April/May 2013
Green Shoots?
The recruitment market continues to pick up and we have some really interesting jobs on including one with the former Olympic Velopark. Happy memories of 2012!
It is interesting to note that the demand for a search led selection process continues and that without exception all our board level roles require business management skills. This reflects the challenging economy and the need for greater effectiveness with charities implementing more business-like strategies. We are currently recruiting Chief Executives and Directors who are able to identify new income streams that may include operating partnerships to increase income and awareness and the ability to effectively measure effectiveness and impact. Long may it continue!
As senior management teams get more business like we are being asked to find trustees with serious business management skills. It will be interesting to see if this development impacts on trustee boards that are unfit for purpose because they ignore Charity Commission recommended best practice with no regular skills audits and the outdated tap on the shoulder to recruit trustees. They may not have a choice but to comply if they want their charity to grow and survive.
Travels overseas
On a happier note, as a global marathon groupie, my son and I are off to the Chicago Marathon in October and Tokyo Marathon in February. He runs and I cheer. He did not run in the London Marathon this year but we both went along for Boston.
Food Banks
Nourish Food bank that I Co-Chair is growing to reflect increased need and it looks as though this will continue. I suspect that food banks will become main-stream by the end of the year and that every town and village in the UK will have one.
Perhaps in future those of us that can afford to should give food to those that can’t regardless of the economy. Even in economic booms there will always be families and pensioners struggling on low incomes. I do not make this statement from any faith base but just common sense and personal values.
Finally I hope this great weather continues!
February/March 2013
After a very successful trip to Kenya I returned to a busy workload with more international executive search assignments and more trustee and Chair recruitment. It is great to see so many more charities recruiting their board to an agreed specification. However, there are still some who persist in recruiting their Chair from the existing trustee board. In my experience the most important aspect of the Chair’s role is the ability to chair and an understanding of but not necessarily an in depth knowledge of the sector. Sounds obvious, but there are still charities who persist in recruiting from current trustees. For some it works, but in most cases the result is not a positive one!
Spotlight on Kenya
It was an interesting time for my son and me to be in Kenya with the elections so close. The live TV presidential debate with the eight candidates (one woman and seven men) that took place while I was there was very well managed, but I am still amazed that Uhuru Kenyatta who has an outstanding ICC investigation concerning rapes and other crimes that allegedly took place during the last election, was allowed to stand. I will be most interested to see the result on March 5th.
Purchasing sacks of rice, beans and maize from a shop in the Kibera slum.
The main purpose of my visit to Kenya was to inspect four recently repaired bore holes in Lengisin province and to buy books and food for two schools, one in the Kibera Slum and one near Amboseli.
The children in St Lazarus Primary School in Kibera were as delightful as ever and were very happy to see us. They had four classrooms constructed from mud and corrugated iron with wooden benches. The unpaid teachers are always impressive and were really pleased with their new text books. The school lunch is the only meal most of these children get, so we purchased sacks of rice, maize and beans as well as six Man United footballs!
Me with Rachel Lomosi, Head of St Lazarus School in Kibera
The secondary School in Lengisim has similar needs and their text books for Chemistry, Physics, English, Religious studies, Mathematics and Biology were really well received. They also had footballs. A Swedish charity has just agreed to fund solar power so they can work in the evenings and light the residential block at night. Some students walk 20 miles to school so they can now stay overnight.
Cranking up the diesel engine to pump water in Lengisim
It is not possible for me to visit Kenya without a safari and we took a day out to do this in Amboseli. It was great to learn that because of high rain fall over the last two years there is more vegetation and a baby elephant boom. This baby boom has brought numbers up to pre-drought levels in 2010. We met a herd of 15 elephants with five babies. I felt very maternal!
Maasai herdsmen waiting for their cattle to drink
On the down side over 300 elephants were shot last year in Kenya by poachers for ivory for the Chinese market and even with the baby boom this is not sustainable. There is considerable debate in the Kenyan press about the Kenyan Wildfire Fund and other agencies that are frustrated by low fines and sentences awarded by Kenyan courts against offenders. The cynic in me says that banning the ivory trade will be impossible while the Chinese are building roads and buying mineral rights in Africa and that somewhere government and other officials in Kenya are allowing poaching with the usual corruption issues.
To end on a happy note we concluded our visit with fifteen very happy ladies who now walk half a mile for water instead of twenty. It was really great to see them.
January/February 2013
We are really busy at Russam-gms and Trustees Unlimited with loads of new assignments for board level posts, including a global search for new trustees for an international development charity.
So far we have been able to identify potential trustees in Thailand, Pakistan, India, Australia, Denmark, Kenya and Italy. I am very keen to identify some Chinese candidates, but this is proving more challenging.
There was very interesting piece on The Food Programme last Sunday about food banks in London and how volunteers from all faiths are working together to help their communities.
This is in sharp contrast to my experience of setting up a food bank in Tunbridge Wells where some church leaders have refused to sit on our multi-faith board. Fortunately, others are more supportive and, although they prefer work alongside rather than be part of a co-ordinated organisation, we are all communicating well.
However, my euphoria was short-lived. By chance I met a friend who has just set up a charity within the largest organisation of food banks that we are unable to be part of because they will only operate with committed Christians on their Boards. My friend is a trustee of one of their food banks and they have an impressive 80 volunteers supporting 350 families. As we have only been set up for two months with 12 volunteers supporting 45 families, we called their project manager for some advice and were promptly told that they could not share any information with us as they had a confidentiality agreement with the parent charity. We were not asking for any personal information, but needed advice about working with children’s centres so that confidentiality and protocols were observed. It just seems such a wasted opportunity that we can’t operate as they do in London with all faiths working together and sharing experiences.
On a more positive note, SPANA is still persevering with projects in Syria and Mali and we are hoping we will soon be in better shape to expand our work in those countries. The need must be even greater now.
Just off to the Kibera slum in Nairobi!
