Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 26, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 21 e rise of a young nonprofit V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L N ot that long ago, the nonprofit Legend- ary Legacies was little more than just a whiteboard idea from Co-founder Ron Waddell, at the time an employee of the Worcester Community Action Council. at idea eventually blossomed in 2018 with the found- ing of an organization focused on helping men aged 17- 24 become productive citizens through mentorship and other programming, particularly young men of color. By 2020, the nonprofit had grown enough for it to become Waddell's full-time job, although its annual revenues were still just $97,000, with Waddell hoping to eventually exceed $210,000, both numbers a far cry from the hundreds of millions in revenues brought in each year by major Central Mass. human services nonprofits. In the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the subsequent calls for social justice and the elimination of institutional racism, donations flowed in nationally to Black-led nonprofits, particularly those helping underserved communities. On the local level, Waddell saw a small trickle of that money, as Legendary Legacies received $10,000 from the Worcester Together Fund to run a grocery delivery program to Black communities and the elderly. When it came time in spring 2021 for Worcester Together to distribute the final $1 million of its coro- navirus-specific giving, the fund chose five established nonprofits and one upstart: Legendary Legacies, which received $125,000 to create a youth-led civic engagement academy aimed at increasing voter registration and turnout among 18-25 year olds. Yet, more was to come. On July 16, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Bureau of Substance Abuse announced Legendary would receive $1.3 million to scale its Leg- endary Links program, which assists Black and Latino men returning home from incarceration. Legendary plans to hire five new staff members to run the program. Waddell and his nonprofit have come a long way in a seemingly short amount of time. In the past year, the increased focus on diversity & inclusion have yielded countless well-intentioned state- ments and attempts to simply be better as a people and a culture. However, concrete successes have been hard to come by in the seemingly never-ending struggle to fix the cracks in the foundation of American society. Given Waddell's connections in the community, his commit- ment to his cause, and growing reputation among the region's power brokers, Legendary Legacies likely would have been a success regardless, although likely on a lon- ger timeline. Fortunately, the societal problems laid bare by Floyd's murder led enough people and organizations to want to help address those problems. And that renewed focus aided in the rise of a promis- ing young nonprofit, whose impact will surely grow. W hen Talent Works interviewed 200 tech leaders in New England to determine the state of hiring tech talent, we found nearly 80% prefer to hire from their alma mater or previous companies. In the same survey, 90% of leaders said they were dedicated to hiring diverse and female tech talent. e contradiction is obvious. ere's a majority who want to hire from their alma mater but an even larger majority who prioritize diversity. So, how can we reconcile this? By continually looking for candidates in the same place and for people who have similar backgrounds, tech founders aren't expanding their searches and making room for more diversity. e focus is too narrow, and with every other alumnus looking to its talent pool for hires, companies will soon find everyone is chasing the same candidates. It makes tech recruitment a game of musical chairs. Instead, it should be a strategic activity based on a clear definition of the right talent to fit your culture, as well as your employer value proposition, employer brand, and skills to scale your organization. Scaling is key, and hiring tactics need to be designed with scaling in mind. If talent pools are limited, tech leaders will struggle to hire at scale as they try to grow. Employer hiring activity for tech jobs is at its highest point in nearly two years, according to an analysis released by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry. is demand means tech leaders will need to broaden their horizons if they wish to grow their BY JODY ROBIE Special to the Worcester Business Journal The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y R A M Ó N L . S A N D O V A L Shake up your recruiting methods Jody Robie W businesses. e good news is these high demand tech roles are no longer geography dependent in a post- pandemic world. By talent mapping, you can gain an understanding of where relevant talent is located, as well as the nature of their skills and experience. With this understand- ing, you can formulate digital attraction hiring strate- gies like targeting passive candidates using paid media based on skill type. You can expand your scope in broadening the types of personalities and skill sets it takes to grow your business in different ways. e same survey of New England tech leaders revealed more than 85% felt emerging tech talent has improved over the past five years, though nearly 80% felt communications and so skills were missing from tech job candidate applications. Expanding your recruitment pool may help you to secure the so skills and the personalities to complement your business model. In working in conjunction with outsourced providers who already have access to these recruitment pools, you can ensure you're making the best use of everyone's time. A good recruitment processing outsourcing provider should be able to provide a wide array of candidates, covering both those fitting the job more traditionally, and those coming from a different angle. Recruiting has always been complex, and, under- standably, founders feel comfortable tapping existing networks and connections. However, it limits the viewpoints, opinions, and insights within your orga- nization, which could impact your potential business growth. A diverse organization will 100% attract more diverse candidates. Jody Robie is the senior vice president for recruiter Talent Works in Framingham. W

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