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Look first within your own organization
July 11, 1995; Canadian FundRaiser
Very few fundraising professionals actually planned as students for a career in advancement. According to Hunter Wight, Director, Public Affairs & Development, Mount Royal College, there has been a steady decline in both financial and human resources allocated to communications, public affairs and development. The trend, thanks to declining budgets, is away from specialists to those with a range of skills ... generalists with the flexibility to assume a variety of roles and functions. Many specialists, as a result, feel trapped.
Ora Zabloski, Vice President, People & Community, Novacorp, reminded the CCAE delegates that we are challenged in today's workplace to move quickly. The various factors affecting personal and business success are increasingly connected. In the wake of the restructuring going on in many businesses, we are all feeling over-stressed, negative and confused. Employment security as an expression of a paternal attitude of employers to their staff is an obsolete concept, and even many remaining long-service employees feel used and discarded.
A move towards reduced structure
Old compensation packages and work practices, said Zabloski, were barriers to the development of new productive relations between management and staff. Phenomenal risks have been taken in restructuring organizations during the last few years, and the organizations that have been successful have had a clear vision of what their business is, and have been willing to move away from task orientation, narrow skill-sets, and towards outward focus, lateral movement and reduced structure.
Tim Hamilton, Partner, The Caldwell Partners Amrop International, drew on his executive placement experience to point out that development and communications people are in demand, in spite of the fact that those were the areas that were hit first in the recent recession. The attractive candidates are flexible generalists. Demand has greatly exceeded supply, and many individuals have risen beyond their level of competence. The situation is so critical that the private sector is even looking to the public and institutional sectors in its recruiting campaigns.
Government relations is a new field of expertise in the Canadian university field, said Hamilton, and one in which interest is growing. Major gift fundraising has become a perceived need for health care institutions, which have the financial ability to attract experienced fund raisers away from the universities.
When recruiting for development functions, said Hamilton, look first within your own organization. Look to younger employees to fill these roles, and don't overlook the public sector, which is laying off tens of thousands of capable employees. Consider recruiting from other universities, and remember that many private sector employees are also looking for more challenging, rewarding assignments. Finally, plan to develop your managers internally.
What types of incentives can you offer part-time and other staff? You can offer professional development and cross training opportunities, enhanced compensation arrangements, strong orientation programs, modest cash bonuses and other financial incentives. Look for ways to enhance their job experience, but be ready to live with a high rate of turnover in your young staff.
Are university and college human resource staffs able to cope with these massive changes? Traditional policies, procedures and practices that are in place are often in the way of real change. In fact, the whole concept of a centralized human resource function is being challenged. We need to shake up the conventions and become much more creative in our approach to problem solving, collective bargaining, selection committees, job design and compensation. Relationship building functions are going to become central to all of our roles, rather than an offshoot.
Is there a problem with performance-based remuneration? "Not if it is tied to comprehensive programs and broad overall performance," says Hamilton, "and not just with dollars in the door."