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Human Resources and Capacity Issues within NGOs in India

Summary of the study report

This report documents a study of human resources and capacity issues within NGOs in India.
The study incorporated a broad spectrum of inputs from across grassroots NGOs, donor
representatives, and people associated with NGOs to capture the objective and subjective
facets of the issue. A total of 27 organisations responded to the questionnaire schedule, 24 of
which are PHF partners. The organisations differ in age, geographical spread and location.
Key informants included a range of people both from within and outside these organisations.

The study tried to asses the changes in the NGO sector between 1995 and 2007 and the
implications on human resources. The general trend is that NGOs have grown substantially in
size and complexity.
• More than half of the sample organisations experienced growth of more than ten times in
terms of expenditure. 83 percent of urban focussed organisations grew more than five
times, while the corresponding proportion for rural focussed organisations is 62 percent.
• The number of persons employed by the sample organisations grew two-and-half times.
• The proportion of women in staff reduced from 40 percent to 35 percent.

The changes in the NGO context include a general predominance of goal-based poverty
reduction as the objective for international aid, concerns about legitimacy and accountability
of NGOs, the drive to form complex ‘partnerships’ that combine NGOs (of the North and
South), government and businesses and displacement of NGOs as agents of structural change
by member-based activist and other civic entities, and changes in terms of raising money.

In the changing environment, a vital ingredient of NGOs, human resource, is significantly


affected. The job market has changed dramatically in recent decades making choice complex
and difficult. For NGOs this has meant that they are often not able to attract and retain the
best of talent as they are in direct competition with and priced out by corporate and para-
statal organisations engaged in development.

The changing demands on and expectations from NGOs have meant that new skills are
needed, especially in how information is collected, analysed and used. A more subtle and
fundamental change is being witnessed in the leadership of NGOs which faces challenges in
its ability to inspire, motivate and champion causes in the way an earlier generation of leaders
were able to.

The increasing diversity in work of NGOs and complexities of the context have led to
substantial changes in type of people working in NGOs.
• There is an increase of those who completed schooling, graduates and post graduates
among NGO staff, while the proportion of those with only some schooling went down by
almost two-thirds.
• While some organisations have been able to attract larger number of professionals, a
majority have actually not been able to increase or even maintain the proportion of such
staff. At the same time, the total number of professionals in the sample organisations
shows no change in proportion over twelve years.

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• Rural organisations have experienced higher reduction in proportion of staff than urban
organisations in all categories except post graduates.
• People with only school education continue to be important in NGOs.
• Sources closest to the organisations, within the region/ operational area, and walk-ins are
the most preferred recruitment option for most NGOs.
• Recruiting staff from campuses, either within the State itself or nationally was preferred
much less as compared to other options.
• 24% of all staff who worked in the organisations in 1995 continues to work in 2007
constituting 10% of the staff in 2007. The retention proportion of staff with higher levels
of education is higher.
• Better prospects, is the strongest reason for people leaving. This includes better jobs in
other NGOs, development projects, government, donor agency, as well as the corporate
sector.
• Personal reasons like family pressure, health related issues, marriage etc. were cited as the
second most important cause for people leaving.
• In about half the organisations one-tenth to a quarter of people occupied senior positions.
• In 75% of the organisations, more than one-fourth of those occupying senior positions
started their working career with the organisation itself.
• Work experience and educational qualification are the most important factors that
organisations consider in promoting staff to senior positions.

In recruiting staff, specific traits are considered to be in sync with the type of expectations
and demands NGOs have. These include a willingness to locate and work in remote areas,
adherence to institutional norms and systems, are affordable by NGOs and have the ability to
work in complex teams with people from diverse backgrounds, age and experience. Plurality
and diversity among staff is valued especially as this is seen as vital in generating new ideas
and in strengthening debates and discussions, as well as exchange of knowledge and skills.

Human resource challenges before NGOs are by no means a result of the changes in the
environment alone. Several systemic limitations contribute to the challenges in recruiting,
nurturing and retaining adequate human resources. These include low pay and low
appreciation. For most NGOs working with a project orientation there is low priority for
investing in nurturing human resource capacities and staff security measures. For young
people joining NGOs, there is not enough mentoring or clear career direction, while
simultaneously there is a pressure to learn and deliver. Staff are bothered by a general lack of
transparency and weak systems in most NGOs. There are limited spaces to share ideas and
concerns, and the absence of peer groups is acutely felt. There is also limited investment in
people who have been around for long periods in the organisation to counter the sense of
dissatisfaction and distancing from the vision.

