The rollercoaster that has been 2021 has brought both multiple challenges and significant opportunities to the charities that Charisma supports.  From the uncertainties of the early months of the year, we have witnessed great optimism, energy and innovation amongst charity leaders and their senior managers to maximise their capacity to develop their services.

With the benefits of furlough, many charity staff continued to be engaged with their employers, albeit at a distance, for a while. However, long before the government support ended, our experience has been that many organisations needed to bring back and add additional staff – quickly – due to the increased need for each charity’s services. This, we believe, was due to business plans being hastily adapted due to the pandemic which allowed new initiatives to be developed on service delivery, the building of new partnerships and the breadth of diversity for income generation to be explored.  Innovative and adapted services have become multi-faceted allowing greater agility in how charity teams can offer flexibility of communications and support to their beneficiaries.

The result of this has meant that Charisma has never been busier, being retained to assist with multiple recruitment projects in even greater numbers than before, for senior and executive level recruitment as well as for skilled and professional trustees.  The changes we have most encountered are in pragmatic, business-savvy charity leaders who have revised their attitudes to employee engagement and retention by, adapting previously held views on working hours, location, and essential skills sets.  We hear from our clients that finding top quality individuals for their roles is proving to be even more of a challenge this year than in ‘normal’ times and they realise that targeting specific talent and being an open-minded employer are the only sure ways of knowing that you will find the best employees. 

Motivated individuals can - and do - learn, adapt and change their career path through open and honest evaluation of their skills, being able to achieve required outcomes and future personal development in a new role.   A wise interviewer will look for these transferable qualities and explore an individual’s motivation, attitude and purpose, to look beyond the CV and, ultimately, identify what will most benefit the charity.

Over the past 20 months, we have talked to so many people who have experienced significant life changes and many have re-assessed their motivating factors, recognising that they wish to do more to help those less fortunate than themselves in society.  During this time, our team have identified talented, professional and committed trustees and Chairs, who genuinely want to support a charity that means something to them.  Through our collaboration with diverse groups, such as Black on Board, our focus is always to offer a wide selection of candidates from all backgrounds, who can demonstrate the required skills sets, as well as bringing ‘lived experience’ as a key part of aligning themselves to a particular organisation.

Such has been the need for our recruitment expertise and contacts that the team at Charisma has expanded to offer specific experience within the faith, health, disability, care, education and culture sectors.

With new opportunities for continued growth around the corner in 2022, there has never been a better time to explore options for your future recruitment plans.  Charisma is here to support you, whenever the time is right, so please do contact us for a confidential and no-obligation discussion.

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