Superior Engagement Managers (SEMs) in U.S. Nonprofit OrganizationsOctober 2014

Delivering Public Service for the Future

IntroductionManagers help drive organizational performance and productivity through employee engagement and development. Yet, all too often, they fall short on effectively engaging their employees. A 2012 Gallup poll reported that 70 percent of U.S. employees do not regularly feel engaged at work.1 These unengaged workers experience increased employee dissatisfaction, higher turnover rates, decreased morale, and lowered productivity. This impact is felt more intensely in resource-limited nonprofit organizations, many of which depend upon passionate individuals to overcome tight budgets.

Managers that overcome these challenges raise employee engagement levels, improve overall productivity, lift employee morale, and can be classified as superior engagement managers (or SEMs). SEMs convert employee potential into organizational productivity. They heighten talent recruitment and inspire current staff by employing specific leadership traits, such as making decisions with integrity and clearly communicating their messages of improvement. Approximately 10 percent of individuals possess all of the traits that define a SEM, and when placed in mid-manager roles, these SEMs outperform their peers by up to 48 percent.2

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1. Harvard Business Review. (March 13, 2014). Why Good Managers Are So Rare. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare/.

2. http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare/.

“There are individuals who are great business operators and value creators, but if they can’t develop, inspire and lead people, they are not going to make it to the very top.”Bill Green, Accenture former Chairman and CEO

Trends/Challenges Recruiting and retaining top talent in the nonprofit sector is a challenge. To mitigate the risk of rapid turn-over, the following trends must be addressed:

• Talent Competition has led to a leadership shortage among nonprofits. Solely relying on volunteers to take on leadership roles is no longer a viable option. Today, nonprofits compete for and secure the same professional talent hired by their for-profits counterparts.

• Budget and Compensation levels are noticeably limited within nonprofits. This is further hindered by the social taboo in the U.S. against giving high salaries to those doing mission-driven work.3

• Diversity and Inclusion, or the lack thereof, often stems from the recruitment and hiring process. In a 2013 survey of over 580 nonprofits conducted by the firm Nonprofit HR, over 90 percent of employees believe their organization values diversity. However among those falling short of their diversity goals, only 37 percent have a formal workforce diversification strategy. Those interviewed cited this and challenges in diversity recruitment as major causes.

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An altruistic mission statement can help get talent in the door, but a compelling purpose alone is not enough.4 In the same survey cited above, only 10 percent of organizations stated they had a formal strategy for staff retention.5 Furthermore, the HR-to-employee ratio is often much less among nonprofits than among top for-profit companies. “With the high workloads and flat organizational structure common in many nonprofits, some employees become frustrated by a perceived lack of skill development and career advancement opportunities.”6 Many nonprofits do not have the budget to afford an intricate career advancement program. However this paper will discuss how nonprofits can recruit and develop future SEMs, despite these barriers.

3. EHL Consulting. (April 4, 2013). Five Essential Challenges that Nonprofits Need to Consider. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/five-essential-challenges-that-nonprofits-need-to-consider/.

4. Nonprofit HR. (April, 2013). Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey. Retrieved July 1, 2014 http://www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-Employment-Trends-Survey-Report.pdf /

5. http://www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-Employment-Trends-Survey-Report.pdf /

6. Accenture. (2012). Increasing Employee Engagement in the Nonprofit Sector. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Increased-Employee-Engagement-Online-View.pdf

“[Nonprofit employees] work for meaning, so successful managers must be able to relate the meaning and purpose of nonprofit work to their employees.”Michael Conn, Senior Vice President of Research, Educational Research Center of America

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Traits of a Superior Engagement ManagerAccenture has developed the following Leadership Model to highlight the key attributes of top performing managers. Built from leading corporate practices, this model, with input from nonprofit leaders, can also be used as a lens to better understand management practices within mission-driven organizations.

INSPIRE: Communicate the Vision In the social sector, success is not always measured in dollars and cents. Mission-driven work evaluates success with less tangible metrics. Trish Tchume, Executive Director of the Young Nonprofits Professionals Network (YNPN), believes

that nonprofit employees work in the field not solely for cash compensation but for the intellectual, professional, and moral benefits of working for a mission-driven organization.

Michael Conn, Senior Vice President of Research, Educational Research Center of America, stated, “[Nonprofit employees] work for meaning, so successful managers must be able to relate the meaning and purpose of nonprofit work to their employees.” Conn’s words capture the importance of a core responsibility for superior engagement mangers: communicating the vision of the organization and linking how employees fit into this overall vision.

Jacqueline Hamp, Senior Director of Leadership Development at Goodwill Industries International says that SEMs are able to communicate in a way that inspires, versus simply demanding performance from their employees. She believes everyone has their own vision, but an SEM can create a space for their employees to align their own vision with the organization’s vision.

