Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions

Ask MACC:

Workforce Solutions

         

Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions brings our network the best new thinking on workforce development and people strategy.

   

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Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions scales MACC’s critical Human Resources expertise around workforce concerns and builds capacity for next generation thinking in our network around workforce issues like: improving our employer value proposition by focusing on employee well-being, investing in our current workforce, evolving our hiring strategies, and centering IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) in our workplaces.

The unrelenting trauma, burnout, fatigue, and market pressures on our workforce since 2019 have converged to create an unprecedented set of workforce challenges for MACC members. A thriving workforce is essential to our community organizations’ ability to continue the work of serving and supporting their communities.

 

 

New Featured Content:  
     

NEW! Nonprofit Compassion: Leadership and Identity: Tune in as Laurel Hansen talks with Francisco Segovia, leader of COPAL, about his journey from El Salvador to Minnesota and how his cultural roots shape his leadership. Together they explore the struggles facing Hispanic workers, the power of community, and how nonprofits can stand with immigrant communities to build belonging for all. 

>>Listen Now!

NEW! Immigrant Defense Network: Minnesota is home to communities of immigrants that strengthen and make the state thrive. IDN defends the rights and freedoms of our neighbors and drives transformative change together.

>>Read now!

NEW!  Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing: As part of the Sierra Club’s journey to becoming a more just, equitable, and inclusive organization internally and externally, the Sierra Club board of directors adopted the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing in 2014. These principles were created in 1996 during a meeting hosted by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice.

>>Read now!
     

 

 

Ask MACC: Workforce Solutions

Episodes, Guides, and Resources

 

Developing Recruitment & Onboarding Strategies:

Trends and resources in nonprofit recruitment: developing inclusive and accessible recruitment and hiring strategies, pivoting to skills-based hiring, and ensuring retention through rapid and effective onboarding. 

Developing Recruitment and Onboarding Strategies: Podcast Episodes:

   

In this recruitment-focused episode, Cheryl Jensen from Strategic Consulting and Coaching talks with Laurel Hansen, MACC's Program Manager, about how to lead nonprofits during times of big change. Cheryl discusses building and leading strong teams and shares what she's learned when guiding organizations through leadership change. She shares that it’s important to listen to each organization’s needs, build trust, and create a strong team where people feel supported and can grow. The two of them talk about helping leaders plan for the future, take care of themselves, and work together to keep serving their communities well.
 
Tune into hear from Executive Director of Avenues for Youth, Katherine Meerse, and Program Manager, Laurel Hansen, putting a magnifying glass on pay equity in regards to youth experiencing homelessness. Katherine goes into Avenues wage equity journey and implementing new practices like succession planning. They discuss the importance of laying the foundation for new hires to come into a position with a standard for what their position will entail. They highlight the importance of uplifting and investing in your workforce and considering why adequate pay is essential for our whole workforce.
 
Tune in to hear Jamie Hawkins, Human Resources Coordinator and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. This session goes into how to retain and sustain recruitment in an effective manner going into why less people are participating in the labor force and what challenges are presenting themselves. This discussion goes into how skill-based hiring/recruiting process can increase the candidate pool and overall being more flexible and center skill-based hiring and recruiting processes.
 
Tune in to hear Jamie Hawkins, Human Resources Coordinator and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager look closer at accessibility to increase diversity in the recruitment process. What having a skill-based recruitment process to encourage this would do. Some tactics include identifying the changes in language to attract applicants and being careful to not push forth bias.
 
Tune in to hear from Ingrid Sabah, the Managing Director of Impact, Evaluation, and Learning for the African American Leadership forum and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager to discuss the importance of marketing your organization, benefits flexibility, and how your people can be recruiters. Sabah shares her perspective on how shaping culture around an organization' talent and creating a healthy culture that really listens to employees can impact recruitment early on and improve retention. They'll remind us not be afraid of an unseen or unknown outcomes when you're making positive changes in recruitment strategies.
 
Tune in to hear from Chamille Edmonds, Program Manager of DARTS, and MACC's Senior Human Resources Consultant, Diane Seep, joining Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager as they talk through challenges in retaining employees in the workforce, finding the right candidates, and pinpointing those community connections. They discuss the importance of networking and employers recruiting with new methods in mind. This podcast emphasizes the idea of pursing partnerships to benefit everyone.
 
Tune in to hear members of MACC's social enterprise cohort talk through the challenges of running a business within a nonprofit. They discuss the multiple hats they wear, hurdles in hiring, keeping positions filled, and fueling volunteers so they see the value in their work. Hear from Amy Haddy, Director of Thrift Business of PRISM: Shop for Change, Marge Sutcliffe, Manager of Thrift Business of Valley Outreach: StyleXchange, Sonja Carr, Manager of Thrift Business of Interfaith Outreach: Resale Select, Yudi Montes, Manager of Thrift Business of Neighbors Inc.: Clothes Closet.
 

