People and resilience

People are the ultimate source of a nonprofit organization's resilience. To address their critical human resource decisions, nonprofit leaders must keep three criteria in mind: flexibility, fairness and foresight. Flexibility allows an organization to roll with the punches when the organization is challenged. Fairness assures that members of the workforce are being appropriately treated relative to each other as they must absorb some of the costs of adjustment. Foresight means that human resources decisions are made both in normal and difficult times to help assure that the workforce maintains and builds its long run productivity, morale, and motivation. Trade-offs among these criteria are often required in making particular human resource decisions such as adjusting the size and composition of the workforce. The logic of thinking at the margin can assist nonprofit leaders to make the best possible decisions of this kind. Finally, the process through which decisions about the workforce are made is as important as the decisions themselves. Good communications, transparency and teamwork are especially important.