When your people thrive, your mission does too

How Musicians On Call built a culture worth growing into

Founded in 1999, Musicians On Call is a nonprofit that operates at the intersection of music and healing. The organization coordinates a network of hundreds of volunteer musicians and guides in healthcare facilities nationwide. They serve patients navigating some of the hardest moments of their lives, as well as the family members sitting beside them and the hospital workers showing up for them each day.

“We’ve got a mission that translates to every corner of the world,” said Pete Griffin, President and CEO. “Every community has music. Every community has people who are dealing with health challenges. Every community can benefit from the healing power of music.”

That mission is big. And growing it required more than passion – it required infrastructure.

Preparing for growth

When Griffin joined Musicians On Call in 2014, he found something rare: a deeply meaningful mission, a loyal support base and an energized community. What was missing was the HR infrastructure needed to support long-term growth.

“I inherited a really brilliant mission and supporter base and volunteers,” Griffin said. “But where we were really lacking and could stand to improve was everything having to do with strategy and infrastructure and long-term vision and sustainability.”

At the time, Musicians On Call operated in just four or five cities, mostly along the East Coast, with no clear path toward becoming the national – let alone global – organization Griffin envisioned. The bones of the organization, as he described it, weren’t where they needed to be.

Griffin came to Musicians On Call with corporate experience, having worked at organizations with tens of thousands of employees. He understood what large companies invested in: employee recruitment, retention, training and satisfaction. He also understood why those investments often go overlooked in small nonprofits.

“There are certain things that just seem out of reach,” Griffin said. “That we’re not going to have the infrastructure of a big company. That we’re not going to be able to spend time and money training our employees when I’m worried about just making sure people have paychecks.”

But Griffin also knew that a weak team foundation would limit everything else. “If you’re going to have a good organization – if you’re going to achieve your mission – it doesn’t matter what size you are, you’ve got to have good people. You’ve got to have happy people. You’ve got to have smart people who are committed to achieving the goal.”

The challenge wasn’t just managing HR. It was building the kind of organization that could attract, develop and retain the talent needed to expand the mission-driven nonprofit’s impact. 

A partnership to scale with purpose

After evaluating several professional employer organizations, Musicians On Call chose Insperity – a decision driven by more than service offerings. Griffin was looking for a long-term HR partner, one that could grow alongside the organization as its team, programs and ambitions evolved.

“That’s part of the reason that we chose Insperity – knowing that you guys would be able to support us from a 10-person organization to a 30-person organization where we’re at now, to perhaps an even larger organization,” he said.

Through the Insperity® HR360 solution, Musicians On Call gained access to a robust HR infrastructure and a partnership that went well beyond the HR basics.

“When something’s important to us, it’s important to our Insperity team,” Griffin said. “And when something’s urgent to us, it’s urgent to our Insperity team.”

Learning and development

Insperity’s Performance Services team delivered leadership development programs tailored to where Musicians On Call was at each stage of growth. This included quarterly leadership training sessions, emerging leader development, new manager workshops and communication and emotional intelligence training. Insperity’s team also built custom learning pathways for Musicians On Call’s leadership team through the Insperity learning management platform – including DISC assessments that helped the team better understand behavior styles and how to work and communicate with one another.

“We need to know how to engage with our teammates more intentionally and more productively,” Griffin said. “We couldn’t do that stuff on our own. Having Insperity’s support is what allows those things to happen for us.”

Culture and employee engagement

Understanding the employee experience was equally important. Insperity supported Musicians On Call’s annual employee surveys, including presenting results to leadership and the board, then helping the team take actionable steps in response. Survey insights informed key workplace changes, from flexible work arrangements to improvements in how managers communicate with their teams. According to Musicians On Call, 100% of employees surveyed know the organization’s mission – a testament to how deeply that culture has been embedded.

HR compliance and handbook support

From employee development to support for multistate HR compliance requirements, Insperity gave Musicians On Call’s leadership team the confidence to make decisions correctly and consistently – without needing to build an in-house HR department. Today, Insperity’s team connects with Musicians On Call two to three times per week, with formal meetings held every other week. The relationship has grown from transactional to deeply collaborative – and that high-touch approach has made all the difference.

Griffin reflected on how that collaboration is lived out when considering future growth and organizational decisions.

“Let’s talk to Insperity. Let’s figure out the right way to go about this. Let’s make sure we’re doing the right things for our team,” Griffin said.

“To know that Insperity is there to support us provides me with a lot of security that our organization is going to be protected, our organization is going to be supported, and we’re going to be all right,” Griffin said.

Growth, culture and impact

The results of this partnership show up in the growth of the organization and, just as importantly, in the strength of its culture.

• Musicians On Call has grown from programs in four or five cities to active programs in all 50 states.
• The team has grown from approximately 10 employees to nearly 37, with infrastructure in place to support continued expansion.
• Musicians On Call has been recognized as one of the best nonprofits to work for in America – a designation determined by independent, staff-driven assessment.
• Employee surveys reflect a team that is aligned, engaged and connected to the mission, with 100% of employees able to articulate the organization’s purpose.

“Working with Insperity makes me feel confident that we’re going to have the right support we need,” Griffin said. “Knowing that Insperity is there has alleviated so much stress.”

A team and a mission that thrives

What Musicians On Call and Insperity have built together is more than an HR partnership. It is a shared commitment to people – and to the belief that when your team thrives, your mission does too.

Griffin came into the organization with a long-term vision: to make Musicians On Call the leading music and healthcare charity in the world. That vision is steadily becoming a reality. Programs now run in every state. And a culture that has been deliberately shaped, supported and invested in continues to attract people who want to be part of something meaningful.

Looking ahead, the road will bring new complexity – more cities, more team members, more decisions about how to grow responsibly. And Insperity will be there for all of it.

“Knowing that we can continue to work with Insperity on that journey gives us one less thing we have to think about and worry about,” Griffin said. “We can focus on our mission.”

That kind of confidence – rooted in years of partnership, built on trust – is what Insperity is here to provide.