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What is Workforce Development?

Workforce Development is about recruiting, developing and keeping the staff, trustees and volunteers your organisation needs to help it achieve its objectives.

It's about giving staff and volunteers the skills, knowledge and support they need to perform their roles to the best of their abilities.

People develop skills and knowledge in different ways, including learning by doing, receiving advice, coaching and counselling from line managers and peers.

Workforce Development in Central London

Workforce Development is vital to building capacity and increasing sustainability across the charity and voluntary sector in Central London. The Central London CVS Network has developed a Workforce Development strategy which outlines a three year plan to develop the Central London's VCS workforce so that the sector can meet the challenges and maximise the opportunities presented by Government policy.

Workforce Development in the Voluntary and Community Sector: Investing in People and the Communities they Serve

No matter what your organisation does or how large or small it is, the better its staff are able to fulfil their roles will mean your organisation has a greater impact on the community it serves.

Some investment in your workforce is always necessary just to make sure that everyone keeps up to date with new ideas and ways of working.  What will set your organisation apart is thinking strategically about what skills and experience will help your organisation to move forward and deliver even better services.

Why Should I Care About Workforce Development?

If you are a manager or a trustee and you want your organisation to:

  • have the best people to deliver the important service you provide
  • have a reputation for being a good employer
  • have the best chances of attracting funding
  • continue to meet the needs of the people you work with

Then Workforce Development should be a priority for you.

If you are a staff member or a volunteer and you want to:

  • continue to provide the best service to your community
  • learn new skills that will help you do your job better
  • have greater responsibility
  • improve future job prospects

Then Workforce Development should be a priority for you.

Money and time are always hard to find and it is easy to think of reasons why Workforce Development may not be at the top of your agenda.  But the long term cost of not training staff is much greater than the short term cost of doing so.

NCVO’s 19th Annual Voluntary Sector Salary Survey revealed that:

  • Labour turnover has increased to 12% in 2007, up from 7.6% in the previous year.
  • 62.5% of organisations said that they experienced problems with staff recruitment in 2007: an increase of almost ten percentage points from the previous year.  One of the main reasons behind these difficulties remains a lack of suitably trained applicants

How can I set up Workforce Development that is right for my organisation?

There are a wealth of resources about workforce development and the provision available already out there and much of it is tailored to organisations in the voluntary and community sectors. The following web-links should be a good start:

NCVO Workforce Development - Covering HR and employment practice: templates, sample policies, how to guides and an Employment Practice Network

Skills - Third Sector - Recently established (in 2009) to be the Sector Skills Council for the third sector; the website contains a variety of information and tools to support skills development of third sector staff and volunteers

London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC)

Third Sector Leadership Centre - although closed in 2009, there are still useful research, reports and tools available to use on the website.

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