Catch all of MACC's Podcast episodes on our Podbean:

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Developing Recruitment and Onboarding Strategies: Resources

   

 

   Best Practices in Recruiting and Hiring

   Supporting Effective Leadership Transitions

   Building Professional networks to support competitive recruitment:

   How to promote/market your organization as an employer:

   Inclusive and accessible recruitment strategies:

 

 

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Investing in Employee Development:

Investing in the skills of our workforce: building pathways for growth and development, using skills based promotion, how to cultivate core competencies, and develop strategies to leverage skill building as a retention tool. 

 

Investing in Employee Development: Podcast Episodes

 

Tune in to hear from MACC's Program Manager, Laurel Hansen, joined by Lisa Negstad of Negstad Consulting, to discuss what makes for successful leadership transitions, why investing in shared leadership practices is essential, and how funders can support these efforts. Drawing from the experiences of MACC and Negstad Consulting, they highlight practices and frameworks that support collaborative leadership models—and the organizational and cultural shifts needed to sustain them. Listen now!
 
In this episode, Laurel Hansen, MACC's program manager, talks with Jaralyn Roberts, Leadership Development Director at The Forum, about her journey to finding the right career fit and stepping into leadership. Jaralyn shares how being authentic, especially as a Black woman in leadership, has shaped her approach to work. She highlights the importance of building meaningful relationships and ensuring employees feel supported. They discuss staying connected as a leader while maintaining a human-centered focus. Jaralyn also emphasizes the need for leaders to prioritize self-care.
 
Tune in to hear Julie Bluhm, Interim CEO of Bluhm Forward and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. They'll discuss what methods can help nonprofit leaders suceed and working to make leadership transitions as smooth as they can be. They go over the steps that new leaders can take to have strong start and make the onboarding process less stressful.
 
Tune in to hear Diane Seep, Senior Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. This discussion goes into how to find the right tools to remain sustainable and competitive. The benefit of investing in skill building to provide opportunity to learn and grow with the end goal to retain employees. The Importance of employee to employer communication and evaluating the roll to make the best candidate match up.
 
Tune in to hear Diane Seep, Senior Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager talk through why managers having the tools to build skills in a leadership role can fulfill that responsibility of being a manager. In order to lead a team, managers need those resources to manage a team first. The go on to discuss that investing time and space to develop managers creates room for people to grow.
 
Tune in to hear from Ingrid Sabah, the Managing Director of Impact, Evaluation, and Learning for the African American Leadership Forum and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager where they'll discuss building a skills-based workplace. Sabah shares why learning and skill building goes hand-in-hand are foundational to organizational professional development. Dig into how self-taught experts can sometimes be a better fit for a position instead of gauging qualifications with a college degree, and how this opens up the opportunity to more potential candidates. Organizations can learn to rethink about what is really needed to reduce barriers in the hiring process in this episode.
 
Tune in to hear from Ignite After School Staff: Kari Denissen-Cunnien, Ignite Executive Director, and Darian Lofton, Ignite Program Associate and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager, on how to cultivate leadership development in youth. They'll touch on how to build opportunities for youth leaders by increasing their skills. This discussion will focus on why it's important to have development that's impactful for young nonprofit leaders. Young people can change the world and having that knowledge base is powerful and brings forth change in the nonprofit sector.
 
Tune in to hear from Mandy Ellerton who spent nine years leading critical work at the Bush Foundation. Now she is a founder and principal consultant at dawn:dusk, who will present a Shared Leadership virtual session with the MACC network on October 23rd, 2024! She joins Laurel Hansen, MACC's Program Manager, to discuss the state of employee burnout, resource scarcity, and historical wrongs, all to show the need for stronger leadership and reimagining what that looks like for our organizations. They discuss making efforts to increase the durability of our nonprofit organizations. Dive into this conversation to get into building trust between colleagues and leaders and truly believe in the people that you work with.
 

Catch all of MACC's Podcast episodes on our Podbean:

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Investing in Employee Development: Resources

   

    Making the pivot to skills-based hiring:

    Building programming and pathways for employee growth and development:

    Building programming and pathways for supervisor growth and development:

    Leveraging Skills-based promotion:

 

 

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Strengthening Workplace Cultures:

 

How to adapt to market trends and the employee expectations of a long-term pandemic workforce. How to train managers to evolve with new workplace expectations, improve their continuous coaching and employee engagement approach and focus on building strategies that center employee mental health, wellbeing, and overall belonging. 

