Free HR Policies and Procedures Audits for Charities

[anitawiafe]

Proper service delivery requires proper effective human resource management and this means implementing personnel procedures.

Even if you employ 1 person or 100 people or mainly use volunteers, there are still legal obligations that you must meet.

We are offering free HR audits for charities.

Your benefits:
• It will help you improve the way to your organisation currently manages HR
• It will provide a simple, straightforward information to you on all the key aspects of human resources for your organisation
• Increased assurance that you have the right policies and systems in place
• Opportunity to receive expert advice at little or no cost to your organisation
• Improvements in your personnel service could help counter lack of funding

HR4charities is offering this service as we have identified that there is a need for this service it is free mainly because we do not want finance to be a barrier and secondly we benefit because it helps us find out about your needs which is good market research for us and also because we truly believe that prevention is better than cure.

Some of you may be aware that a report by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) found ineffective HR had caused the number of employment tribunal cases to jump beyond the number of those in the private sector - and warned this could undermine the third sector's ability to attract new recruits.

Furthermore the 2007 CIPD Managing Conflict at Work survey found there was one grievance case for every 92 staff in the not-for-profit sector, compared with one in 516 in the private sector, and one in 323 in the public sector.

I would like to emphasize that I am aware that there are always free offers for charities; I can assure you that if you have responsibility for employment and human resources, you will find this an invaluable quality service.

What is involved
A free HR audit will:
• involve you completing an audit form which will be email you to complete and return to us.
• involve a 15 minutes HR climate survey over the telephone. Once we receive your audit form, we will email you to confirm when we will be calling you to do the HR climate survey (this covers info about your organisation/job roles & about your organisations treatment of its employees)
• We will then compile the information into a short report and post/email it to you within 7 working days

If you are interested email me at anita@hr4charities.co.uk and I will send you the necessary information. We do also run a free policies and procedure seminar if you are interested in the next one also let me know and I will send you the information about it.

Please do forward to friends/other organisations that you know may benefit from this service.

Thanks

Anita

[roryridleyduff]

Originally Posted by anitawiafe

Some of you may be aware that a report by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) found ineffective HR had caused the number of employment tribunal cases to jump beyond the number of those in the private sector - and warned this could undermine the third sector's ability to attract new recruits.

Furthermore the 2007 CIPD Managing Conflict at Work survey found there was one grievance case for every 92 staff in the not-for-profit sector, compared with one in 516 in the private sector, and one in 323 in the public sector.

Two things to note here - firstly, the increasing number of disputes may be to do with the introduction of HRM itself, and particularly HRM policies. Secondly, attitudes to conflict are frequently different in the third sector, with a much greater tolerance for democratic debate about various aspects of organisational life. Suppressing such tolerance, by following an HRM agenda based on legal conformance, will probably exacerbate, not resolve the problem of conflict (as shown by the impact of the 2004 Regulations and the decision to repeal them after only 5 years).

What I find interesting in your post is that you state there are (in effect) 5 times the level of grievances reported in the CIPD survey for the non-profit sector compared to the private sector, but that the percentage of cases from the non-profit sector has only just risen above the level in the private sector.

What this points to, therefore, is that dispute handling the non-profit sector is particularly good (much higher grievance levels does not translate to a higher percentage of tribunal claims, so dispute resolution practice must be working effectively). Acting as devils' advocate, it is important to consider whether professionalisation of management in the non-profit sector is itself the cause of the increasing number of disputes. HRM professionalisation is part of this, and contributors to these forums need better information about the options for dispute resolution, the role and purpose of HRM (as an agent of authoritarian governance), and particularly the thinking behind alternative dispute resolution.

With this in mind, the following working paper may be particularly useful.

http://www.roryridleyduff.com/18%20-...troduction.pdf

Third sector organisations should not blindly accept HRM practice and thinking without understanding the implications of embracing it. There is a wide range of HRM practice, much of which can be helpful. In the Third Sector context, however, it is important that the HRM function reports to a governing body (preferably elected) and not directly to senior managers. This ensures there is no abuse of HRM techniques to support the private agendas of senior managers.

Further arguments towards this end can be found in A New Way to Govern, by Shann Turnbull - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...ract_id=319867. The case he highlights (Mondragon) has HRM working for a 'social council' (elected members of the workforce) and not senior managers. Given there has been only 1 strike in 45 years there, their dispute resolution strategy works well. However, there are many more disputes - and this is expected - because the organisation embraces democratic ownership and decision-making.

The issue is not the number of grievances, but how these are handled and resolved. This is the true test of whether HRM practices are working successfully.

Rory Ridley-Duff (Dr)
Sheffield Business School
Senior Lecturer in HRM and Organisation Behaviour

[anitawiafe]

Rory,

Thank you for your response, interesting points you raise. I do see where you are coming from but in practice having an elected body for HRM to report to, may not be the most practical solution. I would say that the success of HRM is more dependent on the culture of the organisation and how HRM is viewed and valued by the organisation.

I note your point about the input of management in the non-profit sector as a cause of the increasing number of disputes and the role of HRM. However, not all issues that end up in the employment tribunal are due to poor management of disputes. Some are because of lack of understanding of statutory obligations and the importance of having processes in place that clearly outline the organisations position on dealing with disputes and the treatment of its staff.

I believe the main issue is training managers on how to manage on Hr policies and procedures as well as how to manage disputes and alternative dispute resolution strategies, such as mediation, cooperative problem-solving, facilitation etc. I don’t believe the revision of the new dispute resolution processes is because the old way didn’t work, I believe it was more about the practicality of it in the work place. By placing more emphasis on mediation you stand a better chance of resolving the issue without the need for formal processes.

Also I don’t think it is a matter of Third sector organisations blindly accepting HRM practice and thinking without understanding the implications of embracing it. The fact of the matter is; it about prevention rather than cure first, it is about compliance and best practice at the end of the day to get the best out of your employees and drive the mission forward. HRM practices with exception of legal obligations will differ from organisation to organisation depending on the culture. Furthermore, many third sector organisations do not have HRM practices in place and this also adds to the problem when it comes to dispute resolution. A key point here is about effective HRM and what we mean by this, I believe this is a good place to start.

Thanks

Anita