Workplace Learning

Comprehensive HR training programs designed specifically to enhance nonprofit staff’s knowledge and skills in HR management.

Customized Learning

Have an immediate training need? Explore options that you can deploy across your organization today.

Maximizing Recruitment Strategies:
Innovative Best Practices

Intended for: Recruiters, HR Directors, HR Staff with talent acquisition responsibility

This interactive training will focus on the recruitment process, the organization’s brand and the ways to maximize mission and brand to attract the talent needed to accomplish its goals.

  • Strategies to enhance and/or streamline recruitment process
  • Strategies to decrease time and cost to hire, strengthening innovative recruitment methods
  • Strategies to develop job advertisements and job descriptions that bolster the recruitment process
  • Metrics to determine the effectiveness of recruitment strategies
  • Understanding the importance and implementation of diverse recruitment practices

Attracting a Diverse Workforce:
Winning Strategies and Practices

Intended for: Diversity champions, Diversity staff, HR team responsible for talent acquisition

Through examining the current recruitment process, examining current culture, identifying opportunities for growth and clearly defining organizational needs, finding, attracting and retaining diverse talent will be unpacked.

  • Understanding and assessing cultural readiness, the current recruitment process and its role in attracting a diverse workforce
  • Strategies for attracting a diverse workforce
  • Metrics to track the goal of attracting a diverse workforce and accomplishment of that goal

Harassment Prevention:
Building and Maintaining a Respectful Workplace

Intended for: Staff and Supervisory Managers

In this course we will discuss what constitutes harassment in the workplace, as well as other behaviors that contribute to an environment of disrespect and incivility.

  • Recognizing unlawful harassment, as well as other disrespectful workplace behavior including microaggressions and bullying
  • Understanding the process for reporting harassment and the resolution process
  • Identifying a manager’s role in preventing and addressing harassment and how to build a culture of respect and civility
  • Recognizing the role of bystanders in preventing harassment

Effective People & Performance Management:
Feedback, Supervisory Skills and Difficult Conversations

Intended for: Supervisory Management

Managing people effectively is a skill acquired through training and experience. In this session, those with supervisory roles will learn key skills needed to be successful, including effective communication, having career development conversations, delegation and motivation.

  • Recognizing key skills needed for supervisory roles
  • Identifying ways to ensure coaching, strong performance and development feedback, engagement and communication
  • Implementing toolkit for addressing employee issues

Organizational Culture:
Why Culture Matters to Mission

Intended for: Social Impact Leaders (CEOs, Executive Directors, Organizational Leaders, Chief Talent/People Officers, CHROs, Directors of HR)

Managing people effectively is a skill acquired through training and experience. In this session, those with supervisory roles will learn key skills needed to be successful, including effective communication, having career development conversations, delegation and motivation.

  • Understanding why culture matters to mission
  • Understanding why leaders need to prioritize workplace culture
  • Five strategies for building a healthy, talent-focused organization

Developing a Talent Management Strategy
for Your Nonprofit

Diversity champions, HR/Talent Leaders (Chief Talent/People Officers, CHROs, Directors of HR)

The most effective organizations have a clear strategy for how they will impact the communities that they serve.

  • Understanding the importance of a talent management strategy within your organization
  • Aligning talent management strategy with overall organizational strategy
  • Setting talent management goals and metrics that matter

Foundations of Compensation for Nonprofit Leaders

HR or nonprofit leadership

With a competitive market for talent it’s critical to understand what steps you should take to remain externally competitive and internally equitable.

This course will walk leaders through:

  • The foundation of compensation (from cost of labour vs. cost of living, compensation lingo and the current economic trends)
  • The importance of job descriptions
  • What your organization’s compensation program must have to be successful
  • Salary administration components (best practices around pay policies)
  • Time for Q&A

Primer on Job Description Creation

How important do you think are well-written job descriptions are to your organization? No matter how small or large your organization is, every role should be defined.

In this live training, we will:

  • Discuss the importance of job descriptions in support of your talent management initiatives
  • Must-have job description components
  • Job description writing activity
  • Best practices for writing sustainable job descriptions
  • Time for Q&A

Leadership Coaching

Anyone who leads and manages staff

Learn how to use a coaching model in leadership development, professional and personal development plans, as well as performance management.