December 2012
Business at Russam-gms continues to be busy and we are looking forward to a very good New Year. I was delighted to see that ACEVO has set up a Governance Commission and, with Derek Twine as its Chair, it should deliver. I am getting bored with banging on about unfit for purpose trustee boards!
At Russam-gms we are recruiting increasing numbers of trustees and chairs and this month recruited our 100th trustee. Great news and good for the sector.
At Healthprom we are getting increasingly concerned about our projects in Afghanistan following recent fraud and are implementing more robust audit processes. I just hope we can keep going there once our troops leave.
SPANA is also having issues with projects in war zones as we have projects in Syria and Mali. We are currently staying, but keeping a very close eye on each situation. With all the communication issues in Syria and Mali this is not easy, so I do hope it gets sorted soon, but I fear more bloodshed before it does.
The year ends on a high note as far as recruitment is concerned – so long may it continue.
November 2012
Still very busy at Russam-gms and with four new searches we had a very useful brainstorming with all six consultants – brilliant for exchanging market intelligence and ideas about who might be approached.
The New York marathon on November 4 was eagerly anticipated in our household, so when they cancelled it the day after we arrived we were not best pleased! However, having experienced getting around the city with no subway, no buses and few cabs because of fuel shortages, we understood some of the issues but questioned the timing of their decision.The cynic in me pondered on the high value of the marathon merchandising market with its hi-tec clothing, fashion accessories and food supplements and the economic advantage of an extra 50,000 tourists in New York. Crossing busy, wide New York streets with no traffic lights was an interesting experience!
Moving quickly from New York to Russia, HealthProm is undertaking a feasibility study to set up projects to reduce the numbers of institutionalised children. I am not doing this for the delightful Mr Putin and his macho colleagues who allow this appalling practice to continue as well as supporting the equally appalling Syrian Regime, but to support children deprived of their families.
Back in the UK we have set up a food bank for Tunbridge Wells with four Directors and 12 volunteers. It took seven days to set it up as a company limited by guarantee and will take nine weeks to obtain charity status. We had our first load of donated food thanks to generous donors in Tunbridge Wells and are now getting all the referring agencies, including Social Services, to let us know who needs it. So much for Tunbridge wells being perceived as a centre of wealth!
October 2012
The recruitment market is picking up and we are being asked to recruit senior people across all functions. Interestingly, most appointments are being made through proactive search as this is still the most effective way to reach busy people who are in demand. However, if you are seeking employment, but are not well networked, this can present a serious challenge. Social networking sites are really helpful in keeping up to date with jobs and events. I do hope this more positive economic trend continues.CHALLENGES FOR SPANA
At SPANA our Council meetings have an extra edge to them because we have units in Syria (Homs) and Mali where in the North strict Sharia law has banned all music other than religious chants and, as trustees, we have difficult decisions to make. A decision to pull out of a dangerous area is never taken lightly, but the safety of our staff must come first. I really hope we can stay, but as the situation deteriorates I am not optimistic.On a more positive note, Channel 5 has commissioned a series of hour-long documentary programmes – “Savage Nature” by film-maker Chris Terrill. One of these is to be called “Drought” and will feature the work of SPANA in North Mali and North Kenya. SPANA has been involved in both regions for the last six years. Last year with Practical Action we organised an emergency feeding programme during the drought, feeding 50,000 head of livestock, and last month our intrepid Chief Executive travelled there with Chris Terrill. The road north is 1000 kms on dirt tracks, so at Garissa three armed police guards were taken on to ensure security.Chris Terrill was interested in the link between the pastoralists losing their livestock (and culture) because of the drought, and enabling al-Shabaab to recruit bored and penniless young men to their cause. He filmed in several IDP/Refugee camps where the people were in a very grim state and most of their livestock had been stolen or killed. As the only western animal welfare NGO working in Northern Turkana, it is possible for SPANA to make a major impact with minimal resources, so as trustees we will give 100% support to our teams there.THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM AND EDUCATION
As a woman I am also interested in the link between organisations such as al-shabaab and the Taliban and their abuse of women’s rights to education and respect in their community. If we can sort out these rights I am convinced there would be less rape and abuse of women and a reduction in the unacceptably high maternal death rate in areas including some African countries and Afghanistan where these organisations thrive. Malala Yousafzai is a very brave young lady. I am pleased that the UK is helping her to a full recovery and providing support to her family in Pakistan. The recent shooting and deaths of Hena Faizi aged nine and her brother Zalgy aged 18 by the Taliban because their father would not leave the Afghan police force send a further message about these loathed groups of extremists and their appalling practices.This was also part of a debate during a presentation made by HeathProm in London last month. We are setting up web based link between doctors in the UK and Afghanistan to promote information exchange as part of a resource centre in northern Afghanistan. We were delighted to welcome Afghan medical students from one of the London teaching hospitals. Two of the female students are concerned that once the US and UK troops move out of Afghanistan the Taliban will move in and women will be unable to work and their daughters will be unable to go to school. What a waste of intelligence and ability and an appalling abuse of power.
