On my flight over the Atlantic, I had all these noble thoughts about being a good global citizen, working for a charity whose cause I really cared about, making a contribution to my community. You know.
Full of these noble thoughts, I applied for a role with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The closing date was three weeks ago and interviews were supposed to have taken place at the end of May. I just assumed they weren't interested in a corporate whore like me who had no experience of dealing with the 'operating authorities' (seriously, the terminology should have been enough to make me run a mile), but I decided to call and follow up.
Conversation roughly as follows. "Oh, I don't know what happened with that, I don't think it's been shortlisted yet. Ummm, sorry, I don't know. You'll need to speak to the manager when she's back tomorrow. Can you call back?"
I don't think it's been shortlisted yet? For goodness sake. How long does it take? And this from the woman who is managing the applications! It is her job to know where they are in the process! Yes, my patience would be too tested in a charity. Vicci keeps telling me to try and get job with Raleigh because I give a sh*t and could make it better. I couldn't. The inertia would send me into that critical, frustrated spiral I can be prone to in the wrong environment.
Rant over. I don't know what the answer to all of this could be. Performance-related pay would be a start, as would dealing with all the dead wood. But it would scare some people with higher security needs senseless and therefore be completely counterproductive. A more gentle carrot is needed. In searching for a suitable image, I came across The Rude Carrot Club. Take a look at the header image, how lovely.
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2 comments:
Hi there from the other side. I wish people like you knew a bit more about working in the charity sector. I have responsibilities similar to that 'horrible person' you mention. I reply roughly 200 enquiries a month, process ca 100applications, recruit over 400 volunteers a year, provide them with inductions and support, maintain a database, website, communications, monitoring and evaluation, police checks, plus manage two discreet projects (including reporting to funders, budgets and all admin). I have 2 degrees and 5 years experience in the charity sector. My salary is 23k.
So, how would you like to make my pay 'performance-related'??? I am very curious... Should I work for the minimum wage and have the rest paid as a bonus if I am 'performing well'? And who will pay for the person measuring my performance?
By the way - some time ago we have decided not to advertise our volunteering opportunities to any corporate partners. Precisely because of the attitude presented in your post. We involve local people who may have much bigger training and support needs but are never as high-maintenance as corporates who think that the world should be turning around their 'noble thoughts' (2 hours a week, weekends only). Regards
How interesting, thanks for this comment and sorry I offended you, this blog is really my personal thoughts on life experiences as opposed to any deeply considered views. I wrote this just after the call as a bit of therapy! Oh, and the person on the end of the phone wasn't horrible, just didn't know what was going on which I would have expected them to given they were handling the role. And I'm very aware this is often to do with the person rather than the type of organisation.
How would I handle it? Set up an automated response, just saying we have a lot of applications but don't have the resource to get back to everyone personally. Putting in a date, saying if you've not heard back by then you've not been successful. Job done.
As for the performance-related pay - I am a big believer in meritocratic environments as I believe they encourage people to take responsibility. I have actually worked in a charity before -for 2 years - and I found there was a huge amount of buck-passing and inertia because there was so little accountability. This doesn't work for anyone, not least the cause you serve. Pay is the obvious way to get reward for your efforts. I'm just talking about a 10% bonus for hitting your volunteer recruitment, revenue or cost-based targets, not about reducing pay, and there's no need for an extra person to monitor it, it's a process within your team. Plus your comment on your salary and experience suggests this is important to you. Ultimately, pay is a hygiene factor, if you don't get paid what you see as a fair wage for the role, you get upset. My experience is charity work is often underpaid, and charity workers can be understandably resentful. I know it is not all about the money, but I believe in a fair wage for the work you do. If you can't afford to pay that, then scale back your activities.
Your decision not to take people from the corporate sector is an interesting one too. I'm a big believer in working within the system, and like it or loathe it, corporates are here to stay. Could you mix the two in some way? You could have, say, a handful of corporate volunteers, and through working with local people (what do they do for a living?) they'd learn about different approaches and values - and I'm sure that some of the corporate approaches could help your charity too. You could also pin us problematic corporate types to some of your experienced volunteers, get them to do the support and mentoring work for you. But ultimately, those who work full-time are always going to have a finite amount of time to give and surely there can still be a role for them, even if it is a reduced one?
Anyway, I'm not actually as black and white as this post came across - I've actually spent a full 3 months of the past year volunteering and I'm told I did a great job. We're not all bad, I promise! Adopting approaches from both sides is the answer, I am sure of it.
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