KEY POINTS:
Most bosses want their staff to stay, but Auckland City Mission boss Diane Robertson is about to kick-start a programme which she hopes will have her staff clamouring to leave.
It's job swapping. Professional development doesn't come cheap and an exchange programme for social and health workers from Britain, the US and Scandinavia is one way that Robertson plans to keep the not-for-profit's staff development up - and costs down.
Like all employers during the past few years, Robertson has found attracting and retaining staff a challenge, so finding low-cost ways to encourage them to stay in the job is important.
The Mission, which has 75 paid staff and about 100-120 permanent volunteers, provides a range of social and health services to the homeless, the elderly, families in crisis, people with dependencies and people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Mission's reliance on donations and government funding means its development budget is limited to $1000 a year for each paid employee.
Shaun Robinson, chief executive of Presbyterian Support East Coast, and a 25-year not-for-profit sector veteran, says managing funding is the big challenge for not-for-profit organisations.
They face more pressure than ever to provide professional staff and be accountable for their spending, but often outgrow the pace at which they're funded.
"In a business, you deliver a service and grow as more people pay for your product or service. In the not-for-profit sector, you deliver a service to consumers who don't pay for it.
"Their demand may grow but you may not because you're reliant on funding which doesn't always keep up with your needs."
Increased recognition of the complex skills needed in the health and social welfare not-for-profit sectors has increased the drive for staff development, Robinson says.
"Now we recognise that people working with the elderly and disabled need skills in helping them identify and reach their goals, not just [in] doing things for them."
Also, a number of not-for-profit sector managers come from service delivery jobs rather than having specialised management training, Robinson says.
"It's almost not recognised as a skill they need to have, as though working [for the organisation] was enough."
However that attitude is changing, he says, noting that several tertiary institutions have diplomas or courses specifically aimed at management in the sector.
Bryan Wilshire, chief executive of telephone counselling service Lifeline, says not-for-profit organisations have to offer a better deal than corporates if they want to attract and retain staff.
"We're appealing to a market of people who are a scarce resource. Because we don't pay people we have to make sure our offering is far more attractive."
Lifeline's 120 paid staff and 385 volunteers run the telephone counselling services Lifeline, Kidsline, Chinese Lifeline, Mensline and Refugee Lifeline, plus various social health campaigns such as the National Depression initiative (the John Kirwan campaign), the Gambling Helpline and the Family Violence Information Line. Each month, the call centre receives 60,000 calls.
Lifeline offers NZQA courses on telephone counselling, self-awareness and self-care plans, and Wilshire stresses that as well as being useful for Lifeline work, this training will come in handy for everyday life - in business or as a parent.
The Auckland City Council subsidises places at University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology short courses on everything from human resources and financial reporting to mind mapping.
Lifeline also has relationships with corporates, such as Nestle New Zealand, which offers free seats in its own professional development courses.
Auckland City Mission applies for grants to send its staff on university short courses, diplomas and even three-year degrees, and has also found grants for drug and alcohol training for some employees' postgraduate work. It also gets subsidised or free university courses through the Auckland City Council.
But with all this training, do staff get itchy feet?
Yes, Robertson says, but that's not always a bad thing. The Mission frequently takes on immigrants with "fantastic qualifications" who can't get work in New Zealand and provides work and training for them to move on to other jobs. One is now working in a senior role at Auckland Hospital.
"Our mission is to help people contribute to New Zealand and, even if people move on into other organisations and take these qualifications with them, that still benefits our clients."
Small to medium-sized enterprises find keeping up with professional development a challenge too.
"We're so busy running the company that the biggest challenge is to stop and think about staff development," says Sally Eustace, marketing manager at Compac Sorting Equipment.
"Often it's only when you trip over something that you realise it's an issue and could be done better."
The Auckland-based company, which manufactures fruit and vegetable packing technology, employs 130 staff in New Zealand and 100 overseas.
While corporates generally have specialist departments to deal with staff development issues and programmes, "SMEs end up doing everything themselves", Eustace says.
Because the company has specific technological requirements, it puts together a lot of its own staff training material.
Other training and development programmes are kept as company-relevant as possible. For a small company, getting the most out of what you spend is vital, she says, and some large courses can be quite "arm's length" when it comes to relevance.
Landscape designer Natural Habitat also helps staff who want to get tertiary qualifications. The company pays for degrees on the condition that the employee is bound to the company for a certain period of time on their graduation.
It's been a successful approach so far, says founder Graham Cleary. Natural Habitat employee Darren Barrett, 24, who has worked for the company for six years and completed his NZ Horticulture Industry Training Organisation apprenticeship, as well as an advanced national certificate in horticulture, won the 2008 Mitre 10 Young Landscaper of the Year award and was runner-up last year.
Auckland-based Natural Habitat has 80 staff working in its four divisions: landscape design and architecture, premium residential landscaping, commercial landscaping and garden maintenance and development.
Historically, the company has grown between 10 and 15 per cent each year, and while Cleary predicts an economic downturn will result in little growth this year, he's clear about what makes his company tick.
"I think we've been successful because we offer people a career path. It takes longer for us to get the rewards, but it's worth it."
