A

Project Report

on

Role of HR in NGO

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration

S.S. JAIN SUBODH P.G. (AUTONOMOUS) COLLEGE, JAIPUR

(2019-20)

Submitted By- Submitted To-

Aditi Pareek Dr. Chitra Rathore

B.B.A. IV Semester Head of Department, B.B.A.

Roll No. 1941009

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Report entitled “Role of HR in NGO” is a record of project work
done independently by Ms. ADITI PAREEK under my guidance and supervision and that it has not
previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, fellowship or associateship.

Dr. Chitra Rathore

Head of Department, B.B.A.

S.S. Jain Subodh P.G. (Autonomous) College

Jaipur

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 DECLARATION

I, ADITI PAREEK, student of BBA Semester IV hereby declare that the project work presented in
this report is my own work and has been carried out under the supervision of DR. CHITRA
RATHORE, Head of Department, B.B.A., of S.S Jain Subodh P.G (Autonomous) College. This work
has not been previously submitted to any other university for any examination.

Aditi Pareek

B.B.A. IV Semester

S.S. Jain Subodh P.G. (Autonomous) College

Jaipur

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is not often in life that you get a chance of appreciating and expressing your feelings in black and
white to thank the people who have been a crucial part of your successes, your accomplishments, and
your being what you are today. I take this opportunity to; first of all, thank the faculty at S.S. Jain
Subodh P.G. (Autonomous) College, especially Prof. K.B.Sharma, Principal, and Dr. Chitra Rathore,
Head of Department, BBA, for inculcating and instilling me the knowledge, learning, will-power,
values and the competitiveness and professionalism required by me as a management student.

I express my sincere and heartiest thanks to everyone who has contributed towards the successful
completion of this project.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank my family for supporting me spiritually throughout my
life.

The errors and inconsistencies remain my own.

Aditi Pareek

B.B.A. IV Semester

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 CHAPTERISATION

Page No.

1. Introduction 6
2. What is an NGO? 7-15
2.1. Introduction 7
2.2. How does an NGO work 8
2.3. Importance of NGOs 11
2.4. Challenges faced by NGOs 12
2.5. Top NGOs in India 13
2.6. Criticism 15
3. Research Methodology 16-18
3.1. Relevance of the study 16
3.2. Objectives 17
3.3. Limitations 17
3.4. Collection of Data 18
4. What is Human Resource? 19-26
4.1. Introduction 19
4.2. Importance of Human Resources 20
4.3. Who is a Human Resources Manager 22
4.4. Role of HR Manager 22
4.5. Duties of an HR Manager 23
5. Human Resources in NGOs 27-46
5.1. Introduction 27
5.2. Importance of HR in NGOs 29
5.3. HR Selection Procedure 31
5.4. Challenges 38
5.5. Recommendation 43
6. Conclusion 47
7. Bibliography 48-49

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 Introduction

Human resource practices play a vital role as humans are the main resource to use the rest of the
resources. Investment for increasing human resource is important, and the more an organization invest
in its human resources, the greater the return from the investment is likely to be. Human resource
practices focus on the different aspects that can enhance the potential of an individual not just in the
reference of an organization but also in their personal life. Training and development, performance
appraisal, potential appraisal, career counseling, employee welfare, health, and safety are few of them.

The role of human resources is an integrating factor in any industry or sector and it matters most when
it is related to the service sector like education, travel and tourism, NGOs, etc. Further, owing to the
changes in the business environment and the advances in technology, communication, and
consumerism, the planning of human resources has become an incessant activity on the part of HR
functionaries working in a service organization. Broadly, human resource practices are required not
only to maintain the people as resources but also to enhance the capability of the organization, through
its competent people.

Human Resource Management is defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an
organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively
contribute to the achievement of its objectives. The overall purpose of human resource management is
to ensure that the organization is able to achieve success through people.

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 What is an NGO?

Introduction

While NGOs have no fixed or formal definition, they are generally defined as a nonprofit, citizen-based
group, independent of governmental influence (although they may receive government funding).
NGOs, sometimes called civil societies, are organized on community, national and international levels
to serve specific social or political purposes, and are cooperative, rather than commercial, in nature.
NGOs are private agencies that support development at local, national and international levels by
organizing indigenous groups. NGO activities include, but are not limited to, environmental, social,
advocacy and human rights work. They can work to promote social or political change on a broad scale
or very locally. NGOs play a critical part in developing society, improving communities, and
promoting citizen participation. NGOs work for the betterment and upliftment of socioeconomically
and politically weaker sections of the community to improve their status in the society so they can have
equal rights and opportunities. As a community group and organization, NGO provides and fulfills
certain services, development-oriented tasks and works with aims and objectives to bring about
required positive changes in society, community, areas, and situations.

Variations of NGOs include:

BINGO (business-friendly international NGO or big international NGO): the Red Cross is one example
of a BINGO.

ENGO (environmental NGO): the World Wildlife Fund is one example of an ENGO.

GONGO (government-operated NGO): by definition not an NGO but an organization created by a

government to resemble an NGO to further some agenda.

INGO (international NGO): Oxfam is one example of an INGO.

QUANGO (quasi-autonomous NGO): an NGO which may have some governmental members; the ISO is
one example of a QUANGO.

RINGO (religious international NGO): the Catholic Relief Services is one example of a RINGO.

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 HOW DOES AN NGO WORK?

1. Registration-
Every NGO in India is legally required to document a trust deed/ Memorandum of
Understanding/Bylaws that contain the name and address of the NGO, mission and objectives,
details of governing body members, human resource and staffing information, rules and
regulations, administrative laws and procedures.
An NGO can be registered as follows-
As a company: An NGO should be registered as a company under Section 8 of the Company’s Act
2013 when it’s objective is to promote arts, science, education, sports, social welfare, protection of
the environment and even for research purposes but its members cannot be paid a dividend. All
profits should be utilized for furthering the objectives of the company.
When registered as a company, it will not have to add the word ‘limited’ at the end, whereas it is
mandatory for the company to have words like Foundation, Council, Federation, etc. in its name.
As a society: An NGO with seven or more members can be registered as a society under the
Society Registration Act of 1860. The process is a little tedious than usual but is efficacious in the
long run with respect to its functioning and working. Section 20 of the Act elucidates that such
societies may include a military orphanage, formation and maintaining libraries, galleries and
public museums. However, there must be well-defined powers and regulations in their
memorandum while registration itself, accompanied by an affidavit. Such a society provides rules
and powers for the members in the documents itself and is governed as per the society bylaws.
As a trust: A Charitable Trust is not legally obliged to obtain registration; unless the Trust wants to
claim income tax exemptions. In Charitable Trust at least two people are required; there is no limit
of maximum members. While like Section 8 Company and Society, Trust is a separate legal entity.
The Author or Founder of the Trust will initially contribute to the corpus of the Trust and will also
list out the objectives for which the said corpus can be used and also set the vision and mission of
the Trust. After yielding the required trust deed and application form for Trust registration, on an
average, it takes only 2 days to 1 week for its formation. Here, trustees are vested with power rather
than a single person hence decisions tend to be more acute and quicker.

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 After the completion of the NGO registration in the above three methods, the NGO is eligible to
apply for registration under section 12-A and 80G Income Tax Act 1961.

2. Funding-
Fundraising efforts are important for the NGO's existence and success. NGOs can raise funds
through internal sources like membership fees, sales, subscription charges, donations, etc. or grants-
in-aid from the Government, private organizations or foreign sources. The inflow of foreign funds
is governed by the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) 1976. NGOs can also raise funds
through crowdfunding, organizing fund-raising events like workshops, seminars, sports events, etc.
or by digital means.
The following figure (Fig.1) shows Private and Government funding trends in the social sector
(NPOs and NGOs) for the year 2014-2018-

Fig. 1

3. Management-
Two management trends are particularly relevant to NGOs: diversity management and participatory
management. Diversity management deals with different cultures in an organization. Intercultural
problems are prevalent in Northern NGOs that are engaged in developmental activities in the South.
Personnel coming from a rich country are faced with a completely different approach to doing
things in the target country. A participatory management style is said to be typical of NGOs. It is
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 intricately tied to the concept of a learning organization: all people within the organization are
perceived as sources for knowledge and skills. To develop the organization, individuals have to be
able to contribute to the decision-making process and they need to learn.