 

Strengthening Workplace Culture: Podcast Episodes

   

 

 

NEW!  Tune in as Laurel Hansen, MACC program manager, talks with Francisco Segovia, the leader of COPAL, for Hispanic Heritage Month! Francisco tells the story of moving from El Salvador to Minnesota and how his culture has shaped the way he leads at his organization. Francisco shares why he started COPAL, to give Latinos a stronger voice through community work, jobs, and policy change. Francisco also explains the struggles many Hispanic workers face, like unfair treatment and not being able to use all their skills, and how nonprofits can help by standing together and supporting immigrant communities. They'll discuss the importance of staying connected to your roots, leading with care for others, and building communities where everyone belongs.

 
 
Tune in to hear from Warren Duncan from People Incorporated Training Institute, and Laurel Hansen, MACC's Program Manager. In this episode they discuss the burnout, compassion fatigue, and mental health challenges that nonprofit staff face, especially in uncertain times with limited resources. Duncan speaks on how organizations can better support staff by implementing psychological safety, normalizing conversations around stress, and addressing increased burnout due to poor communication or toxic work culture. He emphasizes the importance of naming and addressing emotional strain stating, “name it to tame it," to build trust with teams and strategies for balance. Prioritizing well-being and open communication allows individuals and organizations to remain resilient, effective, and committed to their mission.
 
Tune in to hear from Laurel Hansen, MACC's program manager, and Jean Loyd, founder of Real Life Real Talk, to discuss how our values can support our boundaries and safeguard our identities in today's challenging world. In this conversation, Jean shares her journey as a transformational coach, speaker, and facilitator, and dives into how Real Life Real Talk began as a space for women to process their stories and take ownership of their choices. She reflects on how values like family, spirituality, and curiosity serve as a compass, especially in human service and nonprofit work. Jean explores how aligning with your core values promotes self-awareness, connection, and resilience, and how organizations can foster deeper trust, collaboration, and community by creating space for real, honest conversations. 
 
Tune in to hear from MACC program manager, Laurel Hansen, joined by Drake Powe, professional public speaker, meditation instructor, life coach, and stress reduction consultant, as they talk about handling stress and staying healthy, especially in busy jobs like nonprofits. Drake shares how meditation has helped him feel better and manage stress. They talk about simple ways to calm down, like changing how you think and getting support from others. The 2025 MACC Summit is coming up fast and Drake's session will provide a space where people can learn easy tricks to feel better and work better with others. It explains how noticing our feelings can stop stress from getting worse. Some helpful tips include deep breathing, sitting up straight, and drinking water. Leaders should use these ideas too, so workplaces feel supportive and happy. Staying strong means paying attention to good moments, staying mindful, and using small habits to make life better at work and home. Listen today!
 
Tune in to hear from meditation facilitator and co-founder of Black Zen, Jasmine Johnson and MACC's Program Manager, Laurel Hansen to discuss how mindfulness uplifts the BIPOC community and fosters a more just society. She explores meditation’s role in reducing stress, enhancing empathy, and even decreasing prejudice. As she prepares to lead a mindfulness session at MACC Summit 2025, Jasmine shares practical strategies for integrating mindfulness into workplaces and managing the pressures of human services work. She also offers insight into Black Zen’s future and its mission to expand its impact. Tune in for an inspiring conversation on mindfulness as a tool for personal and social change.
Tune in to hear from Molly Peterson, Director of Adult Mental Health Programs at NAMI Minnesota, joining MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen to talk about the importance of overall mental health and how it relates to the workplace. Peterson explores what it means to set boundaries for your well-being and that it's okay to uphold them in the workplace. It's okay to say "no" if it means the overall health of your well-being Being conscious of your own mental health and what capacity you have to keep it healthy is what matters most and that shouldn't stop at work. Learn more about practicing mental health and what that looks like in the workplace.
 
Tune in to hear Holly Henning, Executive director of Women's Advocates joining MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen, for this all-new culture episode! Hear how one organization intentionally develops a team-centered workplace culture, how they make the commitment to their staff's well-being, and making sure to value its importance for a better workplace culture. They discuss the  intentionality behind trainings and discuss boundaries for the purpose of improving self-care in the non-profit sector. They dissect what it means to center the well-being of a team and create space for more staff voices to be heard. 
 
Tune in to hear Amanda Golly, Vice President of Human Resource Services and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager for this session on Culture. Employers need to be looking at everything in order to retain high performers and identify and emphasize why your organization is so important. This session further Discusses how manager's role in maintaining a healthy organizational culture.
 
