Key Takeaways
- High application volume creates hidden risk. The surge in job applications driven by AI and remote work may feel like an advantage, but moving too fast to keep up can lead to poor fits, early turnover, and a costly cycle of repeat hiring.
- Unemployment risk starts at the front door. For nonprofits, a bad hire isn’t just a productivity problem. It can cost up to four times an employee’s annual salary and undermine the mission-driven culture that makes your organization work.
- Slowing down can save money. Targeted recruitment, AI-aware screening, probationary periods, and stronger onboarding are practical tools that reduce turnover risk and help you find candidates who are in it for the long haul.
Hiring has changed dramatically over the last five years thanks to the growth of remote work, the radical shifts in economic headwinds caused by inflation, and the widespread adoption of AI. What used to be a difficult, labor-intensive proprietary process has become one reliant on volume and speed. This impact has been felt across all sectors, including nonprofits, which now have to contend with job application volumes two or three times larger than normal. While this might seem like a boon in a sector which traditionally struggles to recruit, it has created many new challenges.
The combination of economic uncertainty and high application volume means that organizations often feel pressure to move fast, as the number of applications has made it impossible to review every candidate in detail. While this may seem like a rational solution, it also greatly increases the risk of staff turnover, as applicants may not be properly vetted or may view the role as ‘just another job’, which is out of step with the culture of many mission-driven organizations.
While there is no way to stop candidates from using AI to mass-apply for jobs, there are many ways to manage the risks inherent to an accelerated hiring process:
Why unemployment risk matters
A lot of organizations think of hiring only in terms of applications, interviews, and offer letters. However, onboarding and retention are equally important parts of the process. No matter how successful your recruitment efforts might be, if the new hires don’t work out or leave after only a short time, that effort is effectively wasted.
This sort of turnover can be extremely costly, as backfilling, legal risks, and productivity losses all add up. What’s more, it can contribute to a cycle of accelerated recruitment and increased turnover, as rushed hires fail to live up to expectations and need to be replaced, leading to more rushed hires, and so on.
Replacing an employee is estimated to cost between half and four times their yearly salary, which means anything that contributes to this cycle can quickly eclipse the cost of a slower and more deliberate hiring and onboarding process. Unlike the more automation-friendly aspects of recruitment, these issues can be difficult to measure, as people may leave their roles for many different reasons.
For nonprofits this can be even more difficult, as the ideal candidate is not just someone with the requisite skills but also someone with a deeply-held and lasting investment in your mission and goals.
Recruitment steps you can take to reduce risk
If you find that your recruitment isn’t leading to desirable long-term outcomes or you are planning a period of growth, here are some approaches you can take to avoid a costly recruitment cycle:
Stop chasing volume
While it might seem counter-intuitive, it can be more effective to find the sweet spot between volume and quality. This can mean posting on fewer job boards, leaning more on network recruiting, or making the application process more involved in a way that can’t be easily automated. You can also be very direct in your job description about the challenges the job offers and explicit about the importance of the mission.
Learn to recognize AI-generated applications
When someone uses AI it doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad candidate or that they are unmotivated. However, it’s reasonable to assume that they are “playing the odds” by applying for a large number of jobs and may not have looked at your job listing closely. Training your HR team to recognize AI applications and coming up with questions which involve a deeper understanding of your organization and mission can help you identify the applicants who are interested in more than just a paycheck.
Post-hire steps you can take to reduce risk
Incorporating onboarding, training, and retention into your hiring assessment is a good way to ensure you’re looking at the whole process and not just the beginning.
Probationary periods
Before you make a major commitment to training someone, you can try working out a probation period of three to six months, during which the candidate is still an applicant for the role. This approach can have a number of benefits, allowing you to determine their level of investment in the mission without incurring excessive legal or financial risk if it turns out they aren’t a good fit.
Enhanced onboarding
It’s helpful to keep in mind that many applicants might feel burned out or frustrated for the exact same reasons as your HR team. The job application process is stressful and they might get little to no feedback, and so feel less incentive to fully invest in your mission until well after they are hired. By creating a supportive onboarding process, you can help cultivate their interest and commitment, reducing the chance that they will move on.
Change the way you look at hiring
Because hiring can be measured in so many different ways, it can be tempting to lean on numerical assessments rather than holistic or qualitative approaches. While more applications can mean your outreach efforts are successful, it’s easy to see where this measurement can fall short. Filtering 100 applications down to one candidate might seem like a recruitment win, but if the candidate doesn’t stay in the role for longer than a year the impact might end up being a net-negative for your organization.
Assessing hires and growth periods and year or even five years on, assessing the quality of work the hires are doing, and other qualitative measures can also help you redefine what a “successful” hire is and how you can push for more of these in the future.
About Us
For more than 40 years, 501(c) Services has been a leader in offering solutions for unemployment costs, claims management, and HR support to nonprofit organizations. Two of our most popular programs are the 501(c) Agencies Trust and 501(c) HR Services. We understand the importance of compliance and accuracy and are committed to providing our clients with customized plans that fit their needs.
Contact us today to see if your organization could benefit from our services.
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The information contained in this article is not a substitute for legal advice or counsel and has been pulled from multiple sources.
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