One of the most important things I have learned as a nonprofit leader is that retaining great people begins long before an employee’s first day. It begins with understanding who we are looking for, how we identify them, and whether the opportunity is truly the right fit for both the organization and the individual.
We recently had a manager’s training covering interviews and our hiring process. Hiring managers sometimes approach interviews differently, developing their own questions and focusing on the things they personally consider important for a specific role. While there is value in individual perspectives, we wanted to make sure our managers were up to date on best practices for hiring potential candidates.
We stepped back and asked a simple question: What is the purpose of an interview? An interview should not simply be an opportunity for an organization to decide whether it wants to hire someone. It should be a conversation that helps both sides determine whether there is a good fit. We need to understand whether a candidate’s skills, experiences, values and approach align with our organization. At the same time, candidates deserve the opportunity to understand who we are, and decide whether our work, culture and expectations are right for them.
To make that process more intentional, we invested in training our managers on interviewing best practices and connecting our interview questions to our core values. Rather than simply asking someone to tell us whether they possess a particular quality, we encouraged managers to be creative in how they uncover evidence of those qualities. Asking candidates to describe a real experience or explain how they handled a challenging situation often tells us much more than a yes-or-no question ever could.
But the larger lesson for me has extended beyond best practices and the interview process. If we want to retain talented people, we have to continually invest in the people who lead them. That means exposing managers and employees to industry best practices, giving them opportunities to learn and develop, and being willing to examine our own processes when something is not working.
This kind of intentionality matters, so that every employee can have a significant impact. Hiring the right person is only the beginning. Creating an environment where people understand expectations, seize opportunities to grow, and feel their values align with the organization is what helps turn a good hire into a long-term employee.
We cannot control every reason someone chooses to leave an organization, but we can be intentional about creating conditions for people to stay. Sometimes that starts with something as fundamental as asking better questions and making sure we are listening carefully to the answers. ●
Linda Uveges is CEO of The City Mission
