Human Resources
Human Resources (HR)
Generally
Managing people is a complex process in any organisation and it could be argued that being enterprising whilst focused on social objectives creates and even more challenging environment for those managing people in this sector.
Doherty et al. (2009) consider that there are a number of common strands that link Human Resource Management (HRM) to social enterprises:-
- The need to establish clarity about staffing levels and patterns of work;
- Culture-fair recruitment and selection processes;
- Motivational performance;
- An energizing working relationship;
- Progressive development policies.
The achievement of coherent and capacity-building people management policies and procedures require social enterprise managers to count strategic thinking, interpersonal skills and comfort with cultural diversity among their many skills (Doherty et al., 2009). Borzaga and Solari (2004) state that social enterprises ‘must find suitable ways to manage that are key assets including their social mission and efficiency constraints, committed volunteers and employees and enlarged governance structures’.
Managers in social enterprises, in common with frontline managers in other sectors will find themselves having to understand and take ownership of recruitment, performance, attendance, training and welfare issues; some of these are complex skill areas and take time evolve (Doherty et al., 2009).
In preparing social enterprises to harness the resources of both paid staff and volunteers, there is a role for HRM and Storey (2007) outlines a number of considerations to develop a HRM Strategy:-
- Good practices;
- Best fit;
- Response to analysis of trends;
- Building on and exploiting the resource base.
Whilst being well-intentioned in terms of good practice, funding limitations and shortfall, as well as the unpredictability of commercial contracts can lead to organisational decisions about best fit (short-term contracts, low-level security) that do not coincide with good practice, or indeed sector perception of how SE’s should behave towards their volunteers and employees (Storey, 2007).
Responsiveness to trends and situational and environmental information are strategic functions that should be part of board level planning, but, this can only happen if the board and the senior management team is free from the general day to day supervisory management issues (Doherty et al., 2009). However, volatile market conditions and the way in which SE’s operate increases the importance of making effective use of the available resource base; the ability to make the most of resources and stakeholder involvement may well be crucial to the survival of social enterprises (Doherty et al., 2009).
Senior Management Team
As Social Enterprise’s begin to grow, it generally becomes necessary for the ‘leader’ to delegate some of the leadership and management responsibilities to other staff. This delegation results in the beginning of a more formal management and supervisory structure.
One of the keys to successful management in the Voluntary and Community Sector and private sectors is getting the right team to work with you in the Social Enterprise. Collins (2006) writes “Those who build great organisations make sure they have the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus.” In other words, the best managers select the right team, then involve the team in planning the project; the overall concept and direction may already have been decided but getting the team involved in the planning ensures a greater span of ideas, empowers the individual team members and gains their commitment to the project (MacDonald, 2017).
However, building the right senior management team, for the organisation is a challenge. Heinecke (2014) in a report for the Schwab Foundation recognises that there may be ‘cultural fit’ issue associated with appointing senior managers from external, corporate organisations. Recruiting for top-level positions from the outside can bring on-board competent people with the right prior experience and professional qualifications, along with a fresh perspective, however, the potential problems of external recruitment can be avoided by promoting existing staff into senior leadership positions. However, internal promotion must be accompanied by a conscious effort of leadership development, involving skills and knowledge development, and an investment of time, energy and money (Heinecke, 2014).
The members of the management team need to be able to work together well with the founder/CEO in terms of personality, skills and attitude as well as loyalty to the founder and the founder’s achievements. However, to compose a strong and effective leadership team, senior managers should complement the particular strengths and weaknesses of the leader. Often, the founder of a social venture is more creative and visionary than organized and attentive to details, while the organization needs all these talents to develop successfully.
For social enterprises, employee retention is of critical importance as it is often hard to replace staff with outside candidates who have a comparable mission, culture and founder fit. Also many social enterprises lack financial resources, leading to below-market wages and unfavourable workplace equipment. Whilst young and idealistic team members dedicated to the social mission might be willing to work under less-than-ideal conditions for a certain period of time, this may not be the case for senior managerial staff. Retaining experienced senior managerial staff within Social Enterprise is a key challenge (Heinecke, 2014).
Staff Turnover/ Retention
The reliance on key members of staff, could leave a large gap in the organisation, if those members of staff left the social enterprise. Initially the work load was likely to be redistributed amongst the remaining staff, potentially resulting in increased pressure.
Staff retention and competence development can be influenced by the style of organisational management. Conversely regular changes of staff and managers resulted in staff feel out of the “comfort zone”. It was also noted that it was not always easy to introduce new team members into existing projects.
Further Information
Further information regarding HR can be found at the links below:-
http://intellecap.com/sites/default/files/publications/intellecap_hr_report_web_0.pdf
Italy
http://www.scuolaimpresasociale.org/gestione-delle-risorse-umane.html
http://www.unitn.it/ateneo/896/master-gis-master-in-gestione-di-imprese-sociali
https://www.comune.roma.it/PCR/resources/cms/documents/incubatore.pdf