Nonprofits Set to Hire, According to New Survey

Yesterday, the 2011 National Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey was released and the results were clear: nonprofit organizations plan to hire more aggressively this year, after a 2010 that saw a quarter of non profits cut positions.  In even more good news, turnover rate for nonprofits is expected to be very low, with responding organizations calculated it at 13%; in 2010 it was 21%.

Here are some more highlights from the report, which does contain some cautionary notes despite the optimistic news:

• Although 84% of not for profits thought HR is pivotal to the success of their organizations, only 52% don't have a dedicated HR professional.
• Despite the popularity of technology like social media, most nonprofits are still using newspapers and networking to recruit job candidates
• Lisa Brown Morton,CEO of Nonprofit HR Solutions (which co-sponsored the survey), cautioned for nonprofits to prepare for higher than normal turnover rates, despite the optimistic news on that front.  She said that because many nonprofit staff are being asked to "do more with less," there is a chance that could lead to a surge in turnover rates in late 2011.
• She goes on to urge non profits to focus on retention strategies.

More than 450 nonprofit executives and Human Resources people participated in the survey.  If you want to see the full results of this survey, download it for free at Nonprofit HR Solutions' website.