Excerpts Series: Motivating Beyond the Paycheck
Motivating Beyond the Paycheck is a training we offer at CDP. Below is a brief overview - an excerpt - from this training. Find out more about this important training by clicking on the image or the button at the bottom of your screen.
So a little bit of background about motivating underpaid staff…. some of the following principals are really important when we talk about understanding this particular subject because when we talk about wanting to pay our staff well, we automatically jump to, “We need more money.” There are some things that money can certainly help with, but there’s more to understanding the principles of HR and nonprofit personnel that I think are important to understand when we’re going to talk about motivating our staff.
The first principal I want to talk about is that many nonprofit workers earn less than their for-profit counterparts. Though this isn’t always situation, most often it is the case. We hear those in nonprofit work say things like: “Well, if I was in the for-profit business world I would be earning more money.” Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes that is simply a perception.
The second principal is that most employees of nonprofits think they earn less, whether it’s true or not. They believe they earn less. What we think follows how we behave. So when nonprofit employees think they’re earning less, they also automatically assume that they are giving of themselves beyond their time and what they’re able to earn. So we have to deal with that perception when we talk about motivating underpaid staff. Again the first principal is many of them are earning less at a nonprofit than they would if they were working in a for-profit business, but most of them, even if they are earning comparable wages think they’re earning less. Perception is their reality.
What we also recognize, when working with nonprofits, looking at their budgeting and resources, most really do pay their employees what they can afford to pay. Sometimes there’s a perception on the part of staff that they’re underpaid intentionally and that there’s money set aside somewhere that should be going towards employee compensation. The reality that we find when working with a nonprofit is that most of the time these nonprofits are paying their employees as much as they can afford to pay.
Nonprofits….
Do work on a shoestring budget. You are not gonna find many nonprofits that aren’t strong stewards of money. They are operating on a shoestring budget and they’re doing the best they can to pay their employees.
Do often have restricted funds, which means they can’t use all of their money in the ways they would like to. Grants are restricted funds where you have to use grant dollars for specific things. Even if there’s a big grant that’s brought in, it doesn’t that mean nonprofits can necessarily compensate employees at a higher rate. We need to understand, in the nonprofit world, that not all the money that comes in can be used to accomplish salary increases the way we might want to use those monies.
Usually have limited discretionary funding, which is the opposite of restricted. Discretionary means nonprofits can use that money where they see the need. In the nonprofit world, we are always big proponents of looking for ways to bring in more discretionary funding so that we can use those dollars in ways that will strengthen our infrastructure. Sometimes that means salary increases, but nonprofits struggle with having limited discretionary funding. It ties their hands to some degree on how much they can compensate their staff.
Nonprofit work often…
Requires a skilled and educated workforce. From case managers to nurses, social workers, bookkeepers, property managers and clinicians — much of the work that is involved in the nonprofit sector requires some level of skill and education.
Takes place in unpretentious environments. We’re not always in the swankiest office atmospheres, sometimes we are working in warehouses or in places that don’t have great HVAC systems, like old buildings.
Requires nontraditional hours. There are some nonprofits that have to be available 24/7. The staff doesn’t get regular, routine 9-5 jobs but have to work evenings and weekends or sometimes overnight.
All of these are important elements that add to this conversation of Motivating Underpaid Staff.
KEY QUESTION:
If nonprofit staff have to be educated and skilled, yet earning less money (or at least believe that they’re earning less money than their for-profit counterparts) AND they are required to work in a modest environment while working nontraditional hours….
