While nonprofit work is inherently meaningful and fulfilling, it can be more draining than other industries. In fact, 95% of nonprofit leaders are concerned about burnout in their workplace. Staff dedicate an immense amount of time and passion to your cause, which can leave them exhausted even though they may love their work.
Battling burnout does more than boost your team’s energy levels in the office. It can also help improve your recruitment efforts and lower your employee attrition rate, which Lever defines as the rate at which employees leave your organization over a period of time. After all, retaining motivated employees preserves valuable time and money that can be spent on mission-critical projects rather than training new team members.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to combat burnout in your organization, ultimately cultivating a stronger financial standing, healthier workplace culture, and positive employer reputation for recruiting purposes.
1. Provide professional development opportunities.
Your employees want to learn how to grow both in their current roles and as professionals overall. Providing professional development opportunities empowers them to explore topics they’re interested in. Fostering professional curiosity can encourage them to bring new ideas to their current roles and feel more devoted to your mission.
You can promote professional development by:
- Allocating a budget for conferences, educational materials, and internal workshops.
- Offering tuition reimbursement for employees pursuing a higher education degree.
- Launching a learning opportunity network or encouraging employees to join associations where they can attend networking events and casual coffee chats with colleagues across the nonprofit sector.
- Creating a mentorship program so employees can learn from more experienced coworkers and people in other departments.
- Provide a paid sabbatical for long-standing employees to reward them for their loyalty and empower them to explore another interest.
When creating these programs, create a professional development pathways guide that highlights the program’s specific objectives. This guide helps the program align closely with your mission and sets expectations with employees so they know the benefits they’ll receive.
2. Assess and adjust your work-life balance initiatives.
A leading cause of burnout is a lack of separation between home and work. Work-life balance involves maintaining a firm barrier between these two settings and headspaces so employees can unplug and recharge after work. Nonprofit employees with a good work-life balance return to work each day energized and motivated to further their organization’s mission.
As an employer, you have a significant role in upholding work-life balance. Here are some actions you can take to cultivate a healthy working environment:
- Encourage regular paid time off (PTO) usage. Simply providing PTO is one thing, but actively promoting using it is another. Respect your employees’ need for a break by establishing an accrual overflow rule—if your employees don’t use PTO regularly and it hits an upper threshold, they’ll stop accruing it.
- Offer mental health days. A mental health day provides your employees dedicated time away from work to do activities that “fill their cups,” whether volunteering or attending a yoga class. Offer a certain amount of mental health time off (separate from PTO) so employees can take extra time to recharge.
- Adopt a flexible work environment. Your employees might need separate settings to maintain their work-life balance. On the other hand, they might achieve more in their personal lives with the flexibility of working from home. Empower them to pick their ideal arrangement with a hybrid work setup.
Every employee has a different work-life ratio that works best for them. Trust your employees to find that balance and accommodate their needs whenever possible. Respecting employee preferences while providing time off and flexibility is a win-win scenario, so be open-minded and listen to employee feedback about your policies.
3. Openly communicate about burnout.
While mental health and burnout are normal, they can be stigmatized in high-pressure workplaces. It’s important to openly communicate about these issues so employees understand how to address them and feel comfortable talking about their own difficulties.
Your discussions about mental health and burnout should start with your first interactions with potential team members—interviews during the recruitment process. Ask potential hirees how they cope with stressful situations, both in the office and outside of work. While broaching this topic, discuss why coping strategies are crucial to succeed in the nonprofit world and how your nonprofit supports its employees through turbulence.
In addition to mental health days, you can provide mental health resources like workshops on stress management and books on combating burnout. You could even organize team mindfulness sessions where team members ask for advice about issues they face in a welcoming environment. Ask your employees for feedback on which programs work so you can invest more resources into those opportunities.
4. Show appreciation to employees.
Just like you show gratitude to donors and volunteers, you should recognize the team that makes your vision statement a reality. Applauding a job well done incentivizes employees to continue performing well, especially through adversity.
Simply saying “thank you” is a good start, but you can further enhance your appreciation efforts with these ideas:
- Give small tokens of gratitude. Unwrapit suggests gifting employees items like branded merchandise and gift cards to their favorite local restaurant as an award for hitting a goal.
- Post employee appreciation shoutouts online. Spotlight your nonprofit’s talented employees on social media (with their permission). Public appreciation can build relationships with employees and humanize your organization to the community.
- Host a yearly Employee Appreciation Day event. Close the office and treat your employees to a day of fun or relaxation. You might do a team-building activity, like a cooking or mixology class, or something more laid-back, like a picnic.
Effective employee appreciation encompasses more than just a one-time achievement. Reward loyalty by acknowledging employees on their work anniversaries or birthdays, too.
Your mission can help you beat burnout faster than other types of organizations. Simply reminding employees that their hard work impacts real people daily can keep them motivated. Facilitate these discussions by adding an agenda item to your weekly meeting called Feel-Good Feedback, in which each employee shares an inspirational moment from their week or interaction with a beneficiary that reminded them of why your cause matters.
Author: Stephanie Sparks is the Director of Content Marketing at Employ. She leverages 17 years of marketing and communications experience, and her master’s degree in marketing, communication studies, and advertising, to craft compelling content across the JazzHR, Lever, Jobvite, and NXTThing RPO brands. She is a thought leader for the HR technology and talent acquisition space.