At SPANA our Council meetings have an extra edge to them because we have units in Syria (Homs) and Mali where in the North strict Sharia law has banned all music other than religious chants and, as trustees, we have difficult decisions to make. A decision to pull out of a dangerous area is never taken lightly, but the safety of our staff must come first. I really hope we can stay, but as the situation deteriorates I am not optimistic.On a more positive note, Channel 5 has commissioned a series of hour-long documentary programmes – “Savage Nature” by film-maker Chris Terrill. One of these is to be called “Drought” and will feature the work of SPANA in North Mali and North Kenya. SPANA has been involved in both regions for the last six years. Last year with Practical Action we organised an emergency feeding programme during the drought, feeding 50,000 head of livestock, and last month our intrepid Chief Executive travelled there with Chris Terrill. The road north is 1000 kms on dirt tracks, so at Garissa three armed police guards were taken on to ensure security.Chris Terrill was interested in the link between the pastoralists losing their livestock (and culture) because of the drought, and enabling al-Shabaab to recruit bored and penniless young men to their cause. He filmed in several IDP/Refugee camps where the people were in a very grim state and most of their livestock had been stolen or killed. As the only western animal welfare NGO working in Northern Turkana, it is possible for SPANA to make a major impact with minimal resources, so as trustees we will give 100% support to our teams there.THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM AND EDUCATION
As a woman I am also interested in the link between organisations such as al-shabaab and the Taliban and their abuse of women’s rights to education and respect in their community. If we can sort out these rights I am convinced there would be less rape and abuse of women and a reduction in the unacceptably high maternal death rate in areas including some African countries and Afghanistan where these organisations thrive. Malala Yousafzai is a very brave young lady. I am pleased that the UK is helping her to a full recovery and providing support to her family in Pakistan. The recent shooting and deaths of Hena Faizi aged nine and her brother Zalgy aged 18 by the Taliban because their father would not leave the Afghan police force send a further message about these loathed groups of extremists and their appalling practices.This was also part of a debate during a presentation made by HeathProm in London last month. We are setting up web based link between doctors in the UK and Afghanistan to promote information exchange as part of a resource centre in northern Afghanistan. We were delighted to welcome Afghan medical students from one of the London teaching hospitals. Two of the female students are concerned that once the US and UK troops move out of Afghanistan the Taliban will move in and women will be unable to work and their daughters will be unable to go to school. What a waste of intelligence and ability and an appalling abuse of power.
CLOSER TO HOME
Back in the UK where we have our own issues around the economic situation I am delighted that we have just received support from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Town and Country Housing Association to set up a food bank. But it won’t be just a food bank! We are setting up a charity to operate the food bank and through it provide more sustainable support by working with other organisations to support people on benefits, enable long term unemployed to receive training via NVQs, set up a night shelter and generally get people on low incomes back on their feet. Watch this space!!
August/September 2012
August is usually a quiet month for recruitment, but the Russam-gms team has been very busy recruiting Chief Executives and Chairs. It is really good to see charities insisting on using thorough selection processes for Chairs. Let’s hope that at last the old ‘tap on the shoulder’ process will soon disappear. Interestingly, some trustees I met recently at a conference expressed shock-horror that potential trustees were asked to apply for trusteeships through a thorough selection process. One of them, who had apparently been on the board for over 25 years, muttered that if he were asked he would refuse. I quietly reminded him that being a trustee is a serious role with full personal accountability for the charity, so this was an important and welcome step forward in these challenging economic times; those now being appointed to a trustee board are required to meet tough selection criteria. I could have also added that a trustee or non-executive role is now considered to be a serious part of career development in all sectors, and that anyone applying for their first CEO role in a charity with trustee experience has a powerful edge on those who don’t.We are now handling some really interesting roles that include the Chair one of the first Community Interest Companies (CIC) set up by the NHS. This is a hospital providing rehabilitation for those not well enough to return home without support after surgery. I am convinced that this is a better way to go than privatisation and it keeps the NHS management in control.
OLYMPIC LEGACY
London was a brilliant place to be during August and we took full advantage of the Olympic and Paralympic games. Everyone who went was impressed by the facilities and the outstanding volunteers, and I shall remember the experience forever. I am also confident that our attitude to disability has also changed forever. What a marvellous footprint to leave!
Sienna at Paralympics
At the 2012 Paralympics
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
We live close to two large social housing estates in Kent and I have been asked by the local housing association to help them set up a food-bank. I really approve of this, but was really shocked while researching what food bank services already exist (mainly run by local Churches) to be told by two Church leaders that they would only co-operate with us if it was a Church led initiative and “part of God’s message”. We were then told very firmly that only committed Christians should be on the board.
Like most towns and cities, we benefit from a multi-cultural population and would not be comfortable setting up a service for and with the local community unless we had representation on the board from all faiths, local residents and the Borough Council. We also want to develop the food bank to a meet wider, more sustainable remit to include a night shelter and other services, so that volunteers from the local community including recovering addicts and long term unemployed people might be encouraged to volunteer and be trained to NVQ standards. We are moving forward with or without the Churches, but hope they will eventually join us.
RISK ASSESSMENT IS CLOSE TO HOME!
On a more positive note, my field trip to Mazar in Northern Afghanistan to undertake an impact assessment of a really important safe motherhood project for HealthProm will be taking place in spring 2013. I am a trustee of this brilliant charity and I am really looking forward to it, but if the FCO designate it a high risk area the insurance could be £600 for a one week trip, so this will need careful risk assessment and monitoring.
At SPANA, where I am also a trustee, we are very carefully monitoring our project in Homs, Syria. We are still operational there, but obviously can’t get in to meet our staff and audit projects. Our CEO is in Kenya and is currently looking at projects in a moderately safe area and narrowly missed grenades courtesy of Al-Shebaab! The role of trustees and their accountability for risk assessment in INGOs is increasingly challenging. Just as well the selection of trustees is more than a ‘tap on the shoulder’!!
July 2012
The recruitment market is still not as active as 12 months ago, but remains stable. However, there are some interesting trends:
Employers are still risk averse and we are not getting “wild cards” through.
Networking is even more important as employers are increasingly appointing people who are recommended by a respected individual, or who they already know.
This suggests that networking is crucial. Some of the best networking opportunities are charity award ceremonies where you not only meet key people, but also find out who is really good at what they do. A headhunter’s dream!
Attending the Charity Awards 2012
Other great networking opportunities are lectures relevant to the sector. Senator George Mitchel gave the Nicolas Hinton lecture last month and was inspirational. His main message in describing how he was so successful in the really challenging negotiations he successfully managed was compromise. There are a few other individuals currently hitting the press, as well as their own citizens, that might benefit from this advice.
