5 Research-Backed Strategies to Recruit and Retain Your Team
At a recent fundraising leadership conference, the most frequently discussed topic with senior leaders was: How do we best recruit and retain a high-performing team? As someone who grew up in the university fundraising world, starting my career at age 18 in a regional development office as an undergrad and working my way up to a senior VP role, I’ve seen advancement organizations that do this well—and also those that don’t. This is what motivated me to start my own leadership and fundraising strategy firm, to support more organizations in developing leaders, strengthening culture, and advancing fundraising. Ultimately, when the leaders in an organization invest in their people, the results follow. With that in mind, here are five research-backed strategies to develop employees’ potential and build a workplace culture where everyone can thrive:
1. Offer Optimal Work Options
Remote/hybrid work continues to be a hot button topic. Even several years since the beginning of the pandemic when organizations were forced to create their own solutions to the challenge, leaders feel conflicted about whether remote/hybrid can work. Here’s the thing: A recent survey of office workers shows seven out of 10 would prefer to work remotely all or part of the time, so organizations need to consider the preference for remote/hybrid work in recruiting and retaining outstanding team members. Clients experimenting with hybrid work environments often confide in me that this adaptation of how to lead doesn’t come naturally to them. I certainly understand this. As a fundraiser who traveled the globe to build donor relationships and managed teams who did the same, I previously believed everyone needed to be in the office, too. The pandemic changed our relationship to the office, and in many ways, our relationship to work.
Many senior leaders I’ve spoken to express concern about missing out on the connections that had been made in hallways and breakrooms. I know from my own career that I was able to create genuine relationships with senior leaders in my industry by being prepared for and leveraging unexpected opportunities for connection on elevator rides, team meetings, and walking through campus. In a remote/hybrid work environment, it’s possible to recreate these experiences. Research shows “virtual water cooler” moments between interns and senior leaders led to more offers of full-time employment, higher performance ratings, and greater job satisfaction. Organizations can organize monthly hybrid “Coffee with the VP” gatherings for all staff to enjoy or skip-level meetings for team members to ask leaders about their work and career journeys. In one of my teams, we launched virtual buddies, based on a model from Stanford d.school, where employees were paired up to build relationships over a set period of time via text. The catch was that all of the correspondence was photos (not words) which allows people to tap into a different side of themselves and their communication with others. As the most senior leader, I partnered with a new professional on our team, and it helped us to build trust and a genuine relationship much faster than might have happened with usual office activities.
Great leaders evolve over time, just as our world does, and commit to continued learning to be the very best versions of themselves. To be sure, a successful hybrid office structure requires additional intentionality and planning. The leaders and organizations who are willing to try new strategies to build the fundraising workplaces of the future, and who understand that culture comes from connections—not presence—will position themselves to recruit and retain exceptional team members.
2. Develop a Meaningful Onboarding Process
Onboarding is often thought of as the first 90 days of a role, but it begins during the recruitment process. Applying for a job may be the first interaction a candidate has with your organization and how you talk about your culture, expectations, and value add should be clear from your job descriptions and interview conversations.
Organizations with formal onboarding programs have shown 50% greater employee retention and employees who participate in structured onboarding report feeling three times more prepared and supported. To help new team members feel better prepared and supported from the day they start, keep in mind how you’ll clarify what is most important to your organization and encourage new hires to share about what’s important to them, too.
To develop team members’ understanding of your organization, explain the role they play in achieving organizational goals and reinforce your commitment to their success. Some development offices have written workplace philosophies and values, which provide insights into what leadership considers to be most important. Bring these documents to life through how people lead in your organization.
Be sure to consider your organization’s unwritten rules, too. They’re the way things are done in your office that you learn eventually, sometimes the hard way—except it doesn’t have to be so hard. Writing down your team norms helps staff navigate your organization, which can onboard employees faster and create an inclusive organization. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony of writing down unwritten rules.) You can begin by collating the acronyms frequently used in your office and their definitions, which creates a shared office language. Then reflect on things you share with new team members in 1:1s or the things “you just know” about your organization and team expectations. For example, if your team doesn’t schedule meetings during lunch or send emails after 5:30 PM. These are things you could explain to someone as it comes up, but sharing this in an onboarding document gives a new team member a head start. On one of my previous teams, we invited a group of middle managers to take the lead on this project and involved the whole team in commenting on and revising the document on a shared file. You can also codify your team norms by developing training and onboarding videos.
