How altruistic are those HR professionals working in the not-for-profit and voluntary sector? By the very nature of the organisations they are employed by, and the work they do on a daily basis, you would assume altruism would be second nature.
The call by two leading figures in the third sector for HR professionals working for larger charities to help smaller organisations with employment law and employee relations issues is to be welcomed.
These smaller charities obviously need help - the number of grievance case in the sector far outweighs those in the public and private sectors. And a lack of cash often means that in-house HR expertise is at a premium.
So a short secondment for an HR professional at one of the more high-profile, well-funded charities to help out should appeal to their less fortunate peers elsewhere. It would be great to see practitioners in the sector displaying their charitable nature by improving the HR profession's image among the workforce.
No doubt this kind of thing already happens on an ad-hoc basis, but perhaps a more formal system needs to be established, with a forum set up for those HR professionals willing to give their time and expertise to other organisations. There would also need to some good will on the part of their employers in giving them the green light to be absent from the workplace.
So there's the challenge laid bare. How charitable are our charities? Let's hope the answer is the one we should expect, not one we are surprised at.
