Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns

Be it a glamorous getaway or simple staycation, holidays are a chance to relax and recharge. Which you'll probably need after the frantic fortnight of frenzied preparation that all too often comes first. So how do you take a stress-free break without simply cramming it all in beforehand? And what if you're left holding things together on the home front? In this month’s guest article, freelance writer and HR specialist Nicola Greenbrook has advice on pre-holiday planning to help you head away with everything in hand, keep calm with your carry-on, and be raring to go on your return. Holiday season is well and truly upon us. Oh, the anticipation of what’s to come! An opportunity to get stuck into the book gathering dust on the bedside table or to broaden your horizons at a bucket list-worthy destination. A chance to recharge and refuel. According to Dr Christian Jarrett, holidays can make us happier, healthier and even prolong our lives. Sometimes though, the pace and pressure in the weeks leading up to the holiday almost negate the benefits of the break itself. Here are some tips to help you deliver a successful handover - keeping your credibility, peace of mind and work relationships intact. Before you go... (Excited! Full of anticipation! But a bit stressed!) American polymath Benjamin Franklin quite wisely said “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. He was spot on. Nailing a holiday handover is all in the preparation; giving yourself sufficient time to organise everything weeks in advance. Forewarn your absence Make sure your holiday dates are in your team and key stakeholders’ diaries as soon as your leave has been authorised; even if you sort the finer, exciting details later. If you’re client or supporter-facing or manage multiple projects, consider adding an extra line to your email signature a few weeks in advance that clearly outlines the period of your absence. Rather than appearing smug (‘I'M GOING ON HOLIDAY FOR TWO WEEKS AND YOU'RE NOT’) it instead ensures your contacts are notified well in advance and can plan accordingly at their end. It also prevents any nasty surprises on your last day. The art of the handover note It’s always a good idea to start your Holiday Handover Notes (HHN) a good few weeks before, even if you jot down headers or topics in the first instance, rather than frantically wracking your tired brain the night before you fly. Consider always having the document open in the week before you go, for ease of brain-dump, rather than scribbling a note on a Post-it that gets lost in a yellow sea of more Post-its or overloading your already full head. CJ Sinclair, founder of Go Travel and Talk, a network that provides detailed travel guides to worldwide destinations with solo travellers in mind, is always on the move; and therefore well-practised in the art of the perfect handover. She breaks her HHN down into critical priorities, current and upcoming projects and ‘things to watch’ and ‘worry or pain points’. CJ also cleverly adds screen shots and media, to break up the words and highlights important text for an easy at-a-glance view. Aim to strike the balance with a comprehensive but concise approach to your HHN. HR News suggests that ‘…there’s no need to cause an unreasonable amount of stress on the employee/s covering you whilst you’re away, so highlighting all the ‘need-to-know’ points will help them keep on top of things’. Order tasks by priority and include key delivery dates or deadlines, with the most recent first. Schedule in a face-to-face meeting with your colleague who’s taking the reins. You can talk through the HHN before you go, so they can ask questions and jot down their own points. Avoid being patronising; your team are knowledgeable enough to know what ‘pass invoice to Finance' means in practice. There's no need to go into intricate detail about the ‘third cupboard on the left with the squeaky drawer’ if everybody knows perfectly well all about the squeaky drawer. Be a clever planner In the weeks before, keep your diary as clear as possible and stay focused. It may feel a wrench missing Steve from Events’ birthday lunch, but avoiding social engagements or non-urgent appointments wins you back a few hours of uninterrupted work time. At 7.00pm on your last day when you’re panicked and finishing with all your holiday toiletries still to buy, you’ll be grateful for that hour. You can catch up with Steve and the gang on your return. If you’re a freelancer or consultant in the not-for-profit sector with no-one to actually hand over to, it's even more crucial to plan ahead. CJ finds that scheduling everything in advance with calendar reminders or apps like Later and Tailwind, can be helpful. Although "it does mean a lot of work beforehand to get it all done”, she also notes “it’s amazing how much technology can help to give you a little respite!” Avoid dumping-disguised-as-a-handover-task Be reasonable and conscientious, and tie up as many loose ends as you possibly can before you go. Don't be tempted to use your absence from the office as an opportunity to slip in a few projects that have been on the back burner, or to dump tricky tasks you’ve been putting off on to an unsuspecting colleague. This may cause resentment in your absence, confusion or delays to a project. Don't use OOO to get a LOL It’s tempting to set a comedy out of office message, but the best advice is to save it for the comedians. As funny as they might be to read, there's a fine line between light-hearted and inappropriate, and it's not necessarily in the same place for everyone. Getting it wrong and causing offence can reflect badly on the charity, its purpose and mission. A simple message that clearly states your return date and who