On a more positive note, Cass Business School lectures held bi-monthly throughout the year are excellent opportunites to hear great speakers – with brilliant networking over delicious canapés!
RECRUITING THE NEXT GENERATION
Looking at recruitment from another perspective there was a very entertaining programme on the TV this month about pensioners going back to work temporarily alongside permanent staff in their 20s. Most of the pensioners out-performed their younger counterparts because of their relationship building skills and great customer interface. This seems to reflect that many people currently leaving school or university have become skilled at communicating through text and social media, so they don’t meet as many people as we baby boomers did at their age, and don’t have as much face to face communication. Many young parents don’t talk to their kids and we appear to have an entire generation that can’t have a meaningful conversation for more than a few minutes. Is this right or should we just accept it as inevitable?
There seems to be a dilemma here because online shopping and other services are increasing, so the need for good people skills is understandably diminishing. However even helplines need good communication skills, as does the catering trade and, dare I say it, companies providing Olympic security staff. Is the school curriculum responding to the need for digital and face to face communication skills required by employers?
A NEW FUTURE FOR TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT
Trustees Unlimited are going from strength to strength and we are about to appoint our 75th trustee since we set up two years ago. There is even more positive news on the trustee front in that more charities are undertaking skills audits of their boards and are recruiting trustees to an agreed specification. At last!! One of the most demanding challenges for boards is identifying new income streams and this can often mean seeking funds from institutions where large sums of money are available if you meet the specification. Getting the organisation prepared for due diligence can be a nightmare as institutions like DFID apply the same process to each charity regardless of size. However, one silver lining has emerged in that the criteria usually includes a requirement for a trustee board that is regularly audited with new trustees recruited to a skills specification. This can be useful when boards are reluctant to change from the old tap on the shoulder recruitment.
TAKING PART AT THE OLYMPICS IN LONDON 2012!
I am really excited about the Olympics and was glued to the TV for the opening ceremony. I had the chance to take part – by attending the basketball arena to see China beat the Czech Republic. The match was surprisingly exciting. However, what was just as amazing was the design of the Stratford site. The abundance of wild flowers was inspiring as were the helpful staff. I was grabbed by BBC London to talk about the opening ceremony and was on the news that evening, but fortunately missed it!
Olympics 2012 - By the Living Wall
Olympics 2012 - Wild Flowers
June 2012
Can’t believe this rain! In spite of regular drenchings from downpours we are still really busy with recruitment of trustees and directors and, more recently, governance reviews. I attended a really interesting conference at CASS Business School where Susan Daniels, CEO of NDCS made a brilliant presentation about their governance model. They have successfully developed an excellent inclusive model with membership representation and co-opted skills so that their trustees represent deaf children and their need to be a commercially viable operation.
I have always believed that it is possible to successfully combine being values led and commercially viable and it is very satisfying to see how charities are now much more innovative about income generation. I was pleased to hear that Scope’s bonds are so successful and that more charities are benefitting from fundraising via digital and social media. I am sure we will be seeing more radical change in the next 12 months. Bring it on I say!
I was also interested to hear that the British Heart Foundation’s retail division has been so successful even in these challenging times. My recent experience in Tunbridge Wells suggests that this is partly due to their staff training and resulting excellent customer relations. After a family bereavement I took ten bags of assorted clothes and household items, all in good condition, to one of the charity shops in the High Street (not a British Heart Foundation shop). I had to park on a double yellow line so was keen to deliver the goods and go. I was ushered to their store room at the back of the shop only to be met by a stressed out lady who said that she couldn’t take any more because someone had just left ten boxes of books that she could not use and it costs the charity £1.20 to dispose of each item. My immediate thoughts were with the poor donor who must have struggled in with ten heavy boxes. I immediately retrieved my goods and drove to the British Heart Foundation where I was treated like royalty. They will in future receive my charity shop donations together with Oxfam and Cancer Research UK who are similarly disposed to their customers!
May 2012
May was incredibly busy and I am really enjoying working with Trustees Unlimited.Their database is brilliant and there’s a great mix of age, gender and ethnic profiles. I keep banging on about boards needing to reflect beneficiaries and this is now being made easier.
However, there are still boards of trustees comprising mainly white middle class men. If those they support are in developing countries, in prison, are ethnic minority communities, or are families living in deprived areas with high unemployment in dreadful housing,then how can they possibly know what this is really like day in day out?
The Scout Association have got it right. They have scouts on their board and involve cubs and scouts in their strategic planning. Other charities are ensuring that their trustee boards reflect the beneficiaries of their work, so hopefully more will follow, particularly when more funders insist on this as part of their due diligence.
On a more positive personal note, my youngest son ran his first London Marathon in April and finished in 4 hours 20 minutes. The organisation was amazing (well done Virgin) and the crowds inspirational. We have just booked in for the New York Marathon in November (he runs and I cheer), and I am hoping he will do Rome and Paris next year. I could easily turn into a global marathon groupie!
Marathon 2012 with Wayne
Finally I have raised enough funds to get a bore hole repaired in Lengisim Kenya. We went there last year with Gamewatchers Safaris based in Nairobi because one of their directors is a governor of the local school that we helped out with books.
Kenya Visit
There are 20 Massai villages relying on this water for their cattle and drinking water for the villages, as well as using it for a cattle dip for ticks. WaterAid are sorting it out for me and I have been very impressed with their efficiency. I hope to visit again later this year and get more photos.April 2012
April was a busy month managing recruitment assignments for director level posts and plenty of trustee work (more of that in next month’s blog!).
Although, sadly, the number of people searching for a job seems to keep on growing, recruiting the best people is still difficult. For charities the challenge has always been to attract candidates who have the skills and passion for the cause, and who are also willing to accept salaries that are sometimes less than those paid in the public and private sectors and don’t always have such attractive benefits.
