Managing Staff and Volunteers

To deliver on its vision and mission, nonprofits need good people management. It is essential that those working in a nonprofit are managed effectively and that they perform optimally while developing personally through their jobs. This process starts with recruiting the right people for the right job.
Selection and recruitment of staff and volunteers
Finding the right staff or volunteer to do the job right is an important process in running a nonprofit. Careful consideration needs to the kind of person, experience and commitment of those to be offered employment or volunteer opportunities in the organisation.

We recommend the following steps:

• First analyse what your organisational needs are. Your strategic plan would determine what your needs are. It is important to develop a proposal for recruiting staffs and volunteers for the consideration of the Board (Trustees) who then assess this against available financial resources and strategic aims
• Draw up a job description for the post. As soon as the Board has agreed to your proposal to create the job positions and functions, you will need to draw up a job description and person specification (skills and experience needed to deliver the specific responsibilities). All staff (including volunteers) whether old or new regardless of the number of hours spent in the organisation must have a job description. This job description must be reviewed annually to ensure it continues to reflect the work plans of each individual staff.
• Advertise the vacancy. It is a good practice to advertise the post widely both within and outside the organisation. You can advertise on the organisations website, social media pages, organisation’snewsletters, flyers shared at conferences etc.
• Selection panel. You will need to set up a selection panel made up of diverse, high quality individuals’ based on the nature of the position. Note that the Board is responsible for the selection of the executive director. For senior and middle level posts the executive director and at least a member of the Board should be part of the selection panel. A member of staff can also be on the panel and can be rotated amongst staff so that all employees have the opportunity to develop selection and recruitment skills. Having an external person from your partners, other NGOs etc can also help bring different perspectives to the recruitment.
• Shortlisting the right candidate for interview. If the skills and experience the organisation wants for the job is well thought through and specified in the job description, shortlisting the right candidate for an interview will be easy. A list of essential and desirable competencies, skills and experience should be developed, discussed and scoring modalities agreed by the panel.
• Interview. While you can conduct your interviews in any format that you want, it is important to ensure that every candidate goes through the same process in order to ensure fairness. It is good practice to inform the candidates what form the interview will take and the date.
• Selection. As soon as all candidates are interviewed, members of the panel should meet to compare grades given to each candidate and discuss their observations. The panel should usually be able to easily agree on a candidate for the job through this process however in case they are unable to they can gather again the following day. Note though that the recruiting manager’s assessment counts and is final.
• Inform the candidate. All candidates interviewed for the post deserve to be contacted on the outcome of the selection process whether they have been successful or not.
• Referencing. Before giving the candidate an offer, two references should be sought (with one of them being the candidate’s line manager) to comment on the candidatesPage-37 suitability for the job. Following a satisfactory referencing, a job offer can be made.
• Employment offer. The employment offer will come inform of a letter of appointment stating rates of pay and when it is paid. Tax and other statutory deductions, period of probation and how salary increments are made.
• Contract. This is an important document that new and all staff members or volunteers should read carefully, ask questions to understand clauses and kept in a safe place.
The contract would include text on:
• Induction and probation period
• Hours of work and core hours
• Salary and remuneration
• Subsistence and travel expenses
• Annual leave and other leaves
• Secondary employment
• Notice period
• See xx for a sample contract

Managing Performance
How staff and volunteers are managed determines the organisation’s success and the level of impact it can make. It is critical that an organisation puts in place a performance management system that it will use in appraising its staff and volunteers quarterly and annually on how each staff member is performing on his or her job according to agreed work plan. Staff development is an integral part of the performance management process through which employees existing skills and knowledge are built so that they can deliver effectively on the job. The performance management process helps to detect poor or underperformance and to create steps to address them. It is the responsibility of the line manager and in small organisations the executive director to let the employee know what aspects of his or her performance needs to be improved, how and when this should be done. The employee must be made to understand that the improvements needed will be assessed and measured at an agreed date when his or her progress will be reviewed. Employees must agree to the assessment verbally and in writing.
Read more on performance management here https://www.ok.gov/opm/documents/PMPHandbook.pdf

Staff Development
Having in place staff development plans ensures that the organisation can retain staff and that individuals working in the organisation perform optimally. Staff development involves improving each staff’s existing skills, competencies, knowledge and ways of working so that they can perform better at their job. Staff development does not necessarily need to be expensive neither should it be formal training, workshop or short courses only. It can be in form of mentoring, coaching, on-the-job experience, sharing ideas, skills and expertise with colleagues, reflection exercises on what worked well and what did not and through reading online.

