The pool of human resources available to the support institution or association is one of the key success factors for sustainability. The services your institution delivers or plans to deliver depend on the motivation, the capabilities and experiences of the individuals rendering them.
The board of directors should plan for the strategic human resources (development) need. For example, if the institution has the 5 year objective to expand its consulting activities from a local to a national level then the management will need to ensure that by then a pool of qualified and trained consultants who can operate in the different regions of the country is available.
See template people plan.
Once, the plan is agreed, the support institution needs to attract and recruit talented, capable and experienced people. The better the institution can attract and develop human resources, the more flexibility and strength it will have in its operations.
The annual human resources need is derived from the annual operational plan, more precisely the work plans. The work plans define for all programmes and activities how many people will be needed when and for how long. The management needs to verify the feasibility of the work plans, communicate the results to the staff and ensure that the staff wants to co-operate. Furthermore, the management will organise for the need for supplementary staff and/or replacements.
More information can be found under the work plan chapter.
The subjectively perceived job satisfaction, security and professional perspective have a strong impact on an individual’s decision to stay with an employer or to preferably look for new opportunities. Especially for newly founded or small organisations the loss of experienced and motivated people is a big threat to sustainability.
The executive manager is responsible for ensuring the motivation and development of the staff and volunteers. He or she will have to monitor the performance of people, regularly feed-back on their achievements and improvement areas and discuss individual development plans.