4. Human Resources-
The human resource is the most important resource in any organization. Just like any other
organization, Non-Government Organizations also need BODs, managers, employees, etc. Being a
Non-Profit Organization, NGOs look for volunteers. The volunteers can be assigned any work from
the plethora available. It could vary from playing with kids, taking care of the elderly to handling
the organization's paperwork, making the annual report, organizing fundraising events, planning
future events, projects and the like. Not all people working for non-governmental organizations are
volunteers. Paid staff members typically receive lower pay than in the commercial private sector.
Employees are highly committed to the aims and principles of the organization. The reasons why
people volunteer is not necessarily purely altruistic and can provide immediate benefits for
themselves as well as those they serve, including skills, experience, and contacts. NGO needs huge
commitments, advantageous and self-motivated individuals who put in their best having a will and
genuine desire to help the needy along with the presence of transparency. Life of an NGO worker
always stresses upon profound peace of mind which is quite toilsome in this modern world.

5. Building a network-
An NGO needs to build a wide professional network with other NGOs, government agencies,
media, and the corporate sector. Like most other organizations, an NGO thrives primarily on the
strength of partnerships.

Causes for which NGOs work-

Among the numerous causes for which NGOs work, some are-

1. Care for elderly people 8. Literacy and Education

2. Women Empowerment 9. Human Rights
3. Animal Rights 10. Health and Nutrition
4. Child Rights 11. Humanitarian Relief
5. Poverty 12. Environment Conservation
6. Social Justice
7. Refugee Crisis

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 IMPORTANCE OF NGOs

NGOs have contributed to the development of communities around the world and are important
partners of many governments – while remaining independent from governments. Non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) play a significant role in today’s society, typically, picking up the government’s
deficits in services and social protection for citizens via the philanthropy of donors and the socially
aware. They provide services to society through welfare works for community development,
assistance in national disasters, sustainable system development, and popular movements.

For the proper development of a particular country or a region, it is very important to bring education
and awareness to the people about their rights and duties. Compromising with this issue means a big
chunk of society is to remain disengaged and deprived, and without proper knowledge, it is not
possible to achieve the goals. NGOs play an important role in helping out the common man with their
rightful demands and also try to help needy people in every possible way. The first and foremost, the
NGOs are responsible for disseminating education among the people at large and making them aware
of their rights. This is the biggest role as well as the biggest challenge for the NGOs.

NGOs maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to garner
media attention and influence policy changes; hence they have the power to reach masses and bring to
light any kind of injustice prevailing within the society.

NGOs also play an important role in health research. NGOs have made and continue to make
substantive contributions by supporting relevant and effective research. India as a nation has a large
vulnerable population in terms of health, security, education, employment, and opportunities. It is not
possible for the government to serve each and every corner of the system and NGOs can facilitate
communication upward from people to the government and downward from the government to the
people. Communication upward involves informing the government about what local people are
thinking, doing and feeling while communication downward involves informing local people about
what the government is planning and doing. NGOs enable citizens to work together voluntarily to
promote social values and civic goals, which are important to them. In some cases, NGOs become
spokespersons for the poor and attempt to influence government policies and programs on their behalf.
Thus NGOs play roles from advocates for the poor to implementers of government programs; from
agitators and critics to partners and advisors; from sponsors of pilot projects to mediators.
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 CHALLENGES FACED BY NGOs

Lack of Funds- Many NGOs find it difficult to garner sufficient and continuous funding for their
work. Gaining access to appropriate donors is a major component of this challenge. They may have
limited resource mobilization skills locally, so instead, they wait for international donors to approach
them. Current donors may shift priorities and withdraw funding. The NGO might suffer from a general
lack of project, organizational and financial sustainability.

Absence of Strategic Planning- Many NGOs suffer from the lack of a cohesive, strategic plan
that would facilitate success in their activities and mission. This renders them unable to effectively
raise and capitalize on financial support.

Poor Governance and Networking- A lack of effective governance is all too common in NGOs.
Many have a deficit of understanding as to why they must have a Board and how to set one up. A
founder may be too focused on running the NGO for their own purposes; however, governance is
foundational to transparency. Poor or disorganized networking is another major challenge, as it can
cause duplicated efforts, time inefficiencies, conflicting strategies and an inability to learn from
experience. The more NGOs communicate with one another, with International Non-Governmental
Organizations (INGOs) and with the community at large, the more effective all of them can be.
However, many NGOs perceive INGOs as hindering or even threatening to their goals and missions.
Many NGOs do not maximize the use of current technologies that could facilitate better
communication and networking. More effective use of technology can assist NGOs in staying abreast
of important regional, national and global concerns.

Limited Capacity- NGOs often lack the technical and organizational capacity to implement and
fulfill their mission, and few are willing or able to invest in training for capacity building. Weak
capacity affects fundraising ability, governance, leadership, and technical areas.

Development Approaches- Many NGOs favor a “hardware” approach to development through

building infrastructure and providing services instead of empowering people and institutions locally.
Overall, their development approaches are not as flexible, sustainable and relevant to the community as
they could be.

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 TOP NGOs IN INDIA

1. SAMMAAN FOUNDATION: Originally established to link the poor to the mainstream

through education, training and financial support, the current project of this NGO involves the
rickshaw pullers to help them earn a better livelihood. This NGO also has a notable contribution in
areas like child education, health services and welfare of women.

2. GOONJ: A recipient of the “NGO of the Year” award in 2007 at the India NGO Awards, this
NGO aims at solving the clothing problems of the downtrodden. Goonj also provides relief during
Rahat floods in West Bengal, Assam, and Bihar.

3. CHILD RIGHTS AND YOU (CRY): CRY was started in the year 1979 by Rippan Kapoor.
The NGO is located in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi. It is dealing with many
issues like Child Labor, Girl Child, Malnutrition, Poverty, Education and Illiteracy, Child Marriage,
Child Trafficking, Gender Inequality.

4. GIVE FOUNDATION: Give Foundation was founded in the year 1999. It is located in
Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is an online donation platform and aims to channel and provide resources to
credible non-governmental organizations across India. It helps in raising funds and contributions from
individuals and then distributes it to credible NGOs.

5. AKSHAYA TRUST: The sole aim of this NGO is to restore human dignity. Operating in
Madurai, this NGO offers rehabilitation, healthy food and care to the street destitute.

6. SMILE FOUNDATION: The main aim of this NGO is the rehabilitation of the
underprivileged by providing them education and healthcare services, thereby converting them into
productive assets. It is run by a group of corporate professionals.

7. UDAAN WELFARE FOUNDATION: The main aim of this NGO is to help the destitute,
the main area of stress being women, children, and senior citizens and also environmental welfare. One
of their main projects is a cancer chemotherapy center.

8. LEPRA SOCIETY: This NGO aims at the prevention and control of diseases like AIDS,
leprosy, and tuberculosis in poor communities.

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9. UDAY FOUNDATION: A New Delhi-based NGO, the Uday Foundation provides support to
the parents and families of children suffering from congenital disorders and other syndromes. Their
projects also include research to open new horizons of healthcare technologies. They also have health
projects for common people. Their special stress is in the area of protecting child rights.

10. HELPAGE INDIA: Established in 1978, the sole aim of this NGO is to provide resources to
the elderly people of our country. Their objective is to make aware senior citizens of their rights and
protect the rights of the senior citizens of our country so that they can also play a key role in our
society. They also work with the government (both local and national) to implement policies that will
be beneficial to the senior citizens of our country.

11. PRATHAM: The main aim of this NGO is to provide education to the children living in the
huge slums of Mumbai and even providing education to those people who are unable to go to school.
Their projects have increased enrollment of children in schools thus promising them a better tomorrow.

