In the wake of the Great Resignation (during which over 50 million quit their jobs in 2022 alone), the labor market is normalizing, and the record-high number of open positions has dropped by more than three million. So, if you find that your nonprofit’s job applications haven’t bounced back accordingly, you might be left wondering why.
Reverse-engineering your job application experience and your nonprofit’s employer brand is the first step to finding some answers. In this guide, we’ll explore data-driven methods you can use to analyze and improve your nonprofit’s recruitment strategies.
Keep in mind that each nonprofit has distinct hiring needs based on elements like its mission, budget, and its community’s preferences. As we review these tips, consider how your nonprofit can leverage them given your unique position. Let’s dive in.
1. Act on trends in your hiring data.
The first step of any process revamp is to collect, interpret, and act on your existing data. However, you need to collect the most relevant and useful hiring data so you can efficiently create a strategy that works.
JazzHR’s guide to recruiting metrics recommends focusing on the following data points to better understand your hiring performance:
- Application Completion Rate, which is the measure of how many applicants who start your application finish it. A low completion rate could indicate that there are opportunities to improve the application process itself.
- Job Posting Engagement, which shows how many people engaged with your online job posting. This can reveal whether your initial presentation of your employer brand is resonating with potential applicants.
- Candidate Feedback Scores, which is a flexible metric that can help you pinpoint aspects of the candidate experience and application process that need improvement from an applicant’s point of view.
- Sourcing Channel Effectiveness, which is the measure of how many qualified candidates came from each hiring source. You can use this metric to gauge which sourcing channels you should prioritize.
The key to tracking this data is implementing data hygiene best practices into your recruitment workflow. For instance, you should regularly audit your data to remove duplicate records, amend incorrect information, and pinpoint gaps where you can add information. Also, ensure your database has advanced reporting capabilities so you easily visualize your data.
2. Focus on your employer brand.
Your employer brand is how you present your nonprofit’s identity as an employer. It’s a foundational piece of your hiring, essential for building your reputation as a desirable workplace and attracting good fits for your open roles.
To improve your employer brand, you first need a baseline to work off of. Lever’s guide to recruitment marketing suggests assessing these characteristics to gauge your employer brand’s current strengths:
- Workplace culture. Your nonprofit’s employees will work better together if they all feel welcomed and motivated by your team. Whether you fund social events outside of work or prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, highlighting unique aspects of your workplace culture can draw in potential applicants.
- Benefits. Candidates want to work for employers that recognize and reward high performers. Your nonprofit’s benefits, such as compensation, remote work, and paid time off policy, can be significant factors that convince candidates to follow through on their job application.
- Mission alignment. Unlike your for-profit counterparts, your mission acts as a strong throughline guiding your nonprofit’s activities. Emphasize how your mission impacts your workplace and hiring practices, so passionate people are inspired to apply.
- Workplace giving opportunities. As a nonprofit, you have firsthand experience with how workplace giving can impact your programs. Plus, your applicants are more likely to be enthusiastic about social responsibility, making your workplace giving program a significant recruitment asset.
Your employer brand will resonate more if it’s genuine, and presented in a way your applicants trust. Ask your current employees if they’d like to provide testimonials to express what it’s like to work in your organization and feature as part of your recruitment marketing campaign. Your applicants are more likely to relate to people in similar roles, so this can make your employer brand more authentic.
3. Optimize the job application experience.
Even if a candidate is interested in working for your nonprofit, they’re more likely to complete their application and attend further interview rounds if the process is seamless. Much like you optimize your donation and volunteer sign-up cadences, you should periodically review and improve your application to engage more candidates.
Assess your job application process by answering the following questions:
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- Is the application process integrated? If your candidates need to submit documents or create accounts on multiple platforms (i.e. your primary recruiting solution and your event-scheduling system), consider brainstorming how to streamline the experience.
- Is the experience user-friendly? Address any technical glitches or bugs that impact the application experience. Also, ensure your website adheres to web accessibility best practices, such as including alt text for visual elements and captions for audio elements.
- Is the process efficient? Your applicants’ time is valuable, so only gather the candidate information your recruitment team needs to make an informed decision.
- Is the process accurate? Make sure your applicants know what to expect from the process, including when they will hear back from you and what materials they need to provide.
If you need more clarity on which aspects to improve, go straight to the source. Ask your candidates throughout the recruitment cycle for their feedback so you understand how to better tailor the process to their needs.
Just like you tell a story in your fundraising marketing materials, you need to do the same throughout your job application cadence to attract candidates to your nonprofit. Remember that building a reputable employer brand starts with your recruitment marketing materials and continues through the application process, so by ensuring excellence at every stage, you’ll start seeing more applicants in no time.