BUILD: Foster a Collaborative EnvironmentConn believes that SEMs should work to foster a collaborative environment where people can easily communicate and learn from each other. An Accenture white paper on global nonprofit leadership has found that the ability to communicate effectively

Inspire

Lead

Drive

Decide

Build

Focus

Coach

Inspire: Encourage extraordinary performance and greatness in others

Decide: Make decisions with integrity, balancing risk or ambiguity

Coach: Unlocking your team’s potential to maximize their performance

Build: Build high-performing teams that excel when challenged

Focus: Prioritize and communicate areas of focus

Drive: Drive high-quality business results

SEMs convert employee potential into organizational productivity

with diverse stakeholders is critical to making progress and accomplishing tasks.7

Strong communication skills allow for transparency, which creates trust among employees, pushing them to act in the best interest of the organization.8 Jennifer Davis, VP of Mission Advancement at Goodwill Industries International, believes that a key role of SEMs is to challenge their employees and develop opportunities for them to step into leadership roles (e.g. on special projects, in speaking or writing roles, in publically representing the organization, etc.).

In addition, managers with strong diversity awareness have the ability to “successfully navigate encounters, dilemmas and challenges with diverse populations” will help build and foster an employee workforce better equipped to handle alternative views and adapt accordingly.9 SEMs who are able to engage diverse employees will also obtain more creative solutions to organizational challenges, which will help serve clients more effectively.

DECIDE: Delegation is Key In the limited-resource nonprofit landscape, a superior engagement manager must also know how to effectively delegate. A manager’s key to successful delegation lies in his/her ability to identify and best leverage their employees’ strengths by providing relevant opportunities. Many managers are promoted due to their success as an individual contributor and often tend to rely upon those skills versus delegating work to others for the purpose of development. Susan Ifill, Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Neighborhood Housing Services of NYC, believes that

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one way for SEMs to engage employees is by inviting them into senior management meetings to gain exposure to organization-wide challenges and contribute their point of view. Providing transparency into the decision-making of the organization not only fosters employee trust, but also helps tie employees to the success of the organization. Hamp states that SEMs also allow their employees to fail; allowing mistakes to happen and then giving an opportunity to learn and correct them gives employees a sense of autonomy resilience.

DRIVE: Drive OutcomesThe aforementioned Gallup poll also states that superior managers who engage employees have successful track records that demonstrate how “they make decisions based on productivity, not politics” and have the “assertiveness to drive outcomes.”10 At the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, managers are expected to ask new employees what they require to achieve success and to follow up with any support and resources required to drive successful outcomes.

FOCUS: Plan Ahead While MultitaskingIn addition to engaging their teams with compelling missions while focusing on individual staff needs, SEMs are also experts in change management. Lacking the ability to adapt to change is a trait identified as one of the top three issues facing nonprofit organizations.12 SEMs are creative at optimizing the use of limited resources and effectively hire, utilize and retain staff, all while enduring increased accountability for fundraising, talent shortages and other challenges facing nonprofit organizations. SEMs are able to

focus on the mission yet maintain their focus on engaging their employees on accomplishment of the mission over time. Davis states that SEMs help to minimize the administrative elements of everyday work, freeing up more time for employees to pursue work directly contributing to the mission. A reduction in distractions also allows employees to feel more fulfilled in their work.

COACH: Training Successful ManagersAccording to Michael Conn, “Successful managers know the people they work with; they know their strength and weakness. They look for qualities and development opportunities in their employees. They realize that people have more range than the job they are hired to do. Successful managers hold high standards and apply it similarly across the team.”

Phyllis Wallace, the former Vice President of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, believes that superior engagement managers are those who set clear expectations and then provide employees with a roadmap to follow to achieve success. Their employees know what is required of them and how their work will be evaluated.

Jennifer Davis states that SEMs “know the aspirations of their team members and know how to support their (employees’) growth.” They provide special projects that stretch their employees beyond their current roles. At Goodwill, managers who permit an employee to supervise a summer intern is an example of practice engaged to prepare their employees for a supervisory role.

7. Accenture. (March, 2014). Global Nonprofits: To Achieve Greater Impact, Develop an Effective Leadership Ensemble. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Global-Nonprofits-Develop-Effective-Leadership.pdf.

8. http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Global-Nonprofits-Develop-Effective-Leadership.pdf.

9. Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. (2014). The Skills the Nonprofit Sector Requires of its Managers and Leaders. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.nonprofitleadershipalliance.org/cnp/cnprevalidation/Final%20Report.pdf

10. http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare/.

11. Leading Effectively. (October 23, 2012. Top three Issues Facing Nonprofit Organizations. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.leadingeffectively.com/top-three-issues-facing-nonprofit-organizations-in-2012-2/.

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Recruiting and Developing SEMsGetting a superior engagement manager “on the bus and in the right seat”12 is an important first step. While it’s not easy—Gallup estimates that companies miss the mark 82 percent of the time when it comes to hiring leaders who demonstrate strong managerial talent13—there are several steps nonprofits can take in the hiring and development process:

• Consider Future Potential Phyllis Wallace points out that many employees dedicate themselves to nonprofit work as early as their first year of college. Fostering an interest in nonprofits and mission-driven work allows future managers to get a head start in developing the characteristics needed to become SEMs. While these candidates may not be great managers on day one, early identification helps nonprofits create an internal talent pipeline of future high performers.

