A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading
1: Getting
started
2: First steps 3: Business
planning
4: Legal and
governance
5: Funding
and
resourcing
6: Financial
controls
7: Managing
growth
8: Management
and
governance
9: Social
enterprise
10: Sources
of support
8.3 Getting the staffing right
If management and staffing issues are not deal with effectively the transition from grant-funded community project
to trading enterprise could be disastrous, as this real-life example shows. A substantial community-based regeneration
organisation in Wales was faced with the closure of its childcare nursery project when grant funding was drastically
cut. The nursery was designated a trading activity, which would need to become sustainable from fees and contracts
and to run as a business if it was going to survive. But the nursery staff could not shake off the inefficiencies of the
former grant-funded regime. Despite careful planning, staff retraining, financial targets, persuasion and eventually
threats by the chief executive, the nursery became increasingly unsustainable. In a last ditch attempt to save the project,
new flexible staffing arrangements and changes to pay and conditions were introduced. Several of the former workers
refused to accept the new regime and resigned immediately, allowing a fresh staff team to be appointed. Within weeks
the enterprise was starting to hit its financial targets, with prospects of being a sustainable enterprise.
A new type of employment
When jobs depend on it…: If workers have suddenly been moved
from being grant funded to being income generators without
actually changing what they do, the change may not be at all
obvious to them. Telling them that their jobs quite literally depend
on how effective they are at earning money may not be enough.
In this and in many other situations, a more fundamental change
of culture may be needed.
Differences when changing from non-trading organisations:
A number of new factors may come into play when jobs in grantfunded
organisations have to become self-supporting. You should
take nothing for granted, and look carefully at:
• how paid jobs are defined
• how staff are recruited
• what experience and attitudes are needed
• training arrangements
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