Charities in the north of England are finding it harder to recruit staff than those elsewhere in the country, according to a new report.
Third Sector Trends found that the charity sector in England and Wales is facing new challenges arising from difficulties in retention and recruitment of volunteers and employees.
It says charities have “underinvested in their employees” and urges them to focus on pay and working conditions to prevent recruitment issues from worsening.
There are some indications of change in the extent of diversity in organisational leadership, “but it is a mixed picture” according to the second of five reports from the study.
Staff retention and recruitment
Third Sector Trends has been surveying the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector every three years since 2010. In 2022, 6,071 responses were received across England and Wales.
There are about 200,000 third sector organisations (TSOs) in England and Wales. Around 40% of them are employers, with a paid workforce of about 1.1 million people, the research states.
It says there are about 4.3 million regular volunteers working for TSOs in England and Wales and collectively they contribute 312 million hours of work.
Over the last two years, 20% of employers have found it harder to retain staff and 43% have experienced recruitment problems.
Problems with recruitment are widespread across England and Wales, though are most intense in north east England (54%), north west England (48%) and in Wales (46%).
Retention problems are most severe in the largest organisations, at 53%, but affect organisations of all sizes.
More organisations have increased the number of full-time employees (32%) than those which have had falling numbers (16%).
Patterns of part-time employment seem to have changed in a similar way, with 38% of TSOs reporting an increase and 15% a decrease in numbers.
The report indicates employers “are facing serious staffing challenges” and suggests “now that staff retention problems have accelerated it is time to ask whether staff loyalty and commitment has, to some extent, been taken for granted”.
“Many organisations have underinvested in their employees in such areas as training, by providing a flexible work environment and investing in staff development. Under-investment of this kind can undermine loyalty and commitment when employees are faced with a challenging work environment. Staff retention can sometimes be secured by offering flexible working arrangements,” the report states.
It adds “issues surrounding pay and working conditions can no longer be brushed under the carpet” and “unless this issue is addressed, recruitment and retention problems will remain or perhaps intensify in years to come”.
“For those organisations which are facing rising demand for the services that they offer due to, for example, the cost-of-living crisis – hard choices will have to be made on when to turn people away rather than putting more pressure on their staff or volunteers.”
Volunteer workforce
The report’s analysis indicates that there has not been a major shift in the size of the volunteer workforce following the coronavirus pandemic, but there may have been changes in its composition.
Indeed, almost half of TSOs (48%) state that it has been harder to hold on to older volunteers.
About 22% of organisations report that their volunteer workforce has become more ethnically diverse and 20% that they now have more volunteers under the age of 30.
Nonetheless, more than a quarter of organisations, 26%, report that they have been losing some of their volunteers who joined them during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The bigger that organisations are, the more likely that they have recruited more younger and ethnically diverse volunteers. But they are the most likely to report that they have lost some of the volunteers who joined them during the pandemic. Indeed, 41% of the biggest organisations report compared with just 18% of the smallest,” states the report.
Increased ethnic diversity is more common in newly established organisations (26%) as is their ability to attract younger volunteers (24%).
Organisations in the least affluent areas have a more ethnically diverse group of volunteers (35%) than in the most affluent areas (16%).
Diversity in sector leadership
In 2019, the Third Sector Trends survey included new questions on diversity in sector leadership to provide baseline data, which can now be confirmed with 2022 data.
The report states in England and Wales university graduates constitute 70% of chairs of boards and 63% of chief executive officers.
It adds about 8% of chairs and 10% of chief executives are Black, Asian or from other ethnic minorities.
There are some indications of improvement to diversity in leadership since 2019, according to the research.
Indeed, the percentage of chairs with disabilities has increased from 9% to 12% and the percentage of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic chairs has risen from 6% to 8%.
Nonetheless, the proportion of graduate chairs has also increased from 64% to 70% – “which may represent a further dampening of opportunity for non-graduates”.
Moreover, the percentage of female chief executives has fallen from 65% to 62%, and the proportion of Black, Asian and other ethnic minority group chief executive officers has risen only very slightly from 8% to 9%.
There are some regional variations, with London standing out from all other areas with 26% of organisations having Black, Asian and other ethnic minority chief executive officers.
Diversity in sector leadership is more common in more recently established organisations. For example, amongst organisations which have been operating since before 1945, only 35% of chairs are women compared with 50% of the most recently established organisations.
Similarly, there are many fewer Black, Asian and other minority ethnic group chief executive officers or chairs in longer-established organisations than is the case in those which were set up most recently.
In the oldest organisations there are only 5% of disabled or Black, Asian and other minority ethnic group chief officers compared with 10% in the most recently established.
Men continue to be in the majority as chairs (although the gap has narrowed from 57% men to 54%). By contrast the proportion of women chief officers has fallen from 65% to 62%.
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