How to retain service delivery staff and volunteers

Service delivery teams are on the ground addressing charity causes, often operating in high-pressure situations, reckoning up-close with society’s biggest problems, and being the first in line to respond to ever-changing demands.

 

Charities rely on these individuals with shared values and belief in a mission, who have acquired the skills and knowledge needed to push the cause forward every day. Without people to deliver the charity’s services, there would simply be no impact.

 

So how can charities keep hold of their crucial service delivery teams?  In this article, we explore the steps to take.

 

 

Pay charity employees fairly

 

Most employers underestimate how much their staff worry about money. While 28% of employees worry about money every day, the majority of employers think the figure is closer to 3%. What’s more, over half (52%) of employees are more worried about money than about anything else.

 

In response to a survey by St-Martin-in-the-Fields Charity about the experiences of frontline workers helping people out of homelessness, a frontline worker in London explained: “I love it. I value it. It is worthwhile and ever more important. I just don’t know if I can survive it when I have a young family because our work is intense and doesn’t pay well!”

 

Finances pose a tangible barrier to working in charity service delivery, even if employees are satisfied with their role in other ways. The NCVO provides extensive advice on setting salaries, and you can check the real living wage here.

 

 

Support staff mental health and wellbeing

 

Focusing on staff wellbeing can often be an afterthought in under-pressure charity environments. As a frontline worker from the East Midlands reflected, “My workplaces do endorse reflective practice but won’t pay/can’t afford it. We don’t have any way of de-briefing after traumatic incidents due to lack of time and funding.”

 

But failing to focus on staff mental health and wellbeing is a false economy. Research by Deloitte found that poor mental health costed UK employers £51 billion in 2023–24 through factors like absenteeism, presenteeism, and employee turnover. Personal wellbeing was the most likely reason cited by homelessness frontline workers to not continue working in their current roles.

 

Charities can support wellbeing in a range of ways. These include offering counselling, ensuring staff take time off, and ensuring the setting of appropriate boundaries.

 

Improving working conditions can also support mental health and wellbeing. This means delivering the right training and supervision to deal with challenging situations. It could also involve offering flexible working arrangements. Consult with staff as to what type of changes are required, and find more resources here.

 

 

Advocate for change

 

Advocacy and campaigning are a way to improve the working conditions of frontline workers, who can repeatedly take on the burden of much larger-scale problems, repeatedly coming up against barriers to deeper change.

 

For example, St-Martin-in-the-Fields Charity found that trying to tackle the mammoth problem of homelessness at work had impacts on the wellbeing of frontline workers.

 

A frontline worker in Hackney explained: “Due to lack of housing options, I feel I am not able to properly help clients, and this has worsened every year. It is extremely disheartening and takes its toll on my wellbeing. This is why I want to leave this line of work.”

 

A frontline worker in East Lindsey, Lincolnshire reflected: “It is honestly becoming unbearable to witness so many people struggling to access support and not being able to address the underlying social determinants of why homelessness and rough sleeping are still a significant issue. You want to help people, but the tools and resources are ever dwindling to be able to move them forwards.”

 

“We are seeing the impact of a decade of cuts to services in all areas of our work”, said a frontline worker in Exeter.

 

Through advocacy and campaigning, charities have the power to influence change on a larger scale and, in doing so, help avoid disillusionment and the wish to resign among frontline workers. Involving frontline teams and service users in advocacy can be empowering and help deliver an authentic, accurate message to decision makers.

 

 

Gather and act on feedback

 

Regularly gathering feedback from staff and volunteers can help charities continuously improve service delivery roles by ensuring valuable team members feel supported and satisfied with their work and stay with the charity for longer.

 

They are easy to conduct, using tools like Microsoft Forms or SurveyMonkey. To receive high-quality feedback, make sure to offer an anonymous option and ask detailed questions.

 

Crucially, charities cannot reap the benefits of feedback unless they act on it. Make sure to communicate to service delivery teams what will change as a result of their feedback and promptly put the steps in place to make it happen.