Recently I worked with a charity who had been struggling to recruit to a particularly important fundraising role. After carrying out a headhunt, I was delighted to find a brilliant candidate with exceptional skills who the charity really liked. Unfortunately, because they did not move fast enough and were not willing to be flexible on the salary on offer, the candidate was snapped up by a competitor! So, here are my ‘Seven Golden Rules’ to help you to attract the best people in a competitive market.
Seven Golden Rules of Recruiting in a Competitive Market
1. Agree what you need before you recruit
In a fast moving market, before you start to recruit, make sure you have agreed your process, role description and salary. It’s also essential to ensure that everyone involved in the final decision-making process will be available.
2. Job Description and Person Specification
Make sure that you don’t request skills and experience that are not essential. Focus on the key skills that you need, and if you’re looking for someone with specialist and in-demand experience, eg corporate or major donor fundraising, be prepared to consider candidates with transferable skills and be flexible around working hours or homeworking. You’re unlikely to find a candidate that ticks every single box, so look at what you need now, and, provided that the candidate has sufficient intellect, what they could achieve with training and further experience.
3. Be realistic about the charity recruitment market
You may believe that everyone should want to work with you, but charities are competing for the best people. Be prepared to ‘sell’ your cause to prospective candidates and meet them half way in terms of the salary package.
4. Consider expert help to find the best people
If you’re new to recruiting, or you’re recruiting for specialist staff, consider bringing in an expert to support you. As well as carrying out full recruitment campaigns, charities often ask people like me to help with a targeted headhunt for tricky roles, and I also sit on interview panels where there is a need for an expert recruitment perspective.
5. Develop a flexible process
A standard interview process is important to ensure fairness and equality in the process. However, I do recommend that you remain open to being flexible, eg to accept applications by CV rather than application form if a candidate is late applying. Don’t miss out on that perfect person!
6. Use technology
Technology is there to support you in the process. Interviews by telephone or Skype are increasingly common. Advertising online and using social media is also a growth area. This can also be a brilliant approach for global roles.
7. Snap up that candidate!
Great people are in demand and if they don’t think you are committed to them from the start, they will be snapped up by the competition. When you find your perfect new team member, move quickly to keep them on board.
If you need support with your next recruitment assignment, do get in touch.
February/March 2012
WHERE DID FEBRUARY GO!
I am delighted to report that recruitment picked up and I have been really busy with career development work. It’s amazing how much time it takes to get a CV right and I always enjoy working with people to help them to showcase their experience and unique talents.
I have also been really busy with UK-wide and global trustee recruitment. Over the years I have met my fair share of Boards that are unfit for purpose, so it is really encouraging to see charities increasingly recruiting trustees through external recruitment to a specification following a Board skills audit.
February has also been taken up with governance reviews, and I am still amazed that there are so many charity Boards with no terms of office for trustees. It is so important to keep new people with new ideas coming onto a Board, particularly when social networking is turning upside down how we shop, communicate, make friends and donate to charities.
In order to keep up to speed on trustee issues I attended the Trustee Exchange conference on 22nd February. Baroness Barbara Young gave the Keynote Address and she was brilliant. I really like her direct, no nonsense style and it was great to have her back in the sector. After Barbara’s address I was asked to facilitate a debate about how to recruit and maintain a balanced Board. More than 50 delegates joined the session and we had a terrific debate about the importance of recruiting to a specification and getting the mix of skills appropriate to the long term aspirations of the charity. We also discussed the importance of having a fixed term of office and a mix of retired and not-retired trustees, as well as an appropriate ethnic mix. I am happy to say that Boards elected entirely from the membership were given a huge black mark!
I also attend the NCVO conference dinner. As usual the conference was well received and it was great to catch up with people I have known for 20 years!
Finally, in what was a very hectic month, I was pleased to be asked to run two workshops for the Institute of Fundraising. The delegates were people outside the charity sector who wanted to be fundraisers and the quality was high. I know how difficult it is to recruit good fundraisers – and there is a serious shortage of good strategic fundraisers – so this can only help the situation. I hope they run more!
AN INSPIRATIONAL MARCH
I made one of my regular presentations to the Officers’ Association about the charity sector as a serious career. The speaker before me was keen to attract Officers into the financial services sector, and his main selling point was that they could earn huge salaries. I found his values deeply offensive (as did most of the audience I was told later), so when my turn came I robustly promoted the importance of retaining personal values and making a contribution to society. It was great to see so many people nodding enthusiastically. I know that most Officers have worked overseas and the part of their role they enjoy most is building bridges, drilling bore holes etc to help the local community, so to suggest a career that is just about making money is strange to say the least.
I was also delighted to be invited to attend the Diana Award celebration. The Diana Award is a lasting legacy to Princess Diana’s belief in the power of young people to change the world. This is one of many events where young people are presented with awards for making a special contribution to their school, local community or family.It was a sad reflection that so many of the awards were given to young people who had set up their own groups to stop bullying. This came home that same evening when, on my way home, I witnessed a boy hitting a much younger boy on the station platform. I intervened and had a focussed discussion with the bully, so I will keep an eye out now.
At the risk of you thinking that I am serial conference-attendee, I will relate my experience at the well-attended HR conference set up by Agenda Consulting. The Conference is so well regarded in HR circles that there were 300 HR professionals in attendance. Agenda Consulting is a very professional consultancy offering HR advice and services to charities. I had to leave mid-morning, so in order to catch up with people I arrived early while coffee was being served. I stood next to a delegate who I had met before and during the conversation I enquired about the annual turnover of her charity. She thought I was talking about staff turnover and had no idea about how much income was raised from fees or fundraising: unbelievable! I gently suggested that she should know – and she agreed. Sadly this is common in many HR circles and, as a former HR professional, it annoys me that they are letting the side down. The keynote speaker was Mark Goldring, CEO of Mencap, and his opening words were about the importance of HR departments understanding how a charity’s business runs. I could have fallen on his neck! He was brilliant and I only hope the audience took note.
