Nonprofit workers more motivated than federal employees

Employees in the nonprofit sector are more committed than federal employees to their jobs and their organizations' missions, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.

"The nonprofit sector has the most motivated workforce-its 11 million employees have a greater sense of mission, a deeper desire to make a difference, and a greater love of their work than any other workforce in America today," said Paul Light, author of "The Content of Their Character: The State of the Nonprofit Workforce," in a statement. Light is vice president and director of governmental studies at Brookings.

Light surveyed 1,140 nonprofit employees and compared the results with those in similar studies of public and private sector employees. The results show that nonprofit employees feel more tied to their organizations' missions and draw greater satisfaction from their jobs than their federal counterparts.

"Nonprofit employees were less likely than federal or private sector employees to say their work is boring and their jobs are dead end with no future, and were much more likely to say they are given a chance to do the things they do best," the report said. "If a healthy workforce is measured in part by its commitment to the common good, the nonprofit workforce is healthy, indeed."

Light's study is timely, as federal managers are scrambling to combat a potential brain drain over the next five years, when more than 50 percent of federal employees will become eligible to retire. Compounding the problem, according to another Brookings study released in June, is the decline in job satisfaction reported by federal employees. In that study, Brookings found that the number of federal employees who said they were "very satisfied" with their jobs fell 6 percent over the past year, from 49 percent in 2001 to 43 percent in 2002.

In his recent study, Light found marked differences in motivation between federal employees and private sector employees-31 percent of federal employees said money was the reason they came to work, compared with just 16 percent of nonprofit employees who felt the same way.

"Nonprofit employees appear willing to accept lower pay in return for the chance to accomplish something worthwhile," the study found. "The sector is clearly doing something right when compared to the federal government and private sector."

The report also said the hiring process in the nonprofit sector was "simple, fast and very fair." Critics of the federal hiring process say it is slow and inefficient, leading to recruitment problems.

There were some similarities between the two sectors in Light's study, including a perception on the part of the survey's respondents that poor performers are rarely disciplined and that training opportunities are limited.

But overall, the report concluded that the nonprofit sector might be the government's stiffest competition when it comes to attracting and retaining dedicated public servants.

"The nonprofit sector, not government, is the place to go for people who want to serve their communities and country today," Light said.