The survey assessed the charity sector workforce in Scotland, collating the views of human resource and other senior level staff at 99 organisations with over 18,000 employees.

Building a picture of the Scottish workforce, the survey reveals that two thirds (66%) of charity staff are female. Three quarters (75%) of all sector staff are employed in service delivery, 10% in management, 6% in administration and just 3% in fundraising. Less than 1% of staff are in policy and campaigning roles.

The survey also found that staff retention is highest in managerial and service delivery roles, with more rapid turnover in fundraising and marketing/communications roles.

Although the survey shows that salary levels are largely stagnant, it also revealed many charities are still investing in increasing staff numbers. Employee growth is most prominent in the field of fundraising, where more than a third of charities have increased their staff resource in the last year. Overall, it is managerial and IT staff that are facing the biggest drop in roles. Relatively few charities cited growth in these areas and cutbacks featuring amongst 16% and 11% of those surveyed respectively.

Fundraisers are much in demand, yet almost half (48%) of respondents say that these roles are the hardest to recruit for, with charities unable to offer the competitive salaries required to attract skilled and experienced fundraising staff.

When recruiting, more than one quarter (27%) of charities say it is essential that candidates specifically want to work with a charity.

As Chief Executive of Bruce Tait Associates, my comments on the survey findings were simply this:

"With rising demand for charitable services, charities are seeking to expand and grow their capacity with increased staff resource. But finances continue to be tight and employers have had to put a freeze on salaries.

Cuts in statutory funding are biting deep and good fundraising has become even more important, leaving charities needing to invest significantly in this area. They do seem to be having particular difficulty in recruiting the experienced staff required to ensure fundraising success and may have to increasingly look outwith the sector for new fundraising talent"

Susan Moore, Director of HR with Mercy Corps, who took part in the survey said: "I was particularly interested that 27% of the respondents considered it essential that applicants specifically want to work for a charity. Mercy Corps is certainly of that view and we pro-actively seek to recruit people who are driven by the desire to make a real difference in the world. This contributes significantly to our staff retention."

The Charity Careers Scotland website is a new service which Bruce Tait Associates have launched to help Scottish charities recruit appropriately qualified staff who are particularly interested in working in the voluntary sector. It will be available for charities to use to recruit all kinds of staff and also offers the opportunity to recruit for volunteer positions for free.