We're experts on all things Management & HR
Winning staff commitment and job-engagement
Written by Sue Berry on 30th May 2019. Revised 21st August 2026.
1 min read
• Understanding how people (HRM) practices determine personal and organisational outcomes.
• Learn methods of gaining employee commitment to the organisation.
• Learn the definition of motivation and how people become motivated and on what motivation depends.
• Learn methods that the manager can use to ensure the employee's engagement with their job.
• Understanding how to design management interventions to effect change in organisational outcomes.
You can't pay volunteers: obligation and pay make them employees
Written by John Berry on 6th June 2026. Revised 5th August 2026.
6 min read
It’s always been clear that HMRC would class a volunteer who was paid anything whatsoever as an employee and seek to levy taxes. In this case, a volunteer took the MCA to tribunal, claiming they were an employee, thereby scuppering their volunteer status. There are many organisations, agencies, and CSOs who pay volunteers someting for their efforts. Not fully, completely, or fairly, but someting to cover expenses. In light of this judgement, will the UK necessarily move to government funded rescue services?
Devolution is vogue today - at least in politics. Coincidentally, many CSOs still have top down decision-making structures. They are heavily centralised with huge staff at the head of the pyramid. Is that appropriate, or is it something that now needs to change? Do CSOs need to devolve too? For decisions to support local objectives, they should be made at the local level. CSO decision-making should be fully devolved. Learn about the argument for devolved decision-making in CSOs.
The Foundational Logic of Consulting
Written by John Berry on 10th March 2026. Revised 13th March 2026.
5 min read
I mentor would-be consultants who want to transition into professional consultancy. To ensure my time with them is productive, I seek common understanding on what consulting actually is. Many entrants to this field mistake consulting for "giving advice" or "sharing opinions." This paper outlines the methodology-first approach that govern sessions with my mentees and their subsequent development. My approaches centre on Evidence-Based Management and the Hypothesis-Driven Approach from scientific inquiry.
Every CSO will recruit in a different way. There is no prescriptive ‘best practice’. There are however elements of the process that are key to success. If these elements are not given due care and attention, the recruitment process will fail. The seven stages of our process are shown in the attached figure. Then it’s on to managing the on-boarding process to make sure the chosen volunteers join.
To be a good manager of volunteers
Written by John Berry on 12th February 2026.0
6 min read
We discuss what the manager of volunteers is to be good at. We build a clear expression of what management is. We suggest that it’s about intervention in the lives of volunteers. That intervention might concern, for example, volunteer motivation, competencies, or technologies used. That done we build ideas about development journeys and absolute levels that are useful in understanding how a manager grows. We suggest then how managers can build bespoke development programmes to grow from trainee to expert.