  • Understanding what it takes to create a culture of constructive collaboration and teamwork through leadership coaching

Building Trust, Managing Difficult Conversations and Conflict Resolution

Anyone who leads and manages staff

Build trust through relationship building, honesty, recognition and follow through. Participants will gain a greater understanding of what gets in the way of building trust between leaders and their staff, and how to work through those barriers. As well, they will learn how to examine the fundamentals of conflict resolution, and work through a 6-step model for crucial conversation as well as reflect on the foundation of all trust-building and conflict resolution: transparency, clarity and empathy.

Understanding:

  • What it takes to build trust and what gets in the way
  • What leaders can do to create trust in the midst of challenging circumstances
  • What bias is and how to interrupt it
  • Implicit bias and it’s impact in the workplace
  • The power of crucial conversations
    • Why they are important (how leaders can create a culture where people feel safe, seen, heard and respected)
    • What they look like (following the 6 Step Process)
    • How you approach them (the intersection of clarity and empathy)
    • When they should happen (feedback/Check-In/1:1 Conversations)
  • How transparency is a key behavior in building trust
  • Empathetic leadership and how to build trust through relationship and connection

Change Management (Leading and Managing Through Change/Loss)

Anyone who leads and manages staff

At the root of change management are the following topics: how to process change (EI); how to ensure the organizational culture is supporting staff through the change (building trust); and how to continue to help staff grow and develop during change (leadership coaching).

  • Understanding how a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world impacts your leadership style
  • Understanding how to shift your leadership approach to inspire employees to do more
  • Gaining techniques on how to effectively lead change efforts at your organization

Emotional Intelligence and Agility

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

Emotional intelligence (or, emotional quotient) predicts job performance 2 to 1 over any other skill. Far more important than IQ or job experience, EQ is the ability to manage emotions and relationships. In this two-part interactive workshop, leaders will explore the fundamentals of EQ, work on strategies to apply them in the workplace and do an assessment of their own EQ skills.

  • Learning emotional hijacks or triggers (what happens and how to work through one)
  • Understanding the four quadrants of EI (and the strategies/tools to implement them)
  • Gaining self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management

Understanding Your Personal Leadership Style

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

Building an effective, high-performing team starts with assessing and understanding your personal leadership style, as well as the styles of those you lead—and how each style works together. In this workshop, we will work through each “letter” that is part of the Big Five Personality Traits, and use interactive exercises to explore how to function effectively as a team by understanding our individual styles and approaches.

  • Understanding emotional intelligence (EI) and how this impacts our leadership style
  • Debriefing your leadership style assessment results and how they shape your success as a leader
  • Utilizing assessment results to better lead and build effective teams

Critical Thinking, Decision Making and Problem Solving

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

Become a more effective problem solver and meeting your organizational objectives. In this workshop, participants will develop critical thinking, decision making and problem solving skills by examining two models as analysis tools (SWOT and SOAR).

  • Defining and grounding in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving
  • Understanding how to use the SWOT and SOAR models to approach decision making and problem solving

Conflict and Stress Management

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

Manage stress more effectively by examining definitions, best practices and tools for conflict resolution and stress management. Participants in this training will also identify methods to improve their individual approach to conflict resolution.

  • Examining definitions, best practices and tools for conflict resolution and stress management
  • Thinking through ways to improve individual approach to conflict resolution

Customer Service Best Practices For Managers

Anyone who manages or leads teams that provide direct service

Learn how to extend talent management practices through customer service in this training. Participants will examine best practices and tools for effective customer service to all types of customers and think through ways to improve individual and team approach to customer service (including hiring and training).

  • Defining “who is/are your customer(s)?”
  • Examining best practices and tools for effective customer service to all types of customers
  • Thinking through ways to improve our individual and team approach to customer service (including hiring and training)

Time Management

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

Looking for ways to improve individual and team approaches to time management? In this training, participants will examine common time management challenges, personally and as teams/departments at the organization, as well as review best practices and tools for effective time management.

  • Examining common time management challenges, personally and as teams/departments
  • Reviewing best practices and tools for effective time management
  • Identifying ways to improve individual and team approaches to time management

Effective Communication Skills (Oral, Written, etc.)

All staff (individual contributors, managers, leaders)

In this training, participants will examine definitions, best practices and tools for the most effective ways to communicate (verbal and written), as well as think through ways to improve communication styles, individually and as teams.

  • Understanding definitions, best practices and tools for the most effective ways to communicate (verbal and written)
  • Learning methods to improve communication styles, as individuals and across teams

Building and Leading High-Performing Teams

Anyone who manages or leads teams that provide direct service

Foundational to building and leading high-performing and effective teams include understanding your personal leadership style and how to engage your staff, have difficult conversations and build trust. In this training, participants will learn the key leadership competencies and what it takes to be a great leader.

