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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 · NGOs and charitable organisations
HR for Ngos and Charitable Organizations: Programme Staff, Grants and Volunteers
An NGO or charitable organisation runs programmes with limited funds, mixed teams of staff and volunteers, and donors who read reports closely. Pay is often modest and grant-linked, so the owner must manage roles, contracts, field staff and burnout with care.
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Share your requirementsAn NGO or charitable organisation delivers programmes in education, health, livelihoods, relief, rights or the environment. A small head office handles fundraising, finance and reporting, while field teams work in villages, slums or schools. Many posts are tied to a grant, so a project ends and a team must be let go or moved. Teams combine paid staff, interns, volunteers and part-time experts. Salaries are often lower than in business, and people stay for purpose, which wears thin under heavy workload and uncertainty. Donors ask for time records, reports and audits. Trustees and the director may disagree about roles and pay. Good staff leave when work feels unsafe, undervalued or unclear. See also HR for NGOs and social enterprises.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in NGOs and charitable organisations, you may see
- Posts depend on grant cycles
- Pay is low and unequal
- Volunteers and staff mix without clear rules
- Field staff work in tough conditions
- Donor reports eat time
- Roles overlap and blur
- Governance and management pull apart
- Burnout is treated as dedication
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 NGOs and charitable organisations
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
- Field coordinators and community mobilisers
- Project officers
- Finance and grants staff
- Fundraising and communications staff
- Volunteers and interns
- Directors and trustees
Roles we help you hire in NGOs and charitable organisations
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in NGOs and charitable organisations. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
Job descriptions for this sector
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
We set up the interview and hiring process for NGOs and charitable organisations
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
1. Role brief and scorecard
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
2. Stages and sequence
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
3. Question bank and scoring
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
4. Interviewer readiness
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
5. Offer and follow-up
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Where HR strains in NGOs and charitable organisations
Posts depend on grant cycles
When funding ends, teams are uncertain for months and good people leave before the renewal arrives.
Pay is low and unequal
Similar roles carry different pay across projects because each donor sets its own budget.
Volunteers and staff mix without clear rules
Tasks, hours and expectations for volunteers are loosely defined, and they feel used or ignored.
Field staff work in tough conditions
Long travel, remote sites and sensitive cases leave them tired, exposed and rarely supported.
Donor reports eat time
Programme staff spend hours on reports and timesheets that do not feed their own work.
Roles overlap and blur
One person fundraises, runs a programme and handles accounts, and none of it is done well.
Governance and management pull apart
Trustees set direction, the director runs things, and staff are unsure who decides.
Burnout is treated as dedication
Staff skip leave and rest for the cause, then quit quietly.
HR topics for NGOs and charitable organisations
Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for ngos and social enterprises, not in general.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
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.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
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 NGOs and charitable organisations business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Write role descriptions tied to the grant
Each post, its funding line, reporting duties and what happens at grant end.
What this coversHide
Write role descriptions tied to the grant
Each post, its funding line, reporting duties and what happens at grant end.
What this coversHide
Each post, its funding line, reporting duties and what happens at grant end. See HR documentation.
Set a simple pay structure
Grades with ranges that donors' budgets can map into, so pay is explainable.
What this coversHide
Set a simple pay structure
Grades with ranges that donors' budgets can map into, so pay is explainable.
What this coversHide
Grades with ranges that donors' budgets can map into, so pay is explainable. The compensation benchmarking work helps.
Give volunteers and interns a clear letter
Tasks, hours, support, a supervisor and an end date.
What this coversHide
Give volunteers and interns a clear letter
Tasks, hours, support, a supervisor and an end date.
What this coversHide
Tasks, hours, support, a supervisor and an end date. The onboarding process can include them.
Plan field safety and support
Travel rules, check-ins, safe-reporting channels and counselling access.
What this coversHide
Plan field safety and support
Travel rules, check-ins, safe-reporting channels and counselling access.
What this coversHide
Travel rules, check-ins, safe-reporting channels and counselling access. See health, safety and wellbeing.
Plan for grant ends
A review six months before a grant ends, with options such as redeployment or notice, and honest communication.
What this coversHide
Plan for grant ends
A review six months before a grant ends, with options such as redeployment or notice, and honest communication.
What this coversHide
A review six months before a grant ends, with options such as redeployment or notice, and honest communication. The exit and offboarding process supports it.
Clarify decision rights
Who decides on hiring, pay and discipline among trustees, director and managers, written down.
What this coversHide
Clarify decision rights
Who decides on hiring, pay and discipline among trustees, director and managers, written down.
What this coversHide
Who decides on hiring, pay and discipline among trustees, director and managers, written down. The HR policy packages give a base.
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 every post with its funding source and end date.
- Compare pay for similar roles across projects.
- Check whether each volunteer has a written scope and a supervisor.
- Ask field staff what support they have when a visit goes badly.
- Count leave actually taken by staff last year.
- Ask staff who decides on pay and discipline and see if they agree.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, contract, wage and reporting duties that apply to your trust, society or company.
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.
- Compensation benchmarking
A grade structure that donor budgets can fit and staff can understand.
- Employee onboarding
A clear start for staff, volunteers and interns.
- Exit and offboarding
Respectful handling of grant ends and departures.
- HR policy packages
A set of policies covering leave, conduct, safeguarding and grievances.
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.
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Questions owners ask
Review six months ahead, look for new funding or redeployment, tell staff early and honestly, and follow the notice terms in contracts. Confirm legal duties with a professional.
Set grades and ranges for roles, map each donor budget to a grade, and explain differences when a donor's budget is lower. Review yearly.
A defined scope, a supervisor, orientation, hours, a thank-you and an end date. Without them, volunteers drift away and report poor experiences.
Insist on leave being taken, limit field travel, provide a place to talk, share workloads and watch for signs. Honour rest as part of the mission.
Write it down. Many NGOs let the director decide hiring and routine discipline, with trustees involved for senior posts and serious cases.
We would ask how posts relate to grants, how pay is set and how volunteers are managed. A good opening project is a grade structure, role descriptions and a policy set. Scope is written down for you to accept or change.
More on HR for ngos and social enterprises
All 43 business types in ngos and social enterprises · Find another business type
Community development organisationsCharitable foundationsHealth and nutrition NGOsChurches and faith-based organisationsGrant-making foundationsLivelihood and skilling programmesPolicies, Compliance and Governance in ngos and social enterprisesCompensation, Payroll and Benefits in ngos and social enterprisesRetention and Attrition Management in ngos and social enterprises
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.