In a tight labour market, with a premium placed on talent, how does the charitable sector compete?
It’s a tricky one, given that at the heart of almost every successful charity are teams of highly professional and skilled people whose work includes all of the same challenges as any commercial organisation, along with fundraising and often difficult decisions about how money is distributed.
It’s something Shannen Barrett sees first hand as head of talent services at 2into3, a consultancy that specialises in helping organisations in the sector to build their capacity and increase their social impact.
A human resources management graduate with extensive experience sourcing and placing senior leaders in the sector – including chief executives, finance directors, heads of advocacy and campaigns, and directors of operations – she is actively involved in the recruitment process. As such, she knows the basis on which talented people make their employment choices, and the levers charities can use to help attract and retain them.
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If only it were as simple as salary, recruitment would be eminently easier for the sector. “Unfortunately, even though it should be, because people deserve to be remunerated properly for the work they are doing, it’s not salary,” says Barrett. “Ultimately, values alignment is key, and purpose-driven individuals.”
As part of her role, Barrett helps recruiters reposition roles to make them as attractive as possible to high-calibre candidates. She is also contacted regularly by professionals keen to make a move into the sector. For a match to work, the values alignment must be genuine and deep seated.
“I often hear people say they want to give back, but it needs to go beyond that. There needs to be a genuine connection,” she says.
Although the sector can rarely compete with the private sector on salary, there are other ways in which organisations within it can make themselves more attractive to talented candidates.
“Something the sector is really good at is offering flexible working hours,” says Barrett. “They have been quite open to the hybrid working model, which perhaps some private companies are less willing to be, and I think that has given the non-profit sector a competitive edge where people are more interested in that work-life balance, as well as the purpose-driven nature of the work.”
In one area of recruitment, however, the sector is struggling to compete with not only private-sector wages, but with pay and conditions in the public sector too – specifically the Health Service Executive (HSE).
The result is an ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in health and social services roles known as Section 39 jobs. Such workers are employed by organisations that deliver services on behalf of the HSE but are not considered public-sector workers. As such, they typically get lower pay – up to 15 per cent lower in some cases – despite providing comparable services.
The Wheel, the national association for charities, community groups and social enterprises, has campaigned against this for years. In its pre-budget submission to Government this year, it once again called out the inequity.
“This has long been an issue for many charities, who suffered a sharp decline in public funding after the financial crisis in 2008, as part of cuts affecting pay and staffing for all public services. While the 2017 Public Service Pay and Pensions Act and the Public Service Agreement Building Momentum deal reversed cuts for public-sector employees, charities-sector pay was never restored,” it said.
Addressing the two-tier pay system would ease recruitment and retention issues in services as diverse as health, disability, family support, children, care of older people, homelessness and addiction.
That matters, given that fully one-third of The Wheel’s 2,300-organisation-strong membership said in a recent survey that they were unable to sufficiently recruit and retain staff and volunteers.
This, The Wheel cautioned, undermines not only the sustainability of these organisations, but the delivery of public services as well.
“Despite lower pay, many people work for charities due to their strong sense of mission and values,” says The Wheel’s chief executive Barry Dempsey. “However, the sector is seeking to obtain fair pay for dedicated, qualified and often overworked care staff delivering key health and social services on behalf of the State.”
