HR strategy and workforce planning for Rural development NGOs: matching posts to seasons and grants
Rural development projects begin when a grant is signed, peak with the farming season and end on a date set by a donor. Workforce planning lines up people with all three.
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Share your requirementsWhy HR strategy and workforce planning matters in rural development NGOs
The usual pattern is reactive. A grant for a watershed project arrives in July, hiring starts in August and the first facilitator joins in October, after the best working weeks of the monsoon. Then the project closes in a few years and the team is let go, with the knowledge of the villages leaving too. The same story repeats with each new grant.
Workforce planning gives the NGO a view of its people over two or three years. It maps each project's months, the posts needed in each, the skills that overlap and the points where staff could move from one project to the next. It also shows when the NGO is dependent on one donor, and where a core team funded by flexible money would hold knowledge between projects.
How to set it up
1. List projects with dates and posts
For each project: start, peak seasons, end date, and the posts it funds. Include staff paid from more than one project.
2. Map skills and gaps
See which skills are shared across projects, such as farmer training or group formation, and where a post is held by one person alone.
3. Plan the hiring calendar
Work back from field start dates to find when advertising, selection and induction must begin. Build a bench for posts that recur. See recruitment process.
4. Plan the moves between projects
When one project ends, which staff can move to another and what extra training they would need. Tell staff early about the options.
5. Identify a core team
Decide which roles must be kept between projects to hold knowledge, and seek core funding for them from unrestricted sources.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Chart the end dates of all projects over the next 24 months and the people tied to each.
- Find posts that stay vacant for the first months of every new project.
- Check whether staff know what will happen to them when a grant ends.
- See which skills are held by only one person.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach HR strategy and workforce planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Two to three years is useful, even though funding is uncertain. Update it every quarter as grants are signed or lost, and treat it as a living view, not a fixed forecast.
A small group of roles funded from flexible money that stays across projects, holding relationships and know-how. Without one, each new project starts from scratch with new people.
Tell them as early as you can, with the options available, such as other projects, partners or notice. Silence breeds rumours, and good staff leave before the end.