On average, corporates are better at delivering value to paying customers than many social sector organizations are at delivering impact to beneficiaries. There are many reasons for this gap. One that is rarely discussed is how each sector treats its employees.
Large corporate companies do not miss any opportunity to show employees that they are just cogs in the wheel while social sector organizations are known to bend over backwards to try and make employees feel like special snowflakes, each one as unique as the next.
These days it's very difficult to identify the nature of an organization by reading their vision statements. Both corporations and social sector organizations claim to be changing the world.
When it comes to employees, the difference starts with Job Descriptions (JDs).
JDs
For a particular role, JDs at corporates are standard. The world-changing vision statements might be different but roles are usually pretty similar across companies especially if they operate in the same domain.
This is not as common in the social sector. Organizations might be working on the same social problem, but each claims a unique solution or approach. To implement this unique solution, each organization dreams up an ideal employee who has this unique combination of skills, competencies and experience. Usually, this combination is as unique as a unicorn. Hence, by unintentional design, there might be a small number of people who even come close to seeing themselves in the JD.
Sheer Numbers of Jobs and Applicants
When I graduated with my bachelors in computer science, IT was not only one of the biggest employers, we also knew that they hire in droves every year. I got placed at Cognizant, a large IT services firm, in my final year in college. A few others from my class, many others from my college, and a large number of engineers from the state of Kerala (which is one among many states with engineering colleges in India) were selected to join Cognizant the same year. Cognizant was one among 5-8 other large IT companies that hired a large number of engineers. While I was very happy to have a job in hand, I also knew that there was some amount of luck involved. Many smart peers I knew didn't get the job.
Not only are the absolute number of jobs in the social sector lower, the applicant pool is also much smaller - people who are already part of the sector and a few who are making a switch from the corporate sector.
On-boarding, Systems & Processes
Given the sheer number of people that a corporate needs to interact with during the selection process and after, systems are built to be efficient. This usually means digital interaction trumps human connection.
The social sector organization doubles down by ensuring that people are always above process. Exceptions are often made to accommodate the new employee.
Outcomes
The large corporate firm has become large by mastering the art of delivering widgets desired by its customers. In Cognizant's case, not just my team, but multiple teams spread across multiple global offices, were successfully delivering software products for its clients. When you need to deliver on time for a paying customer, a large corporate builds processes that ensure delivery without being dependent on a particular individual.
It might be unfair to compare impact with software and other widgets, but what's important to note is that many social sector organizations receive grant funding upfront before measurable outcomes are proven. They get paid to put into practice a theory of change they have designed. In most cases, work starts only after they get paid. In reality, many such theories are still hypotheses. While organizational budgets usually include hiring employees, unique ones as described above, redundancies are not baked into the organization or the particular project. Finding one unicorn is hard enough. Imagine finding two.
Outside Work
And this does not even take into consideration status assigned from others. Even if you are working for a prestigious corporate, people might recognize the effort it took but you are just another mortal who became part of the global rat race.
Whereas someone working in the social sector who had the courage to follow their passion to create impact gets showered with moral kudos from the get-go. Even small forms of social recognition are gentle reminders of how different and special social sector employees are.
Trained to be humble, Claim to be humble
One complete cycle from JD to Outcome delivery is enough for a corporate employee to internalize how replaceable they are and the same is enough for a social sector employee to recognize how special they are.
Corporations are designed to drill humility into an employee compared to social sector organizations that tend to inflate identity.
Large corporations often win through systems that reduce dependence on any one individual. Many social sector organizations, despite noble missions, remain overly dependent on exceptional people. Until mission-driven institutions learn to combine purpose with process, they may continue to struggle to deliver impact at scale.