Italy: what about human resources in not for profit?

Not for Profit? Yes please, but not for long. The not for profit world is attracts people but is unable to keep hold of them. These are the results of the 2006 Human Resources Survey carried out by the Sodalitas-HayGroup on management and wages within not for profit sector. The survey was conducted on 75 qualified organisations and was recently presented in Milan. The results show that two thirds of paid employees in the not for profit sector are women, are less than 45 years old and have been through higher education, 60% are in fact university graduates. 57% of paid staff are employed by the organisation they work for. Another fact that emerges from the survey is that nearly all, 90%, of the sample-group, allow employees to manage their working hours and holiday schedules flexibly thus fostering the compatibility of work life with private life. This is where the attraction for the Third sector lies: in the value it has for the human dimension. Further, more than 35% of not for profit organizations have employed people coming from for profit companies. While there is great consideration for the human side of things, career development is often disregarded. There is a significant difference in the wages that are paid by for profit and not for profit companies. This difference can be felt at the intermediate levels of employment and becomes quite significant at the managerial levels; the salaries of not for profit executives are a lot smaller than those that their for profit colleagues receive. Having said this, it is also true that wages in the not for profit sector are more or less in line with those in public administration, which represent an internationally recognized standard. The most frugal salaries are to be found within the social cooperatives. Associations and foundations, followed by NGOs, are more generous. As well as being meagre, incentives are not common and only 40% of organizations adopt an incentive based wage policy, in only one out of every four cases are incentives offered on the basis of work quality or production. The criteria that is used when incentives are offered will usually depend on ones job category. The most common method used is the ?una tantum? as it is easy to manage and does not need to be backed up by formal incentive planning. Finally, only 12% of the sample, compared to 21% in 2004, uses short term incentives to reach individual or group goals. ?The not for profit sector must invest more in the professional development of its staff, inventing a diverse system of relations and adopting a type of management that demonstrates less solidarity and more meritocracy, otherwise it risks loosing its most precious people? declared Luca Solari, a professor in the Social Sciences department at the University of Milan. The survey confirms that the risk of loosing valuable staff members is a real one. The entry turnover for not for profit organisations is 29% compared to a 17% exit turnover. On average the turnover is 21% of that found in the for profit sector. Marco Galbiati, in charge of the HayGroup Observatory on Human Resources in the Not for Profit sector comments that ?such a high turnover, and one that is on the increase, is not found in any other sector. The cost of such turnover to organizations are huge: key skills are dispersed and it is impossible to consolidate a shared organisational culture. Bringing the turnover down to physiological levels would remove an important obstacle for the development of not for profit organisations. The 75 organisations that participated to the survey are at the fore front of the Italian not for profit sector. 51% being associations and foundations, 29% social cooperatives and 20% NGO?s. 30% of the staff that they collectively manage is made up of paid staff; in 53% of the cases yearly entries are of 3 million euros. These organisations have the capacity to consciously direct their own development. In deed 51% of these organisations regularly publishes social account documents and in 63% of the cases these are then subject to inspection. 54% of them have an Ethical Code which in half of the cases calls for a monitoring system. In 62% of the cases these organisations were created in order to collaborate with for profit organisations. As well as the traditional fundraising initiatives they are involved in others, such as offering products and services, developing Cause Related Marketing campaigns and company volunteer programs. These organisations are in an expansion process: their staff increases by 12% each year. Maria Teresa Scherillo is in charge of Sodalitas in the Survey on Human Resources in the Not for Profit Sector. She concludes that ?Growth is important but it is not enough. Growth must also be coupled by the strengthening of the organisation and this is possible only if there is the capacity to keep hold of ones staff and of offering them appropriate development paths. NGO?s cannot passively accept that their best staff members will leave after a few years.? Of the 75 organisations that took part in the survey 15 decided to benefit form a personalised salary benchmarking service that valued internal salary equality and compared their own salary policy with salaries in for profit agencies. The not for profit Human Resources Observatory ? started in 2002 by Sodalitas and the HayGroup ? offers not for profit organisations the possibility to share, reflect on and compare information in order to adopt rational and equitable decisions regarding the management and development of people and to acheive strategic evolution. The watchdog observatory uses and propose to those involved a variety of tools: regular investigation on policies and methosds, conferences and workshops, reflection and discussion panels, traning seminars, personalized assistance. Some of the main results that have been achieved are: 110 not for profit organisations have participated; 8 skill profiles of excellence have been carried out; 16 counselling projects have been managed; 3 editions of the Survey on management and wage procedures carried out in 2006 on a total of 75 organisations; 48 professional roles described. And, again, the in depth study of 6 professional roles (educator, fundraiser, head of proget, human resources manager, network manager, professional volunteer); publishing of the first volume of book called Lavori & Mestieri del Non profit ( Not for Profit Jobs and Trades ) based on empirical field work and on the main organisational roles within the not for profit sector. Link (in italian): http://www.sodalitas.it/news.php?ID=188