People management essentials
January 2009
HR management in the voluntary sector can only too often get overlooked,
with many small and medium-sized organisations having no dedicated HR function or on-call consultant adviser.
As Kathryn Lloyd pointed out in our very first edition of
Caritas magazine (
see Kathryn Lloyd's article 'Not so kind' in
Caritas, Issue 1, December 2007), the sector is particularly exposed to employment tribunal claims. Reasons for this include: an aversion to confrontation and a reluctance to tackle performance issues; a reliance on volunteers with gestures to show appreciation for their unpaid help sometimes resulting in actions compromising the volunteer status; and the uncomfortable truth that the sector can attract litigious or potentially litigious individuals. We have just revisited this with Mike Short of UNISON and Debra Allcock Tyler of the Directory of Social Change in our Viewpoint section (
see their articles in
Caritas, Issue 13, December 2008). HR support, or its absence, is clearly one determining factor.
A number of organisations have announced changes and restructures (for example the NSPCC has announced plans to reduce headcount by 150 and Oxfam announced in August it was commencing a staff consultation on redundancies), and our article on the main triggers of change and the process of embedding a new structure is a timely reminder that there may be no alternative but to take the change plunge (
see Bernard Ross's article 'Sink or swim?'). Furthermore, one would be tempted to think that little recruitment is going on right now, but new posts evolve from organisational restructures and charities cannot afford to get their recruitment procedures wrong (
see Mark Fearon's article 'Simply the best'). Lindsay Boswell observed (
see Lindsay Boswell's article 'Supply and demand' in Caritas, Issue 8, July 2008): ‘Recruiting, developing and retraining high-quality fundraisers is a continuous challenge faced by all charities.’ In other words, there are some roles that will always have recruitment and retention problems.
If you feel able to share any best practice that could help other Caritas readers, please do not hesitate to use the comment function at the bottom of this page. People management case studies that demonstrate how charities have moved more towards becoming employers of choice and achieving even more for their beneficiaries are particularly inspiring and would be very welcome in our regular Management section.
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from Cass Business School. She has been one of the judges for the non-profit category of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Excellence in Marketing Awards for the second year running.
She has also acted as clerk to the trustees of a small almshouses charity and as a member nominated trustee to a pension scheme of a multinational publishing company.
Click here for other articles written by Clarissa Dann
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