Culture, Opportunity, and Excellence in the Jewish Workforce
Channel: Jewish Funders Network
Date: 2018-05-17

Speakers:

Ilana Aisen, Executive Director of JPRO Network
Gali Cooks, Executive Director of Leading Edge
Moderator: Samantha Anderson, Senior Director of Member Services, JFN

The most important resource deployed by Jewish communal organizations is people. Attracting and retaining the right talent means creating supportive and engaging cultures within workplaces, and creating opportunities for growth and mentorship in the field as a whole.

Two recent surveys point the way forward:

For the second year in a row, Leading Edge conducted a sector-wide employee engagement survey, Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work? Employees from 68 Jewish organizations answered questions about their experience at work, specifically relating to workplace culture, the factors that drive their engagement at work, and those elements that contribute most to their desire to stay at their organization and in the Jewish nonprofit sector.

JPRO Network polled professionals in the Jewish nonprofit sector to learn about their networking and career development needs and is piloting programs based on their responses. One of these pilots, WellAdvised, is providing further data about the needs of early- and mid-career professionals.

Together, these two surveys and initial learnings from the WellAdvised pilot identify ways that Jewish funders can transform their grantee organizations, their foundations, and the whole Jewish communal sector, to become a field with more appeal, more excellence, and more opportunity. Ultimately, making Jewish working life more appealing will enable Jewish workers to do their best work and achieve more of the missions that drive organizations and funders.