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Why NGO and social enterprise employees leave and how to understand why
Staff at NGOs and social enterprises leave for funding, field and workload reasons as well as pay. How to understand why, listen early and act.
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NGOs and Social Enterprises · Health and nutrition NGOs
HR for Health and Nutrition NGOs: Field Health Workers, Trainers and Data Teams
A health and nutrition NGO supports government and community health systems through trainers, field staff and data teams. Here is how to organise and keep them.
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Share your requirementsA health and nutrition NGO runs programmes on maternal and child health, nutrition, immunisation support, sanitation, adolescent health or disease awareness, often working alongside government health and child development systems. Staff include programme managers, district and block coordinators, trainers who build skills among frontline health workers, field officers who visit households and facilities, and data staff who collect and report indicators. Many staff have public health, social work, nursing or nutrition backgrounds, and some posts need particular qualifications. Funding comes from donors, CSR sources and government partnerships in cycles, each with targets and data demands. Staff spend long days on the road, visit health centres and households and rely on good relations with officials and frontline workers. See also HR for NGOs and social enterprises.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in health and nutrition ngos, you may see
- Targets are set above the field
- Qualified staff are hard to find in remote districts
- Government relationships sit with individuals
- Data quality depends on tired people
- Trainers burn out from travel
- Funding gaps cause sudden exits
- Field safety is under-planned
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in health and nutrition ngos
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Programme managers
- District and block coordinators
- Field officers and community health facilitators
- Trainers and capacity-building staff
- Nutrition and public health specialists
- Monitoring, evaluation and data staff
- Advocacy and communications staff
- Finance, grants and administration staff
Where HR strains in health and nutrition ngos
Targets are set above the field
Donor indicators arrive from the top and field staff are held to numbers that depend on facility and community factors they cannot control.
Qualified staff are hard to find in remote districts
Posts that need public health or nutrition training stay vacant in the districts that need them most, and the work is covered by whoever is available.
Government relationships sit with individuals
Access to officials and facilities depends on a coordinator's personal rapport, which leaves with them.
Data quality depends on tired people
Field officers collect and enter data late in the day under pressure, and errors are found at the time of donor reports.
Trainers burn out from travel
Trainers go from block to block running sessions with limited preparation time and little recognition for the skill involved.
Funding gaps cause sudden exits
A delayed grant instalment means salaries are late or contracts are not renewed, and trained staff move to government or other NGOs.
Field safety is under-planned
Staff travel to remote facilities, handle infectious-disease exposure risks and work in monsoon and heat with little guidance.
HR topics for health and nutrition ngos
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for ngos and social enterprises, not in general.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a health and nutrition ngos business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Agree targets with the field
Set indicators together with district teams, separating what staff control from what depends on the health system, and review progress monthly.
What this coversHide
Agree targets with the field
Set indicators together with district teams, separating what staff control from what depends on the health system, and review progress monthly.
What this coversHideSet indicators together with district teams, separating what staff control from what depends on the health system, and review progress monthly. The performance management process provides the routine.
Maintain a qualification record
A list of posts with required qualifications, who holds them and which are vacant, with a route for recruiting locally.
What this coversHide
Maintain a qualification record
A list of posts with required qualifications, who holds them and which are vacant, with a route for recruiting locally.
What this coversHideA list of posts with required qualifications, who holds them and which are vacant, with a route for recruiting locally. The recruitment process supports it.
Share government relationships
Introductions and meeting notes held in a common file, with a second person from the organisation known to each key official.
What this coversHide
Share government relationships
Introductions and meeting notes held in a common file, with a second person from the organisation known to each key official.
What this coversHideIntroductions and meeting notes held in a common file, with a second person from the organisation known to each key official.
Make data collection manageable
Simple tools, protected time and a checker at block level, so errors are found within the week.
What this coversHide
Make data collection manageable
Simple tools, protected time and a checker at block level, so errors are found within the week.
What this coversHideSimple tools, protected time and a checker at block level, so errors are found within the week. The HR reporting and analytics work helps.
Plan for funding gaps
A policy on what happens to salaries and contracts when a grant is delayed, communicated before it occurs.
What this coversHide
Plan for funding gaps
A policy on what happens to salaries and contracts when a grant is delayed, communicated before it occurs.
What this coversHideA policy on what happens to salaries and contracts when a grant is delayed, communicated before it occurs. The HR policies and governance work covers it.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- List posts that need specific qualifications and which are currently vacant.
- Ask field officers which targets they feel they cannot influence.
- Check how many weeks late any salary was in the last year and the reason.
- Find which officials your organisation depends on and how many staff know them.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Performance management process
Targets agreed with field teams and reviewed on a routine, with room to separate what staff control.
- Recruitment process
A way to fill qualified posts in remote districts, including local hiring and training.
- Learning and development
Skills building for trainers and field officers, and recognition for the skill that training demands.
- HR policies and governance
Clear rules on contracts, funding gaps and field safety that staff know before the problem arises.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in ngos and social enterprises, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Management
Why employees need clear expectations before performance reviews
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
HR Process
Why new hires don't turn up on day one, and what to do between offer and joining
Candidates who accept and never arrive are usually lost in the silence between offer and joining. What actually causes it, and a contact plan that closes the gap.
8 min readRead article
HR Process
What should an employee handbook include?
A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Track what staff control, such as visits made and sessions held, alongside the outcome indicators. Use the first set to assess people and the second to understand the programme.
Look at local candidates with a path to build skills, offer realistic terms and plan for housing and travel. A rural post often needs a different approach from an urban one.
Decide beforehand how salaries are handled and tell staff in good time. Confirm contract and wage obligations with a qualified professional.
Keep forms simple, give field staff time to enter data, and check a sample at block level every week. Errors caught early cost far less than errors found at reporting.
Field safety and exposure routines should come from qualified public health or medical advisers. HR's role is to make sure the guidance exists, is taught and is followed.
The first conversation would cover how targets are set and whether the field agrees with them, how you hire for remote districts, and who holds the government relationships. We would also hear how data collection feels to the people doing it. A realistic first step is agreeing targets with the field and keeping a simple qualification record. We then put the proposed scope in writing for you to approve.
More on HR for ngos and social enterprises
All 7 business types in ngos and social enterprises · Find another business type
Community development organisationsLivelihood and skilling programmesHome care and assisted livingChurches and faith-based organisationsGrant-making foundationsSocial enterprises and cooperativesPerformance Management in ngos and social enterprisesRecruitment and Talent Acquisition in ngos and social enterprisesPolicies, Compliance and Governance in ngos and social enterprises
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.