Preparing for Exciting New Opportunities

Full disclosure– this blog is posted one day late. 

Let me set the scene for you. Spark Group Consulting is a small firm. I started the organization in 2018 to help busy nonprofit leaders with strategy and fundraising needs. We grew quickly, and in 2020 I added team members to our roster. Now Spark Group is run by Christina Wichert and me. We operate as principal consultants and partners in the firm. We also work with several other highly-skilled professionals on special projects. 

Well, this week, Christina planned to write a blog about the importance of parental leave benefits and tips for sharing the workload when one of your team members is out. 

However, before she could write the blog and post it yesterday, she went into labor! Christina welcomed her new addition yesterday and is happily away for the next several weeks. 

As a nonprofit leader, you often push yourself to accomplish the impossible. If there is a need, you try your best to solve it! You may tend to say, "We're down a team member. Let's work even harder!"

We ran into that situation yesterday and decided to practice what we preach. Plan and prepare, set boundaries, and take the time you need to bring your best self to your work. So instead of pushing to get our blog out yesterday amid the excitement, we decided to take an extra day. And you probably didn't even realize, did you?

So here you are, one day late. The Center for American Progress reports in their piece, The United States Is Falling Behind in Paid Leave Policies, that the US guarantees zero weeks of paid paternal leave while many other countries provide 7+ weeks, with some offering over a year of paid time off. Additionally, the American Psychological Association reports on the various health-related benefits to parents and children. 

Providing quality, paid leave, benefits not only your staff. It also increases employee retention, a struggle for nonprofit organizations in the "Great Resignation." Still, if you budget for the time away, you may be worried about how to carry the load of the responsibilities while your employee is out of the office. 

Here are three tips to help you prepare:

Hire an interim 

With the emergence of the gig economy, several highly-skilled consultants and freelancers are available to help while your team member is away. These temporary contractors can help maintain your current programs while also providing outside advice and up-to-date knowledge of best practices. There are even more options than you think if you are willing and able to work with a remote partner. An excellent resource for finding nonprofit consultants in your area is nonprofit.ist (Also, give us a call at Spark Group!)

Clarify tasks

You likely have time to prepare for your staff member's leave, so use that opportunity wisely. Start early by having your employee catalog their tasks and responsibilities, and don't forget to think about links, passwords, and document permissions. In a remote world, those are important, and you don't want to be bugging a new parent to change the permissions on a Google Doc. After you clearly understand all the tasks, you can begin to think about who will cover what in the employee's absence. 

Work smarter, not harder

As I mentioned above, your tendency may be to try to cover everything and work especially hard to get it all done while you are down a team member. However, take some time to consider what needs to be handled. There are likely items that can wait for the employee to return. You are already a hardworking leader. You don't have to do everything, plus another employee's position. Some things can wait. 

So that is what we are doing here at Spark Group over the next several weeks. We are providing a way for our team member to be away, covering her tasks with skilled contractors and amongst the team, and determining what can wait. 

But most of all, we are sending warm congratulations to our valued colleague on her adorable new addition. 

If you would like help covering a position or thinking through your parental leave practices, contact us at Spark Group today!