Can my nonprofit make me serve another without my consent? I’m the human resources officer of a charity with 44 staff. My boss doesn’t think that should be full time, and plans to contract with another charity, with 13 staff, for human resource services. There would be a charge-back for my services. I barely keep up now!

Jane’s Response:

Your boss is proposing a significant change in the terms and conditions of work, and probably needs your consent. Otherwise, a court might find that you have effectively been dismissed and offered a different position. However, courts often take the employer side if they see changes in working conditions as necessary to continued operations. Courts do not assume that work situations will be static.

However, if this change is forced upon you, you wouldn’t likely be committed to making the new structure work, and that’s not a good way to start. Let’s look at why this might be happening, and what your options are.

Shared service models

A shared service model is being used or considered by many nonprofits to help keep administrative costs down and allow as much revenue as possible to be directed to client or member services. It can be done the way you describe, with one organization providing services for a fee to others, by having some people on the payroll of both organizations or by having a number of organizations each providing the one type of service they are best at to all the others. Some funders are heavily pushing shared services as a way to leverage their monies better, and your boss may be under pressure to make this happen.

When one organization provides the service to others, there is always a strong temptation for employees to serve their own organization first, so a system of checks and balances is needed to keep the arrangement ethical. If only two organizations are involved, it is relatively easy for both to participate in future hiring, compensation decisions, performance reviews, etc. If many are involved, the primary organization needs to involve at least one other to represent those being served. Regardless, you could start to have a matrix management system of sorts, with two bosses and organizations to please — you can imagine the difficulty this can cause when both want their issues given top priority. You are right to worry about how this will play out, and realize that it will be a lot more work than if your own organization just hired 13 more staff.

As well, the two organizations may have very different cultures that affect how people are compensated, how much the HR person is involved with planning and decision-making, how the HR function relates to the finance function, and more. If the approach to human resources is very different, a shared service may not be realistic. For example, a culture that pays the lowest possible rates, gives no benefits and assumes high turnover cannot readily be matched with one that tries to pay market rates and provide decent benefits, and strives for long term staff retention.

Workload

Have you looked at why your boss thinks you have time to spare? Perhaps you have tasks your boss doesn’t know or think about, such as volunteer management. Perhaps much of your time is spent on things that are “under the radar” for your boss, like frequent questions from staff about benefit issues. Perhaps you spend more time hand-holding managers during hiring, performance appraisals and such than your boss deems necessary.

Do you see a way to change how you operate to make time to serve a second organization? For example, if you now do payroll yourself, perhaps it be contracted out to a payroll service instead. Managers could be given more training and written resource material so they don’t have to involve you as often. Employees could be given better information about their benefits, or direct access to the company providing them, so they aren’t always asking you about forms and eligibility.

Communications

What is the current nature of your communications with your boss? Are you usually treated respectfully and consulted in advance of changes, or is this situation typical? If it isn’t typical, why is it different this time? If you and your boss don’t usually communicate well, you have a bigger issue than the one you asked about. And you will have to make an extra effort to make the communications happen now.

Optional actions

After thinking through the comments above, you might wish to do one or more of the following:

1. Ask your boss to fully explain what is driving the change, including how this particular second organization was chosen. Try to find out if its culture in relation to treatment of staff has been considered, and what sort of matrix management is being considered. See if this is to be the only organization your services will be shared with, or if your boss thinks several more can be added! Maybe with the right structure, you could serve five, with a promotion and an assistant, and be very happy. Or perhaps you will raise issues your boss hasn’t thought about, and the proposal will be re-thought or cancelled.

2. Ask for a private discussion of at least half an hour to review with your boss your current tasks and how he or she thinks you could make time for a major new initiative. Be open-minded; your boss may have constructive ideas.

3. Consider the alternatives. Your hours may be cut and your status changed to part-time if you refuse; your boss needs to save money. Or you may be let go and they will hire someone willing to make the new arrangement work. You can also consider the pros and cons of two part-time jobs rather than shared services and propose to work separately for each — perhaps three days a week for your current employer and two for the other — if you would prefer that.

4. Ask to meet with whoever is currently handling HR at the other organization to get a feel for the workload and approach. Remember that given the staff size, this person is likely handling several other administrative or even program functions and is used to thinking of HR as part-time.

5. Find co-workers who are facing similar changes, for example, finance, facilities management, corporate secretary work, etc. Shared service arrangements usually cover several aspects of administration. Brainstorm with those colleagues and try to come up with a common approach, remembering to include how to save money for your organization.

6. HR positions are normally not unionized, but if you belong to a union, consult them for advice.

Summary

Overall, it is fully appropriate for nonprofits to make sure that their resources go towards mission achievement. That usually means keeping administrative costs low (but not so low the organization cannot be productive). Even if there is no funder driving this shared service proposal, your organization is doing the right thing by looking into alternatives.

However, I cannot tell from your short query whether they are doing the right thing in the way they are communicating with you, or whether they have done the appropriate due diligence on this particular initiative. If your boss is ethical, he or she will grant your request for more understanding of the reasons behind the proposal, the alternatives and ways to manage your workload. You will then be in a better position to determine how to handle your situation, and to help your boss make a decision about whether to proceed.

Since 1992, Jane Garthson has dedicated her consulting and training business to creating better futures for our communities and organizations through values-based leadership. She is a respected international voice on governance, strategic thinking and ethics. Jane can be reached at jane@garthsonleadership.ca.

Because nonprofit organizations are formed to do good does not mean they are always good in their own practices. Send us your ethical questions dealing with volunteers, staff, clients, donors, funders, sponsors, and more. Please identify yourself and your organization so we know the questions come from within the sector. No identifying information will appear in this column.editor@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice. You should not act or abstain from acting based upon such information without first consulting a legal professional.

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