Romania: paid workforce

Workforce

A large majority of the civil society organisations involved in the Civil Society Development foundation (CSDF) electronic survey in 2005 were satisfied with the human resources available to them: 55% declared themselves rather satisfied with the human resources at their disposal and 15% saw the situation of their human resources as very good. Less than 5% of organizations considered their human resources to be problematic and 25% described the situation of the human resources available to them as rather inappropriate.

In spite of this positive self perception, other studies, such as USAID report and CIVICUS, point out that human resources available to civil society organisations in Romania continue to remain limited.

The USAID 2003 NGO Sustainability Index Country Report states that “human resource capacity is a serious problem. NGO personnel are generally not well trained, especially in management, and many NGOs operate with very small staffs, usually just three or four people”.

The Civicus report also says that many NGOs suffer from an inability to retain well-qualified staff. Since NGOs lack resources it is difficult for them to keep trained, often unpaid, staff who are attracted by employment in business which offers better salaries and career development opportunities. Difficulties in raising funds for salaries force many NGOs to reduce permanent staff or to hire personnel on a project-by-project basis. Volunteers have become a very important resource.