Finally, in March I met a former senior manager in the Charity Commission, now unfortunately redundant. The lack of resources in the Charity Commission is deeply worrying, especially since they should be at the forefront in our continued march towards better management and stewardship in the sector. In my view, there are still too many trustee Boards that are unfit for purpose and now the job of ‘sorting them out’ will be made harder! I am just thankful that I work with with so many brilliant people who have the sector’s best interests at heart.
I am looking forward to a challenging April!
January 2012
MY VISIT TO MOROCCO FOR SPANA
I was delighted to travel to Morocco with Jonathan Amory for our induction to SPANA as new trustees and for a site visit by Laura Higham.
12 January
We arrived in Marrakech to a warm welcome from our senior veterinary staff in Morocco and, after settling in to our hotel, we managed to get the last hour of daylight to see the Calesh horses and Souk in Place Jemma Elfnaa. The Calesh horses are really impressive and a credit to their owners who proudly displayed their SPANA brass plaques awarded in recognition of their carriage and horse care. We were also pleased to see that full use is being made of the SPANA water trough.
13 January
After an amazing breakfast at the hotel we visited the main SPANA clinic and education centre in Marrakech where the SPANA team made us very welcome. Although we arrived 30 minutes before the centre opened there were already five animals waiting for treatment in addition to the ten inpatients. One very old horse with a nasty sore and distressing evidence of too many old ones was seen very quickly while the others were treated for chest infections and wounds from traffic accidents. All were given great care by our veterinary team and their owners seemed keen to listen to their advice. We were also pleased to see the arrival of a group of enthusiastic school children, who listened intently to our staff and took time to see the animals being treated before watching a presentation about SPANA’s work.
We then made our way to the Chemaia clinic where more animals and owners waiting to be seen with a mix of injuries from traffic accidents and agricultural equipment. A group of school children arrived soon after our arrival. We were again impressed by the professional approach by the SPANA team and the keen interest shown by those bringing in their animals and the visiting school children. We saw a preview of the excellent slide presentation that had been prepared for the school visit. Good to communicate the importance of animal welfare to children.
14 January
We visited Imlil, a pretty village at the foot of the Atlas Mountains and we were there to attend the annual awards ceremony for the best kept animals. We were greeted by about 20 mules and donkeys resplendent in their beautifully coloured, hand woven blankets. The SPANA Mobile Unit had already arrived and was in great demand. The animals lined up for the awards ceremony were in great shape with their proud owners keen for us to see them. There were about 50 people from the local villages including local officials and some tourists, so the word was out!
We were invited to join everyone for a delicious lunch of pancakes, honey, dates, cakes, fresh orange juice and tea before entering the prize giving area and a specially erected stage. We presented awards to each winning owner who also received £10 and a bag of barley for his animal. It was obviously an important event in their calendar and we were delighted that so many were there. The prize giving was also a highly regarded event and the awards highly sought after. It was again evident that the importance of animal welfare is being communicated.
We left Morocco feeling very satisfied that we have seen a real improvement in working animal welfare.
SPANA has just commenced a really important programme in Darfur working with humanitarian aid agencies to help refugees and their animals. Refugees depend on their animals for food and transport and 10,000 donkeys have already starved to death in Darfur, so this project represents an important strategic milestone for SPANA.
Some photos from our trip.
Some TLC from SPANA for working animals
Jeremy Hulme, CEO SPANA and the SPANA Cake!
Abscess being treated by SPANA's clinic in Marrakech
Calesh horses drinking from SPANA's trough in Marrakech
SPANA's Mobile Unit
December/January 2012
I thought it ironic that former President Vaclav Havel, who successfully and peacefully led the velvet revolution to free Czech Republic of communist rule to make way for democracy, dies in the same month as Kim Jong-Il the ‘dear leader’ of the last remaining communist country, North Korea. This is another regime spending millions on nuclear weapons and its armed forces while millions of its people starve to death. If Kim Jong-Un who is taking over from his father is a brave man he will take this one opportunity to defy the army, look after his people and be part of the international community. Democracy would be good, but he probably has no concept of what that means. What planet are these awful people on?
December/January 2012
MY REVIEW OF 2011
2011 has been a roller coaster! First we get the Arab Spring and then, just as we are all celebrating its success in Libya and Egypt, some children in Syria are arrested for writing ‘regime change’ on a wall in Daraa and President Assad gets really nasty. He thinks that he will get his way by killing thousands of his people. Then we see that our celebrations of success in Egypt after the fall of the Mubarak regime are short lived as the army continues the slaughter while we watch helplessly. Thank goodness for social media and mobile phones.
I thought it ironic that former President Vaclav Havel, who successfully and peacefully led the velvet revolution to free Czech Republic of communist rule to make way for democracy, dies in the same month as Kim Jong-Il the ‘dear leader’ of the last remaining communist country, North Korea. This is another regime spending millions on nuclear weapons and its armed forces while millions of its people starve to death. If Kim Jong-Un who is taking over from his father is a brave man he will take this one opportunity to defy the army, look after his people and be part of the international community. Democracy would be good, but he probably has no concept of what that means. What planet are these awful people on?
All these despots appear to have huge egos so it will be interesting to see how Mr Putin copes with his newly found lack of popularity. I almost felt sorry for him until the violence and corruption he appears to have instigated hit the press.
I do hope the Government of Libya is successful when it is elected, but have great concern about Bahrain and other Arab states that have no concept of what real democracy means.
THE IMPACT ON THE CHARITY AND NON-PROFIT SECTOR
What does this mean for our amazing INGOs who work in these countries? As a trustee of a small charity operating in Northern Afghanistan and former Soviet Union and another in Syria we have first-hand experience of corruption and the role (not!) of women in their communities. I have been trying to understand what makes these communities tick, but as an educated woman living in a democracy it is hard. However, I will persevere.