• Targeted Hiring Erin Roberts (YNPN) says nonprofits should use “mindful hiring” to bring new employees into the organization only after their potential long-term contributions to the organization have been determined. They should target their hiring for managers with the most likelihood of being an SEM. This type of focused hiring will enable nonprofit organizations to optimize their resources and build a dedicated workforce willing to engage based on their belief in the organization’s mission and management.

• Demonstrate Opportunity Michael Conn observes, “Great people are inspired by great opportunity.” Organizations should convey their mission and prove that they can provide a prosperous work environment for employees. Incoming managers should be convinced that available opportunities align with their interests, reward people development and promote a culture of employee engagement.

• Create an Inclusive Environment 70 percent of employees do not believe enough is done to create a diverse and inclusive work environment. Nonprofit organizations should go beyond simply valuing diversity14 and create a more diverse and engaging work environment for their employees, similar to the outreach campaigns many have for the communities they serve. Part of creating an inclusive environment is hiring SEMs who can help make this a reality.

• Invest in Training and Knowledge Sharing Developing talent and providing growth opportunities for managers via special assignments helps people hone their skills. Michael Conn states that this kind of investment can help managers “tailor skills to the real-time needs of the organization.” Moreover, this investment creates a culture of internal development where SEMs will in turn develop other staff members. At Goodwill, for example, Hamp has developed a leadership development program that helps participants build skills to influence up while collaborating across their peers. The program give direction and development for people that have employees counting on them for their success.

• Measure and Communicate Performance Consistent and constructive feedback is needed for future managers to realize their potential and areas of improvement. Having a formal system of measuring, recognizing and rewarding managers who engage their employees will result in greater accountability.15 Goodwill’s LDP uses formal assessments to understand strengths and weaknesses. It also allows participants to present to a panel of CEOs to gather critical feedback and ideas

• Avoid Over Indoctrination Once hired, nonprofits should manage the transition of SEMs to avoid over-saturating them in existing culture. The goal should be to help refresh the existing culture with a new hire’s creative ideas and different perspective that further organization goals.

12. Jim Collins. (October 2001). Good to Great. Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

13. http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare/.

14. http://www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-Employment-Trends-Survey-Report.pdf /.

15. Accenture. April 16, 2012. Does your Global Leadership Team have what it takes? Retrieved July 1, 2014 from http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-does-your-global-leadership-team-have-what-it-takes-podcast.aspx.

“SEMs are those who set clear expectations and then provide employees with a roadmap to follow to achieve success.”Phyllis Wallace, the former Vice President of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance

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Conclusion

While this paper has focused on middle managers, any individual in a managerial position—including executive leadership—can be defined as a superior engagement manager (SEM). Many executives were once mid-level SEMs themselves and continue to provide targeted attention to the improvement of their direct reports’ capacity for engaging their employees and teams. A number of the characteristics outlined in this paper could be defined as natural talent—possessing visionary leadership, having an affinity for individual needs and being adaptable to unforeseen changes. However, SEMs can also be developed or groomed over time. In addition, nonprofit organizations must learn how to identify and retain this type of talent: they must create a formal strategy for recruitment and development, and ensure their talent pool is diverse and inclusive to keep their employees engaged. If the right managers are selected, placed and rewarded, future managers will continue to promote this culture—increasing the impact, creativity and productivity of their organizations and the nonprofit sector as a whole.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 305,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Accenture’s Nonprofit Group Beyond our commitment to our clients is our dedication to improving the way the world works and lives. To learn more about how Accenture can help your nonprofit organization connect its vision to its practice to improve outcomes and lives, contact nonprofitgroup@accenture.com or visit www.accenture.com/nonprofit.

Copyright © 2014 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

For More Information To discuss this paper further, please contact:

Sheldon Maye Manager, Accenture Strategy sheldon.s.maye@accenture.com

Accenture co-authors included: A. Jaime Hunt, Tom Eagleson, Parixit Mehrotra, Neha Wadekar, and John Whittet

We give special acknowledgement to Michael Watson, Senior Vice President of Talent and Culture, National 4-H Council, for originating the concept of this paper. We would also like to thank the following people who contributed their expertise:

• Dr. Michael K. Conn - Senior Vice President, Research, Educational Research Center of America

• Jennifer Davis, Vice President of Strategy and Mission Advancement, Goodwill Industries International

• Dr. Jacquie Hamp, Senior Director of Leadership Development, Goodwill Industries International

• Susan Ifill - Chief Operating Officer, Neighborhood Housing Services of NYC

• Antoinette La Belle - Managing Director, Network Partnerships, Growth Philanthropy Network

• Lisa Brown Morton - President & CEO, Nonprofit HR

• Erin M. Roberts – Deputy Director, Strategic Development, Public Health Solutions and Co-Chair, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in New York City

• Trish Tchume - Director, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network

• Phyllis Wallace - Retired Executive, Nonprofit Leadership Alliance