by Christopher Washington, Forbes Nonprofit Council contributor, Provost of Franklin University, Chair of the Board of Global Ties, U.S. 

Fellow members of the Forbes Nonprofit Council have noted that staff at nonprofit organizations often stretch themselves too thin by performing more than one role. Without proper guidance and support from leaders, employees taking on too many tasks may either fail to prioritize the important work or settle for doing whatever it takes to just get the job done. Inattentive leaders may settle for mediocrity, which subsequently becomes the expected standard of performance.

A recent study shows that for many nonprofit leaders, talent management is not a priority. According to the 2019 Talent Management Priorities for Nonprofits survey only 28% of the 488 organizations from across the U.S. had a formal talent management plan.

In my experience, the negative impact of disregarding talent management can be enormous. Failing to attend to a workplace culture that brings out the best of what employees know and can do becomes especially acute following periods of work or workplace disruption. Poorly managed people can often bring down employee morale, tarnish an organization’s reputation, and waste time and valuable organizational resources. Employees who feel neglected rather than valued and appreciated may either choose to leave the organization prematurely, contributing to the high cost of employee turnover, or remain in the organization as unhappy and relatively unproductive employees.

Alternatively, a staff loyal to the mission and doing the right work in the most efficient way can contribute to more relevant, resilient and high-performing organizations. More enlightened nonprofit leaders identify performance improvement opportunities and create positive work environments that support and reward workers for high performance.

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At its September meeting, the Federal Reserve (Fed) left the Fed Funds Rate unchanged between a range of 0-.25%. More importantly, the Fed indicated its intention to hold the rate there until at least 2023. The Fed stated its expectation to maintain this target range until labor market conditions reached levels consistent with the policymaking committee’s assessments of maximum employment.

In its statement, the Fed also shared its intention to maintain an accommodative stance until the U.S. economy achieves inflation averaging 2% over time and longer-term inflation expectations remain anchored at 2%. The statement reflected the central bank’s new policy framework in which it will allow inflation to overshoot its 2% target after periods of lower inflation. Simply put, the Fed appears positioned to remain extremely accommodative for some time to come.

The Fed’s commitment to obtaining a 2% average inflation rate demonstrated its intent to not enact yield curve control, but instead to continue to foster liquidity where needed. Ultimately, the Fed appears to be signaling that it will allow longer-term yields to rise while holding short-term rates down. This strategy seems necessary to obtain the Fed’s goal of full employment and 2% average inflation. Holding short-term rates low is focused on encouraging full employment while providing room for intermediate and long rates to drift up, which should assist with the goal of achieving higher inflation.

Assuming the Fed is successful, its strategy should result in a widening of the yield curve where investors are paid more yield for taking on longer maturities. One of the goals of such a policy is to encourage financial institutions to make more loans. The idea being that a steeper curve provides more attractive profit margins on the loans.

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