By Nazreen Visram, director, public sector: head of charities & citizenship at Barclays.
As we slowly emerge from the shadow of Covid-19 the legacy of the stresses placed on charity staff and volunteers is being felt through high turnover rates and a struggle to fill vacancies – a situation exacerbated by the cost of living crisis and higher wage demands.
A recent report by XpertHR on labour turnover in the not-for-profit sector, revealed it experienced the biggest employment shifts of any sector between January 2021 and January 2022, with a total turnover of 18.1%, including 12.5% of staff leaving voluntarily.
An analysis by CharityJob of 40,000 advertised charity roles found the number of candidate applications fell to 24 per role in July 2021 compared to 100 in May 2020.
Although Covid initially reduced volunteer numbers due to health concerns, particularly among older groups, by the middle of 2021 many charity organisations began to report an increase in volunteering. Even so, charity leaders argue the sector may still face a shortage if it doesn’t make itself more ‘volunteer friendly’ by placing willing individuals in roles that best utilise their skills and meet their personal needs.
Underlying causes
The key drivers behind the retention issues and job candidate shortages facing charities are of course many and varied, but average pay levels are certainly a big factor.
A report by the Living Wage Foundation points out that over 14% of jobs in the voluntary sector pay less than the Living Wage and low pay is regarded as a “significant issue”.
With many people looking for higher pay in response to rapidly rising prices, it’s very much an employees’ market, with the ONS recently reporting a record 1.3 million job vacancies from March to May.
And while most sectors in the UK are also suffering talent shortages, cash-strapped charities obviously struggle to compete with wealthier sectors on salaries, wages and benefits.
There are also concerns that employee ‘burnout’, caused by the stress and massively increased workloads experienced during the pandemic, could impact on retention. A People’s Health Trust survey reveals over 80% of voluntary and community sector leaders are concerned that workers are suffering from burnout this year.
At the same time the so-called ‘great resignation’ phenomenon saw many experienced people taking early or partial retirement, or move to less stressful roles as they revaluated their quality of life.
Taking the right steps
However, it’s important to put these retention and recruitment challenges into perspective and many charities are taking steps to put themselves in a stronger position.
Clearly, it’s essential to attract as diverse a group of potential candidates to the charity sector as possible, which means reaching out to typically overlooked groups such as those over 50 or young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Social mobility charity the EY Foundation reports that among 16 to 24-year-olds in families with annual incomes of less than £16,000, a fifth are put off taking up a career in the sector because they believe charities don’t pay staff fairly or offer good benefits and flexibility.
Interestingly, a recent ONS over-50s lifestyle study shows 77% of adults aged 50-59 left their jobs earlier than intended and around three out of five would consider returning to paid work in future. And a recent survey by online job specialist CV Library reveals more than three-quarters of UK professionals are looking to change roles this year and over half want to reskill, with the “desire for a more meaningful career” cited as one of the key drivers.
This presents a great opportunity for the sector to bring in new blood. Given charities’ core social purpose, they surely have much to offer highly skilled and experienced people seeking more fulfilling and rewarding work – as trustees, in non-executive roles or in management positions, for example.
D&I brings benefits
As we all know, the more diverse and inclusive a charity is, the better placed it is to attract and retain staff.
I know many charities are working hard to make D&I part of their DNA, and in particular to diversify their boards and mix of trustees so that they more closely reflect the communities they serve.
One of the great advantages any organisation gains by actively embracing D&I, is that it becomes a better place to work that appeals to greater numbers of potential candidates from a wider range of backgrounds. In the current environment, that’s absolutely essential.
Mind your language
Within this context, effectively communicating the organisation’s purpose, values, culture and goals to potential recruits is more important than ever.
You may think your recruitment communications are clear and unprejudiced, but recruitment specialist CharityJob recommends carefully scrutinising recruitment ad language to eliminate inadvertent, unintended bias. For example, this could mean ditching implicitly ageist terms like ‘dynamic’ or ‘energetic’, or overly aggressive words.
It may also be worth considering using bias-detecting software to help spot and avoid language that may deter some candidates, and include your official diversity or inclusion statements in job advertisements. Additionally, consider dropping unnecessarily rigid job specification requirements that could put off otherwise strong candidates.
Changing expectations
In the post-pandemic world, it’s also now critically important for charities to meet changing employee expectations.
Organisations increasingly need to actively support employee wellbeing – physical, emotional and mental – and offer at least some flexible, remote or hybrid working opportunities to prevent people from being lured elsewhere, particularly Generation Z talent.
Along with fair pay, rewarding achievement, offering clear career progression and training opportunities in a diverse and inclusive working environment, this will help to strengthen retention and attract talent in these challenging times.