12. DEEPALAYA: This NGO aims at providing education to the children living in the slums of
Delhi. Their projects also include providing healthcare, education, vocational training to the
downtrodden and the physically disabled. They have contributed towards significant rural development
in Haryana and Uttarakhand.

While there is no data to show the no. of NGOs in India, but according to some sources India has
nearly 3.4 million non-governmental organizations (NGOs), working in a variety of fields ranging from
disaster relief to advocacy for marginalized and disadvantaged communities. They are a major part of
civil society which brings rapid change and social transformation.

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 CRITICISM

In general, there is an overall positive view of NGOs because of the good deeds they work for but
every good thing comes with some criticism. Some direct complaints target operational problems,
inconsistencies, misuses of funds (some high-profile), dogmatic commitments to a certain assumption
about economic policy, etc. Some have argued that power relations between NGOs and their 'target
countries' are often highly radicalized. Conceptually, there is a slowly growing body of work looking at
the underside of the 'Aid Industry'. Although most complaint literature is against multilateral or
bilateral agencies, there are occasional criticisms of NGO operational strategies and inadvertent
adverse impacts.

In many developing countries with dysfunctional economies, entry into the aid-industry is the most
profitable professional career path for young college graduates. As NGOs provide services in the
community for free or at subsidized rates (such as training), the private sector is unable to evolve and
compete effectively at sustainable levels. Once an NGO begins offering products or services for a fee
(handicrafts, evaluations, digging wells, counseling, etc.), they will over time inevitably compete with
private-sector providers of these same services. But with their donation-funding support or access to
voluntary labor, they have a significant competitive advantage. Co-option (by political or other forces),
mission-drift, changing core services based on an ever-changing funding landscape, transparency,
accountability, moving beyond a charismatic founding leader, and donor-driven rather than self-defined
strategies are some additional areas for concern. New NGOs occasionally receive 'do-gooder'
complaints of engaging in activities to help, without understanding the full complexity and interplay of
issues, resulting in doing more harm than good. But again, in general, NGOs are viewed as beneficial
complementary source filling gaps in society not provided by the public or for-profit sectors. NGOs
have also played a crucial role in upholding International Law, especially United Nations treaties. Their
work continues to be the leading factor in social and political change.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Relevance of the Study

A number of researches have been undertaken which highlighted HR Practices for achieving higher
performance standards in the organization. Some of the researches also explain that designing and
integrating human resources systems is of the ways to ensure the creation for customers and sustain an
organization's effectiveness.

There is growing evidence that corporate HR Practices are associated with high performance and
can encourage employee behavior and attitudes towards strengthening the competitive strategy of
an organization. But no empirical research has so far been undertaken to investigate the effects of
HR Practices in a non-government organization. Thus, a gap exists in the research in this area of
importance. All these faces have motivated the researcher to undertake this research work. This
research will be of great help too:

1. NGOs
This research carries out a thorough study of Human Resource Practices in NGOs. This will
suggest measures for improvement and help NGOs to betterment in performance.

2. Researchers and Students

This research will prove informative for academicians and will become secondary data for students
who are interested to know about the working of NGOs with available resources.

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 OBJECTIVES

• To identify and examine the extent of HR Practices in NGOs.

• To understand the emerging trends of HRM spreading in the NGO.

• To find out the procedure of recruitment in NGOs.

• To discern the mode of training to the existing employees in NGOs.

• To find out the ways of appraising the performance of employees in NGOs.

• To know the grievance handling methods in NGOs.

• To explore the existence of unions in the NGO sector.

• To identify activities like welfare, health, and safety in NGO culture.

• To identify the culture of NGOs and the establishment of HRM.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Every research has its limitations and merits as well. This research is no exception to this and prone to
the following limitations:

 Very few articles are available related to HRM Practices in NGOs.

 Fewer data and figures are available related to the information on NGOs.

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 COLLECTION OF DATA

The task of data collection begins after chalking out the research plan. Here the researcher uses both
primary and secondary data.

Primary data — The primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time. and thus
happen to be original in character

Secondary data — The secondary data are those which have already been collected by someone else
and which have already been passed through the statistical process.

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 WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE?

Introduction

Human resources are used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the
department responsible for managing resources related to employees. The term human resources were
first coined in the 1960s when the value of labor relations began to garner attention and when notions
such as motivation, organizational behavior, and selection assessments began to take shape.

Human resources are the people who make up the workforce of an organization. You could call it
personnel, labor, manpower or people. Human Resources Department (HRD) is the department within
a business that is responsible for all worker-related things. That includes recruiting, vetting, selecting,
hiring, onboarding, training, promoting, paying, and firing employees and independent contractors. HR
is also the department that stays on top of new legislation guiding how workers need to be treated
during the hiring, working, and firing process.

Human Resource is considered by many business strategists to be the most important of all company
resources. That’s because employees can gain new skills, thereby helping the organization grow. Other
resources simply don’t have that capacity.

Since an organization is a body of people, their acquisition, development of skills, motivation for
higher levels of attainments, as well as ensuring maintenance of their level of commitment is all
significant activities. These activities fall into the domain of HRM.

Human Resource Management is a process, which consists of four main activities, namely, acquisition,
development, motivation, as well as maintenance of human resources.

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 IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Behind every successful organization is a good team of working professionals dedicated to their
craft and to the advancement of the organization’s goals and interests.

One can, therefore, conclude that there will be no building of a good team without having good
human resource management. The benefits of having such human resource management include
but are in no way limited to the following:

1. Recruitment and Training

One of the major responsibilities of a human resource team is recruitment and training. This is
where it all begins. Plans and strategies are drawn for the purpose of hiring the right people for
the job. The human resource team-

 tailors each requirement to meet the needs of a specific job function.

 further specifies the responsibilities and the scope attached to the job function.

 prepares the contract of the employee.

 facilitates the training of the employee in accordance with the job requirements formulated.

 provides further training for existing employees, thereby increasing their skills and
usefulness to the company.

2. Preserving a Good Working Environment

It is without question that a safe, clean, and healthy environment helps in crease the overall
feeling of wellness in an employee. Being comfortable and enjoying the atmosphere in a
workplace helps bring out the best performance of an employee and contributes to how an
employee feels working in the company which translates further to job satisfaction.

3. Performance Evaluation and Improvement

Human resource management aims to have employees reach their full potential in relation to
work and provides healthy suggestions and feedback for improvement. Employees are given

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information from time to time regarding their performance and further defines the roles they are
given which helps them focus on what needs to be improved or missing.

4. Dispute Management

It is but inevitable for disputes to arise in any organization. Human resource s, after all, is a
diverse resource that is filled with many individuals coming from different cultures and different
backgrounds. No two humans are ever alike, and clashing personalities would always be at the
forefront of employee relations. Human resource management effectively acts as a mediator and
consultant in these circumstances and helps sort out the issues involved between parties. Hearing
out grievances from each side helps them come up with viable solutions which when taken in a
timely manner prevents issues from blowing up out of proportions.

5. Public Relations Development

Human resource teams actively participate in communities like organizing seminars, business
meetings, or other official get-togethers in order to develop public relations with other
institutions and to the general consumer public. Human resources management further develops
seminars and business meetings to provide exposure for the organization to the public, thereby
improving or increasing public image. Having a good public image encour ages the best minds to
come looking for a job at your place. Human resource management likewise aims to have a
balance in recruiting the most suitable applicants and retaining talented employees.

6. Budget Control and Cost Savings

With the development of ways to cut down workforce-management costs, HR management

prevents excessive spending by, for example, negotiating for better rates in terms of benefits in
healthcare coverage and others. HR management bases wage-setting by studying the labor
market, employment trends, and based on job functions.

But who manages the human resources of a company?

The human resources of an organization are managed by the head of the Human Resource Department,
the Human Resource Manager.

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 WHO IS A HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER?

A Human Resource Manager or HR Manager or HR is an individual within an organization responsible

for hiring new employees, supervising employee evaluations, mediation between employees and bosses
as necessary and general overseeing of the personnel department.

