Developing a mission-driven compensation strategy

The competition for talent is fierce. The national unemployment rate is 3.9% as of March 2024. And nonprofit organizations are also seeing increased wage pressures from previously unlikely sources, including restaurants, hospitality, retail, fast food restaurants and distribution centers.

The current labor market in the United States is characterized by a high demand for skilled labor and a shortage of available talent. With more than 8.9 million job openings and only 6.5 million unemployed workers actively seeking employment, the market is exceptionally tight, including for nonprofit organizations.

This imbalance has led to highly competitive wages as employers strive to attract and retain the best talent. They are often compelled to offer increased compensation, flexibility and better work-life balance to lure and retain skilled workers.

To stay competitive, nonprofit agencies will need to proactively and intentionally create an environment that retains existing talent — the best recruitment strategy — and attracts new employees.

Compensation planning

Compensation planning has often been a significant challenge for agencies, and it has become even more difficult when considering the numerous factors impacting compensation decisions, such as:

• What is our compensation philosophy?
• How will we compete with retailers, manufacturers and other industries whose base wage is steadily increasing and easily discernable?
• What is going to be our internal minimum wage level?
• Should we incorporate paying living wages to our employees?
• How are we going to release the inevitable wage compression that is going to occur?
• What are the other top-of-mind questions in our agency regarding the compensation package currently in place or needed in the future?
• What is our position on pay transparency?

Because of these and other questions, developing a base compensation plan involves several proactive steps to seek alignment with your agency’s goals, along with your mission, vision and values.

Consider these fundamentals in your structured approach:

• Form a compensation committee and develop your compensation philosophy. This establishes the stakeholder group and sets the foundational principles to guide your compensation decisions.
• Develop or update your job descriptions so that positions, roles and responsibilities are accurately defined. Having updated job descriptions is becoming even more crucial in the new era of pay transparency regulations.
• Perform an external market analysis utilizing published wage and salary survey data to understand current compensation in your area or region. Consider leveraging data related to like-sized, comparable industries due to the highly competitive market. Engaging in a formal analysis enables your agency to tailor and customize its program to meet its own unique needs, while still operating in the competitive market.
• Develop a salary structure and calculate the financial impact of implementing that structure.
• Document the compensation plan. Proper documentation helps ensure all aspects of the plan are recorded and justified while providing a log to reference the future.
• Implement and adjust the salary structure annually to assist in monitoring the current landscape and market trends.
• Provide training to managers to equip them with the necessary information to articulate the plan and answer questions to support their employees and team.
• Communicate the plan to employees in a way that’s tailored to meet your agency’s pay transparency and overall communication level. Clear communication helps build trust and confidence in pay administration decisions, especially once employees understand the compensation strategy and see how it aligns with the agency’s goals.

Total rewards strategy

It’s essential to recognize the compensation strategy extends into the benefits area, creating a comprehensive total rewards strategy.

Current and prospective employees may no longer be satisfied with the traditional employee benefits and perks. With four generations in the workplace, agencies should confirm they have the right attraction and retention levers in place, including understanding what makes their workforce tick.

Unsurprisingly, all generations in the workforce want benefits and perks that will directly impact their lives and their families’ lives. However, they also desire non-monetary benefits, such as stability, flexibility in their jobs and where they work from, greater work-life balance, greater opportunity for personal development, and career advancement and opportunities for a phased transition into retirement.

Staying proactive

Compensation and total rewards reflect the dynamic interplay between employer strategy and ability and employee expectations. They also must strike a delicate balance between mission-driven purpose and practical sustainability.

As your agency strives to navigate this complex terrain, you should remain proactive, intentional and agile when implementing approaches to resonate with your diverse workforce.

By crafting strategies to reflect the unique spirit of the sector while also driving equitable and competitive standards, your nonprofit can be positioned to attract dedicated professionals who are not only skilled but also deeply aligned with your organizational mission.

How Wipfli can help

Wipfli is ready to help your agency build a more robust compensation strategy. Our industry-experienced team provides you with the guidance and support needed to better navigate total rewards, competitive compensation and talent management. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization build a plan to attract and retain the right talent. We’re also helping Head Start agencies prepare for the NPRM changes. Learn more here.

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