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BTA event gives top tips on charity salaries, managing millennials and family-friendly working
12 June 2019 / BTA
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Burning issues for leaders and managers from the third sector
What’s the going rate for charity employees from an HR assistant to a chief executive? How do you manage millennial staff alongside Gen Xers and Baby Boomers? And what can you do to offer a more flexible and family-friendly working culture?
These are some of the burning issues facing thousands of charities in Scotland today. Little wonder then that a special event hosted by BTA - called Recruitment, Retention, Remuneration - was packed with leaders and managers from the third sector.
They left with a deeper understanding of:
- What’s being paid for various roles in Scottish charities and how that information can help to find and retain great staff.
- How to recruit millennials and get multiple generations working successfully together.
- Best practice around delivering success while ensuring staff have a good work-life balance.
The event at BTA’s headquarters in Stirling was split into three sessions, designed to ensure that organisations have people strategies that are fit for the future.
The Scottish Charity Workforce Salary Survey 2019
“We are absolutely confident that this is the most accurate and extensive survey of third sector salary levels ever undertaken in Scotland,” said Bruce Tait, Joint Chief Executive of BTA, as he unveiled the findings.
More than 1,200 individual senior charity roles in Scotland were tracked and recorded over two years. One of the major findings disproved the myth that the people who run Scotland’s charities are “fat cats” with huge pay packets.
The survey showed the typical charity chief executive in Scotland is paid £47,500. That’s nearly £5,000 less than the average salaries of £52,000 for charity chief executives across the UK - and way below the average of £91,000 earned by Scottish company CEOs.
The research also found that different kinds of charities pay very different rates - with those working in culture, education and heritage paying substantially more than health or animal charities.
You can read more about the salary survey here. You can also order a copy of the full report by calling BTA at 01786 542224 or by emailing [email protected].
Managing a multi-generational workforce
With more than 100,000 people employed in the Scottish charity sector, there are several generations working side by side in most organisations. Bruce pointed out that this often means overcoming perceptions, particularly about the millennial generation. So why should charities recruit millennials?
“Because we can attract the best talent by giving them what they want - inspiration,” said Bruce. “They are highly motivated by cause.”
He said that - through their use of social media - millennials are natural storytellers, which is at the core of fundraising. They are people-focused and speak the language of digital communications.
His presentation included tips for recruiting great millennial staff, such as inspiring them with your cause, captivating them with your culture, showing them how you work and plan, and mapping out career opportunities for them.
Creating a flexible and family-friendly working culture
The final session was presented by Family Friendly Working Scotland’s Programme Director Nikki Slowey and Development Manager Geraldine Higgins.
They talked about ways in which charities can introduce ways of working which build success while ensuring the family lives of their employees are taken into account. Flexible working can include job sharing, part-time working, working from home, flexitime and phased retirement.
BTA is a one-stop shop for charity recruitment and consultancy - helping dozens of charities each year. On recruitment, we find the right people for your organisation - from part-time staff to all head office staff, from chief executives to administrators. We have an unrivalled database of 11,000 potential candidates from the UK and around the world.
On consultancy, BTA has a team of experts who each have their own area of expertise. They can help with everything from business planning, board development and interim managers to grant application work, fundraising and communications strategies.