Tune in to hear Amanda Golly, Vice President of Human Resource Services and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager on why centering employee mental health and overall well-being is so important. This conversation goes in depth on organizations creating spaces for employees to take some downtime and have spaces for people to be their whole selves will promoting a healthy work environment. This session dives deeper into workplace culture and encouraging managers to dig deeper and get to know their employees and overall how to make an organization that's grounded in well-being.
 
Tune in to hear MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen and Co-Founder and President of Team Dynamics, Alfonso Wenker dive into new ways of thinking about workplace culture and how people leaders are using their power. They talk through why it's important to be honest about hierarchy and different types of power, and how re-balancing power in the social sector economy will help our workplaces.
 
Tune in to hear MACC Program Manager, Laurel Hansen in conversation with Carl Schlueter, Executive Director of Banyan Community as he talks about the power of intentionally cultivating workplace relationships. Learn how he builds relationships to strengthen his organization for the long run.
 

Catch all of MACC's Podcast episodes on our Podbean:

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Strengthening Workplace Culture: Resources

   

    Improving retention and strengthening workplace culture:

    Market trends and expectations of the long-term pandemic workforce:

    Continuous coaching and employee engagement:

    Centering employee mental health and overall wellbeing:

 
 

 

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Building Equity in Compensation, Benefits, and Organizational Policy:

How to strengthen our employer value proposition by building practices for more timely and regular total compensation evaluation and developing pathways to internal pay equity, engaging employees in benefits design, and centering diversity, equity, and accessibility in employee engagement practices.  

 

Building Equity in Compensation, Benefits, and Organizational Policy: Podcast Episodes

  
Tune in to hear from Vega Mala, Mala Nagarajan, of Vega Mala Consulting, and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager as they talk about wages and benefits. Mala’s company helps organizations treat their employees fairly and improve workplace practices. They talk about the importance of fair pay, a "thriving wage," and how it affects hiring, promotions, and job satisfaction. Mala suggests tools like budgeting rules to figure out what this wage should be. Employers can also help workers by offering financial advice, fair pay practices, and better retirement savings plans. Listen in on this conversation to hear all about clear polices for employers to show that they value their employees.
 
 
Tune in to hear Katie Berg, Human Resources Consultant and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager. In this session the difficulty to keep workforce positions filled is highlighted. Nonprofits have to remain competitive with for profit organizations and emphasize the importance of the work that nonprofits do hold on to the workforce. Some tactics presented are making benefits more of a status quo, discussing higher wages, and making it so workers can have a healthy work life balance.
 
Tune in to hear Theresa Bernard, Human Resource Generalist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager speak on the importance of implementing IDEA in an organization. This session takes a dive into what can be done for organizations that want to implement IDEA so it works with their mission as an organization; highlighting the value proposition of IDEA and how it has positive impacts on an organization.
 
Tune in to hear Theresa Bernard, Human Resources Generalist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager discussing how to increase value proposition as an employer to increase recruitment and retention. This session answers the question of: Are compensation amounts reflecting the skill level and position and duties? And, what are the benefits of doing a compensation analysis? 
 
Tune in to hear from Quinn Daley, Human Resources Specialist and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager in the episode of Ask MACC. This session dives into compensation looking past just the rates and salary. Benefits packages are becoming something that people are looking at ad using as consideration when looking at a position. They further discuss applying real-life experience to a benefits design.
 
Tune in to hear from Ashley Oolman, founder of AlliedFolk, and Laurel Hansen, MACC Program Manager as they talk about why it's important to be aware of social norms and how to challenge, disrupt, and confront them. Workplace norms can be difficult to shift because of their familiarity, but unaddressed they can establish unrealistic expectations and lead to exclusion. Tune in to hear about how people-centered change can bring forth transformation.
 
Tune in to hear from Claudia Waring of AWUM and Diane Seep, MACC's Senior Human Resources Consultant, as they discuss with MACC's Program Manager Laurel Hansen all about highlighting the employees doing the work and making sure to accurately compensate them and center pay equity. Wages have a large part in whether employees choose to stay with an organization or not and making those wages competitive and equitable is a strong benefit to appealing to employees. 
 

Catch all of MACC's Podcast episodes on our Podbean:

Listen now!

 

 

 

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Building Equity in Compensation, Benefits, and Policy: Resources

   

    Strengthening your employer value proposition:

    Trends in employee benefits:

    Strategies and pathways to building internal pay equity:

    Centering inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in employee engagement, HR policies and practices:

 

 

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Ask MACC is made possible by funding support from:

   
Ameriprise Financial
   
   

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