to contact in your absence will do the trick, although it can be a nice touch to highlight a particular campaign your charity is running. Oh, and don’t forget your voicemail too if you receive direct calls. Set boundaries Depending on what works for you, let your direct reports and manager know how and when you can be contactable if a genuine emergency arises while you’re on the beach. Otherwise, you should trust your team and colleagues to adequately manage things in your absence, especially if you’ve put all of the above into place. Prioritise your wellbeing, family and friends during that precious break, and where possible, learn to switch off. If it's your turn to hold the fort... It can be tough being the stand-in. You’re managing your own workload as well as bearing the responsibility of doing a good house-sitting job. Be assertive. Even if your colleague is looking rather up to their eyes in it, ask all the questions you need before they go so you’re well informed and can maintain the proper functioning of tasks in their absence - it’s for both of your benefits. CJ Sinclair especially looks after her colleagues by cc’ing them into emails in the weeks leading up to her holiday and keeping them 100% in the picture. If the work is project-facing, she also arranges calls with clients to introduce them to the person holding the fort - so why not consider asking for the same treatment? Be proactive and schedule a meeting with the hander-over on their penultimate day to avoid a last minute panic on the final one. Politely ask that their handover notes are in good shape so that you can go through the entire document together, check your understanding and fill in any gaps. Then schedule one in the early afternoon of their first day back. Consider using Google Docs so that you can update the document with your own notes as you go along. It will save you time and allow your colleague to read through and extract the key points and actions before their return if they fancy, making their first day back easier (and yours; you’ve now just the one workload to juggle. Hurrah!). It can be hard bearing the weight of managing tasks in someone else’s absence and the risk of being overwhelmed is high. Accept that you can’t do everything and be aware of what you can reasonably do. Focus on the deadlines and priorities, and don’t fret if you didn’t even get a peek at the ‘non-urgent’ section of the HHN. These can be picked up when your colleague returns. If you’re struggling, talk to your manager and shout for help. This Harvard Business Review article has some great tips on what to do when you’re covering for colleagues - and can't keep up. When you get back... (Jet lagged! With post-holiday blues! Slightly full of dread!) It's tough coming back from a holiday. Even worse when you’ve had to come straight from airport to office, you’re desperately missing the pool/beach/mountain/all-inclusive buffet and were not at all prepared for a painful reunion with the tube. Here’s some final tips on how to restore some of that holiday-energy. • Keep your diary as clear as you can. Prioritise the meeting with your colleague who managed your work (who hopefully would have scheduled it for early afternoon) and use the morning to clear/organise your emails and get your task list up to date. The responsibility is back with you, and the chances are your colleague will be relieved to relinquish the extra load. • Be gracious and thankful for the support you received from your colleagues. If time hasn’t allowed them to complete all tasks, keep your cool and try not to be angry or concerned that things haven't been done ‘your way’. • Avoid a post-holiday grumble. You fully deserved your break and it’s always hard to come crashing back to reality when you’ve had the time of your life. However, be mindful that while you’ve been travelling they’ve been sweating it in your absence. Don’t moan about being back or repeatedly say ‘this time last week I was *add fabulous holiday thing*' and sigh, loudly. Be grateful for both a super break and a supportive team of colleagues. • Come bearing gifts. Like a bottle of that funny-coloured liquor from the local supermarket, unpronounceable sweets or some local delicacies. It doesn’t have to be expensive or purchased from somewhere impressive; a box of fudge can go a long way to say thank you. So, there you go. You’ve notified people way in advance that you're jetting off. You’ve planned, scheduled, created perfect handover notes with no nasty surprises, and your team know how to track you down in an emergency (unlikely as they’re so well-informed). Now, swap sandwiches at your desk for something delicious al fresco and lose yourself in a good book rather than a report, safe in the knowledge that everything's in hand. You deserve it. Nicola Greenbrook - HR Specialist & Freelance Writer Contact Nicola More from Nicola Greenbrook: ► How to manage stress at work ► How to switch off ► Charity Careers 4: meet James Harris of Rethink Mental Illness Check out the brand new Salary Centre ...home of the Harris Hill & CharityJob 2019 Salary Report, the essential new guide to UK charity salaries. With market insights from our sector specialists and the expert team at CharityJob, you'll find more than 350 current rates for roles in 26 job functions, based on over 45,000 recent charity vacancies. What should you be earning in the charity sector? Find out here... ► Back to the blog homepage

