Not for profit organizations face different HR and workplace relations challenges when compared to private enterprises. We recently sat down with On Demand HR client and CEO of Young Life Australia, Glyn Henman, to get his perspective on this.

Tell me, like, you know, obviously

a not for profit organization like Young Life, what sort of just sort of getting into the HR and employment space. So what sort of challenges does organizations like yours have in sort of HR and employment? And what do you think are different between the sort of challenges that you might have on HR and employment and what private organizations

might or business organizations might have?

Yeah, I’ve yeah, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I mean, obviously, because we’re doing a lot of HR stuff and really trying to get on on top of our game around that stuff. I think I think what a lot of not for profits think about is that we’re so different that we don’t really fit.

And there’s challenges around that. And I would say that’s true for us as well. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to fit, you’ve got to run your organization as a business. So you really need to understand that space.

The complexity in it is often you don’t have the money to do the things that you want to do around that or to employ people for the hours that you want to employ them or whatever. And then you have that volunteer component that sits beside that as well, because so much of what you do is actually driven

by volunteers and your volunteers are key in that space. But you need to manage those people well also. And you can’t just have volunteers supervising volunteers all the time. You’ve actually got to do some employment anling the wayI think if you’re going to be successful and build a credible organization, because there is a lot of pressure

on that, I think in our space as well, in terms of working with young people, there’s a lot of obstacles in terms of people volunteering, in terms of child protection issues and all those bits and pieces That’s that’s just a minefield, a necessary minefield, because, you know, individuals and I’ll say it this way, it really is a very

small minority of individuals who have used organizations and not for profits and churches in particular to be to become predatory. The vast majority of Australians, I mean. well, good meaning just lovely people who want to serve.

But this is a minority that had really spoiled it for the majority. And so that becomes redtape along the way as well. So you just looking for people to be employed in that space. And there are specific skill sets in all of that.

I mean, it’s a complex business, really. But having said that, all the same skills necessary in business as well. You need to think strategically, you need to be able to budget. You need to be able to manage

all you finance, you need to manage your HR space. You need to manage your communications. You need to manage, you need to manage, you need to manage all those things. So all those skills are absolutely necessary at the same time.

It seems like it’s that volunteering component in particular. That’s the probably the core of the difference is effectively what you’re describing is sort of your key employees managing a bunch of volunteers. And that’s quite different, having a supervisor manage or motivating a bunch of, you know, volunteers than it is to motivating, you know, junior subordinates or junior employees, so to

speak. And it’s a totally different. I would imagine it’s just a totally different kettle of fish in dealing with those sort of things.

Yeah, I think I mean, I think when you’re managing people who are employed,there is a relationship that that’s quite clear often and you don’t perform out the door you go. We may not be that harsh about it, but

I mean, essentially that’s what’s going on. You there, you are paid to do a job, whereas in the not for profit space you are leading out of vision all the time and out of your mission. And so it’s people coming in understanding that vision, that mission and and committing to that and and saying that’s the motivation, that’s the payback right

there is that I do that. And I also have engagement with in our case young people, with the vision and mission on the ground. And you see lives transformed. And so you go there is the pay back right there. So it’s a different kind of renumeration, if you want to put it that way.

You know, so it really comes around vision, mission and transformation as opposed to on a dollars in my pocket and I can go and buy my new car or whatever I want to do. Right. So so that sort of it is a key difference in leading people around that space.