From growing pains to growth paths: supporting nonprofit Capital with HR expertise

A partnership for impact

Capital’s mission is to be a one-stop source that inspires, stimulates and guides Brussels youth in their personal and professional development. The organization guides youngsters toward employment by offering a safe space to uncover their talents and build meaningful networks. As Capital’s operations expanded rapidly, the nonprofit faced challenges in managing their growth sustainably and turned to the Tri For Impact program for advice and support.

"When we were seeking partners for Tri For Impact, it soon became clear that TriHD, TriFinance and Capital share a strong cultural fit. Both organizations prioritize self-development, blending professional and personal growth, and believe in the power of networks to realize that growth," explains Gaëlle De Baeck, Sustainability Lead at TriHD & TriFinance.

Capital’s challenge: scaling up the organizational structure

Capital was facing typical growing pains of an expanding organization. The management sought to refine the organizational structure to ensure efficiency and future-readiness, while ensuring that employees’ talents were used to their maximum potential. Despite previous efforts by the organization to address this in-house, the challenge remained. Therefore, Capital turned to the services of TriHD and TriFinance for two primary challenges:

• Redesigning the organizational structure to ensure efficient operations while giving employees every opportunity for growth, thus allowing them and the organization to reach their full potential
• Recruitment of a new operations manager to ensure continuity in the fluid day-to-day management of the organization

Towards a new operating model

Working closely with Capital’s founder, Hassan Al Hilou, the Tri For Impact project team crafted a new to-be organizational structure.

“We first wanted to understand how Capital’s employees experienced their work, in order to tailor roles to individual strengths and competencies in a second phase. To do this, we conducted employee interviews to get a full picture of the tasks, responsibilities, strengths and aspirations of each employee”, explains Leonard de Blende, Human Development consultant. This resulted in a job mapping and job grading that served as the basis for designing a to-be situation.

“By analyzing task packages, combining them into a fully-fledged job content, and tying them to competency profiles, we created a design for the to-be organizational structure that includes clearer growth pathways for employees and supports a positive, ongoing evaluation process", adds Maaike Malfliet, Human Development Consultant.

Preparing a recruitment guide for hiring a new operations manager

Capital simultaneously faced the challenge of hiring a new operations manager. Drawing on the expertise of several project team members in recruitment, a comprehensive recruitment guide was made for the NGO. “The guide covers the different steps in the recruitment process for this specific role: mapping the job responsibilities and drafting the job description, insights into the most appropriate job posting platforms, advice on how to proceed with the recruitment process and guidelines for conducting in-depth interviews with the candidates”, Leonard details.

With this practical guide, Capital employees were able to move forward to take control of the further recruitment process themselves.

A foundation for the future

In just one month, the Tri For Impact project team effectively laid the groundwork for the future of Capital non-profit organization. The work done provides Capital with valuable tools to shape its future growth. This project demonstrates how strategic alliances and skills-based employee volunteering can address difficult organizational challenges, resulting in value for both the nonprofit and its corporate partners.

“It takes a village to raise a child, or in Capital’s terms: it takes an ecosystem to develop young talent. Over the past years, Capital has been able to rely on various private partners to support our mission: creating greater impact for young people. We're so glad to have been able to collaborate with Tri For Impact. The team of consultants has provided crucial support in strengthening our own organizational structure as we continue to grow”, states Hassan Al Hilou, Founder and Innovation Director of Capital vzw.

Likewise, the consultants themselves look back on the project with great satisfaction. “This project has been a true team effort, with TriHD & TriFinance consultants and Capital working side-by-side through regular status meetings, open discussions, and collaborative sessions”, concludes Oumaïma El M’Rabet, Human Development consultant.