The COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to businesses over the past nearly two years, and the non-profit sector is no exception. Organizations that rely heavily on fundraising, donations, and volunteer services have had an increasingly more difficult time to fulfilling their missions of helping those in need due to health restrictions and less disposable income available for many contributors. With less flexibility, non-profits have taken quite the hit: around 75 percent of organizations saw budget cuts due to decreased revenues and funding in 2020. Reducing staffing levels was a common result of this, leaving 37 percent of organizations with smaller workforces.
Despite resources being limited, more people are in need than ever: 35 percent of non-profits saw an increase in demand for services. With additional people to serve and less ways to meet their needs, many non-profits were left stuck. To make matters worse, this past holiday season was an exceptionally busy time for non-profits. It may be the season of giving, but it also seems to be the time of year when the most people are in need. Managing staff, donations, and events is especially hectic, and navigating these challenges with COVID-19 restrictions is no easy task to take on.
Leveraging technology can empower the non-profit workforce to deliver on their missions, even throughout these obstacles.
UKG for Non-profits offers workforce solutions that help you run an efficient and successful operation. While investing in a solution may seem like a challenge with limited funding, the long-term benefits you will reap are substantial. In one instance, Pace Center for Girls saw over a 1,000 percent return on their investment.
Here are some of the many benefits of leveraging technology that helped non-profits during the pandemic and this past holiday season:
1. Optimize limited funding to deliver to more in need
Tackling the holidays is an all-hands-on-deck challenge: employees are likely working across multiple departments and the allocation of labor may look different than usual. As a result, labor expenses must be properly allocated as well. The best way to achieve this is with an automated time and cost management system to prevent information siloes, providing an accurate, complete picture of your budget. This is crucial in optimizing limited funding to leave more money available to bring that extra assistance along during the busy season. Doing away with a tedious, manual system and adopting a solution that can handle it for you makes this task less daunting.
2. Meet demands of the busy season with proper scheduling
Not only are employees likely helping in multiple aspects of the organization during the holidays, but they may also be working outside of their normal hours. Whether they are taking time off to spend it time with family or picking up extra shifts to help get the job done, it likely isn’t the normal schedule they follow for the majority of the year. To throw another wrinkle into the plan, the last few years there has been a level of unpredictability with the pandemic that makes scheduling especially challenging. The health and wellbeing of employees is a top priority, and while unexpected sick days are bound to happen, the holidays and those in need cannot wait. Automated scheduling tools can prevent these unplanned scheduling discrepancies from slowing down progress though. By identifying who is appropriate to schedule when, as well as notifying users of labor rules and company policies, these tools make managing your workforce a breeze.
3. Hire a strong workforce that stays
It is no secret that finding new employees and keeping them through the Great Resignation has been a challenge. Talented, quality employees are the key to success, especially during holiday crunch time, and going through this cycle every year can be tedious. In order to find the best employees and keep them around until the next holiday season (or have them return next year if they’re a part of your team seasonally), non-profits can benefit from talent management software. Finding the best candidates and getting them onboarded in a timely manner, plus gauging employee engagement and satisfaction, makes accomplishing an organization’s mission more possible than ever.
4. Gather insights that make the next holiday season even better
Each year brings new challenges, but a successful season or year is repeatable with the right tools. On the other hand, goals that fell short this year should be improved next year, but this cannot be done without pinpointing weaknesses. Gaining workforce data in order to take a deeper dive into time and attendance, scheduling, and payroll, and then using analytics to make educated decisions moving forward, can be invaluable towards accomplishing next year’s goals (or exceeding them). While this data is useful year to year, tools that can offer real-time insights as well as budgets, schedules, and other factors can be adjusted immediately and keep organizations on track.
The pandemic has made the sentiment of supporting those around us stronger than ever, and non-profits continue to fulfill communities’ needs despite the additional hurdles they have been presented with. The holiday season encourages us to give back more than any other time of year, so managing a successful non-profit operation is simultaneously a necessity as well as a challenge. Workforce management solutions can help improve and expedite your company’s mission, so investing now can make your next holiday season the best one yet.
See how your non-profit can use technology to be sustainable in the years ahead.