  • Thinking through employee engagement and inclusion
  • Understanding how to integrate your team leadership styles, with SMART goals, to build a high-performing team
  • Putting all of it together (team leadership styles, SMART goals and coaching) to create a culture of collaboration

The Art & Science of Strategic Leadership

Advanced Leaders (tenure and/or seniority)

Master vision setting and strategic thinking to create impact as a leader. In this course, participants will work to understand and build proficiency with critical thinking and strategic decision making.

  • Understanding how to master strategic thinking to create impact as a leader
  • Understanding your role in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion

Core Leadership Competencies

Anyone who leads and manages staff

What does it take to be a great leader? Some key competencies include: communication, staff leadership, empathy, resiliency and compassion, conflict resolution, EI/EQ and time and priority management.

Executive Presence and Communicating for Influence

Advanced Leaders (tenure and/or seniority)

Creating an executive presence begins with influencing and inspiring others through relationship building. In this course, participants will walk away with techniques for persuading others, gaining cooperation, leading with credibility and communicating ideas and results with confidence and skill to diverse audiences.

  • Exploring techniques for creating your personal leadership brand, elevating your executive presence and influencing others
  • Leading with credibility
  • Communicating ideas and results with confidence and skill to diverse audiences.

Leading Change in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) World

Advanced Leaders (tenure and/or seniority)

Transformational leadership – what is it and how can you become a transformational leader and drive innovation? In this training, participants will learn how to plan for change by crafting a clear strategic narrative aligned with organizational culture.

  • Understanding how a VUCA world impacts your leadership style
  • How to shift your leadership approach to inspire employees to do more
  • Learn techniques on how to effectively lead change efforts at your organization
  • How to communicate change to stakeholders and team members

Allyship to Ownership

All staff

This training will allow staff to move beyond allyship (a first step on the anti-racist journey) to becoming a co-conspirator, a committed champion and an accomplice in support of people of color (and other marginalized groups).

  • Exploring how you show up in cross-cultural relationships (core to brave space connection)
  • Defining, identifying and acknowledging the personal experience of privilege
  • Deepening awareness of how you can move from being an ally to being an accomplice to ownership in changing systems

Let’s Talk About Equity

All staff

Equity is the guarantee of fair treatment, access and opportunity for all, where individuals are not at a disadvantage because of any dimensions of diversity, including their background, race or social position. This series will explore steps to integrate an equity lens into personal leadership practices and decision making, as well as your organization’s role in championing and advancing the work.

  • Introducing definitions of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
  • Discussion of implicit bias and how it impacts decision making
  • How to make organization and organization’s leadership equity focused

Intersectionality

This session will empower participants to better understand the concept of intersectionality. Through exploring their own identities, participants will engage in conversation around how to take an intersectional approach as they co-conspire for racial and social justice.

  • Understand what intersectionality is and why it is important in combating social inequities
  • Introduction or incorporation of topics such as sexual orientation, gender and disability, for consideration in the context of intersectionality
  • Learn techniques to interrupt intersectional inequities and generate personal accountability to advancing equity

Gender Inclusion and Pronouns

This introductory workshop provides foundational knowledge about gender identity, gender expression and gender inclusive language. Participants will learn about the importance of inclusive language and how it relates to workplace culture and belonging. They will understand, apply and gain comfort around gender identity and pronoun usage. Important terms that will be defined include, but are not limited to: transgender, cisgender, nonbinary, intersex, two-spirit, and pronouns. By the end of this workshop, participants will be equipped with new strategies to incorporate gender-inclusive language into daily practices at work. They will feel increased confidence in using gender-neutral pronouns and fostering a sense of belonging at work for colleagues of all gender identities. 

  • Have an established working definition of gender
  • Have a basic understanding of different gender identities and terminology
  • Understand the importance of incorporating pronouns into the work environment
  • Recognize how using someone’s pronouns can increase sense of belonging
  • Practice sharing pronouns and gain skills needed to address situations when mistakes are made

Introducing Neurodiversity at Work

The workforce is filled with minds that don’t always think and process information in the same way that you do. In this introductory workshop, we will define and explore neurodiversity and neurodivergence. We will discuss the importance of recognizing how different individuals’ learning and communication styles influences how they work best. Participants will gain an understanding of the challenges and barriers faced by neurodivergent colleagues. They will also learn methods to empower, support and retain neurodivergent staff. This training will help participants recognize and talk about neurodiversity, while providing helpful takeaways and resources.

