Wikimedia Conference 2014/Documentation/10

10 Your organisation and hiring staff

Speakers: Michal Lester (WMIL), Jessie (WMF), Chris Keating (WMUK)

tl;dr: Be sure why you want to have staff and be sure how to manage it. Clearify the roles and tasks between Board and Staff. Read the WMF employee survey.

Notes

show of hands I

most organizations already have staff
most have one or two
a few have three or more

kick-off question: why do Wikimedia organizations hire staff?

do what volunteers don't want to do (volunteers are not allowed to leave when they are too busy)
staff can work continiously, thereby provide consistency and accessibility
staff can provide professional skills that your volunteers may not have
staff can help you reach out farther/achieve more because they have more time
staff can challenge an organization's board by bringing a different view
staff can simply help you reach goals
staff can help you appear more professional (catering to other organizations' prejudice)

show of hands II

current organizations staff don't often deliver projects, is rather administrative
staff have medium impact on organizations

Presentation of first WMF employee study

https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1h4lBRXtshWGx7JtAeMj7Tj4q676qXwRtO8FCfxTl2ow/edit#slide=id.g26d7dd5e4_2_24
Research:Wikimedia_First_Employee_Survey
Who is represented in the survey?

-> 16 orgs replied, 10 had staff (4 had interns), 6 had no staff

why did your organization decide to hire staff?

-> administration (loads of work)

models that exist

-> interns, contractors, part-time and full-time workers - and volunteers, also from outside the Wikimedia movement

what is the typical role of the first employee?

a) office administrator/manager b) executive director c) activity coordinator/program manager

how do they spend their time:

40-77 % on administration; 20-43 on programs

who should you hire?

-> no hard findings

what are the challenges?
-> no onboarding plan

-> problems with hiring regulations
-> lack of clarity about scope of staff role (how much administration is required?)

ongoing learning

-> learning pattern:h Grants:Learning_patterns/Supporting_volunteers_in_administration

brief discussion

many boards should have a clearer strategy in terms of where they want to go and thus be able to tell their staff, "take us there"
sometimes people are hired for something specific and they end up doing everything, especially a lot of administration
only one person on the board should manage staff

Small group discussion: How to divide tasks betweeen board and staff:

- The board does the steering, gives support, staff carries out operation and communication
- The board should trust the employees and delegate tasks to them