Non-Profit-organization: Attracting, motivating and rewarding employees

Introduction
The budget is the driving factor in almost every decision made within the organization, including decisions around HR and compensation programs. Non-profit organizations do not have big budgets and their spending is publicly accountable.

As such, many non-profit organizations hire great people only to lose them a year later. They gain marketable skills and move on to either a larger non-profit organization or a for-profit organization with more career advancement opportunities.

Also, it is especially easy for non-profit employees to burn out at work.

These are just some examples of the difficulties that face HR professionals in non-profit organizations. These challenges make it that much harder to attract and retain employees.
Strategies can you use to motivate and reward your workforce?

Understand your employees. Most workers are from the millennial generation (or Gen-Y). They are mission driven and they prefer to work for smaller organizations.
Rewards aren’t always about money. Non-profit organizations can include recognition programs, skip-level meetings, formal mentorship programs, and fostering a culture of empowerment and trust. “Rewards” are offered to encourage people to do the right thing, to speak out because they know they will be heard. Lastly, “rewards” motivate them to grow professionally and personally.
There is a base pay that employees need to meet just to live. It will be hard to hire and retain quality employees because the pay isn’t even close to market. Non-profit organizations or for-profit organizations that do not understand how its pay programs measure up against the competition will be in trouble. Perform your own market pay study, using published survey data, for a reasonable amount of money.

Conclusion
What sort of experience do you want your employees to have at work? Do you want your employees to experience a culture of excellence, empowered leadership, continuous learning, and challenging work? Whatever the experience looks like at your non-profit organization, keep it in mind when you’re using total rewards to hire, inspire or reward your workforce.