BBYO, Hillel International and Moishe House are teaming up in launching a unique, pioneering global partnership to recruit, train and retain top professionals throughout their organizations. Called the Talent Alliance, this novel collaboration will link 780 Jewish communal professionals in 37 countries together in a global ecosystem designed to promote rising stars in these Jewish nonprofits.
The pilot year of the Talent Alliance will focus on several joint initiatives designed to enable employees to transition to open positions within any of the three organizations as they look to advance in their careers. The Talent Alliance has created a career paths map, showing positions across the three organizations, ranging from entry to executive level and covering programs, development, operations and leadership. Additionally, each organization will recognize and reward an employee’s years of service by determining benefits, including time off and retirement contributions, based on the total number of years employed by any Talent Alliance organization.
The Talent Alliance grew from increasing employee feedback among the three organizations and beyond that staff were seeking work outside of the nonprofit Jewish communal sector to advance their careers. Spurred by such data, the CEOs of the three organizations, together with the Schusterman Foundation, began informally discussing an experimental effort to create a new Jewish communal workplace culture.
The Talent Alliance pilot is set to run through April 2016. Ultimately, the Alliance members hope this groundbreaking initiative will inspire other Jewish organizations to take a system-wide approach to stewarding talent within a broader shared ecosystem, as well as position the wider Jewish nonprofit world as an elite, long-term career choice.
According to Sandy Cardin, President of the Charles and Lynn Family Foundation, “Working across organizational boundaries is key to achieving system-wide change. This unique collaboration of three major Jewish organizations creates unprecedented potential to move the market. Our goal is to shape the reputation of the Jewish community into one of the most dynamic, fulfilling and desirable sectors for top talent.”
The Talent Alliance is generously supported by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
All three organizations currently offer select training and leadership advancement opportunities for staff at all levels and also host annual all-staff conferences that emphasize professional development.
For more information visit www.talent-alliance.org.
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This is a great idea. But I hope that this group will work to ensure that these organizations are more inclusive of people with differences. Shusterman is linked to wonderful work on LBGTQ inclusion. Moise House, Hillel and the rest would benefit greatly from including more staff and residents with disabilities. People of ALL abilities should be welcomed and our community is richer and more vibrant when we are welcoming and respectful of all. This takes and INTENTIONAL effort and training to do well.
It is terrific to see that these three organizations are solidifying what is essentially defined as a field-building practice that exists in many professions, including Jewish community leadership. Particularly for these organizations that attract and cultivate early career professionals, it is an important statement endorsing the value of their talent. Within federation systems and other sectors, it is not unusual for professionals to carry their vested pensions and other accrued benefits from one agency to another. Having the ability to readily transfer ones skills and knowledge, as well as earned benefits, across organizations strengthens our system and the ability to build leadership pipelines. I can only applaud this formalization of a best practice and hope it will be replicated broadly. Kol HaKavod!