Human resource (HR) managers are involved with recruitment, training, career development,
compensation and benefits, employee relations, industrial relations, employment law, compliance,
disciplinary and grievance issues, redundancies, etc. The job involves keeping up to date with areas
such as employment law, which change often.

Generalist HR roles are usually found in small and medium-sized companies, where the HR manager
will deal with the whole range of HR activities. In large organizations, you will often find specialists,
for example in learning and development, recruitment or employee relations.

Role of HR manager-

HR professionals are mainly concern with developing spontaneous theories and models for improving
HR practices. They are creating models that will fit with the required organizational requirements. In
some research, it has been proven that HR professionals make every effort to create balance with the
contradicting forces within the organization. HR personnel is doing this effort without thinking about
many business changes. Earlier, the traditional role of Human Resource professionals as being the
administrative arm of the organization was to systematize and make policies. The role of the HR
professional in serving executive objectives has been well executed. However, it has become a major
roadblock for some organizations. Despite these views, this role is occasionally maintained.

 The Traditional Role

The traditional role of HR professionals was confined to the context of operational

responsibilities. Their activities involve only the following:

 Staffing/resourcing/hiring

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  Evaluating/rewarding

 Motivating/mentoring/ counseling

 Developing/maintaining the culture

 Managing/controlling

 The New Role

The role of the HR manager is transforming and answering the changes that occur in his
organization. In order for the organizations to succeed in a business environment they are now
becoming adaptable, elastic, quickly respond to changes and have become customer-
centered. The below-mentioned duties of an HR in the modern world explain that the HR
professional must balance the roles of being a change agent, an administrative expert, a strategic
partner, and an employee champion.

Duties of an HR manager-

 Recruitment: Recruitment has been one of the major responsibilities of the HR team. It is the
job of HR personnel to plan and devise strategic campaigns and guidelines for recruiting suitable
candidates for a required job description. They also have to serve as a mediator between the
employer and the candidate and communicate company policies and terms of the contract to the
candidate before he is hired. This is the first pillar of HR management that every HR manager
starts with. It’s probably one of the most important aspects of any HR professional’s career. The
recruitment function comprises 2 main objectives-

I. Attract Talent- Attracting talent starts with first planning the requirement of manpower in
the organization and the gauging needs of the organization’s human resource
requirements, and accordingly putting a plan of action to fulfill those needs with the
placement of “talented professionals”. That’s followed by creating an “employer brand”
which will be representative of the organization’s good image and portray an attractive
impression in the minds of potential candidates.

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 II. Hire Resources- This is where the recruitment strategies are put into action. The HR
manager needs to run all possible engines to go out there in the market and find that one
suitable gem. This part of the role includes things like finding relevant locations to look
in, reach out to maximum potential candidates using mass communication mediums,
aggregate all responses, filter out irrelevant applications, judge suitable incumbents and
coordinate internally to get them interviewed.

 Training:
Not all is done once you’ve recruited a suitable candidate for the job. Training is important to
help the new hires get acquainted with the organization’s work pattern. It is imperative for the
HR department to incorporate a training program for every new employee based on the skill set
required for their job. It will further also contribute to employee motivation and retention. For the
training to be effective, every new employee can be subjected to on-the-job training for the initial
days to get him in sync with the work guidelines of the organization. This training will not only
be of assistance to the employee but also give the HR team an insight into the employee’s
workmanship. On completion of the training, HR plays a significant role in assessing the results
of the training program and grading employees on the same.

 Rewards and Incentives:

Rewarding the employees for a work well done imparts motivation and at the same time induces
a desire to excel at tasks in hope of obtaining rewards. It serves as bait for inculcating a healthy
competitive environment amongst employees to achieve targets and meet deadlines. A reward
needs not to be materialistic always. It could just be a word of appreciation in front of all
coworkers for a menial task done with complete honesty.

 Maintaining Work Culture:

It is the duty of the HR to maintain a healthy, safe, and fun work environment to ensure a level of
comfort amongst the employees and eliminate any stressful or awkward atmosphere that may
hinder the performance of the staff. It is vital to have an efficient work atmosphere because of an
individual’s performance largely depends on the surrounding he’s working in.

24
 Appraisals:
Performance appraisals help in employee motivation by encouraging them to work to their fullest
potential. It also enables to give them feedback on their work and suggest necessary measures for
the same. This helps employees to have a clear view of what is expected of them and what they
are delivering. They can thus, work well towards improving their performance and achieving
targets. The role of HR in this would be to have a policy of generating timely appraisal reports
and a review of the same by the authorities. The HR team should communicate individually with
employees and give clear feedback or suggestion on their performance. A system to reward
employees excelling at their work would help in employee motivation and thus garner a higher
degree of productivity and employee engagement.

 Resolving Conflicts:
Where different people have different views, conflicts are almost inevitable. Whether the dispute
is amongst two or more employees or between the employee and the management, an HR
manager has the right to intervene and help map out a solution. The HR should be available at the
disposal of the conflicting parties and hear out their issues without being judgmental. Prior
investigations are a must before passing any judgment. The HR head is not expected to
discriminate or play favorites in this matter and always deliver an unbiased and practical
decision. Reimbursement in case of any loss caused and strict actions against the defaulter should
be practiced for effective conflict resolution by the HRM.

 Employee Relations:
Human Resources are called so because its major responsibility is dealing with the human part of
the organization and this involves having great interpersonal skills. An HR manager who sits in
the office all day will not turn out to be good at building connections with the employees and
thus fail to serve the purpose of being an HR head. As an HR person, employees should feel
comfortable coming up to you with their problems and for that, it is important that the HR team
builds a good public image within the organization.
The HR team has to be proactive and know their employees. The HR head’s role is to establish
the trust and confidence of the employees. He should be looked upon as both an HR expert and
an employee advocate.

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 Legal Knowledge
This may seem the least glamorous of all, but is an important aspect of the HRM. An HR
manager should always be in compliance with the law. Whether it’s drafting new policies or
writing terms of a contract, it is the HR department’s job to build guidelines keeping the laws in
mind. This ensures an organization’s continued growth and existence. While drafting policies,
the HR should always ensure to be at an upper hand legally and keep the organization’s practices
in tune with the labor laws, tax laws, permissible working hours, minimum wages, and a no-
discrimination policy.

 Management
Management is the most important job of an HR manager. Management extends right from
managing employees to managing the employers and the whole HR department as well. The role
of an HR manager is to manage, create, implement and supervise policies/regulations, which are
mandatory for every employee and also have knowledge of its appropriate functioning. As
mentioned before, the HR as a department should also be well managed by the HR head. If the
HR department itself is in a state of chaos, it cannot serve as a peacemaker for the other
departments.

 Organization
An HR head is responsible for organizing all functions of the organization. To start with, it
includes employee on-boarding, i.e. welcoming new employees. It is a must for every HR head to
carry out induction for every new hire and give them an orientation regarding the company
policies and rules.
The HR personnel should also introduce the new employees to their colleagues and assign them a
mentor. It also involves listing out job expectations and defining roles and responsibilities, thus
getting the new employees in tune with the working of the organization. The HR personnel is
also responsible for organizing and storing all employee data efficiently and keeping it secure.

26
 HUMAN RESOURCES IN NGOs

If Non-Governmental Organizations can play a better role in corporate social responsibility, the
question here is who can play a better role in linking industry with the community. The answer here is
the Human Resource Management Department of the industry. The HR managers should take lead in
its effort to make a linkage between the community and the industry. To develop a better rapport with
the people, HR managers have to make use of their Strategic Relationship Management Skills. They
should interact with the community by establishing better linkage with the Non-Governmental
Organizations working there in the locality. The HR managers can initially conduct Focus Group
Discussion (FGD) with the community and community leaders with the help of Non-Governmental
Organizations and need evaluation and need prioritization is to be conducted.
Non-government organizations (NGOs) have become significant players in development policy over
the last two decades. The evolving relationship among NGOs, developing states and donors are a
critical aspect of international development assistance and the wider development policy debate. NGOs
vary in their missions, internal management, the scope of the engagement, source of funding, relations
with developing sates and targeted areas of operations. NGOs are the vanguard of civil society. They
have increasingly been seen as the vehicles of the new polices agenda of economic liberalization and
political channeling resource through northern and indigenous NGOs support grassroots organizations,
social change, political empowerment, and sustainable development. Developing states have ceded
space to NGOs to deliver services, perform contract development work and promote institutional
capacity building. The role of NGOs in the contemporary world is elaborately described in the present
study along with the management challenges and other issues faced by NGOs, social activity, policy-
makers and all concerned.

