John Dunford, CEO, The Developer Society Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Values & talent
How nonprofits can attract and
keep great digital talent
John Dunford
john@dev.ngo
linkedin.com/in/johndunford/

2. Values & talent
➔ The context for DEV
➔ Our hiring journey
➔ Understanding the situation
➔ Our values based approach
➔ How you can apply a values based approach

3. THE CONTEXT
➔ The Developer Society
➔ My background & role
➔ Hiring, values & the third sector

5. My background
Perspective across the charity and tech
sectors.
Balancing these understandings: the role of
human API. Nowhere more important than in
hiring.
Values & talent

6. I know, it’s hard...
➔ Hiring is hard for any organisation
➔ It’s especially hard to hire tech talent
➔ And especially so if you don’t have the budget
Values & talent

7. ...but there is hope
➔ We have what every business is trying to reach
for: a mission that truly makes a difference
➔ We will always struggle to compete if we want to
be like corporates but if we play the game on our
terms, then the dynamic changes
Values & talent

8. OUR HIRING JOURNEY
➔ The last 3 years

9. 2017
➔ Became The Developer Society
➔ 5 people
➔ 100% male
➔ All based in one small office
➔ Ad hoc pay allocation
Values & talent

10. 2017
➔ Became The Developer Society
➔ 5 people
➔ 100% male
➔ All based in one small office
➔ Ad hoc pay allocation
2020
➔ 21 people
➔ 40% non-male team
➔ ~50% distributed
➔ Progressive and open pay system
➔ Programme for junior opportunities
➔ DSWorkfit partnership
➔ High retention rates
➔ High and increasing satisfaction
➔ ...still a work in progress
Values & talent

11. UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATION
➔ Third sector challenges
➔ Understanding the dynamic of trade offs
➔ A values driven solution

12. Third sector challenges
When we looked at redoing our hiring in 2017, we
were faced with the same needs and challenges:
➔ Find great people
➔ Keep great people
➔ Do so on a tight budget
➔ And in a competitive market
Values & talent

13. Values & talent
The
Iron
Triangle
Of Trade Offs

14. Values & talent
Imperfect role
Below market
rate
Lacks flexibility

15. Values & talent
Imperfect role
Below market
rate
Lacks flexibility
You can only pick one side of the triangle if
you want to build a great team

16. Values & talent
Imperfect role
Lacks flexibility
Imperfect role + lack of flexibility =
Higher pay

17. Values & talent
Below market
rate
Lacks flexibility
Below market rate + lack of flexibility =
Perfect job with a chance to grow or a clear sense of
how you contribute to the mission

18. Values & talent
Imperfect role
Below market
rate
Below market rate + imperfect role =
Max flexibility

19. Values & talent
Imperfect role
Lacks flexibility
Below market rate + imperfect role + lack of flexibility =
When social orgs struggle
Below market
rate

20. Now we had context
➔ A framework to tackle this
➔ We could see lots of examples of mission driven
orgs hiring great people
➔ But none where they break the iron triangle
➔ We couldn’t compete with tech sector pay
➔ How could we really maximise everything else?
➔ Our strategy became about our values
Values & talent

21. PUTTING OUR VALUES FIRST
➔ Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
➔ How we put our values into practice
➔ How to apply a values based approach to hiring

22. Drive
One of the core values for
DEV is the belief that
money and hierarchies are
not motivators for long
term satisfaction and
success.
These come through
autonomy, mastery, and
purpose.
Values & talent

23. Values & talent
Autonomy: the desire to be self-directed
A

24. Values & talent
Mastery: the itch to keep improving at something
that’s important to us
D
M

25. Values & talent
Purpose: the sense that what we do produces something
transcendent or serves something meaningful beyond ourselves
P

26. Values & talent
Motivation, high performance, and satisfaction
Drive

27. Getting our house in order
To bring these values to our hiring, we needed to start
internally. We believed that we needed to embody
these values with our existing team and then shout
about them to the outside world.
We wanted to keep it simple: do things the right way
and then just talk about them without any spin.
Values & talent

28. Internal
1. Location
2. Hours
3. Management
structure
4. Not micromanaged
by a non-technical
lead
Values & talent
External
1. Remote friendly
2. Flexible & family
friendly
3. Emphasise co-op
structure
4. Collaborative
interview tasks
Autonomy: the desire to be self-directed

29. Internal
1. Encourage
changing roles
2. Career progression
(artisan)
3. Learning time built
in to schedule
Values & talent
External
1. Discuss role
development
2. Pay structure
public
3. Emphasise in our
role descriptions
Mastery: the itch to keep improving at something that’s
important to us

30. Internal
1. Sell the mission
2. Welcoming
3. Fairness
Values & talent
External
1. Messaging all
about impact
2. Gender
representation
through hiring
3. Pay principles
promoted
Purpose: the sense that what we do produces something
transcendent or serves something meaningful beyond ourselves

31. Applying a values based approach to hiring
1. Identify the challenges you are facing and how they are affecting
you (the Iron Triangle or other)
2. Examine which values of your org are present in your structures
and which are missing (volunteerism, creativity…)
3. Create the best possible context for the people who will be
hired (your current team)
4. Shout about it externally
Values & talent

32. Values & hiring
Third sector organisations can attract brilliant
talent but we need to be flexible and creative. If
we embody our values in how we approach
employment overall and then make that the
foundation of how we do hiring we can start to
compete on our own terms.
Please follow up and get in touch:
john@dev.ngo
linkedin.com/in/johndunford/
Values & talent