Continuing our series about common nonprofit risk management issues, today we ask the popular AI program ChatGPT to help nonprofit leaders identify risks relating to talent management — the processes nonprofits use to hire, train, develop, promote, and if necessary, terminate staff. This is another hot area for nonprofit risk management during our risk inventory process with clients.
The Nonprofit Risk Management Prompt
We seeded ChatGPT with the following prompt about nonprofit risk management:
Acting as a journalist, describe common risks that nonprofits face relating to talent management.
ChatGPT’s Answer
As a language model AI, I don’t have personal experiences, but here’s a list of common talent management risks that nonprofits face based on my training data:
- Staff turnover: High staff turnover can result in a loss of institutional knowledge, reduced program delivery, and increased recruitment and training costs.
- Discrimination and harassment: Nonprofits can face legal and reputational risks if they fail to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
- Lack of diversity and inclusiveness: A lack of diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace can result in a loss of credibility and support from stakeholders.
- Inadequate training and support: Nonprofits may not provide adequate training and support to their staff, which can result in reduced productivity and an increased risk of burnout.
- Failure to comply with labor laws: Nonprofits must comply with a variety of labor laws, including those related to minimum wage, overtime, and benefits. Failure to comply with these laws can result in legal consequences and reputational damage.
- Unclear job roles and responsibilities: Nonprofits may not have clear job roles and responsibilities for their staff, which can result in confusion and inefficiencies in the workplace.
- Inadequate compensation: Nonprofits may not provide adequate compensation to their staff, which can result in high staff turnover and difficulty attracting and retaining top talent.
- Resistance to change: Nonprofits may face resistance from staff to changes in policies, procedures, and technologies, which can result in reduced productivity and increased risk of staff turnover.
Notes and Questions Based on This Answer
How many of these talent management issues affect your nonprofit?
What other talent management risks should be on your radar? In my book, Managing Your Nonprofit for Resilience, I provide 32 additional issues you can ask about your talent management function as part of your nonprofit risk management work.
How might you incorporate AI into your risk management planning to help address some of these risks? You can reach out to me here at Risk Alternatives for suggestions, including resources for getting better results when using AI. Alternatively, you can create a ChatGPT account for yourself to begin exploring how AI could impact your organization.
(By the way, all of the art for this series on common nonprofit risks was generated by Midjourney, another AI program. I asked that program to generate images about talent management risks in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. I like that the program seems to have inserted Vince into the upper right image.)