Raising Concerns
It is important for an organisation to have a system in place for how staff/volunteers can raise their concerns at work including bullying and harrassment. They must be taken through how to use this process so that they can understand it. Usually this system is created and documented in a grievance policy. Allowing staff/volunteers air their grievances shows the organisation’s commitment to openness, probity and accountability. Further to this, it allows for free flow of information and idea including innovation amongst staff members. It is important to let staff members know that when their concerns are raised in good faith, the organisation will protect them from consequences however frivolous, malicious or concerns raised for personal gains will attract disciplinary actions.

Employees should also be able to share any serious concern they have about the conduct of the organisations business or about the conduct of other employees, Board (Trustee), consultants etc though a whistle blowers policy. See example of a whistle blower policy here https://bit.ly/2LkuE5V. Examples of serious concerns include:

• Any action against the organisation’s policies or below standards or code of practice
• Any action against the law
• Health and safety risk
• Misuse of organisation resources
• Corruption or unethical conduct
• Abuse of beneficiariesPage

All concerns must be treated in confidence with every effort made to protect the identity of the employee raising the concern if he or she wants to. Whistleblowers may however be required to act as a witness.

Disciplinary Procedures and Appeal
Before starting work with the organisation, all new employees and volunteers must be encouraged to familiarize themselves with the disciplinary procedures that exist in the organisation. This procedure should apply to all staff including the Executive Director. The disciplinary procedures should also give room for appeal which would usually be in writing and reviewed by an appeals panel that is neutral and has not been involved in the disciplinary procedure. They may be nominated from outside of the organisation. All disciplinary action taken on staff members or volunteers should be filed for a specified period of time.

All of the above, from selection and recruitment, performance management, staff development, raising concerns and disciplinary procedures are best developed into one policy document called staff handbook or human resources management policy

Office Management A good office management practice provides a foundation for a well-grounded administrative base that ensures smooth delivery of the organisations activities. To successfully achieve this an organisational structure is needed. Through an organisational chart, the organisation shows lines of authority and delegation of duties, how work is shared, increases ownership when staff members can see themselves in the structure, shows stakeholders and visitors how the organisation is structured and its main areas of work.

Stakeholders, beneficiaries and the general public communicate with an office in these ways:

• Visit to the office
• Through the telephone
• Through emails, letters and on your social media pages

It is important the organisation has in place communication systems that can accommodate this. They can do this by:

• Ensuring that there are signposts outside of your office with the name, office/visiting hours and contact details so that visitors can easily locate you. You can also place your organisation on Google maps.
• Have signs giving direction to the reception and main entrance area
• If in a big facility, label individual offices with name and job titles so that visitors can easily find their way
• Put organisation brochure and annual report at the reception area for visitors to read while waiting
• Display organisational structure chart, mission and vision statement and clause on anti-money laundering and countering of terrorism financing as required by the law.
• Ensure your office is disability friendly

Internally, staff members communicate with each other through meetings, conversations or by sending email. It is important to hold staff meetings regularly (once a week, bi-monthly or monthly). Project staff may also hold separate meetings to discuss project and programme related issues. The finance and administrative team are also free to meet separately to discuss administrative and finance related issues. However meetings must be kept to a minimum to allow time for the real work to be done.

To improve office relationships, the organisation should work with its staff to develop a list of good office discipline that they would like to have in place to guide them on a daily basis. Once this is debated and agreed, it should be adopted by the organisation and included in the organisations staff handbook or human resources management policy.

An efficient filing system is the hallmark of a solid administrative system where documents are easy to find and are kept in order in a secured place. It makes organisational and regulatory reporting easy and seamless. Using filling cabinets, the organisation must do routine filing of the following information:

• Agenda and minutes of meetings of the Board including reports and papers presented to them
• Annual financial reports, quarterly financialPage-39 reports, monthly statements
• Annual reports
• Strategic plan, work plans and annual budgets
• Human resources documents- Job
descriptions, staff CV’s, contracts, performance appraisal, leave records etc.
• Project information, proposals, work plan, timesheets, contracts and financial reports, funders and reports
• Inventories, asset register, vehicle use and servicing, generator use and servicing.

While all staff can access the information above, those related to human resources are of confidential nature and must be treated as such. The filing cabinets must be secured in a logical place at all times with rules for accessing them clearly and transparently spelt out by the organisation.