Just as businesses and organizations of all sizes and areas of operation rely on their personnel to
execute their strategies and advance their goals, so too do non- profit groups. It follows, then, that non-
profit organizations need to attend the same tasks as profit-seeking companies do when they turn to the
challenges of establishing and maintaining a solid workforce.

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Extensive research was done by PRIA; a leading NGO in India, on the NGO Sector indicates the
following facts about NGOs in India-

Table-I- Number of people working in the NGO sector in India

All India / State Number Volunteers Paid

All India 24.4 million 88% 18%
West Bengal 1.67 million 92% 12%
Tamil Nadu 1.56 million 75% 31%
Delhi 1.25 million 82% 22%
Maharashtra 0.98 million 93% 13%
Meghalaya 0.23 million 88% 19%

From the above data, it is revealed that most of the NGOs are staffed with voluntary workers and many
of them have very few paid staff. The question arises, how many personnel in NGOs are professionals
if very few people are remunerated for their services.

Review of various pieces of literature such as books, journals, and unpublished research reports reveals
that the empowerment of human resource professionals is high on the agenda in development plans and
policies. NGOs have proved to have the potential to facilitate the process of empowerment among
professionals. The definition encompasses a few key elements such as power, autonomy and self-
reliance, entitlement, participation, awareness development, and capacity building.

Capacity-building for NGOs is an ongoing process. As we move ahead to bring about social change,
we also end up facing new and unexpected challenges. However, constant training and exposure to new
ideas can lead organizations to address these challenges and improve their organizational growth.

Organizational development is a critical aspect of fundraising. If the systems of your organization are
set right, you not only perform better, but you also have the prospect of attracting donors to support and
empower you.

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 IMPORTANCE OF HR IN NGOs

The importance of Human Resources (HR) in a non-governmental organization (NGO) as a means of

ensuring sustainable growth for an organization cannot be overemphasized, as it is the fundamental
strength upon which people, strategies, processes, and operations are based. Effective employee
management should be on top of the list of priorities for the progressive improvement of an
organization. An NGO must strive to attract, develop and retain qualified and enthusiastic employees
as they are the key to the success of one’s business.

Human resource management is the management of the people who work in an organization. They can
be managers, employees, project officers, field workers, coordinators. Since the organization is run by
these people, they are considered to be a “resource” – ‘a human resource.’ Like we use funds to
manage a project, we also need to use these ‘human resources’ or ‘people’ to manage the organization.

Better Better resource Better

management of mobilization performance
organization’s and funding of and better
resources the organization results

It is not enough just to have a dedicated team for an organization. It is fundamentally believed that
unless the team is not properly managed, motivated and performed, the organization will not achieve its
goal and objectives.

Almost all the HR practices are being adopted by larger NGOs and the roles and responsibilities are
equally challenging. Clear selection criteria must be created. An NGO should take advantage of the
benefits of tools like psychometric testing in the selection process. Psychometric testing and other
similar tools can contribute significant value by helping HR practitioners in placing the right types of
individuals in the right positions. This also helps to ensure that new employees receive the correct
training to enhance their own skills, specifically in critical positions such as childcare and management
roles.
29
Providing employees with support and understanding is especially important in organizations that work
with children and trauma cases. An example is that of a wellness initiative that focuses on the well-
being of staff, including, health, trauma and employee stress. Such initiatives are aimed at retaining
qualified, enthusiastic employees and developing a positive organizational culture. It is critical for HR
practitioners to partner with businesses in understanding the needs of an organization, what challenges
the industry is facing such as skills shortages, salary disparities, etc, best practice HR procedures and
government policies that stand as a hindrance to the success of an NGO.

The personnel function in the NGO industry has evolved to the HR business partnering concept and is
well embraced by many NGOs in recent years. Any NGO using the business partnering model with
strategic intent in aligning people to business is bound to achieve organizational success. The NGO
world is continuously evolving and is becoming an industry to be recognized as the change frontier in
economic and social development in the country and with the right people, it’s bound to achieve
success.

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 HR SELECTION PROCEDURE IN NGOs

1. Assessing Organization’s Needs-

The key component of any endeavor to build a quality core of personnel is an honest assessment of
current and future internal needs and external influences. Leaders and managers of non-profit
organizations should study workload history, trends in the larger philanthropic community,
pertinent changes in the environment in which they operate (layoffs, plant closings, introduction of
a new organization with a similar mission, legislative developments, etc.), personnel demands
associated with current and planned initiatives, operating budget and costs, and the quality and
quantity of the area worker pool, both for volunteer and staff positions. As many non-profit leaders
have noted, adherence to other general business principles (sound fiscal management, retention of
good employees through good compensation packages, etc.) is of little solace if the organization
loses sight of its mission—it's the reason for being—in the process.

2. Recruitment-
Recruiting, screening, and selecting the organization’s workforce is the main nature of human
resource management functions in NGOs. Every NGO adopts unique strategies for fulfillment the
process of HRM and different types of tools are followed by the NGOs to complete the process.
While the process of recruitment for many non-profit organizations, publicizing its very existence
is the most important step that it can take in its efforts to recruit staff and volunteers alike. This is
especially true if one wishes to encourage volunteers to become involved. Volunteers are the life-
blood of countless non-profit organizations, for they attend to the basic tasks that need performing,
from paperwork to transportation of goods and/or services to maintenance. Many non-profit groups
have found that contact with some community organizations, particularly churches and civic
groups, can be particularly rewarding since these organizations already have members that may be
predisposed toward lending a hand.

3. Screening and Selection-

The interviewing process is another essential component of successful staffing for non-profit
groups. This holds true for volunteers as well as for officers, directors, and paid staff. Indeed, Larry
W. Kennedy remarked in his book that "volunteers should be recruited and interviewed
systematically the same way you would recruit paid staff. An orderly and professional approach to

31
 volunteer management will pay off handsomely for your organization. What you do in the
recruitment phase of your work will set the standard for volunteer performance. If you are
disciplined and well organized, you will often attract more qualified volunteers." Managers of non-
profit organizations should make sure that they do the following when engaged in the process of
staffing, screening, and selection:
 Recognize that all personnel whether they are heading up your organization's annual fundraising
drive or lending a hand for a few hours every other Saturday have an impact on the group's
performance.
 Use an application form that covers all pertinent areas of the applicant's background.
 Ensure that the screening process provides information about an individual's skills, attitudes, and
knowledge.
 Try to determine if the applicant or would-be volunteer is interested in the organization for
legitimate reasons (professional development and/or advancement, genuine interest in your
group's mission) or primarily for reasons that may not advance the organization's cause
(loneliness, corporate burnout, etc.).
 Objectively evaluate prospective employees and volunteers based on criteria established in the
organization's job specifications.
 Be realistic in putting together a volunteer workforce. "Managers cause most of the problems
with volunteers by making unreasonable assumptions about their intentions and capabilities,"
wrote Kennedy. An organization that sets the bar too high in its expectations of volunteers (in
terms of services provided, hours volunteered, etc.) may find itself with a severe shortage of this
potentially valuable resource.

Recognizing that would-be volunteers and employees bring both assets and negative attributes to
your organization, non-profit groups should be flexible in accommodating those strengths and
weaknesses. "If you want people to perform in an organization, you have to use their strengths—
not emphasize their weaknesses," said Drucker. Organizations that pay attention to these
guidelines will be far more likely to enjoy positive and lasting relationships with their volunteers
and staff than those who fill their human resource needs in a haphazard fashion.

