The Most Important Metric You Aren’t Tracking
If you lead a department at a nonprofit organization, here's a metric you probably aren't tracking, but it's having a huge impact on your work.
It’s not your leading indicators - though you should definitely know the behaviors that drive the most value on your team and how often they're happening.
It’s not your outputs - though you should definitely know the short-term results your work is achieving.
It’s not even your impact - which is critical, but can be messy, long-term, and sometimes difficult to measure.
It’s your vacancy rate.
The vacancy rate is:
The number of vacant positions on your team
Divided by the total number of positions on your team
Multiplied by 100
So, if your department has:
5 open positions
Out of 23 total positions
Your vacancy rate is 𝟮𝟮%
Here’s why it matters.
When you made your plans for this year and submitted the corresponding budget, did you:
Plan your workload and investments with a full team in mind?
Or did you dial it back 22%?
If you're like most of the amazing and brilliant nonprofit leaders I know, the answer is probably the former.
In the social impact sector, it is common for us to want to do more, be more, create more impact for the people we serve. Our hearts are often bigger than our hands. (This is true of boards, of leaders, and of the staff and volunteers who power our organizations.)
But as leaders, we need to align our aspirations with our capabilities - and to bring a practical understanding of the progress we can make with the people, tools, and resources we actually have.
We need to care less about what looks good on paper and instead focus on what works well in real life. And knowing our actual staff capacity is a huge part of that equation.
Is vacancy rate a new metric for you? This post has generated a ton of great discussion - you can join the conversation over on LinkedIn.
If you’re a nonprofit CEO or department leader looking for a trusted advisor who can help you navigate the many strategic and operational details of your role - I’m here to help.
Just send me a message and tell me you’re ready to get started. We'll work together to design a solution that's right for you and your team.