Trends & Issues
The Boomer Boon
Recruiting and retaining late career employees to the non-profit sector
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Susan Carter is a practitioner and analyst in the Third Sector. She held senior positions in several departments in the federal government, focused on social policy and federal-provincial relations. She left the federal public service in 1994 to work as Associate Executive Director of the Canadian Council on Social Development – a non-profit organization in the field of social policy and research. She managed the Voluntary Sector Secretariat within the Voluntary Sector Initiative and now works as a researcher, instructor and advisor in the non-profit sector. |
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Non-profit organizations look for staff at many different life stages – young people who have recently graduated, others who are returning to the workforce after an absence, people of any age who find themselves out of work or those looking for a change. People from the public and private sectors who are in the middle or even later phase of their working careers have been somewhat overlooked or undervalued as a source of recruitment, yet there are many who make this transition. I want to talk about what such people can bring to a non-profit organization, and why non-profits should consider recruiting them. I also want to discuss some of the assumptions and challenges – on both sides.
So why would those who are reaching the most productive phases of their careers or those looking down the road towards retirement begin to think about working for a non-profit? Lots of people say it’s crazy, or shortsighted. Colleagues say “Why would you give up job security and good pay? You must be really committed!” Nonetheless, it does happen, more frequently than commonly thought. There are people who decide on a mid-career switch to the non-profit sector: I know because I am one, and I know that I am certainly not alone.
I spent twenty-five years in the federal public service, in a number of positions with increasing responsibility, always in the field of social policy. It was social policy that always interested me above all else. At the twenty-five year mark I found myself in a department that was being seriously downsized and looking for volunteers to take an early departure package.
I jumped at the chance, because it meant an opportunity to look for a job in the non-profit sector. The sector appealed to me particularly because as a social policy advocate I thought this might be a chance to get closer to the operations and implications of the policies I had been analyzing for many years. For me, a move to the non-profit sector represented a chance to get ‘on the ground.’
There are many reasons why someone decides late in their working life to make a change and go to work in another sector. I have heard people say “I figured I had one significant job left in me before I started to slow down and I decided I wanted to make it count for something.” Others who feel they are not getting to use the best of their talents where they are have said, “so I decided to leave while I still had something to leave with.”
And still others talk about how much they wanted to look at the world from another perspective – to experience their field from a different angle while they still had time to do so.
Later in their career many experience a desire to ‘get back to the coal face’ – to spend time again at the work that called them in the first place before they were promoted into management positions. This may mean taking a job directly counseling the unemployed, or teaching children in a classroom, or labouring as a front line street nurse. And some are looking for the fresh challenges of working for organizations that are doing good work even if they are chronically short of resources (and sometimes because they are short of resources and need the help).
If these are some of the motivations behind late-career transitions, then why to the non-profit sector? This sector offers many benefits: it is possible to speak out about the issues you care about; you can see results and see the difference your organization makes; and you can be closer to people and their communities than in most other lines of work. As so many say “it allows me to give back” or “the chance to make a difference.” The major disadvantage of course is that odds are you will earn less than in other sectors. So does passion for the job trump compensation? Sometimes it does. Some people in the later stages of their career or in retirement can afford the usual pay differential, and there are bridging mechanisms, such as secondments and salary subsidies by former employers, that can make it feasible for some others to make the switch.
And what about the other side of the equation? Why would non-profits want to hire people from other sectors, especially in the latter part of their working life? Why would organizations go after older workers rather than younger workers? The most important point is that it is not a question of either/or. Younger workers bring many assets, including the fact that they will bring a larger return on the investment by potentially staying with an organization – or remaining in the sector – for many more years (although the statistics show that this assumption is often not borne out). In fact, young people are more likely to be recruited away or even out of the sector once they have been trained and developed. Retention is a recurring issue for non-profits– and the problem is much greater for younger workers than older ones. In summary, older workers can sign on for fewer years than younger workers, but they are more likely to stay on for longer, and to make a huge contribution along the way.
Older workers bring a wealth of experience in managing, specifically in human resources, amongst other subject areas. A 2008 U.S. survey of non-profit employers found that interest in hiring older workers is fueled by growing concerns about finding talented staff and managing shortages of skilled labour.[1] Another 2009 survey found that non-profit employers were looking for functional skills – in finance, general management, marketing/communications, planning, evaluation, operations, technology, and human resources – and affirmed that they valued private sector experience.[2]
Employees who previously worked in government also bring a more sophisticated understanding of how government operates, something that some veterans of the non-profit sector say is lacking in many non-profit organizations.[3]
While U.S. studies have affirmed the need for “cultural fit” when hiring, and the importance of orienting new recruits from other sectors, research has confirmed that these older workers can make valuable contributions in their new settings.[4]
Transitioning to the non-profit sector in mid- to late career certainly brings its own set of challenges. The world of non-profits is very different and very complicated: it has far fewer defined structures and hierarchies. As well as fewer resources, there are challenges in building consensus and dealing with multiple stakeholders. And progress is not measured by profits or other familiar benchmarks. In a recent interview with some high-profile job-switchers, one said “This is the steepest [learning] curve of any of the transitions I’ve had to make…this is not like making widgets. It’s much more complex.”[5]
There is much that the non-profit sector can do to attract older workers: it can convey the facts that many jobs in this sector are as tough and challenging as they come: managers in the non-profit sector typically have to be the CEO, COO, CFO as well as the director of HR, communications and programming. A tough job? You bet. But it can also be incredibly rewarding. As another of these high profile job switchers put it, “You have to …expect that you’re not going to have all the resources you would need to achieve what you want…but the satisfaction of working for a non-profit organization more than compensates for dealing with diminished resources.”[6]
A great deal of effort and attention is being expended these days to figure out how to attract youth into the sector. It would be worth spending time and effort as well recruiting older workers who bring enormous talent, know-how and enthusiasm to any non-profit organization.
1. Tapping Encore Talent. A MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Survey of Nonprofit Employers. (2008) p. 8 2. Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits (2009). Executive Summary, p. 2. The Bridgespan Group. 3. Birnbaum, Elisa. Leadership in Focus: Patrick Johnston. CharityVillage, 2009. 4. The Conference Board. A Perfect Match? How Nonprofits Are Tapping into the Boomer Talent Pool. (2009) 5. As quoted in The Globe and Mail “Work and Money” Section Tuesday Sept 29, 2009. “When CEOs forsake the world of profit”. P. L3 6. Ibid |
