major task
for any Nonprofit HR department is the acquisition and development of talented new employees
who are not only qualified but also passionate about their role in the mission of the organization.
As a framework for hiring, review Cathedral’s Topic of the Month on developing an effective
organizational structure.
Because nonprofits are mission oriented, organizations often attract employees who are
passionate about the organization. As employees are recruited, it is important to set
expectations for both the organization and the employee. From an organizational standpoint, it
can sometimes be easy to be swayed by a person’s enthusiasm for the mission which can lead
to the organization overlooking key qualifications or skills that are needed for the position.
Smaller organizations can also face the added constraint of not being able to offer salary or
benefit packages that are on the same level as larger organizations. Because of this,
organizations can be tempted to lower less qualified individuals with the assumption that they
can train them on any needed skills.
One way to overcome both of these challenges is to develop a survey rubric that outlines the
key skills that the job requires. As candidates are interviewed, each question is scored on a
point scale of 1-4, which allows for a more objective scoring of candidates.
To develop a survey rubric, think first about the over-all culture of your organization. Are you a
formal or informal organization? What communication style works best in your organization?
Also include questions such as #1 and #2 below that will help you determine the amount of time
the candidate spent learning about your organization before the interview.
www.CathedralConsulting.com
info@cathedralconsulting.com
1
Second, think about the specific function of the position. For example, if you are recruiting for a
Director of Finance position, you will want to make sure that they understand both basic and
complex financial issues. Questions for a position like this may include the following:
10
Function
What is the key to a successful Finance department?
Rate 1 - 4
4
Notes
11
What is the key to a successful budget?
2
How do you keep up on industry news?
3
How do you keep up on industry news?
n/a
Notes
12
Notes
13
Notes
Build out the questions so that you have approximately 20 total. If you are hiring for a leadership
or management position, you may want to include an additional five to seven questions on
leadership style to ensure that the future leader will be a good fit with your organization. During
the interview, take notes on the candidate’s responses, and then after the interview, go back
and fill in a numerical score for each question. If the rubric is set up in Excel, you can easily sum
and average the responses and give each candidate a specific numerical score.
www.CathedralConsulting.com
info@cathedralconsulting.com
2
The development of a rubric can also allow you to have more than one person interview a
candidate and provide objective feedback on the fit of the person’s skills and passion with the
organization.
The second aspect of hiring is ensuring that the expectations of the future employee are in
alignment with the opportunities and expectations of the organization. Candidates can often be
drawn to nonprofit work because of their desire to change the world. While every nonprofit
ultimately wants to make the world a better place, sometimes the process is slow and
challenging. In addition, not every position with a nonprofit is involved in front-line lobbying,
direct service or other activities that feel more mission related than bookkeeping or data entry.
In order to align expectations, it is important to ensure that each candidate – and current
employee – is aware of how their specific job helps fulfill the mission of the organization.
Part of aligning expectations with the fulfillment of the mission includes clearly communicating
job duties as well as each employee’s total compensation. While nonprofit organizations may
not always be able to compete with businesses in terms of salaries or benefit packages, they
may have other benefits that are appealing to their particular workforce.
When it comes to communicating compensation, the first step is to ensure that each employee
receives a total compensation review. While most organizations provide an overview of
employees’ salaries, many do not provide the cash benefit of vacation time, other paid time off,
or other benefits such as health insurance, long-term disability, free or reduced parking or other
perks. For example, some nonprofits may provide a generous holiday or vacation policy, and
the cash benefit of these should be included an employee’s total compensation review. This can
help employees realize that the total compensation that they are receiving is actually quite
comparable to what others working in larger nonprofits or businesses are receiving.
It can also be helpful for the HR department to complete a formal or informal compensation
survey of similar organizations each year to ensure that the salaries and benefits being offered
are on par with what similar organizations are offering. A variety of free and paid salary surveys
are available, and some networking groups may also provide their own analyses.
Measuring Effectiveness
After employees are recruited and compensated, the role of HR is to ensure that the
effectiveness of each employee is measured on a regular basis. Similar to the interview rubric,
Cathedral’s recommendation is to use a rubric that objectively measures an employee’s
progress on their employment objectives.
First, review each employee’s job descriptions. The job description outlines areas of
accountability and should be the road map of what the employee should accomplish each year.
As such, the job description should be the primary document against which the employee’s
performance is measured. Second, using the same format as the interview rubric, construct an
evaluation that includes measures of progress toward each key element of the job description. It
is also important to include questions that objectively measure the extent to which an employee
is upholding the organizational culture and over-all mission of the organization. Again, these
questions can be based off of the “culture” questions that were developed for the interview
rubric.
The evaluation should be completed by the manager as well as by the employee, at which point
the two should come together for a discussion. The use of a numerical score for each question
can be helpful in providing a quantitative evaluation to an otherwise qualitative process. In
addition, numerical scoring can help rank the over-all contribution of employees and can help
www.CathedralConsulting.com
info@cathedralconsulting.com
3
management more clearly understand who may need additional coaching or training on core
responsibilities.
Finally, focus on professional development opportunities for each employee. Investing in
employees and demonstrating that you are committed to helping them be more effective can
result in higher productivity and job satisfaction. Professional development can also be part of
developing a career path for each employee and can demonstrate your organization’s
commitment to your staff’s growth.
This Topic of the Month has provided an overview of how human resources staff can proactively
work to help recruit and retain effective staff. While often relegated to conflict resolution, human
resources staff are crucial to maintaining the mission and the stability of the organization.
Articles for Further Reading
1. Professionals for Nonprofits provide a free annual salary survey of nonprofit positions
in New York and Washington, DC: http://www.nonprofitstaffing.com/salary-job-reports/
2. The Nonprofit Times conducts a comprehensive national salary survey every other
year that can be purchased online: http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/2014-salary-andbenefits-reports/
3. PeopleInAid developed a manual that provides an in-depth review of ways to motivate
both employees and volunteers working in nonprofit organizations. The article includes
numerous suggestions for providing incentives that are not cash based:
http://www.peopleinaid.org/pool/files/pubs/motivating-staff-and-volunteers-working-inngos-in-the-south.pdf
Kimberly Reeve is a Managing Director, Sterling Clay is an Associate, and Joshua Chiang is
an Intern in the New York Office.
For more information, please visit Cathedral Consulting Group LLC online at
www.cathedralconsulting.com
www.CathedralConsulting.com
info@cathedralconsulting.com
4
Works Cited
Cyprus, Sheri, and Heather Bailey. "What Are the Most Common Human Resource Issues?" WiseGeek.
Conjecture, 07 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-common-human-resources-issues.htm
Jacobson, Darcy. "HR Metrics Smart HR Departments Track | Globoforce Blog."Globoforce. Globoforce Limited,
21 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2014
http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/2013/16-hr-metrics-to-track/
Reyes, Stephanie. "Growing Pains – HR Challenges in High Growth Companies." Tribehr. NetSuite, 29 Jan.
2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
http://tribehr.com/blog/growing-pains-hr-challenges-in-high-growth-companies
Schuler, Randall S., and Susan E. Jackson. HR Issues, Activities and Responsibilities in Mergers and
Acquisitions. Geneva: ILO, 2002. ILO.org. International Labour Organization. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_142321.pdf
University Alliance. "Human Resource Management Challenges | HR Challenges." Villanova University. Bisk
Education Inc., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
http://www.villanovau.com/resources/hr/human-resource-management-challenges/
www.CathedralConsulting.com
info@cathedralconsulting.com
5