At a time when providing a quality employee experience has become crucial for employers, nonprofits have a ready-made advantage in the missions that are their reason for being.
The need to leverage their mission comes at a critical time: Nearly 80% of nonprofits have prioritized talent acquisition and 91% have made culture and employee engagement their top imperatives.1
Nonprofits can leverage their advantages to create the optimal employee experience. Achieving that experience is the context for a renewed focus on Total Rewards — the entire spectrum of benefits, pay and perks.
The idea of Total Rewards may not appear to encompass a nonprofit’s mission, instead comprising compensation and benefits. However, the idea of doing good and helping the community is not only part of Total Rewards for a nonprofit, it’s also in many ways a guiding principle.
The way forward takes a total rewards strategy built on three key considerations:
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Personalized benefits: Nonprofits should determine how to meet individual employee needs through benefits, viewing each employee as a whole person with individual motivations. By understanding employees’ needs and providing benefits that meet those needs, they’ll be more competitive at attracting and keeping talent.
Nonprofits don’t necessarily have to increase their budgets to offer benefits that meet individual needs — usually, they already offer adequate benefits, but aren’t tailored or packaged in a way that are optimized for individuals. HR leaders at nonprofits should keep in mind that benefits should reflect the mission of the organization, such as offering benefits that promote mental and physical health, financial security and education.
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Customized communications: It’s not just the message that’s important, but the medium: Workers today demand accessibility, and expect communications to be delivered in the format they prefer. For example, 75% of employees would rather access a video explaining benefits on their mobile device than read an email or text.2
Even more important is for nonprofits to leverage their mission and values in all their employee communications. In all of its messaging, it’s essential to convey how employees and the employer share a real ability to contribute to the greater good.
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The right technology. Better use of employee and benefits data opens the door to advanced analytics and insights that are necessary to structure personalized benefits solutions as part of a Total Rewards package.
Nonprofits may not be able to afford top-of-the-line technology, making it crucial to augment what they already have. They can leverage additional tech like single sign-on authentication that works across mobile and desktop devices or communication channels that facilitate written, audio and video messaging within the office or at home.
Even in an employment market in which it’s become exceedingly difficult to recruit and retain employees, many are driven to make a difference through their employer. Here’s where a nonprofit’s alignment with a mission or a cause is an advantage and can help create an exceptional employee experience through benefits that reinforce the mission of the nonprofit.
HUB International’s employee benefit specialists consult with employers of all sizes and in all industries on every aspect of employee benefits program planning and management.