HR and employment practice case studies

NCVO’s Good Employment Practice case studies take you through a range of areas and highlight some of the valuable HR work that is happening in the voluntary and community sector.

Each case study explores the key challenges that organisations have navigated and provide advice and tips to help you make your own planning a success.

Case studies are available in the following areas:

Updating and reviewing HR policies
Redundancy and Restructuring
Staff engagement
Equality and Diversity
Pension Schemes
Learning and development
Leadership
Recruitment and retention
Collaboration

These case studies may not be copied or used without the consent of the originating organisations.

Updating and reviewing HR policies

How we updated and consulted on HR policies within our organisation (PDF 217Kb)
Gurdip Rai, HR advisor for Hillingdon Association of Voluntary Services (HAVS) spoke to us about the process she follows to update her organisation’s HR policies.

Redundancy and restructuring

How we restructured our organisation and managed redundancies (PDF 155 Kb)
Theobald Spyrou, chief executive for Whittington Park Community Association explains how his organisation was restructured to improve its sustainability.

Staff engagement

How we engaged staff by encouraging them to develop innovative projects (PDF 900Kb)
Cara Cooper, HR manager for Mind in Croydon shares her experiences of supporting and encouraging staff to take forward new ideas for her charity.

How we used staff surveys (PDF 241Kb)
Karen Philips, Head of HR for the Brooke told us about the staff survey the charity completed as part of its staff engagement strategy.

Equality and diversity

How we use equality impact assessments in our organisation (PDF 404Kb)
Ade Fashade, equality and diversity manager for Shelter outlines how his team introduced equality impact assessments across his organisation.

How we renewed our Equality and Diversity policies (PDF 163Kb) SAVO logo
Tracy Ray, Diversity Officer for Suffolk Association for Voluntary Organisations (SAVO) explained to us how she renewed her organisation’s Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies in light of the Equality Act 2010.

How we encouraged disabled applicants to volunteer with us (PDF 71Kb)

How we promoted equality at our workplace (PDF 58Kb)

How we encouraged disabled service users to take up work placements with us (PDF 55Kb)

How we deliver our diversity training workshops (PDF 72Kb)

How we ensured that our cleaners were paid fairly (PDF 81Kb)

How we promoted diversity at our organisation (PDF, 74Kb)

Pension schemes

How we changed pension schemes at our organisation (PDF 165Kb)

Learning and development

How we grew our organisation's learning and development (PDF 160 Kb)
Gloria Ssali, Learning and Development Manager for YMCA London South West spoke to us about the initiatives she has driven to put learning at the heart of her organisation.

How we ran Action Learning Sets for Managers (PDF 259Kb)
Sophie Bayley, Training Co-ordinator for Voscur, a Council for Voluntary Service based in Bristol and Jenny Idle from Volunteering Bristol spoke to NCVO about how they have worked together to set up action learning sets for volunteer managers.

How we developed and implemented a training programme for our staff (PDF 150Kb)

Leadership

How we developed a leadership programme at our organisation (PDF 146Kb)

Recruitment and retention

How we supported a small organisation to set up as an employer (PDF 139Kb) NYFVO logo
We spoke to Bob Curry, partnerships manager for the North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations (NYFVO). Bob described his team’s work helping a small day centre to close and restart another organisation afresh with the right HR policies and processes in place.

How we recruited new members of staff for our organisation (PDF 167Kb) BSH logo
Katy Amberley, Headquarters Manager for the British Society for Haematology (BSH), spoke to us about the recruitment of a staff member for her team at head office