12:00 WORKSHOP - HOW DOES THE DEMOGRAPHIC OF YOUR WORKFORCE IMPACT ON HOW YOU RUN YOUR ORGANISATION?
On the 9th June, we will post a video here featuring Karl Wilding, Head of Research at NCVO, talking about how the UK voluntary sector/ NGO workforce is changing and what that means for the running of organisations. How does the make up of your workforce impact on you?
Tags: econference, workforce
Views: 13
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Karl Wilding on
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I'm not that fat in real life. Honest. The camers adds 20 kilos.
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Permalink Reply by Piret Talur on -
No need to worry, you look good anyway.:D
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Aw, shucks!
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Permalink Reply by Somanah Achadoo on -
Karl:
Thanks for your input.
I'm not sure about more income coming in the sector as such although that there has been an increase of public sector funds coming into the sector. The funds here are for the public sector delivery and not for the work that some of these organisations were set up for.
I agree that the workforce has been growing because of the public sector delivery of projects such as in care. There are many issues arising because of this. The training needed to upskill the staff in delivering these new type of services. The volunteers, especially, trustees, need to be aware of the issues associated such work in the public sector delivery.
We have put a lot of training/workshops and one to one support in the sector locally and regionally to work with organisation on their Human Resources Management. There is the Target Project HR delivered by our organisation across the 7 Central London Boroughs to support small organisations to work on their HR issues to be able to deliver the new services required by them. This going to be for the next five years and supporting 300 organisations. This has been done also through coaching and mentoring the leaders of these organisations. The are now developing a peer mentoring way of supporting each other.
Somanah
www.vac.org.uk -
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hi Somanah
I would agree that the state has had an 'instrumentalist' approach to the UK sector: in other words, it is less interested in voluntary organisations as a 'good thing'. and more interested in them as an interest to deliver its policy on public services. The increase in contract funding and the decline of grant funding demonstrates this. There are clearly some warnings from the UK experience - a big voluntary sector is not necessarily the same as a strong civil society. -
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Permalink Reply by Somanah Achadoo on
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I totally agree that a big voluntary and community sector doesn't necessarily mean a strong civil society as the workforce is concentrating on the public sector delivery rather than the projects they were set up to do just to survive. Increasingly, we are seeing a shift in the objectives of these organisations. They are changing their memorandum of articles to be able to deliver public sector contracts or having a trading arm.
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Permalink Reply by Piret Talur on
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One example from youth and social sector NGO from Estonia: as we are able to employ people only on project basis it's complicated (not impossible but complicated) to build permanent cooperation with specialists. Mostly very young people on the search of short term experiences are interested to join our team. The contact with our organisation is more or less understood as something temporary by them. Our list of more-than-one-time-partners is short. So the demographical composition of our workforce influences the way we have to plan our work - every project has to start with the introductory training of employees and should have special attention to mentoring and reflection. Hence our projects may turn to be more costly and take more time to start-up than financing institution would like to see.
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Permalink Reply by Foster Evans on -
Funders never seem to understand the benefit of having motivated, enthuisisatic and committed personnel which is very often a feature of secure long term employment and careful development of your people.
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I agree Foster. Though it is worth highlighting that sometimes development in the sector is hampered by the constant change in the workforce of funders - and I am thinking particularly of the civil service model where our partners in government dont seem to encourage people to stay in the same field if they wish to move up the hierarchy.
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Permalink Reply by Foster Evans on
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Agreed, in Scotland they closed down a less than popular quasi government agency but now people regret it. The civil servants that now do the job are fine but no sooner do you get to know them and they can be away somewhere else.
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I've seen that in the UK too Piret. Its makes the issue of knowledge management much more important, ie the need to make knowledge an organisational resource and not just something that is built up by inidviduals who are forced to quickly move on.
There is evidence in the UK that some employees value flexible working - ie they dont want full time opportunities - but clearly those people would prefer permanent employment over the short term contracts that are so common. -
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Permalink Reply by Agnieszka Zowczak on -
It is very difficult to employ permanent staff in Poland as well. Most people work within the projects, usually youngs who agree to work as temporary staff, when they are experienced after 2- 3 yeras in NGOs they quit to find more stable job.
Right now (2007 - 2013) a lot of UE funds came to Polish NGOs. Eu funds are bigger than local Polish funds. I am afraid some NGOs are created just to absorb EU funds and a lot of them will stop their activity after one or two EU projects.
I am worry because to make real change you need mission, strategy and vision which is implemented by engaged people for may years not just for 1 year project.
I am afraid EU monies will not support civil society in Poland in long - term perspective.
Small NGOs are not able to absorb UE funds - they do not even try to prepare proposals.
The other think is that lack of money forces local Polish NGOs to look for funds to survive. Therefore they are doing hundreds of small projects sometimes forgetting their mission. -
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