Labour Force Strategy Project
Planting the seeds for Ontario’s nonprofit sector labour force
ONN is working on creating and building pathways that strengthen Ontario’s nonprofit sector’s ability to recruit and retain workers. This project is utilizing a systemic and sector-driven approach to build on ONN’s existing work on labour force strategy and decent work.
In this project, we are focused on:
- Designing and hosting a series of sandboxes focused on strategizing and prototyping solutions to meet the sector’s labour force needs.
- Supporting and amplifying sector-led human resource initiatives.
- Building and strengthening partnerships with post-secondary institutions and regional/municipal economic development and labour boards to better understand the role nonprofits play in supporting the skills, training and development of the future workforce.
Why does this matter now?
As documented in ONN’s 2023 state of the sector survey, Ontario’s nonprofit labour force is crumbling due to the pandemic and its fallout – people are leaving the sector in droves as we struggle to compete with each other, and across other sectors for people with all types of skills and expertise. While HR issues have always required our attention, this moment has created an unprecedented level of urgency. HR issues are impacting every part of the sector, across roles/functions, subsectors, and regions. The crisis is rapidly intensifying over a short period of time because:
- Many significant social/economic shifts are happening simultaneously.
- High demand for services, particularly complex care, is causing staff burnout.
- Resources to do the work are decreasing with fundraising and donations down, and pandemic supports ceased.
- Lack of funding that aligns with true cost of service and program delivery, as inflation peaks and has incited an affordability crisis
Our 2023 ‘State of the Sector’ survey revealed that:
- Staffing challenges remain at a high level, particularly for larger nonprofits.
- Three quarters of nonprofits faced turnover, with most workers leaving for the same job at another nonprofit or in the public sector.
- Skills shortage, staff burnout and stress, and non-competitive compensation packages are the top factors affecting organizations’ ability to recruit and retain staff.
For more insights, and to access survey resources, visit our survey page.
Labour force project details
Designing and amplifying sector-led solutions for labour force issues
- September – November, 2023: Information gathering and scoping
- Reviewing current LMI (Labour Market Information), reports, and data
- Meetings with organizations and individuals that are leading HR initiatives
- November, 2023 – January, 2024: Sandbox ideation and design
- Finalizing focus areas and attendees for each sandbox
- Co-designing each sandbox with facilitators and attendees
- February – April, 2024: Hosting sandboxes
- Hosting two multi-day sandboxes – see below for focus areas
- Creating case study reports on each sandbox
- March – June, 2024: Supporting and amplifying sector-led initiatives
- Sharing case studies from sandboxes, and other sector-led HR initiatives
- Hosting sessions with various stakeholders to support the work forward
What are sandboxes? For this project, the sandboxes are multi-day facilitated spaces designed to allow participants to creatively dream, imagine, explore, and develop solutions to large(r) HR issues in the nonprofit sector. Each sandbox will start with coming to a common understanding of the systemic issue (through pre-reading and participant sharing); we will then create space for dreaming and imagining systemic solutions that could support the issue. Each sandbox will then agree on a way forward to prototype what application, and work on that solution could look like moving forward.
Partnerships with post-secondary institutions and regional/municipal economic development and labour boards
September – June 2024: Information gathering, scoping and strategizing
- Reviewing current LMI (Labour Market Information), reports, and data
- Building relationships with post-secondary institutions and regional/municipal economic development councils and labour boards
- Designing gathering spaces for learning and engagement to understand relationships between the nonprofit sector and higher education sector
- Engaging in discussions with regional/municipal economic development councils to better understand workforce priorities and community needs
- Mapping current programming and initiatives that align with supporting students’ skill development, work integrated learning, and recruitment opportunities with the nonprofit sector
- Identifying strategic opportunities for collaboration, resource sharing, and workforce solutions to support the nonprofit HR crisis
Who is the project prioritizing?
ONN’s Labour Force Strategy project is focused on supporting community nonprofits that have at least one staff member. Community nonprofits (as per Statistics Canada) are nonprofits that provide goods and services such as child care, advocacy, arts, and social services. Our priority is to support small to mid-size non-profits within the sector.
Labour force terminology
- Labour Market Information (LMI): All the quantitative data, like numbers and statistics, and qualitative information, or the personal stories to support the data, related to employment and the workforce.
- Labour Force Strategy: A labour force strategy will address, mitigate, and prevent critical human resource issues and proactively prepare for the future of work.
Labour force project resources
Reports
- Creating bold, thriving, sustainable nonprofit leadership requires disruption
- Exploratory learnings with post-secondary institutions and workforce planning boards across Ontario
Videos
A series of videos were created to support the sector in discussing the topic of compensation, and to dispel some myths on the subject. Videos include insights from leaders in the nonprofit sector, and animated videos about some of the myths around compensation.