How to write a standard employment contract for NGO

Once the recruitment of staff is finalized, an appointment letter needs to be issued, which comprises the
information about the final selection. On acceptance of the letter, the new employee will be signing an
employment contract with the organization.

32
The employment contract comprises of the following:

 Duration of the employment: whether it is for a fixed date or not.

 Termination of agreement: how to terminate the agreement from either side.

 Duties of the employee: based on the job description given

 Hours of work: number of hours to be given by the employee to work with the organization like
for example, 40 hours per week.

 Compensation, Benefits, and Taxes

 Evaluation

4. Orientation and Training-

Orienting Staff and Volunteers to the Organization Training is a vital component of successful non-
profit organization management. But many non-profit managers fail to recognize that training
initiatives should be built for all members of the organization, not just those who are salaried
employees. "Specialized training should be designed for every person in the organization, including
board members and volunteers," contended Kennedy. The principles of quality management should
be reinforced in each phase of training, with generous opportunities given to the trainees to talk
about their questions and concerns.

5. Poor Performers-
Many non-profit organizations find that at one point or another, they must address poor
performance by a member of the organization. When that person is a paid member of the staff,
dealing with the issue is in many respects no different than it would be in the for-profit world.
Organizations of all types have a right to assume certain standards of performance from paid
employees, and if that standard is not met, they should, by all means, take the steps necessary to
ensure that they receive the necessary level of performance from that position, even if that means
firing a poor worker. The situation becomes more complex when the person is a volunteer,
however. The volunteer work is an essential element of many non-profit organizations, and the
primary characteristics of volunteerism—selfless service— make it difficult to remove poor
performers. In addition, the insensitive handling of one volunteer can have a negative impact on
other volunteers upon which your organization relies. Nonetheless, Kennedy stated that "volunteers
should be held accountable just as though they were being paid top dollar to work. This does not

33
 mean that you can be careless about people's feelings. Even for-profit managers have learned that
managing and supervising requires certain social graces and sensitivity to every individual.
However, the reluctance of non-profit managers to hold volunteers accountable to reasonable levels
of performance or to terminate bad volunteer relationships can be their downfall."

6. Compensating the Organization's Employees and Volunteers-

Compensation is one of the most important parts of human resource management. Different types
of packages, perks, complimentary gifts are practiced by the NGOs to make the employees
satisfied. The main intention of such type of compensation is motivation, need fulfillment and
satisfaction of employees. Two types of benefits may be provided to compensate the employees-
 Tangible Benefits: Benefits that can be quantified, especially in money terms are called
tangible benefits. The benefits can be as attractive as those provided by for-profit business
corporations. In addition, the benefits can be far more economical for the corporation and
beneficial to the employees than any program that could be offered by unincorporated
organizations. The nonprofit corporation can establish an employee pension and retirement
income plan. It can provide for sick pay and vacation pay. It may arrange for group life,
accident and health insurance coverage for its officers and employees. It can elect to cover its
employees' personal medical expenses that are not covered by the group insurance plans,
provided that the corporation can pay all or part of the cost of the various employee benefits
it sets up.
 Intangible Benefits: Successful managers of nonprofit organizations recognize that the people
who compose their organization’s workforce—volunteers, employees, officers, and directors
alike—are often participating in the group at least in part for altruistic reasons. Although
successful business executives have learned that workers are not entirely motivated by
paychecks or promotions—they need more—the need is even greater in non-profit
institutions. Even paid staff in these organizations need achievement, the satisfaction of
service, or they become alienated and even hostile. After all, what's the point of working in a
non-profit institution if one doesn't make a clear contribution

7. Appraisal-
A very few Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are emphasizing performance appraisal to
determine the strength and weaknesses of their employees to improve their productivity.
Organizations have to realize that a well-developed performance appraisal process can be useful for
assessment of employee training needs, merit appraisal, determining salary, feedback, and
suggestion for performance development.

34
Performance appraisal can also be used as a motivational tool for communicating performance
expectations to employees and providing them with feedback. So, like any other organization,
performance appraisal plays an important role in NGOs too.

The Employee Performance Plan can be developed to analyze an employee’s performance. It is

developed jointly by the NGO supervisor and the employee together after discussing and planning the
objectives, activities, and results to be undertaken by the employee. The Performance Plan for the
year specifically outlines the targets to be achieved by the employee over the year and these targets
will be used as benchmarks during the annual evaluation and appraisal.

Below is a sample format of an Employee Performance Plan:

Name of the Employee:

Position held:

Name of the Supervisor:

Performance Period (Start Date and End Date):

Set Targets for the Results to be achieved by the

Activities
employee employee

Improve the capacity of Better delivery of services to Providing training and

the field workers communities exposure visits to field workers

Mobilization of funding Researching donors, finding

Availability of increased funding
resources for the funding opportunities, writing
for the organization
organization proposals, etc.

……. ……. …….

……. ……. …….

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In addition to the Employee Annual Performance Plan, the employee has to develop a work plan on a
monthly basis in consultation with the supervisor and based upon the Annual Performance Plan.

A monthly work plan consists of:

Months
Activities
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Conducting a
baseline
survey

Organize a
health camp

Writing
proposals

…….

…….

…….

8. Reaching every corner of the world-

With regard to dealing with a worldwide workforce, NGOs confront many similar complexities and
difficulties if not more everywhere. It is normal for NGOs to have a few provincial workplaces and
representatives situated worldwide. However, NGO representatives every now and again work in
the absolute most remote places on earth. To effectively deal with this remote workforce, there
needs to be efficient HR governance and practices to maximize the effectiveness of the effort.

9. On-going support-
A constructive HR department can tremendously affect the dynamics of an association. Inspiration
and motivating employees can be difficult within regular organizations, not to mention an NGO.
And so, it is imperative that the leadership team within an NGO is strong enough to lead the

36
 organization through difficult times and able to effectively communicate the vision to the rest of the
organization.

10. Redefining goals and influencing teams-

Like most organizations, NGOs have their own set of challenges in operations, HR, compliance,
and legislation especially if the NGO is an international one. In these times, HR can play a pivotal
role that can be a game-changer that will help the organization through. To avoid getting into
trouble, HR should also take the responsibility of forecasting and planning for the future in terms of
particular challenges the NGO may face in areas of talent acquisition, compliance and labor laws.
According to this, contingent strategies must be drawn as well as redefining goals should become
priorities to help the organization navigate through smoothly. While NGOs may have different
challenges compared to private organizations, some of these may be similar to private organizations
in terms of talent acquisition, onboarding, training, and development. However, with a pro-active
stance from the HR, most of these can be overcome.

37
 CHALLENGES

The following are the human resource problems identified within the local NGOs:

 Recruitment and Retention of Competent Staff

Many of the sampled local NGOs work with a project orientation focus which means there is a
low priority for investing in nurturing human resource capacities and staff retention measures due
to their short term nature of the projects. Some organizations are not able to have the right
employees at the right time and place. When they recruit the staff they face the challenge of
retaining them to the end of the project phase as staff leave before the termination of the project.
This dynamism experienced in project-oriented organizations is a great challenge as staff
turnovers are often high and erratic and this destabilizes programming and eventually the
performance of the organization. Some of the geographical areas where the NGOs operate are
inaccessible or remote and it becomes difficult to attract staff to work in these sites and they are
forced to rely on temporary staff or unqualified staff to fill the positions.

 Inadequate Human Resource Policies or Procedures

Some of the local NGOs sampled do not have in place HR guidelines that support staff
management. Where they exist they are not utilized and are instead used as tools to get donor
funds. Much of the staffing management issues are done in an ad hoc manner and it is never
clear what the employee is expected to do at a given time. In some organizations, the policies that
exist are not aligned with government labor policies. For example, the government has a policy
that a nursing mother will be given three months' leave with pay but in some organizations, they
gave either one month or the policy was not included at all. Some NGOs did not have contracts,
job descriptions or letters of appointments for the staff. It is therefore difficult to get records of
when the staff was employed, what they are entitled to, length of the contract, and what their
responsibilities were. In some organizations, because they did not have contracts some of them
went without pay during some months, were never given leave breaks from work, were deducted
some of their pay for some unexplained expenses by management.