  • Define shared definitions surrounding neurodiversity
  • Understand models of disability
  • Identify the challenges and importance of disclosure
  • Understand common communication challenges that neurodivergent individuals experience
  • Understand the correlation between emotional labor and neurodivergence
  • Know several practices to support neurodiversity in the workplace

Implicit Bias

All staff

Also known as implicit social cognition, implicit bias refers to the stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases ultimately shape how we engage others and make decisions in the workplace. The session provides an understanding of how bias shows up and to implement best practices on how to interrupt and mitigate bias and hold the organization accountable to inclusion.

  • Uncovering how individual bias influences inequities within educational institutions
  • Identifying opportunities to interrupt and mitigate implicit bias within organizational culture, policies and systems
  • Gaining techniques to implement best practices in uncovering personal biases

Creating a Culture of Inclusion and Belonging

Advanced Leaders (tenure and/or seniority)

Everyone needs to feel welcome, safe, and free to be themselves in the workplace. This series will explore best practices for creating an inclusive and culturally responsive work environment to integrate transparency, inclusive communication, and power sharing.

  • Establish a common language related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
  • Participate in brave space conversations to build collective cultural competency, empathy and understanding
  • Increase their awareness of how individual bias influences inequities within institutions
  • Take meaningful steps to integrate equity and inclusion into their personal leadership practices and day to day workplace interactions

Crucial Conversations and Microaggressions

All staff

In this workshop, we will spend time connecting how racial battle fatigue, frequently created by microaggressions, must be understood and addressed across the organization at all levels. This requires an acknowledgement of systems that work to create the conditions (i.e. White supremacy), and what organizations can do to dismantle them. But it also requires personal responsibility in owning, stopping and addressing microaggressions when they happen. Participants will learn ways to accomplish this through intentional inclusive conversations, creating space for critical discussion and sharing between diverse groups of staff.

  • Understanding racial battle fatigue: What is it? What creates it?
  • Establishing a working definition of “microaggressions” or “subtle acts of exclusion” (SAEs)
  • Completing a self-assessment and discuss times and spaces where staff have experienced these acts of exclusion
  • Utilizing a framework for creating accountability around microaggressions/SAEs
  • Gaining awareness on how all organizational work, but particularly laying a DEI foundation, relies on staff’s ability to hold inclusive/crucial or critical conversations
  • Identifying what conditions are necessary for inclusive conversations and practice a having critical and inclusive conversations

Interrupting Implicit Bias and Microagressions

Also known as implicit social cognition, implicit bias refers to the stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases ultimately shape how we engage others and make decisions in the workplace. These sessions are highly interactive and focused on the implementation of best practices on how to interrupt and mitigate bias and microaggressions in the workplace and engage in honest and open dialogue regarding what it will take to hold the organization and ourselves accountable for inclusion.

  • Understand the science behind implicit bias and gain awareness that everyone has bias
  • Identify common types of bias and techniques to interrupt and mitigate implicit bias within organizational culture, policies and systems
  • Create awareness surrounding the common occurrences of microaggressions
  • Discover techniques to address microaggressions from all vantage points and learn what to do when . . .I’ve committed one, I’ve received one, or I’ve witnessed one
  • Engage in brave space conversations to explore how the team can actively interrupt bias and address microaggressions that may be showing up within the organization

Bystander Intervention: Moving Beyond Awareness of Microagressions

Implicit biases and microaggressions have a negative impact on colleagues and on organizational culture. Consistently reviewing and practicing ways to recognize harmful situations and respond are essential. This session will develop bystander intervention skills and strengthen participants’ muscles of accountability.

  • Gain an understanding of what bystander responsibility is through the presentation of concepts and examples
  • Gain an understanding of individual and situational factors that facilitate appropriate bystander intervention
  • Cultivate skills in identifying situations where bystander intervention may be appropriate
  • Be able to describe the range of potential bystander behaviors and situations where action might be appropriate

Applying a Race Equity Lens to Leadership

Advanced Leaders (tenure and/or seniority)

Race equity is when racial identity has no influence on how people experience and progress within an organization. Accomplishing race equity in the workplace requires transformative leadership and organizational change. This session will explore how senior leaders can and must play a critical role in building race equity into the culture of the organization through tangible actions and modeling race equity best practices.

The History of Race in America: How Did We Get Here?

