Plenty of PTO, pairing staff for personal support
Leaders at the United States Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section (USTA-MAS) are pretty serious about everyone taking vacations, which would seem only natural for an organization where the mission is about play and recreation. The new vacation policy affords employees unlimited paid time off (PTO) to go out and play.
âWe really make a big deal of telling everybody we want you to take vacations, and we want you to be able to afford vacations, too,â said Tara Fitzpatrick- Navarro, the organizationâs president and CEO.
It wasnât hyperbole. Last year each of the 36 employees received a membership to Going.com, an online flight discount aggregator formerly known as Scottâs Cheap Flights. Since even a cheap flight wonât be much help if you canât afford the accommodations and other activities that make for a memorable vacation, they also received a subscription to an online program called âYou Need A Budgetâ (YNAB), which helps users plan for vacations and other expenses.
There is a reason USTA-MAS in Herndon, Virginia, finished first for the third year in a row in NPTâs Best Nonprofits To Work For competition.
USTA-MAS had an unusually generous PTO policy even before last year, having previously given everyone 27 vacation days annually, in addition to 14 holidays. Fitzpatrick-Navarro said. âBut we frankly started to ask ourselves: Why are we micromanaging the policy and dealing with HR approvals and all that? Why not just make the policy match what we really believe?â
Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of the Midlands doesnât have an unlimited time-off policy, but it does reward employees with paid sabbaticals they can take upon reaching longevity milestones. The organization, which ranked 13th overall and 9th among small nonprofits, offers paid sabbaticals of up to four weeks for employees reaching eight years of service. Those with 15 years of service can take up to five weeks, which they can continue taking every five years thereafter. The sabbaticals can be further extended for up to two additional weeks of unpaid time off.
The Ulman Foundation, a Baltimore-based charity for young adults facing cancer, is also no slouch when it comes to affording R&R time for its staff, which helped it rank 36th on the overall list and 20th among small nonprofits. Among the perks its 17 employees enjoy is an on-site fitness center with Peloton bikes, treadmills, weights, a boxing bag, and shower facilities. The amenities are there for cancer patients and their families to use during extended treatment stays at the charityâs residential facility. Employees, some of whom are former cancer patients, also get to use them.
âOne of the benefits of running our organization out of Ulman House, which operates as a 365-day, seven-day-a-week home away from home for the people we serve, is the complimentary services we bring in for our patients and families that are also available to our staff,â said Brock Yetso, the organizationâs president and CEO. âWe also bring in massage therapy and acupuncture for our residents, which our employees have the opportunity to use and benefit from, though never at the expense of patients.â
Ulman Foundation employees can decompress via an eclectic array of monthly employer-paid outings, where among other recent activities they might try their hand at axe-throwing one month or get treated another month to a relaxing session at The Salt Sanctuary, which offers halotherapy, reflexology and other spa treatments in a soothing cave-like setting replete with a sauna and steam room.
USTA-MAS and Ulman Foundation provide supplemental health and wellness stipends for employees to use outside of work for gym memberships, yoga, massage treatments, diet and nutritional counseling, or pretty much anything else falling under the umbrella of health and wellness.
Such benefits might sound generous, but leaders of progressive organizations like these say investing in the well-being of staff members is simply good for business and builds loyalty.
USTA-MAS leaders found that any misgivings about the possibility that people might abuse unlimited PTO were unwarranted. Said Fitzpatrick-Navarro, âIf anything, weâre finding that in most cases, we have to encourage people to take time off rather than the other way around, which is why we created the new benefit.â
The unlimited PTO has a few safeguards, such as expecting vacation time to be coordinated in advance with a manager and requiring vacations of more than two consecutive weeks to receive direct approval from Fitzpatrick- Navarro. Itâs mainly to avoid people taking leave all at once, she said.
USTA-MAS staff have access to an employer-paid concierge service, which performs tasks such as picking up meals or dry cleaning or securing childcare arrangements, doctorâs appointments, or finding them a plumber. Getting mundane and sometimes time-consuming tasks off their plates gives employees peace of mind so they can better focus on their jobs, said Fitzpatrick-Navarro.
It seems to be working, given how USTA-MAS keeps growing. The organization, which administers the largest adult recreational tennis league program in the world and is all about promoting the sport of tennis, has avoided layoffs since the pandemic and added five new people during the past year. There are plans to add as many as 10 more. These are new positions, not vacancies being filled to replace employees who have left.
âTennis right now is booming and weâre achieving on our mission, which means we need more resources to do even more. And in my opinion, thatâs what every nonprofit wants,â said Fitzpatrick- Navarro.
USTA-MAS is achieving all that even as significant numbers of its employees continue to work remotely. âThereâs definitely been an uptick in people who want to come into our office, which is being used more regularly, but employees can now work from anywhere anytime,â Fitzpatrick- Navarro said.
Thatâs not the case at Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of the Midlands, where the Omaha, Nebraska organizationâs 31-member workforce is now 100% remote. The ânew normalâ of working remotely led the organization to downsize in November 2021 from its former headquarters in an Omaha office park to an interim location with a smaller footprint in the cityâs downtown. The move has some upside by enhancing the organizationâs visibility to the community, but the setup has also forced a concerted effort to maintain the sense of camaraderie and teamwork that had long enabled it to operate as a well-oiled machine.