There are now more companies offering training to staff in how to minimise fraud and corruption and how to cope with kidnap or imprisonment overseas. No doubt the cost of insurance policies has also increased as has the number of no-go areas. No wonder that DFID insists on stringent risk policies. How many UK based staff will still be prepared to go to countries where their lives are in real danger? Will INGOs employ more staff in-country rather than sending out UK based staff? This may perhaps be one of the few positive outcomes as power shifts from West to East and we learn how to work more effectively with previously unknown cultures that were regarded as alien. They are just different.
Social media and IT based accounting that can be easily communicated globally is an obvious must have together with more training in how other cultures work. This could be a real move to global interaction and, dare I say, PEACE!
Charity mergers in the UK continue at a pace and more imaginative ways of stretching budgets are emerging. More food banks are being set up to make more use of the disgraceful waste of supermarket food and many housing associations have their own money loan schemes to compete more effectively with payday loan sharks, so it’s not all bad news.
Just to conclude on another positive note, this awful recession is at least forcing all of us to review our values and to identify what we really need to survive – and it’s not the latest designer trainers. 2012 has got to be better and I look forward to working with some great people and charities in the coming months!
October/November
AUTUMN ARRIVES
I hope the amazing Autumn sunshine and colours in October feature during November. However, one less positive aspect of October that will almost certainly be with us in November is the dreadful famine in East Africa and Somalia. Good news that the DFID budget has not been cut, but with the current economic climate in Europe and serious spending cuts this must be a difficult balance to maintain, particularly with charities experiencing reduced income and poverty in the UK rising.
ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
In the first week of November I attended a business breakfast near St Paul’s Cathedral and passed the orderly campsite set up by Occupy London. One of the speakers at the breakfast was similarly impressed and suggested that, rather than closing the Cathedral, The Dean and his team should have joined them. I have to say I agree. An interesting debate followed about the ethics of St Paul’s taking legal advice to evict those camped outside for ‘health and safety’ reasons, rather than working with them to redress the unequal distribution of wealth. There was general agreement that the closure was very silly. I was rather amused that the initial tolerance by those in charge at St Paul’s suddenly disappeared when they discovered they were losing £20,000 per day in revenue. It’s a sad reflection that in the end it’s all about money even in a faith led community. Must remember to take some coffee and biscuits for the food tent when I pass St Paul’s again.
SOME UNIQUE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
I have just had the pleasure of recruting for a brilliant organisation working in Afghanistan and DRC with children affected by conflict. The Operations Director asked a group of children that they are helping in each country what questions they would like us to ask potential candidates. The questions were very insightful and included how each candidate would persuade President Karzai to:
Not put innocent children in jail
Provide training to Afghan Police to stop them beating and torturing children when arrested
Tell Afghan families not to give away their girls as ‘exchange’ in bad marriage
Build more schools and shelter for children whose families are killed in the war
Fight corruption
We asked each candidate what they thought were the key concerns of children in Afghanistan. The children in DRC asked us to include:
If you arrive in a village where all of the children’s parents have been killed and they have been left orphaned, how would you help them to continue their education until they succeed?
These questions were very helpful in testing each candidate’s knowledge of the issues and also the inclusive culture of the charity.
CAPACITY BUILDING
Last week I was invited to a business breakfast to discuss trends in global capacity building. As a trustee of two INGOs this is very relevant. It was interesting to discuss the impact of the transfer of power from West to East and the importance of knowing how to work effectively alongside Muslim countries. Interesting that China has now helped to bail out the Eurozone debt issues. I am now researching Muslim business and banking and it makes very interesting reading.
CREATIVE BENEFITS AND TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT
There are new trends in staff benefits that are occurring as staff work beyond the previous retirement age and those in their 40’s and 50’s are helping their children with debt from universities and costs of care for parents. Many employers are finding that this wider age range of their employees want a more varied range of benefits that include workplace ISAs, gym membership and home working. Excellent news for innovative HR professionals!
Trustee training and recruitment has changed significantly and was clearly working well at the NCVO conference on November 7th. There were 400 delegates and the conference had been fully booked for months before it took place. This together with the increasing numbers of ads for trustees being recruited to a specification is music to the ears of those of us who have been banging on for years about skills audits and proper recruitment processes for trustee boards!
Gosh, it’s only a few weeks to Christmas!
September/October
SUPPORTING THE SERVICES
After a relatively quiet August, September has been a busy month with lots of demand for outplacement and advice on trustee and governance issues. Many of those I am helping to make a career change are from the Services following the Strategic Defence Review. I am impressed by the innovation and communication skills of these senior officers – and they are all so modest. They are also commercially astute and politically aware; essential in these challenging times of global economic and political instability. To date everyone I have met has succeeded in the face of adversity with their sense of humour and integrity intact.
MORE GROUNDBREAKERS REQUIRED!
In mid-September I was invited to a working breakfast of Groundbreakers. This is a group of high profile, high-achieving women in the charity sector, and I was extremely pleased to be able to join them two years ago. For this particular meeting I was asked to wear my head-hunting hat to contribute to a discussion about why recent research has indicated that there are fewer female CEOs and directors in the charity sector than in any other sector. The discussion reflected my own anecdotal perception that, although head-hunters submit balanced shortlists, there are too many trustee boards that are unfit for purpose and who are unable to fully appreciate that women can be effective chief executives. The worst offenders are elected boards and other boards that do not recruit their trustees to a defined skills specification, but I won’t bang on any more about that one!
It was interesting to note that at final interviews many women were perceived as not projecting themselves as well as men, even though they were able to provide impressive evidence of their achievements. I suspect this is just a style issue that coaching can rectify. Mentoring or coaching is easy to organise, but ensuring that all trustees are recruited to an agreed specification is impossible unless the Charity Commission does more than just ‘suggest’ that this approach should form part of trustee recruitment best practice.
