Nearly eight in ten U.S. nonprofits (79 percent) plan to prioritize talent acquisition in 2022, up from 59 percent in 2020, a report from human resources firm Nonprofit HR finds.

Based on responses from more than four hundred nonprofits in thirty-eight states, the 2022 Nonprofit Talent Management Priorities Survey (10 pages, PDF) found that the top three recruitment priorities were attracting and hiring diverse talent (69 percent), strengthening internal capacity around interviewing skills and practices (50 percent), and strengthening the organizational brand to attract better talent (46 percent). Nine in ten respondents (91 percent) said they planned to prioritize culture and employee engagement, with assessing organizational culture (53 percent), implementing employee retention and engagement strategies, programs, or initiatives (53 percent), and improving the culture (37 percent) as top priorities.

According to the survey, the top talent management priorities for respondents were culture and engagement (49 percent), performance management (48 percent), and learning and development (37 percent), and that the two most common obstacles to realizing talent management priorities were insufficient staff resources (64 percent) and insufficient financial resources (50 percent) dedicated to HR to achieve them. In addition, 65 percent of organizations said they would prioritize total rewards, up from 46 percent in last year’s survey, including implementing or restricting merit-based pay programs (51 percent), expanding benefits program offerings or investments (48 percent), and addressing pay or benefits inequities (42 percent).

Read the full article about nonprofit talent at Philanthropy News Digest.