Action Planning’s specialist charity HR consultants provide not-for-profit clients with part-time or ad-hoc HR support to help you deliver good people practice in your organisation.
We have the experience to get to grips with the specific needs of your organisation when recruiting senior personnel, and the infrastructure to source strong candidates and facilitate the selection process.
We also provide expert training, mentoring, coaching and personal development programmes across all the functions of a charitable organisation, from CEO to volunteers.
How Action Planning can support your HR function:
- Employee contracts and handbook – ensuring your employees have a contract and you provide an up-to-date employee handbook.
- Sickness absence – supporting you in managing any sickness-related issues.
- Managing performance – enabling you to make sure your employees understand the expectations of their role and encourage and support them, even when they are not performing as they should be.
- Discipline and grievances – advising you how to put employees back on track when they go wrong.
- Change management – providing support when changes need to be made which affect your people.
- Staff and management development – equipping your managers and staff with the skills they need.
- Personality profiling – using the C-me psychometric tool.
- Employment law – keeping you up to date with changes in employment law and how you need to respond
- Personal development – delivering a menu of training courses on topics such as line management, EDI and delegation
How Action Planning adds value to your recruitment process:
- We are a full-service agency providing direct services to charities, so we really understand what is required in a job, because we are working with people doing those jobs every day
- We have lots of live contacts, including significant leaders in the sector, and know their strengths and weaknesses. They are much more than just names on a database
- We are deeply integrated in the sector, having worked in it for over 30 years, so people trust us and know that our heart is in the right place
- Our monthly e-newsletter goes out to over 13,000 not-for-profit sector practitioners and links to the specialist jobs board on our website
- Our candidate guarantee is effective from the moment we start the assignment*
Coaching and mentoring
We’ll help you meet your challenges and get the best from yourself. We can provide you with a highly experienced coach or mentor to help you through a specific challenge or more generally to develop in your role. Our coaches will challenge you to excel using your own resources, whereas a mentor will work with you to find the right way forward. We have particular experience of working with senior management and trustees, developing inspiring leaders who make a tangible difference.
What you can expect from Action Planning coaching and mentoring:
- Highly experienced coaches and mentors
- A meeting beforehand to establish a positive relationship
- Empathy, sensitivity and confidentiality
- Flexibility of time, place and structure
- Regular reviews and evaluation
Trustee training
Board training and development are crucial for organisations to run at maximum efficiency, and yet we recognise that because of tight resources and limited time, cost-effective and efficient training delivery is essential. Our approach is therefore tailored to meet the very specific needs of each of our clients.
The benefits of our trustee training include:
- Cost-effective, tailored to suit your organisation
- Any number of participants
- Location to suit you and your people
- We really get to know your organisation so we provide the input you need, rather than bland, off-the-shelf content
- Our broad skills base means we can address wider issues beyond pure governance, including organisational strategy, fundraising and marketing
Staff training
High-quality training is always a good investment, enabling staff to fulfil their potential and deliver more for your organisation. Our workshops and courses provide a solid and practical grounding that quickly gets you or your managers up to speed on the key employee issues. All of our trainers have a background in the not-for-profit sector as managers and leaders and know the challenges staff face on a day-to-day basis.
What you can expect from Action Planning staff training:
- Qualified, experienced trainers
- First-hand knowledge of the charity sector
- Can be delivered in person or online
Our exclusive offers for ACEVO members
ACEVO members are entitled to the following offers within a 12-month period:
- 60-Minute Diagnostic Conversation: have a chat with one of our associate consultants without charge or obligation – to explore specific issues you are facing, and possible solutions.
- Action Planning CEO Profiling+: an online CEO psychometric profiling with a high-performance report, followed by a 90-minute advanced coaching session / one-to-one to explore working style preferences and areas for potential development. RRP – £675+ Vat | ACEVO member offer – £399+Vat
- Exclusive 1-2-1 mentoring for CEOs from Action Planning’s chair: up to 4 hours per charity of 1-2-1 mentoring with Action Planning chair David Saint, who has over 30 years’ experience in the sector. RRP – £135+Vat an hour | ACEVO member offer – £70+Vat an hour
Book one of your Action Planning offers or call David Saint on 01737 814758; please have your ACEVO membership number to hand, ready to quote when asked.
We identified a number of gaps in HR support for smaller voluntary sector organisations and worked with Action Planning to develop material and a training course, which was delivered to the VSNW team and developed through workshops with VCSE groups. There is now an accessible resource, geared towards small voluntary organisations, available online for VCSE groups in the North West of England.
Warren Escadale, Chief Executive, VSNW
Case study: providing clarity over diversity in recruitment
Voluntary Sector North West (VSNW) is a membership organisation that connects to the region’s 30,000 plus voluntary, community and social enterprise groups through infrastructure organisations, equalities networks and large regional and national providers. With over 120 full members and 50 associates, VSNW facilitates key partnerships working in the subregions of the North West. The organisation felt it would be a good idea for the staff team to have some unconscious bias training.
Action Planning helped us find new Trustees. We felt they really understood the brief and helped with the design of adverts and job descriptions that showcased our organisation and explained the roles on offer effectively. Action Planning were able to find us a pool of credible and experienced candidates from which we went onto recruit successfully.
Guy Foxell, chief executive, One YMCA
Case study: applying detail to attract the best recruits
Embrace the Middle East initially asked Action Planning to carry out a fundraising review in preparation for the recruitment of a senior Fundraiser. As a result of our review, we were asked to recruit a Director of Fundraising with the skills, expertise, passion and heart for Embrace’s Christian mission.
The service we received from Action Planning was efficient, clear and very responsive. Felicia was brilliant. I was hanging off her every word. I was new to the role as well and the way she delivered it was really clear, concise, informative, interesting, engaging, and really well managed and delivered.
Claire Richards, interim executive director, WBTC
Case study: training for a new board of trustees
All trustees need training – even those who have been on boards for many years. Rules and guidance change and it can be easy to lose sight of what it is like on the other side of the table. Across the sector, confusion around trustee roles is one of the top causes of conflict and crisis in charities, so a good trustee is always learning.
Associate insights
A selection of thought leadership articles from Action Planning consultants:
- How to handle flexible working requests
- Charity boards that are short on women are missing out
- Navigating strategic change: striking the balance in nonprofit organisations
- The lonely HR: who’s looking after the person who looks after everyone else?
- How to help your people through the cost of living crisis
- How to stop repeating your recruitment mistakes
- How charities can bridge the gap in black and Asian representation on trustee boards
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