Remember that onboarding is more than sharing information—it’s about creating a sense of belonging. After all, belonging has been shown to be the #1 driver for employee engagement. So, in addition to sending out all the hiring paperwork and an itinerary for a team member’s first day or month, show them you care about them as a person. You might send out a package to welcome them with a note signed from their team, decorate their office with university swag for their first day, and introduce them to a peer mentor or buddy. You can also introduce them to your team traditions. As a team leader, I welcomed each new employee by presenting them with their Bold Move Folder, a manila folder to fill with their notes, accolades, and accomplishments over time. When I started my fundraising career, I was given a similar folder by a boss and mentor, and it’s become one of my most prized work possessions. (The full story about the folder can be found in my book, One Bold Move a Day.) By sharing the folder and the story behind it, I wanted each team member to know before they even officially started in their role that they were part of something special and so much bigger than any one of us.
3. Value Your Team Members
Advancement organizations are exceptionally strong in helping donors feel valued and recognized. When you apply these same values to your employees, you build confidence and culture. Though it goes without saying, I’ll repeat it anyway: Gratitude belongs at work. Make it your practice as a leader (and colleague) to recognize individual team members in the moment for things they do well. Clearly state what your team member did well, how it relates to their unique strengths, and how it helps the organization. You can also find ways to infuse gratitude into your workplace culture. Start your team meeting by asking everyone to write down three things they’re grateful for and invite people to volunteer something from their list, or invite the team to go around the room highlighting how someone else helped them at work over the last week.
When I speak at retreats and workshops on how to incorporate the Bold Move framework to transform your organization, here’s an example I frequently share: Provide a booklet or piece of posterboard for each team member in your meeting and ask everyone in the room to fill out one line of gratitude or a kind note to everyone else. Each team member gets to take with them the compiled booklet or posterboard as a reminder of their contributions to the team—which will create positive feelings well beyond the meeting. This can be readily adapted for a remote/hybrid work environment, too.
Stewarding your team members is the key to your fundraising success.
4. Provide Coaching and Development
Providing professional development opportunities to employees at every stage of their careers is a way to show you value your employees, and for new employees, in particular, helps them accelerate their ability to make an impact on the organization.
Professional development can be more formal, such as joining established mentoring and coaching programs, attending industry conferences, and pursuing certifications. Organizations can create plenty of internal opportunities for coaching and development, too. Have employees participate in or lead cross-functional project teams; offer skills-focused workshops at team meetings or retreats; create learning cohorts for managers, early career professionals, or team members with similar job roles across the organization; or invite a high-performing employee to staff a strategy meeting they might not otherwise attend.
One of my love languages is connecting people within my network, and it’s a special way to invest in your team members by connecting them to your network to support their growth. To put this into practice today, find a trusted VP colleague at another organization and offer to have a mentoring coffee with each other’s respective team member.
5. Create Career Pathways
Prospective employees want to understand their growth opportunities at organizations. If they can’t see the pathway, they’re not likely to stay. Understanding this, it’s important for leaders to build personalized career development plans for their team members relatively early on in their tenure at the organization and review the plans on an ongoing basis. In a study of three mid-sized organizations (1,000-10,000 employees), those that timed the first career development plan to 12-18 months after onboarding saw retention rates nearly double. In one of my former leadership roles, I found that designating part of one 1:1 meeting each month (for context, I met with my direct reports weekly at the time) specifically to career advancement and professional development, helped to keep learning goals front of mind for both of us.
Creating a career growth plan doesn’t always mean climbing the proverbial corporate ladder. According to research from MIT Sloan, an opportunity for a lateral move is 2.5x more likely to retain employees than compensation alone. Be prepared in the interview process to showcase how people have been able to create career pathways in your advancement office. Work with your current employees to determine if they’re looking to: evolve/expand their current role, take on a new role in the organization, or have increased flexibility in their role, so they can continue to grow within your organization.
Managers typically aren’t trained in how to create career development plans that work, and they’re often expected to be frontline fundraisers, as well as people leaders. When organizations bring in my firm to support their employee engagement efforts, we coach managers on the art of leading fundraisers, including how to lead each employee for where they are now and how to help them fulfill their future potential.
With nearly every advancement office looking to recruit and retain team members right now, you can distinguish your organization by incorporating these strategies to create a workplace where everyone can thrive, while also leveraging the unique strengths of your organization and the history of your institution. Your investment will provide a valuable return for your organization today and play a significant role in developing your team members’ careers, your organization’s growth, your university’s success, and the future of our profession.