Happy July First name / community member!
We've got two interesting topics in this month's newsletter – fall/winter hiring preparation and using AI in hiring.
First up: prepping for fall hiring. The key here, as you may be saying to yourself, is looking at your budget and determining your funding for the next 3-6 months. Not easy right now. But we are hearing from staff that due to budget constraints, co-workers aren't being replaced when they move on; job duties are doubling and tripling as demand increases, but budgets remain uncertain, and concerns about whether any cost of living adjustment (COLA) or merit increases will be possible this year are causing serious morale issues.
This stress is really the conversation. If your budget indicates that you will be constrained for the near future, it is time to think about restructuring your organization. You may need to end some programs, move a program to another organization, or decrease the number of clients being served in current programs. This is heartbreaking, and there is no good way to explain this except that you cannot keep overworking people because there is the “possibility” that things may change financially.
The burden that has been put on the nonprofit community cannot be sustained without a change in response. And that change in response needs to reflect the needs of your staff/team as well as the programs you are delivering. Do not wait until the money is gone, the grant is diminished, or the doors have to close. Make decisions now.
And as a key employee leaves or an opportunity arises to expand, think smart about the capacity of your team to manage a hiring process. While there are many candidates available in the current market, finding the person who meets your needs is suddenly a bigger challenge. More applicants, more diverse skillsets, and more people from outside the sector mean more time for you to review and consider potential candidates.
NPN is regularly engaging with candidates and organizations and finding ways to add value to organizations in the hiring process. Yes, we cost money, but we can save you and your team a lot of time by streamlining the process and removing tasks from your plate. We also do nonprofit hiring on a daily basis. Take advantage of our expertise to help you hone job descriptions, ask great interview questions, and link you with amazing candidates.
Next up: AI in hiring. It's here! From the organization's side: remember that candidates are using AI to review resumes, write cover letters, and prepare for interviews. And there is nothing wrong with this! They are trying to highlight their abilities in comparison to your job description and hone their ability to tell their story. So what do you do? Ask strong interview questions, conduct in-person interviews, and be clear about which aspects of a job can be performed via computer (thus relying on AI skills) and which parts rely on interpersonal communication. Make sure you are interviewing for both.
NPN supports providing questions ahead of an interview to allow candidates with multiple learning styles to prepare and present their best selves. Because of employer concerns with AI, we have added additional questions that are not provided ahead of time, and include a skills question and an interpersonal question. In this way, candidates who are well-prepared for the interview will have enough context to answer spontaneous questions while not taking away from different learning styles.
For candidates: think about what AI is doing for you. Is it doing the job or supporting you in performing the job? It should be the latter, or this may not be the right position for you. Use AI for research and learning, but take notes, don't read a prepared paragraph during a phone or video interview. It is easy to identify when you are reading, and that action will discount the quality of your answers. Your skill in AI is a bonus if it is additive to your knowledge and skills.
At NPN, we are not using AI to screen resumes or cover letters. We are using AI transcription to synthesize phone interviews (using Fathom), summarize talking points and client reports. We do not record video interviews and if any recording is done (meetings, reports, etc.) you will be notified in writing as well as when the meeting begins. Whether a candidate or client, you can always request that a discussion not be recorded.
Will this position change? I don't know. We are all learning. We are following legal advice and asking them to stay current as we are determining how AI helps or hurts the job market. A recent heads up from one of our team members about an
article showing that women asking ChatGPT for salary guidance are being quoted lower salaries than men.
We know that bias exists in AI and that bias is not being programmed out of AI quickly enough.
Just like any program, offering, or tool, bring some skepticism into your use of AI. If the salary doesn't look right, it probably isn't. If you ask a question one way, then repeat it in another way. Different searches bring different results. And, just like we used to say in the olden days, once something is in AI, it lives forever! So don't share personal information or specific details unless you are prepared for this information to be available everywhere.