THE POWER OF MUTUAL SUPPORT
Speaking of strong women, I met Rachel Chandler this week and she was amazing. We heard how she and her husband Paul survived 12 months in captivity in Somalia by supporting each other and personal strength when separated for three months. Contrary to some adverse press, they were captured in Somali waters 900 miles from the Somali coast having been advised that it was safe to sail. They were reasonably well treated most of the time and never gave in to the pressures of captivity. They even learnt some Somali. However, I am not sure I could have coped with fried goats liver and onions for breakfast every morning!
GLOBAL HEALTH
Finally, as a trustee of HealthProm and through a long term contact at the Royal Society of Medicine I was invited together with another trustee to meet the leading surgeon for the Royal Society’s Global Health Initiative. This is an amazing scheme that initiates partnerships between the RSM and INGOs to help identify and address global health issues. The meeting I attended in September was built around Medicines Sans Frontier and was attended by 300 people mainly those training within the medical profession. As a result of this meeting, on December 8th 2011 HealthProm has been invited to the RSM to present their work in Former Soviet Union Countries and to chair a debate around the ethics of saving very low birth weight babies in countries with no infrastructure to support them, and the institutionalisation of babies and children.
I hope that, in spite of the issues in Euro-based economies and the famine in East Africa, October brings more positive news.
July/August
Surviving Adversity
Well, in spite of the continuing saga of Rupert Murdock, the devastating news about the East African famine is getting more media coverage. Having personally witnessed dry rivers and distressed communities in Southern Kenya where the situation has not reached famine status, I can only imagine the horror and distress in the North.
At home we are experiencing another kind of distress with confusing predictions about the economy, increased poverty and cuts in public services – nothing on the scale of a famine, but still distressing. Increasingly it’s the survival of the fittest and in order to retain services increasing numbers of charities are considering mergers. I have thought for some time that there is too much duplication in the sector, so there could be some positive outcomes that will benefit service-users and donors.
Merging organisations even when there is synergy is tricky. Two cultures, two management teams, two trustee boards and two committed teams of paid and unpaid staff coming together require extremely careful management. However, the rewards of achieving a viable, sustainable organisation with no reduction in quality of services cannot be underestimated. Most clouds do have silver linings!
The Digital Future
Income generation, at a time when many families and companies are struggling to survive, is challenging in the extreme. Perhaps digital fundraising will save the day. It’s cost effective, environmentally sound and reaches global audiences instantly. I am very impressed by the increasing number of charities who are making innovative use of their websites and digital communication strategies. It’s often difficult to keep up to speed with the digital marketing and social media techniques that are being launched every week – and to evaluate which ones would really benefit your organisation! But whilst I am enthusiastic about the adoption of these new techniques, it’s also essential to ensure that traditional, older donors are not lost in the race to go digital. These are very exciting times and this is only the start of things to come.
My Return to Kenya
Massai Mother
To return to Kenya, I had the opportunity in June of returning to St Lazarus School in the Kibera Slum in Nairobi. We raised some funds for school books that we purchased in Nairobi and food that we delivered to the school amid much singing and dancing. The footballs went down well too!
Head of Lengisim School with Teaching Staff
The school takes 420 students, aged from five to eighteen years, from 20 Maasai communities. They have a staff of only six teachers and no electricity, and struggle to achieve good results.
Lengisim School Governor
We took text books for each year and four footballs. These were so well received that we were asked to join in a celebratory Maasai dance. These dances are very energetic and I was pleased that I had worn my stretch jeans!
Dancing with my son Wayne and Maasai students
We also visited the local bore hole that supplies water to people and animals, one of only two in the area that are 20 miles apart. The bore hole was not working because of a broken pump, so cattle, people and wild animals are travelling 20 miles to the next bore hole. Elephants in their search for water are digging up pipes and causing even more damage, so I am talking to a charity that is being very helpful and is keen to help with repairs. It’s very worrying that the drought in East Africa will extend outside Somalia. I do hope the rains come in September.
JUNE 2011
Creativity Will Ensure Survival!
Charities are full of intelligent and creative people who care deeply about what they do and the impact they have on society. They are also media savvy and commercially astute and the survival of the sector over the next few years will be dependent on effective use of all these skills.
There are challenging times ahead with many charities experiencing falling donations and increased costs. Those that are maintaining their voluntary income are identifying new, frequently global income streams, by making greater use of digital and mobile technology such as You Tube and social networks. It’s all very exciting and moving fast.
Transferable Skills Can Open the Door to a Charity Career
Individuals with great communications and technology experience have skills that are very transferable from any sector and there are increasing numbers of people who are interested in moving into the not for profit sector. This is in addition to people with transferable HR, Finance and marketing skills who have been making a huge positive impact on the not for profit sector for a number of years.
In addition to paid jobs there are some really interesting unpaid roles such as trustees and voluntary management roles that offer brilliant opportunities to acquire new skills in another, often more meaningful sector.
An Effective Committee in Action
In most well run not for profits there will be a specialist voluntary committee working alongside a functional Director in a role that is similar to a non-exec director in a company. The committee comprises individuals specifically recruited for their skills and expertise.
I recently attended a planning session set up by a large charity to increase communication between its four committee Chairs and the senior management team. As one of the committee Chairs it was very rewarding for me to tap into all the expertise in the room and be part of an open debate. We agreed a plan to move forward to enable the charity to build in more effective horizon scanning and risk analysis to its strategic planning and greater communication between functions. We all left feeling empowered and committed to making a real impact.
Service Leavers Bring Great Negotiation and Commercial Skills
It has also been very rewarding to meet Officers leaving the Services who are considering a career in the not for profit sector. There are now commercially astute and savvy people leaving the Services. They have excellent communication skills and are trained to consult as part of a collaborative approach to management.
All this is really relevant to the not for profit sector. However, there are other skills that are often not associated with the Services that are equally important. Many Officers have operated in politically sensitive areas and negotiated deals with high powered people, including at Ministerial level. Others have negotiated with local community leaders in demanding cultures such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I plan to continue to encourage many of these excellent people to join the not for profit sector in paid and unpaid roles.