âItâs definitely a different experience for a new hire to start a position where the traditional meet-and-greet is done remotely and without them having the memory of what it was like when we were all together,â said Nichole Turgeon, president and CEO of BBBS of the Midlands. âI think generally we would all like to be able to see each other more and be in the office for at least one or two days a week, so thatâs something weâll probably be looking for in our next space.â
Remote and hybrid work are becoming a mainstay of how organizations operate, which presents challenges to the esprit de corps that mission-based nonprofits have long relied on.
BBBS of the Midlands holds monthly meetings via Zoom, âbut we mix it up,â said Turgeon. Employees started off last year with a virtual staff gathering where they created vision boards for the year and have since resumed periodic in-person trainings. A staff appreciation committee hosts fun activities throughout the year, such as Topgolf outings and an annual Halloween party with a parade where employees are invited to bring their costumed children. A Thanksgiving potluck was held in November with the agency providing the main course as well as a vegan alternative.
The Ulman Foundation has a rotating buddy system where each employee is randomly assigned a new âbuddyâ from within the organization once a month. âIt was a really powerful thing coming out of COVID, and basically itâs just a way of saying we want you and this other person to get together with each other,â Yetso said. âIt can be for coffee, lunch, going for a walk, or even happy hour. You figure it out and go learn more about the folks youâre working with, and if thereâs a meal or coffee, we cover that. Everyone really enjoys it and gets to do it on work time, too.â
Ulman Foundation employees use a software program that allows them to give each other virtual âhigh fivesâ for going above and beyond. A copy of the congratulatory âhigh fiveâ also goes to that personâs manager. Additionally, the organization hosts a biweekly âbreakfast clubâ where employees are recognized for personal milestones and for overall excellence.
âThe team members take turns bringing in breakfast, so it becomes a fun competition to see whoâs got the best breakfast,â Yetso said. âFor birthdays, we also make sure people get what they want, whether itâs chocolate or something else. And for work anniversaries, we do a round robin where everyone shares one word that comes to mind when they think of that person. Itâs really short and sweet, but pretty powerful.â
USTA-MAS has a culture committee which hosts quarterly in-person coffee chats where âanyone who wants to can show up and talk about whatever,â said Fitzpatrick-Navarro. âWe also do three in-person retreats each year, where we pay for everyoneâs travel and offer food, and also carve out time so people arenât only focused on work but can also focus on playing and getting to know one another.â Recent retreats have included a painting party as well as a âspeed socialâ where they took turns speaking to one another in two-minute bursts.
Community service can also play a role in fostering esprit de corps and job satisfaction at mission-focused nonprofits. Each USTA-MAS employee can work two paid days of community service each year in addition to quarterly group projects they all partake in collectively, such as a recent food drive they conducted for a local food bank.
BBBS of the Midlands employees also take part in recurring community service projects. Prior to the pandemic, the organization âadoptedâ a city park where employees conducted monthly cleanups. âWe also did another park cleanup together as a team on Earth Day last year and helped local food banks and schools with food distribution during the pandemic. And employees who volunteer in our mentoring programs can receive a bit of paid time for that, which they supplement with their own time,â Turgeon said.
The organizationâs mission and support for projects such as these are part of the reason it continues to enjoy a âreally highâ retention rate of more than 90% annually, said Turgeon. âAnd when you can go out and do these types of things and feel good about what youâre doing, it inevitably leads to team-building,â she said.
Job satisfaction alone doesnât pay the bills, so âwe had to make some moves on compensation last year after looking at the market data and realizing we had probably fallen a little behind, and not just because of inflation,â Turgeon said.
Itâs a perennial challenge for managers who must balance compensation with the need to be good stewards of donor funds, she said.
Ensuring team members feel valued and appreciated factors into BBBS of the Midlandsâ approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This includes monthly DEI âTalk About Itâ sessions, where recent topics have touched on antisemitism, unconscious bias, and discrimination against natural hair in the Black community. âWe donât have a big budget to spend thousands of dollars each month on outside consultants, but we regularly have discussions of topics from YouTube videos and online articles, as well as occasional guest speakers,â Turgeon said.
USTA-MAS implemented an inclusive leadership series, which is being augmented on the data side with metrics related to recruitment, interviewing, and hiring âto figure out how we can best engage people of different backgrounds,â said Fitzpatrick-Navarro.
The Ulman Foundationâs commitment to DEI extends to those with physical and mental disabilities and is tied to the mission. Yetso explained that the organization takes its name from his close friend and organization founder, Doug Ulman, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 19 while preparing for his sophomore year as a Division I soccer player at Brown University. âHeâs doing well now and started the foundation in 1997 to serve people like him,â Yetso said. Ulman is now chief executive officer of Pelotonia, a cancer charity in Columbus, Ohio.
The foundation has since made a point of hiring other cancer survivors. âWhen youâre impacted by cancer, it sometimes can cause physical, emotional and mental disabilities that can take a toll but still donât prevent you from being an incredible employee,â Yetso said. âThe nature of our work with the adolescent and young adult cancer community has allowed us to have a lot of success hiring people with a strong connection to our cause, which is great because we always want to find people who understand and relate to the work weâre doing.â