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The first survey of pay and benefits in Ireland’s community, voluntary and charitable organisations, published this week, reveals a picture of a growing third sector with a high demand for professional skills.
Over 300 organisations participated in a survey commissioned by The Wheel (a non-profit support and representative body for Irish community, voluntarily, and charitable organisations) and sponsored by management consulting and recruiting firm 2into3 and mycharity.ie. Sonraí HR Research conducted the survey.
Ireland’s community, voluntary and charitable organisations currently employ over 40,000 full-time and 23,000 part-time staff, with volunteers providing the equivalent of a further 31,000 staff. As an industry the non profit sector contributes more than €2.5 billion to the economy and accounts for 8.4 per cent of GDP employing 8.8 per cent of the work force.
The majority of the workers surveyed were female (82%), as was eight out of ten (85%) part-time workers. Half of the employees covered worked in the health sector and a third of (30%) in the survey are involved in development (including overseas development) and housing activities.
Almost a quarter (23%) of the organisations in the survey indicted that they have experienced recruitment difficulties over the past 12 months. The main reasons stated by organisations as to why they were experiencing difficulties recruiting staff are that they could not find the right people, or could not find the right skills.
"The sector has grown extensively in recent years. One consequence of this growth has been an increase in demand for specific professional skills and competencies. The research also suggests that there is strong competition to recruit and retain staff not just within the non-profit sector but also with the commercial sector. This survey provides quality information that will greatly assist individual organisations in their planning and budgeting. Repeating this survey regularly will enable us to track trends and see how the sector is developing with respect to other sectors of the economy,” said Deirdre Garvey, CEO of The Wheel.
2into3 is a management consulting and recruitment services firm working with non-profit organisations and philanthropists that are endeavouring, in Ireland and internationally from an Irish base, to build a caring civil society. Further information can be found at www.2into3.com
mycharity.ie is dedicated to providing services to charities and fundraisers alike to make it as easy, simple and safe as possible to raise money for charity. www.mycharity.ie
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