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7.2 Managing staff
Caption: Wangka Maya Language Centre – Port Hedland
- What staff need
- Staff training
- The roles and rights of staff
- Why is shared decision making worthwhile?
- Attracting and retaining staff
Staff who are skilled, competent, informed and respected are essential to an organisation’s success. They do the work so that the organisation can achieve its goals.
What staff need
Staff training
Many of the organisations that enter the Indigenous Governance Awards have a planned approach to staff training. For example:
- training is built into individual professional development plans and appraisal processes
- staff can attend training courses, workshops and conferences to improve their skills
- staff can take part in mentoring schemes, on-the-job training or formal study
See: Resource 7.3 What can we do—Staff capacity building, for examples from other Indigenous organisations on how they manage training.
The roles and rights of staff
An organisation is only as good as its people. To have effective staff with high morale, an organisation must make sure that staff:
There might be other factors that you can add to this list.
Why is shared decision making worthwhile?
In many organisations the governing body and management make all the decisions. But there are many benefits to sharing decision making with staff.
- Discussions are usually improved by asking for ideas, insights and experience from staff.
- Decisions will be more informed, balanced and sustainable.
- Staff will support the decisions.
How much they share decision making depends on the issue.
Sometimes managers seek staff input, but make the actual decision themselves (as they are ultimately accountable).
In other cases, management may hand over the decision making to the staff.
Decisions to do with hiring, firing or discipline, should have little or no staff input.
Attracting and retaining staff
Attracting and retaining staff can be very difficult for organisations, especially organisations in remote areas. Many organisations do it in different ways - for example, by ensuring good staff can get promoted and by managing workloads properly so that staff members don’t burn out.
See: Resource 7.4 Tips—Attracting and retaining staff
Developing local Indigenous staff
Caption:Charmaine, Wunan Foundation
Some organisations are fully staffed by local Indigenous people; others have an Indigenous board but mainly non-Indigenous staff, most have a mix of both. Developing and employing local Indigenous staff is often part of an organisation’s objectives or policies. Sometimes this can mean an organisation has to make an investment in training or in mentoring support if they are to employ someone local.
While there might be an initial cost involved, in the long term its cheaper to employ a local and contributes to building the capacity of your community.
Here are some quick hints on employing local staff:
- Create identified positions – if you want an Indigenous person for a job, you can say so by making it a position identified for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. Australian laws let you do this. But be clear about why you want an Indigenous person for the job.
- Be transparent and accountable if a job goes to a family member or friend of the staff or governing body. Sometimes in communities everyone is related, so it’s hard to not see a job go to family, especially if they’re the ones qualified and interested in the job. The way to avoid a perceived conflict of interest is to have a proper open selection process with, if possible, the family members in the organisation not directly involved in the interviews/appointment. Make sure there is a robust process that is the same for everyone.
- Invest in support and training. Sometimes, if someone isn’t used to the workforce, they might need extra support. Appoint a mentor and work with your local staff to identify training and development opportunities for them.
See: Resource 7.5 Quiz—Do this quiz to check your understanding of what you have learnt in this chapter.
Read next: 8. Dealing with disputes and complaints
Read previous: 7.1 What is management?