Talking Back …………………………….

Download the Talking Back Bulk Buying Questionaire here

From time to time, we would like to invite you, our members, to feed back to us items of interest relating to your service, issues that you would like us to bring to the attention of others or concerns that you would like to highlight.

 Social Service Providers Aotearoa  took part in a Strategic Pay Not for Profit Sector Remuneration Survey in May of this year. Their report on this survey has shown that on average the difference in the median base salaries between the Not for Profit Sector and the Public Sector as at 1 May 2007 is 15.3% and the difference in the median base salaries between the Not for Profit Sector and the General Market as at 1 May 2007 is 17.6%   

Preamble

Strategic Pay Not For Profit Remuneration Survey conducted in May 2007

3,215 employees from 112 organisations and within 85 job categories (not defined) took part in the survey. Findings revealed that on average the difference in the median base salaries between the Not for Profit Sector and the Public Sector is 15.3% and the difference in the median base salaries between the Not for Profit Sector and the General Market is 17.6%   .

Main concern – a lack of adequate funding to attract qualified/experienced staff at all levels (eg front-line – managers)

43.5% of staff are contracted to work less than 37.5 or 40 hours per week, which was seen as showing that this sector is both under paid and under employed.

On the basis of the above Survey SSPA circulated the membership and asked -  

What is your experience when trying to recruit qualified and trained staff within your service?

• Main concern was how hard it is to recruit and retain staff due to low wages offered, especially experienced/qualified staff.

• Pacific Service found that mainstream take Pacific social workers so they miss out due to only being able to offer a low wage.  However one service commented that qualified people seek their service as they are looking for a Maori provider for experience and whakawhanaungatanga.

• Difficult to attract staff to rural districts and to offer full time work and contracts beyond 1 year.

• Several mentioned that due to low funding can only offer part time positions.

• Some saw a need for better HR packages – eg study leave, superannuation, medical insurance and professional fees paid.

• Frustration when time and finance has been invested into training to find they cannot support workers with adequate wages.

• Gap in training and getting people with experience eg working with youth, drug and alcohol counselling, management skills.

• Need for training at manager level as poor management affects all staff

• A lot of C.V.s received but most do not meet the minimum requirement

• Often reliant on people’s commitment to the community – they do not expect to be paid well  and they are being exploited because of this

• Some were unimpressed with social work training when they experience the results – often SW graduates are not seen as being equipped to deal with the realities of the job

Are you able to retain staff beyond a 2 year period?

• Mixed results, but on the whole it appears that this is not a major issue once staff are gained.

• Creative approaches used to retain staff, job flexibility, training and professional development, birthdays off, additional leave for family reasons

Poaching of staff

• Appears to happen throughout industry eg NGO to NGO, Govt to NGO and NGO to Govt.

• Some resentment that Maori and Pacific Island staff are poached by Govt because of their cultural knowledge

• Some key staff who have been head hunted have been able to negotiate a hefty pay rise which has affected relativities

How do rates of remuneration compare to the public sector?

• Overall response – NGO’s can’t compete with the public sector regarding salary – 10K -20K less.

• Can only employ on part time basis.

• Some organisations offer ‘perks’ such as birthday off etc.

• One respondent stated the highest they can offer is $12.50 per hour, another stated they cannot go beyond $30,000 FTE per year.

• One respondent commented that CE salaries and conditions lower than public sector.

• No recognition able to be given for added qualifications and training  – therefore organisation is often seen as a stepping stone to future higher paid employment elsewhere

• Often an expectation develops that a certain  of work should be voluntary even although the service delivered requires a professionally qualified person

How do conditions of employment compare to the public sector?

• Overall it was perceived that NGO’s offer better conditions, other than salary, than the public sector eg support of staff, flexibility of work environment, kaupapa.

• “greater flexibility but that doesn’t pay the bills!”

• Poor office conditions, IT equipment, no fleet of cars, no health benefits, no promotions or career development

What impact do you think Kiwi Saver will have on your organisation?

• Overall unsure as many currently assessing the cost to the organisation.

Impact of ageing workforce?

• Overall comments were regarding the benefit of older staff as more experienced workers so not an issue.

• Others noted the negative effects of staff retiring and not able to replace, particularly volunteers.

• Others noted an inability to attract younger (under 40 years of age) staff.

• Recognition of health issues and family needs associated with older work force

• Difficult to get younger staff for youth related services

• Holding on to older staff for longer has affected pool of volunteers  

In what ways do volunteers add value to your service and how will you recruit and retain

• All who used volunteers saw them as adding value and a vital part of the service.

• Multi-avenues to gain volunteers but some providers finding it harder to recruit and replace volunteers.

3 most significant impacts on staffing over the last 2 years

• Pay rates – wages not keeping up with the public or health sector.

• Funding – esp. contributory funding.  No allowance for CPI adjustments, specialist training,.

• Social Work registration and  insufficient training to respond to increasing complexities within the workload

Additional comments

• NGO study awards really helpful for staff.

• Social Work Registration has added anther competitive factor where NGO can’t compete with public sector salaries.  – increases likeliness of ‘poaching of staff’’   

• A need for funding for organisational development, strategic planning, consultation, research and evaluations, technology etc.

• “I am constantly surprised by funders, policy people and even politicians who promote an idea that providers lack capacity and therefore need some sort of paternal response from them in order to assist us.  We are not lacking in anything apart from funding to continue to do what we do well.  If the disparities between resourcing of community providers and government departments do not change then really the clear message is that government is quite happy to strip providers of their unique skills and expertise in order to address their own failings as opposed to recognising an important point of difference and working with us in partnership to jointly address need in an appropriate and ultimately more effective way.

• With so little financial security it is challenging to plan for service development and improvements.

• It is hard to attract highly competent staff let alone hold them with little hope of salary increments

• I look forward to the day when I can offer our staff a secure salary and career path and sufficient PD budgets to keep them all fresh, stimulated and feeling secure!  I also look forward to the day when we can match the state sector’s salaries and conditions right across the NGO sector.   By its very nature the NGO sector is in the business of human services and yet we often end up treating our own greatest resource – our staff – in a less appreciative fashion than we do our service users.   Usually this is due to resource constraints.