Industries
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 & Foundations · Healthcare NGOs
HR for Healthcare NGOs: Outreach Teams, Clinic Staff and Donor-Funded Posts
A healthcare NGO sends mobile teams to villages, staffs small clinics and runs awareness drives, all on project funding. The people work is about field rosters, scarce clinical staff and keeping posts filled when grants shift.
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Share your requirementsA healthcare NGO might run a mobile clinic van, a network of village health workers, a small charitable hospital wing, a mental health helpline or a screening camp programme. Its workforce spans salaried doctors and nurses, outreach workers paid a stipend, counsellors, drivers, camp organisers and volunteers from medical colleges. Posts are tied to projects, and a project can end or change scope with a few weeks of notice. Staff are scattered across blocks and districts, and the head office sees them mainly through reports. This page deals with people and workflow only, not clinical practice. See also HR for NGOs and social enterprises and the NGO and foundation group.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in healthcare NGOs, you may see
- Clinical staff are hard to place in remote areas
- Outreach workers are paid a stipend and expected to give full days
- Camps and mobile units run on tight rosters
- Visiting specialists work on sessions
- Staff see distressing situations
- Grants shift and posts follow
- Staff records are held at many levels
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 healthcare 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 and project managers
- Doctors and visiting specialists on sessions
- Nurses and auxiliary staff
- Community health workers and outreach staff
- Counsellors and helpline operators
- Camp coordinators and logistics staff
- Drivers for mobile units
- Data entry and records staff
- Volunteers from medical and nursing colleges
Where HR strains in healthcare NGOs
Clinical staff are hard to place in remote areas
A doctor or nurse willing to work in a block with poor transport and few facilities is rare, and a vacancy can last months.
Outreach workers are paid a stipend and expected to give full days
The gap between the hours asked and the amount paid fuels frustration, and the best workers get offers from health departments.
Camps and mobile units run on tight rosters
If a nurse or driver does not turn up on the day of a camp, the whole visit may be cancelled for a village that waited a month.
Visiting specialists work on sessions
Their time is booked by the hour or visit, and records of who came, when and what was agreed are often kept on loose sheets.
Staff see distressing situations
Counsellors and field workers carry the weight of what they hear, and few NGOs offer them any support of their own.
Grants shift and posts follow
When a donor changes focus, a team that has built trust with a community may be told to wind down in a quarter.
Staff records are held at many levels
Qualification papers, registrations and training dates are with project offices, and head office cannot say quickly who is cleared to do what.
HR topics for healthcare NGOs
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Employee Administration. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for ngos and social enterprises, not in general.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
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.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
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.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
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 healthcare NGOs business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Keep a live list of qualified staff and their papers
Each clinical and outreach person with role, qualification papers held, registration dates to be renewed and training done.
What this coversHide
Keep a live list of qualified staff and their papers
Each clinical and outreach person with role, qualification papers held, registration dates to be renewed and training done.
What this coversHideEach clinical and outreach person with role, qualification papers held, registration dates to be renewed and training done. The employee information management work gives you a structure.
Roster camps and mobile units two weeks ahead
A named person for each role and a named backup, shared with the team lead.
What this coversHide
Roster camps and mobile units two weeks ahead
A named person for each role and a named backup, shared with the team lead.
What this coversHideA named person for each role and a named backup, shared with the team lead. The attendance and shift process can hold the roster and record who came.
Build a small bench for scarce posts
Keep contact with retired nurses, local graduates and past volunteers who might cover a gap.
What this coversHide
Build a small bench for scarce posts
Keep contact with retired nurses, local graduates and past volunteers who might cover a gap.
What this coversHideKeep contact with retired nurses, local graduates and past volunteers who might cover a gap. The recruitment process can maintain this list between hiring rounds.
Set fair terms for outreach workers
Write what hours are expected, what travel is reimbursed and what next step exists after one or two years of service.
What this coversHide
Set fair terms for outreach workers
Write what hours are expected, what travel is reimbursed and what next step exists after one or two years of service.
What this coversHideWrite what hours are expected, what travel is reimbursed and what next step exists after one or two years of service.
Give field staff someone to talk to
A regular check-in with a senior colleague or an outside counsellor for those who face hard cases.
What this coversHide
Give field staff someone to talk to
A regular check-in with a senior colleague or an outside counsellor for those who face hard cases.
What this coversHideA regular check-in with a senior colleague or an outside counsellor for those who face hard cases. The workplace wellbeing work can set this up.
Plan for the end of each grant
At the start of a project, decide what happens to the team if funds end: redeployment, a notice period or a link with a partner.
What this coversHide
Plan for the end of each grant
At the start of a project, decide what happens to the team if funds end: redeployment, a notice period or a link with a partner.
What this coversHideAt the start of a project, decide what happens to the team if funds end: redeployment, a notice period or a link with a partner.
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 the posts that have been vacant for over two months and why.
- Check that you hold current papers for every clinical and outreach staff member.
- Read the last three camp rosters and count how many had a named backup.
- Ask two outreach workers what they would change about their terms.
- Find out which projects end within the next year and which staff are tied to them.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the rules on health professionals, registrations, volunteers and project staff contracts that apply to a healthcare NGO like yours.
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.
- Attendance, shift and leave process
Rosters for camps and mobile units with named backups, and a clean record of who attended and when.
- Workplace health, safety and wellbeing
Support for field teams who travel long distances and hear difficult stories, set up in a way a small NGO can sustain.
- Recruitment process consulting
A bench of people for scarce clinical and outreach posts, so a vacancy does not sit open for months.
- Employee information management
A single, current record of qualifications and training for each person, available to head office quickly.
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
Look first at people with local ties, who are likelier to stay. Offer clear terms, a defined period and a support structure, and keep a bench of contacts so that gaps are shorter than months.
The date, place, each role with a named person, a named backup and a contact number. Share it with the team lead and the village contact at least a week ahead.
Write down the hours and tasks expected, reimburse travel on a regular date and show a step up after proven service. Unclear terms are the main cause of resentment.
Keep a separate visitor register with dates, hours and papers on file. They are not on regular rosters, but your records should show who attended and under whose arrangement.
Start with a regular check-in with a senior colleague, a short talk on handling hard cases and a named person to call. An outside counsellor on call adds more where the budget allows.
We would ask how long your longest vacancy has run, whether a camp has been cancelled for lack of staff and where qualification papers are kept. A good opening project is a camp roster with backups plus a single staff record. Scope is written down for you to accept or change.
More on HR for ngos and social enterprises
All 6 business types in NGOs & foundations · Find another business type
Education NGOsChild welfare organizationsRural development NGOsCharitable foundationsEnvironmental NGOsRecruitment and Talent Acquisition in ngos and social enterprisesHealth, Safety and Wellbeing in ngos and social enterprisesEmployee Administration in ngos and social enterprises
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.