New Retain and Gain Playbook will help non-profit employers to keep and engage staff

CERIC will publish a non-profit edition of its popular Retain and Gain Playbook that addresses the challenges faced by charities and non-profits in attracting, retaining and engaging staff. Authored by Lisa Taylor of Challenge Factory, the bilingual publication, to be released this fall, will enhance capacity building across the non-profit sector, which employs close to two million Canadians. The project has the support of multiple “Knowledge Champion” partners, including The Counselling Foundation of Canada, The Lawson Foundation, The Muttart Foundation, Imagine Canada and the Ontario Nonprofit Network.

The first edition of the Playbook focused on small business and was released in early 2017. There was immediate interest from the non-profit sector to have a Playbook of its own that addressed the unique environment in which non-profits operate, in terms of funding mechanisms, community stakeholders and reliance on volunteers. At the same time, many non-profits and charities meet the criteria of being a small business, having fewer than 500 employees (and often fewer than 50), with the same limited time, resources and opportunities for “traditional” linear career advancement.

Written in an innovative “travel guide” format, the Retain and Gain: Career Management for Non-Profits and Charities Playbook is intended for executive directors and people managers to use as a practical career management tool with their employees. It will apply to both small grassroots non-profits from arts to health to human services as well as larger federated charities. The publication is being shaped based on interviews with managers across Canada where an emerging theme has been that they have never received training focused on how to manage or motivate teams and, yet, it is a significant part of their job.

The Playbook will feature strategies to engage full-time and part-time staff in ways that advance, develop and support thriving careers within the sector. The concise publication will include 40+ practical, low-cost tips, activities and actions that can be implemented in as little as 10-minutes a day. It will also feature several special sections exploring human resource issues of interest to non-profits, including precarious employment and gender-based career patterns.

Like all CERIC resources, this Playbook will be available for free download and also available for sale in hard copy as well as ebook formats.