38
 Lack of Capacity to Manage a Diversity of Workforce
A challenge facing local NGOs is how to manage diverse groups that exist in the workforce to
ensure they are committed to the organization’s mission. Many face challenges in the motivation
of people of diverse ages and gender and many of the organizations still use outdated methods to
manage the staff. For example, there is a rise in the recruitment of younger better “educated”
staff and this has contributed to tensions between the older “experienced” staff. Therefore there
was a lack of delegation of work in a clear and systematic way due to conflicting approaches to
work and suspicion among the two groups. Sometimes the lack of educated and skilled labor
force within a location affected recruitment as some organizations had to hire part-time staff or
work with volunteers yet the organizations did not have relevant policies to engage with the
groups effectively. In other instances, it was a challenge, especially where they had those who
were employed /appointed by the community and those who used the formal system of
recruitment.

 Mismatching of Employee Qualifications with Jobs or Positions

In some organizations, a staff was placed in a position that they did not have the required
competency or the skills to perform the tasks adequately. For example, a staff trained in
procurement was recruited as an accountant or an engineer as a program coordinator in a health
project. In other scenarios, those holding management positions did not have the relevant skills or
knowledge to support the other staff they supervised. These scenarios resulted in poor
performance in the organizations as the staff was not able to undertake their duties effectively.
Local NGOs need to understand that they cannot succeed if employees perceive they are
underutilized or are utilized at the wrong time or in the wrong position.

 Inadequate HR Management Skills among Supervisors

The size of many of the local organizations is small. In an organization of 3-10 organizations,
many do not have an HR unit or an HR manager and this may not be a practical idea due also to
the cost implications. The HR function is therefore in these NGOs is handled by either a project
manager or another staff who may not have the necessary HR skills and this creates conflicts in
management. This lack of HR skills affects the day-to-day management of the organization and
has in some instances led to conflicts over responsibilities between management and staff over
who should implement what activities.

39
 Organization Program Strategies Affect Staffing
Many local NGOs are entering into alliances and partnerships with either National or
international organizations, businesses or government, and these engagements require them to
recruit or restructure their human resources to exploit the new opportunities. This means staff
appointments are sometimes project-based, contractual and for specified periods. In some
organizations there exist 2-3 projects supported by different donors who may, unfortunately,
implement different salary schemes and work practices and this creates conflicts within the
organization and creates management challenges. Where organizations are in partnership with a
donor agency and the donor does not provide funds to hire additional staff then the existing staff
is sometimes required to take up multiple roles without having the necessary skills required. This
causes an increase in workload, stress, dissatisfaction among staff and eventually causes
underperformance of the entire organization.

 Inability to Offer and Provide Competitive Employee Incentives and Benefits

This issue is most challenging in NGOs because offering competitive benefits to employees has
high-cost implications and local NGOs do not have the financial resources to do so. The salaries
or incentives provided are dependent on the donor funds received or the income generated
through an enterprise activity undertaken by the organization. This sometimes impacts heavily
on the staff morale and performance within these organizations.

 Inadequate Performance Management Systems

Managers and employees are required to develop performance targets and outputs that define
individual tasks. However many staff and management acknowledged that this process does not
exist in their organizations. There were no tools or mechanisms to support staff appraisals and
hence it meant that it was not easy to track staff performance. Yet some of the reasons
management would give for firing a staff would be due to poor performance but with the further
inquiry on how that was determined there is no documented evidence of the “poor performance”.
Managers who did not set work targets and this de-motivated staff. Many staff feels frustrated
about the lack of constructive feedback on their performance often because it is unclear what is
expected of them. Many local NGOs have not embraced a performance culture within their
organizations. This results in low or poor performance in terms of the achievements of the
planned organizational mandates.

40
 Inadequate Career Development Opportunities
Another challenge facing staff in local NGOs is the lack of career enhancement opportunities.
This would involve continuously working towards creating new job opportunities and supporting
staff to develop within the organization to keep up the morale. In the past organizations
equipped employees to fulfill organizational requirements through training and developmental
interventions. However, the scope and cost of training and development have risen with the
reality of trained employees quitting before making a significant contribution to the organization
after the training and therefore many organizations do not plan for this. In a situation where
training opportunities were available o the relevant staff was not given the opportunity to attend
and instead another staff is sent for training or the supervisors attend the training yet they are not
directly involved in project implementation activities. In project-oriented organizations, there is
no certainty of growing in one’s career as the funding duration is normally short term and funds
or opportunities to support the development of human resources capacity are normally few or not
available.

 Difficulties in Maintaining Balance between Employee and Organization

Needs another challenge facing organizations is the alignment of employee expectations with the
organization’s strategic focus. Local NGOs constantly face the difficult task of trying to balance
between employee concerns and organizational strategic and financial goals. Employees
perceived that their concerns and needs were not being addressed by the organizations and were
overshadowed by the organization’s need to please donors. Employees eventually lacked the
motivation to work towards fulfilling the organization’s objectives or core mission. There is also
a limited investment in people who have been around for long periods in the organization to
counter the sense of dissatisfaction and distancing from the vision.

 Lack of Induction and Coaching Mechanisms for New Employees

Many local NGOs made the assumption that the staff they recruited had the skills required to
perform their duties. Yet many fail to realize that the staff recruited need to understand the
organization mandates and projects for them to work effectively. Many young people joining
local NGOs felt that there is not enough mentoring or clear career direction, while at the same
time there is pressure to learn and deliver on the project outcomes. Staff in some of the local
NGOs felt their supervisors did not give them clear guidance about the day to day tasks required
to perform their roles and this scenario was made worse where there were no job descriptions.

41
 This resulted in supervisors setting unrealistic demands on the staff or the staff ended up not
undertaking the tasks as required.

 Presence of Leadership Gaps/Crisis

Many of the local NGOs face a leadership crisis. Once a management position falls vacant, many
of the organizations were seen to have difficulties in getting a replacement and there are
instances when this position remains vacant for over a period of 6 months to one year. There are
also challenges faced when the founder members hold management positions within the
organizations and they do not give opportunity or build the leadership capacity of other managers
or staff within the organization. Many local NGOs focus more on building their technical skills
and knowledge but fail in planning for the development of leadership or management structures.
This aspect often is often not seen as a priority but many suffer the consequences of a serious
leadership vacuum in the organization.

 Inadequate or Clear Structures for Rewarding Performance

Many staff felt the organizations did not reward or recognize staff for good or exemplary
performance and sanctions against poor performers was something that many of the
organizations failed to address or ignored. Some staff felt that as long as the staff was linked or
perceived to be ‘loyal’ to management poorly performing staff would remain in service for long
without any action being taken. This caused tensions among those who felt they worked extra
hard to contribute to the achievement of organization objectives yet they were not recognized for
their efforts. It was noted that the criteria for the allocation of benefits were not clear and were
mostly associated with “loyalty” to management rather than performance.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the listed challenges in managing human resources. local NGOs in the development sector
need to adopt a strategic focus in human resource management and replace the traditional forms. HRM
in small organizations is often ad hoc, and often a reflection of the backgrounds of founders and
entrepreneurs.

I see there is a need for local NGOs to borrow and contextualize best and promising HRM practices
used by the business sector to improve organizational HR management. This will address the issues
that arise as a result of having ad hoc HRM practices that are influenced by the founders of the local
NGO or are not contextualized to fit the context in which an organization operates.

The following are possible solutions that would be relevant if adopted and implemented to address the
current challenges that local NGOs have in managing human resources. There is evidence that the
earlier small organizations adopt HRM approaches and the extent to which they invest in the practices
and people, have long-term impacts on organizational growth and survival.

 Develop Relevant (Context-Based) Human Resource Guidelines or Policies

Many of the local organizations either lacked HR policies or a manual to guide the management
of employees or had policies that were not aligned to the organization's context or government
policies. Where a manual existed it was not approved by management and therefore the
guidelines were not implemented. The organizations need to develop detailed HR policies that
reflect the existing organizational environment and then go beyond developing the policies to
institutionalize them.

