Study: Is employee turnover really a crisis for nonprofits?   

To make better sense of conflicting reports, “some suggesting nonprofits are facing an employment crisis and others describing a robust sector which attracts throngs of eager potential employees,” Opportunity Knocks, a national online job site focused exclusively on nonprofits, conducted a study. Click here to download the full report.

The study, released in February, aims to answer questions such as:

• Does the nonprofit sector have an issue with retention?
• Why do nonprofits experience turnover?
• Is turnover part of a national shift in attitudes about loyalty to employers or a shortage of trained personnel?
• Is it a sector-wide issue or something impacting only particular types of nonprofits?
• Does it reflect a change in how people view staying in a particular job for more than a few years?

The study resulted in these key findings:

• The average turnover rate for all nonprofits was 21 percent, which was actually lower than industries such as trade, transportation and utilities (45 percent), manufacturing (31 percent) and finance and insurance (26 percent).
• Among nonprofit sub-sectors, health care and social assistance (with a 29 percent turnover rate) and education and health services (28 percent) experienced more turnover than others. Civil rights, social action and advocacy scored lowest (15 percent).
• As the size of the organization and budget increase, the turnover rate decreases.
• Despite their lower turnover rates, larger organizations perceive retention and turnover to be a more severe problem than do smaller organizations.
• Nonprofits have much more turnover at middle and entry level positions than at the top.
• Vacancy rates are highest in administrative and other support positions followed by specialists/professional positions and program managers.
• One fourth of all positions, with the exception of membership managers, were still open four months after the previous employee left the position.
• A competitive job offer was most frequently cited as the reason for leaving, followed closely by termination.

The study report includes data supporting these findings, how nonprofits are responding to turnover problems and recommendations for combating turnover and retaining good employees based on industry best practices.