Race is a human-invented term used to describe and categorize people into various social groups based on characteristics like skin color, physical features and genetic heredity. Race, while not a valid biological concept, is a real social construction that gives or denies benefits and privileges. This series will explore the history of how race and institutional racism came to be.

  • Develop a common language in DEI/Anti-racist principles
  • Develop awareness of history of institutional racism
  • Explore a framework to assess the impact of individual and organizational power

Advancing Equity in Fundraising

Creating a culture of inclusion and philanthropic partnership go hand-in-hand. Resource development teams have the power to advance equity and further their organization’s EDIJ mission. This workshop will cover critical areas specific to equitable fundraising and cover common areas of inequity in the philanthropic sector.

  • Establish a common language related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
  • Define white supremacy culture and privilege
  • Learn about the social context behind current systems of power and privilege in the US and how that influences the philanthropic sector today
  • Discuss the inequity in fundraising and community-centric

Business Case for a Diverse Workforce

Anyone in a leadership role in an organization

Organizations are often confronted with significant priorities related to achieving mission-centered objectives while also navigating complex workforce considerations. This session will explore well-researched and foundational considerations related to the connection between an organization’s bottom line and the benefits of intentionally creating a diverse workforce.

Building Cultural Competence and Humility

All staff

This session aims to enhance our understanding of cultural competency and its intersection with the principles of cultural humility from a global perspective. Additionally, we will spend time unpacking the ways that colonialism as a theory should inform our framing of cultural competency and cultural humility.

  • Establish a framework for cultural competency and cultural humility
  • Identify awareness of personal stages of cultural competence 
  • Gain knowledge and skills to effectively navigate cultural differences
  • Identify the components of cross-cultural communication
  • Learn how to bridge cross-cultural communication barriers

Operationalizing Equity

Anyone who leads or manages staff/teams

As organizations strive to integrate equity into everything they do, those who manage others have an important role to play. Supervisors must lead by example and model inclusive behavior and empathy. Being successful in this space will supervisors to lead with a lens of equity. Join us for an interactive session to explore your leadership role in building an inclusive team, creating equitable systems & processes and generating organizational accountability to equity.

  • Exploring best practices for creating an inclusive and culturally responsive work environment to integrate transparency and power sharing
  • Identifying techniques to interrupt and mitigate implicit bias and microaggressions within team culture, and implementation of day-to-day HR practices
  • Engaging in brave space conversations to explore how the team can hold the environment accountable to interrupting bias that may be showing up within the organization

The Effects of White Dominant Culture Within Organization

White dominant culture refers to the unspoken norms and expectations that are often embedded into the fabric of our cultures, organizations and systems. Characterized by power hoarding, worship of the written word, defensiveness and quantity over quality (to name a few), these expectations have real implications for staff. Join this session to learn more about these characteristics, the impact they have on the organization, and the way they are applied differently to different people based on identity.

  • Learn about the characteristics of white dominant culture in the context of organizations
  • Recognize the expectations white dominant culture places on staff
  • Understand the impact that these expectations have on an organization
  • Understand the varying impact that these expectations have staff members of different identities

Healing From Internalized Dominance/Oppression: Recognizing and Navigating Triggering Experiences

Throughout our lives, we have interacted with systems of power, privilege and oppression. We’ve received messages about who we are, how we should act, and what identities are deemed “superior” and “inferior.” These messages impact us in various ways and often lead us to feeling activated in conversations. Join this session to dive deeper into accountability by discovering your own traps and triggers. We will learn how to notice these triggers and how to identify their deep roots as part of the healing process.

  • Participants will dive deeper into accountability by discovering your own traps and triggers
  • Learn to recognize these triggers and their deeper roots
  • Will learn tools to manage triggers and begin the healing process

New Release: 2023 Social Impact AI Pulse Survey Results

From across North America, 250 social sector organizations responded to our survey call to share how they are using generative AI in their human resources functions and missions. The results from this survey provide a roadmap for nonprofits as they begin to embrace the transformative power of generative AI. This isn’t just a technological shift, it’s a cultural evolution that calls for clear communication, adaptable strategies and a commitment to upskilling the workforce.

Download now

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News & Insights

Nonprofit HR is often sought after regarding social sector research and talent. This area provides HR-related news and insights to publishers, editors and reporters of all major and social sector-specific press outlets.

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Sharon Dietsche Named Executive Director of NAMI MC
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Danista E. Hunte Named President, CEO of the Maryland Philanthropy Network
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