HR for small nonprofits and growing teams

What I set up

Employee handbook

Sized to your organization and written so staff will read it. What goes in one is listed below.

Single policies

When you need one quickly: remote work, expense reimbursement, volunteers, conflicts of interest.

Job descriptions

Duties, reporting line and overtime status for each role, usable for hiring and for grant budgets.

Onboarding

A checklist and first-week plan, so the fifth hire gets the same paperwork and introductions as the first.

Hiring support

The job posting, screening, structured interviews and reference checks.

Where this comes from

At What If Media Group I went from HR Manager to Employee Experience Manager to Director of Employee Experience. The work included:

• Running onboarding, and rewriting the training materials new and existing staff used
• Building learning and development programs, including rolling out the Leadership Practices Inventory for managers and analyzing the results
• Recruiting and succession planning, and reworking the hiring process
• Working with the SVP of HR on employee relations, disciplinary actions, terminations and investigations
• Keeping HR documentation, systems and processes current

Before that I spent three years at a youth nonprofit in Boston, so I know how HR looks when the budget is a grant. More on the about page.

What goes in a small organization's handbook

A twelve-person nonprofit doesn't need a hundred pages. It needs clear answers to the questions staff ask, in writing, so that everyone gets the same answer. A good one covers:

• Employment basics: at-will status, equal opportunity, and what counts as full-time
• Pay: pay periods, timekeeping, overtime, and who is exempt
• Time off: vacation, sick leave, holidays, and how to request it
• Where and when people work: hours, remote work, and expense reimbursement
• Conduct: harassment, how to raise a complaint and who hears it
• Confidentiality, especially for organizations that hold donor or client data
• Leaving: resignation notice, final pay and returning equipment
• A signed acknowledgment page for each employee's file

States add their own required notices and leave rules, so those sections are written for wherever your staff work.

HR that funders will ask to see

A proposal that pays for a position will often be asked for the job description, the hours and your personnel policies. A nonprofit that can send them the same afternoon looks ready to be funded. Because I also write grants, the job descriptions I write for you are the ones that go into the proposal.

Where HR stops and legal starts

I'm not an attorney and this isn't legal advice. A termination with risk attached, a complaint that could turn into a claim, or a letter from a government agency needs an employment lawyer, and I'll tell you when a question has reached that point.