 Development of HRM Plan Linked to Organization Strategic Focus

Human resource planning is important for the management of human resources in local NGOs.
This process will ensure the NGOs have the human resource capacity required to achieve their
organization’s goals and deliver results effectively in the present and in the future. Most of the
local NGOs have financial and strategic plans that guide the achievement of the organization’s
mission. However, the development of human resource plans is not a common organizational
practice. A human resource plan will enable the organization to identify and match staff with the
relevant positions planned for within the organization and avoid hazard recruitment of staff
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 which is more often donor-driven and not organization focused. This will also address the issue
of having many conflicting staffing structures due to having different donor-supported projects
and ensures alignment in the management of employees within different donor projects Local
NGOs although they have a few staff should develop an HR plan to guide HR decisions that are
focused and centered on the organization’s vision and not necessarily on the donor.

 Develop Mechanisms That Support Identification, Development, and Utilization of Staff

Capacity
Local NGOs need to develop structures and create opportunities that will fully utilize the
potential of their employees. People are undervalued, not adequately trained, underutilized and
poorly motivated in many organizations and consequently perform well below their true
capability. Many employees feel they are wasted and not given the opportunity to develop their
capacity or use the knowledge they have gained in similar previous positions. Local NGOs need
to use different approaches in job design/redesign and placement so that they can adequately
utilize their existing staff capacity. Organizations need to employ talent management processes
that involve instituting initiatives to utilize and develop the capacity of personnel. The local
NGOs can develop simple human resource information database which they can use to record
and store data related to their employees. This will help in tracking the skills available that are
not utilized and those that are lacking and need to be developed.

 Conduct Mentorship on HR Management for Board Members and Project Managers

There is a need for HR competency among project managers and board members within local
NGOs. Many local NGO management level staff does not have skills in managing people. This
leads to conflicts, underperformance, and underutilization of employees. Local NGOs should
invest in providing basic HR skills to their management staff and this can be done by budgeting
for training sessions or exploring ways to ensure that the competencies exist within the
organization. The board members also need to be aware of the basics that are required to have an
effective HR management structure. This is because many of these local NGOs are small and do
not have a human resource department. This is a role that board members need to take up
especially where the organization is still growing. Leaders provide an environment in which
people can give their best hence creativity and innovations emerge. Local NGO leaders will need
to proactively manage their human resource operations so as to sustain high staff performance
over time.

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 Develop and Implement Staff Performance Management System
Organizational success comes from employees’ total commitment to the organizational mission,
goals, objectives, and values. It is the task of the management to induce and encourage that
commitment. Many organization faces the challenge of having unmotivated employees whose
poor performance affects the growth and survival of the organization. Introduction of
performance-based incentives (monetary or non-monetary forms), within local NGOs, will go a
long way to boost employee motivation

 Develop Management/Leadership Succession Plans

Planning for future management and leadership needs is linked to the strategic focus of the
organization. This is because of the dynamics of an aging workforce that is approaching
retirement and transition of management to other organizations. This involves identifying
employees within an organization who have the capacity to take up key strategic positions that
may fall vacant or may be created in the future. Some components of planning include:
replacement planning, identify high-Potential employees, assessment of employee input and
development of programs to build specific competency requirements. Organizations that target
on leadership succession and development are more flexible in the event of an unforeseen
leadership change because they will have the staff capacity to fill leadership vacancies.
Organizations must further consider ways to fill the gap by identifying as many options as
possible to reduce the risk of strategic failure through the integration of leadership development
into the organization’s overall strategic plan.

 Developing an HR Risk Management Plan

Human resource engagement and management pose risks to local NGOs. It is therefore important
for an organization to identify the HR risk factors and develop mechanisms to minimize the
sources of risks to avoid costly lawsuits brought on by federal and state organs or employees.
Some NGOs are sometimes caught unawares on some legal contractual obligations as they
develop contracts for employees and other risks that occur as a result of engaging staff in an
organization.

 Outsourcing HR Functions
Local NGOs that are small and lack the adequate funds to have an HR unit and find the different
HR functions intensive and complex to manage from within can consider outsourcing. Some key
HR functions that can be outsourced may include; development of organizational policies and

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 practices, career development, staff counseling, recruitment, and selection. This is especially
important for local NGOs whose size is not too large to warrant having an internal HR team.

 Undertake Annual Organizational Knowledge Matrix Exercise

This involves the identification of key competencies for jobs required in the organization and
assessing what is available or lacking among the staff. This exercise will assist the local NGO
management to identify the competencies and skills that exist and the ones lacking. This will also
encourage peer to peer learning among organizational individuals and help to avoid relying on
one person who has “all” the skills. This exercise is useful because organization strategies and
approaches to project implementation change and evolve over time. This will reduce instability in
program implementation when staff transition as competencies will be periodically monitored
and developed within the organization.

 Conducting Periodic Organizational HR Assessments

A periodic HR assessment will measure the effectiveness of an organization’s HR management
practices and ensure legal compliance. This will help improve, established HR documentation
practices, identify strengths and weaknesses in staff appraisals and other HR practices. An audit
will improve HR practices within the organization, especially where they may not have an HR
unit or manager. Organizations can set aside a budget to support this exercise just as they set
aside money to conduct financial audits. Those who are being supported with institutional or
capacity development should be proactive to negotiate for funds to undertake such an assessment.
Local NGOs need to regularly assess their organization's HR management practices and
regulations to protect the organization and its employee's best interests.

 Develop Strong Internal Organization Culture

The aim is to provide employees with a good working environment. A strong organizational
culture can be a great foundation for motivation and commitment among the employees. Where a
strong and cohesive organization culture exists, core values are widely shared and employees
identify themselves with their organization. This can help minimize staff turnover that occurs
due to dissatisfaction among staff with the organization’s management practices.

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 CONCLUSION

The market environment for competent and skilled personnel is becoming increasingly competitive and
costly. The constant pressure for change has forced some local NGOs to realize that events within and
externally affect their performance and survival. Local NGOs need to be aware that competent
employees together with effective HR systems and practices are factors essential for securing
sustainable competitive advantage in their market space or niche. This requires local NGOs to be
proactive in continuously seeking to improve their human resource management practices. The
adoption of the organizational development process can support local NGOs to develop strategies that
introduce planned and systematic HR management practices. Organizational systems, processes, and
activities are integrated and synergized through a strong organizational culture. A crucial task for local
NGO leadership is to evaluate the extent to which organizational culture ensures the strategic
integration and adoption of human resource practices to make sure employee potential is harnessed and
developed for the benefit of both the individual and organization. Donor agencies and governments are
an important part of the local NGOs' lifecycle as many organizations receive support from the two
institutions to undertake development at the community level. There is a need for donor and
government agencies to become more sensitive and pro-active in understanding the human resource
challenges of partner implementing organizations and offer more support to build capacity in HR
management in addition to providing funds and registration of the organizations.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reference Books, Journals, Newspapers, Websites, Reports, etc are listed out here.

Books-

 Michael Armstrong - Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management

Practice
 Kothari C.R.- Research Methodology Methods and Techniques
 Ahuja Ram- Research Methods
 Singh V.K.- Human Resource Management
 Carol Brunt- Human Resource Management in International NGOs: Exploring
Strategy, Practice, and Policy
 Thakur Publications- Research Methods in Business Management

Magazines-

 iMPACT Magazine
 HRM Review
 HR Magazine
 NGO Express

Journal Articles-

 HR Practices for building performance excellence, Journal of Management and

Entrepreneurship
 Management and development of the human resource of Non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), International NGO Journal

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  Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Politics in the Developing World,
SAGE Journal

 The growing importance of human resource management in the NGO, volunteer

and not-for-profit sectors, The International Journal of Human Resource
Management

Websites-

 www.hrdguide.com
 www.ngopulse.com
 www.quora...com
 www.humanresourcespath.com
 www.ciphr.com
 www.fundoodata.com
 www.peoplematters.in
 www.indiatoday.in
 www.ngosindia.com
 www.savethechildren.in

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