To paraphrase Mark Twain: reports of the death of the third sector may have been greatly exaggerated. Everyone knows it has been under a great deal of scrutiny for its employment practices and in some cases a failure to address abhorrent behaviour. This has led some commentators to speculate that charities have failed to prioritise tackling poor culture and that this (alongside the rise of philanthropic businesses) could lead to the sector’s demise.
The starting point for any kind of response to that has to be to acknowledge that mistakes were, and may indeed still be being, made. There are many factors at play here, not least that wherever you work people are still people. Having come into the sector later in my HR career I was ‘pleasantly’ surprised that many of the same people issues still existed as in commercial or public sector roles.
I have no doubt that, in some cases, a misguided belief that ‘people who share our charitable beliefs’ simply would not act in ‘that way’ has led to some complacency and failure to take action.
What I can say for certain though is that complacency should not be there now. Through the work of the Charity Commission, among others, and its code of ethics and positive development safeguarding practices, the sector as a whole has recognised the need for action.
One of the key challenges for all charities is to be clear that simply asking people, particularly current and potential employees, to identify with your cause is not enough. It also has to be a great place to work. All charities are having to achieve this in an environment where resources are tight and spending money on your staff may be seen by the public as a waste. After all, what organisation judges how effective it is by how much it spends on its back office functions?
Another challenge is that for many charities a key part of their role is to campaign and hold other organisations and employers to account. For example, recent research on mental health and age discrimination in the workplace was all led by charities. Clearly that brings with it a level of scrutiny. I recently resolved an issue in my day job, at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, where a potential disability was a factor. In that situation the approach I took was probably very different than it might have been in an organisation that didn’t share our charitable aims.
At an individual organisation level many third sector organisations are doing groundbreaking work. For example, developing a healthy workplace at the British Heart Foundation, and putting developing the right culture at the heart of people strategy at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
One thing that deeply concerns me is the risk that recent negative coverage might discourage talented people, particularly HR people, from joining the sector. What I would say to anyone considering a move to a charity is do your homework; look at the role, look at the organisation, and its causes and culture. Most importantly look at how you can make a difference and bring your skills to bear.
Because the evidence from my colleagues is that our organisations do take their employment culture incredibly seriously. And it’s the organisations’ HR teams that are usually at the heart of it.
Peter Reeve is head of HR at the Motor Neurone Disease Association and chair of the Charities HR Network