Capacity building of the staff is recognized as a critical need of NGOs. Present challenges
in this regard have to do both with the attitude of NGOs towards capacity building and the
suitability of current focus of service providers in capacity building. The study revealed that:
• Staff gaining new skills and taking bigger responsibilities were reported among the biggest
benefits of training programmes.
• Instances of either the staff member leaving the organisation or gaining little from
attending the programme have also been reported.

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• More often organisations were paying for training from specific project funds than own
general funds.
• Leadership and motivation related capacities and communication skills were cited by most
organisations as the most essential area. Inputs in specific sectors also ranks high.
• Many organisations listed the need for customized and context specific training .
• Cost of the programmes and language constraints were cited as the key limitations with
the existing lot of capacity building services provided by various institutions.
• Several organisations highlighted that there was little common between what they needed
and what was being offered.

A general sense of dissatisfaction with what is presently available for building staff capacities
in training and education institutions was palpable. This was not seen as weaknesses of
training institutions alone. Limitations in the ability of NGOs to plan for capacity building of
their personnel and demand relevant services from the training institutions was highlighted as
a serious issue. It was also emphasised in discussions that capacity building needs to be seen
as an overall process and not skill building alone. There cannot be one organisational
response to capacity building of the entire organisation. Individual needs need to be taken
care of in an ongoing basis.

What needs to be done?


There is need for concerted action from all stakeholders in the NGO-led development process
in responding to the challenges related to human resources.

• What individual organisations could do


Ensuring continued staff motivation is an area that needs to be addressed particularly by
the senior leadership of organisations. Interactions during the study indicate that the lack of
sensitivity or high levels of complacency in matters of human resources management is an
issue that organisations, especially the leadership, need to overcome.

It is also perhaps prudent to estimate the minimum levels of attrition in different categories of
staff, and plan for recruitments accordingly. Organisations need to approach the HR issue
more strategically, rather than adopt reactive positions. This obviously calls for adequate
availability of financial resources on a sustained basis.

The current generation that is prepared to work with NGOs need facts to base their decisions
and probably have little patience for the rhetoric of ‘poverty’ and ‘good cause’ alone. Re-
configuring communications about the work of NGOs is an important step in this regard.
There is also need for NGOs to increase the visibility of their work and communicate in a
clear and transparent manner through mainstream media and other platforms, establishing
credibility and creating interest within the larger society.

It may not be possible for many organisations to offer higher levels of remuneration for
everyone, especially for people with specialised skill sets. The minimum that organisations
could do is ensure fair terms of employment with social security provisions, well-
documented and properly implemented service conditions, and reducing apparent
arbitrariness in personnel related decision making.

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• What organisations could do jointly
Sharing resources between organisations has been suggested as a feasible idea. This
however needs strong coordination between organisations, including a commonly accepted
mechanism to implement it. Such common platforms may need the initiative from an external
agency, like a donor supporting several organisations in the same location, to take-off.
Human resource issues are not on the agenda for discussions in common platforms of
NGOs. This is particularly important in dealing with matters related to capacity building and
negotiating with training institutions.

• What donors could do


Financial support agencies have for long considered staffing an issue for the implementing
organisation to worry about. Most donors also do not respond positively to organisations’
demands for higher outlay in project budgets to meet personnel costs, or the need for
associated infrastructure. Donor agencies need to become more sensitive and pro-active to
human resource challenges of their partner implementing organisations.

There are field based NGOs which have effective human resource management strategies as
well as structured staff capacity building programmes blending practical and theoretical
inputs. Donors can initiate the process of documenting and sharing these good practices
within the sector.

Donor agencies can play a crucial role in improving the staff capacity building services that
are offered by training institutions. Improved communications with partners on human
resources and capacity building issues, beyond standard project monitoring questions are
required to achieve this.

• What training institutions could do


The correlation between training programmes and built capacities is quite weak. Standard
training programmes often do not take into account differences in experience and education
background of NGO staff. In fact in most cases organisations themselves are unable to
adequately map the training needs of their staff. Training institutions need to work more
closely with NGOs in mapping, designing and conducting training programmes both of a
general nature and those tailor-made for the organisations needs, catering to different
categories of staff.

Cost concerns are cited by most organisations in availing training programmes offered by
institutions. The value proposition of the programmes offered needs to be convincing and
communicated properly. Training institutions that cater to small NGOs need to develop skills
to offer programmes in vernacular languages. Reasonable investments need to be made in
developing these options.

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