How to cultivate organiational health for organisational success

Cultivating organisational health is crucial to retain the best talent in non-profit organisations, and six 'power practices' can help them thrive.
By: | May 29, 2023

Non-profit organisations have the added challenge of delivering long-term social impact despite complex, social, environmental, and resource constraints, which makes keeping their best talent even more imperative to these organisations.

To successfully retain employees, these organisations need to have robust organisational health, said McKinsey, who described organisational health as the ability to align on strategic goals, execute with excellence and continually renew itself.

While employees within organisations with lacklustre organisational health are twice or thrice as likely to leave organisations within the year, those working at non-profits with robust organisational health believe that the organisations they serve deliver impact, with 91% of talent on average believing their non-profit’s programmes are “extremely effective” at achieving its mission, compared to 60% in the least-healthy ones. 

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To help boost organisational health within non-profit organisations, McKinsey recommended six “power practices” that can help improve a non-profit’s organisational health. These include strategic clarity and making sure there are goals, targets, and milestones; employees understanding a clear mission that drives daily work; having inspirational leaders that can help to encourage and support employees; cultivating personal ownership in achieving performance objectives; clear and effective decision processes; and encouraging creativity and output from every employee.