International affairs and advocacy expert Andreea Petre-Goncalves moved to the UK in 1997, attracted by its culture of openness and diversity. But as she tells our policy specialist Harry Marven, recent events have necessitated a major rethink - and relocation - of her family's plans for the future. We’ve barely mentioned the ‘B’ word here at the Harris Hill blog, because we’re too busy recruiting for charities, and with such a colourful range of opinions widely available elsewhere (particularly at the puce end of the market), you probably don't need ours too. We aim to be impartial, so for example it's not for us to question that what people thought three years ago is obviously more important than what they think now. That's just not how we roll. And you'd certainly never catch us querying the wisdom of trashing your biggest trade partnerships and international standing for such undeniable benefits as…… well, we’re sure somebody will think of one eventually. But this week, as our established work in the area of Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns expands to keep up with growing demand (check out our new page here!) in what could yet be our last week in the EU (again), there's no ignoring the giant Brexit in the room. So we're very pleased to bring you an enlightening and thought-provoking read from someone who understands both the bigger picture and the personal consequences only too well... Meet Andreea Petre-Goncalves Over recent years in the UK we’ve heard a lot of statistics about EU citizens and ‘migrants’, but rather less of the real effects on people's everyday lives. To that end we're delighted to introduce international affairs and advocacy expert Andreea Petre-Goncalves, who has kindly shared her story in conversation with our resident policy specialist Harry Marven, eloquently explaining how the 2016 referendum has affected many EU citizens, why she and her family have taken the difficult decision to leave the country that's been home for over 20 years, and why she's establishing a new and potentially highly-influential NGO to step up the fight for global change. Andreea Petre-Goncalves is an international affairs and advocacy expert with two decades of experience in the non-profit, public and private sectors. She has worked in sustainability, food security, international development, public health, gender and human rights among many other topics. She has driven global policy developments, built international partnerships and connected power and knowledge brokers to promote the greater good. She believes people at all levels are driven by the same instincts, fears and desires and that the best in all of us can be harnessed through respectful and purposeful collaboration. She also believes that our future security and prosperity on our planet depend on our ability to see beyond our myriad of individual interests with a sense of common purpose.ee. Harry Marven joined Harris Hill in 2017 and is our specialist for all Policy, Public Affairs, Advocacy and Campaigns vacancies, recruiting both domestically and internationally. He’s lived and worked in both France and Germany (graduating in French and German) and has first-hand experience of the field having previously worked in social media and youth engagement for a national human rights charity. Harry is passionate about the not-for-profit sector using its profile and resources to effect positive social change and effectively represent its grassroots supporters, and understands both the rewards and what it takes to make change happen. As such he’s able to draw on a wide network of both national and internationally-based contacts. ► Harry: So, to jump straight into things: you, with your family, will be leaving the UK this year. Why do you want to leave, and is it definite that you’ll be leaving? ► Andreea: Yes, my family are leaving the UK this year. It’s not been an easy decision. I arrived in the UK in 1997 and my husband in 2002. Our daughter was born here in 2014. We did not doubt this was our forever home until the 2016 Brexit referendum. That particular moment crystallised for us concerns which had been bubbling under the surface for a few years, particularly around nativist trends in the UK and what we saw as a backlash against multiculturalism. For us, this struck at the heart of why we were here in the first place. We didn’t necessarily choose the UK for economic reasons, but for cultural ones. It was precisely the UK’s culture of openness and respect for differences that appealed to us. We loved the idea of growing roots and raising a family in a country where ethnicity, culture and identity were not barriers to belonging, where the rich tapestry of human differences was embraced and cherished. We are ourselves a multicultural family, with heritage in Portugal, Romania and France, and have always seen our journey in the UK as an illustration of the richness of our wonderful, interconnected world. It was and is heart-breaking to see these values rejected so vocally in public discourse. In 2016, we suddenly became EU migrants, a distinct category that 'othered' us. It marked a sharp change of tone and hardening of attitudes towards us as a group – something we had not really seen ourselves as until then. The very word 'migrant' was rarely present in public discourse 10 years ago. Nowadays it is a frequent feature, even replacing 'refugee', alarmingly. For me it has such negative connotations. We are not an invasion, nor an infection. We are friends, colleagues, family - and until the 12th of April, whatever the UK’s final trajectory, we are your equals as fellow EU citizens. You’ve been in the UK for several decades now and have held predominantly internationally-focused jobs. Why did you come to the UK in the first place, and were there any standout factors that made you want to stay? I came to the UK aged 16 with an Open Society Foundation scholarship which shaped who I am and defined my life journey. A few scholarships later, with financial and moral support from my family and dear friends, I obtained my first degree. I embarked on a career that for many years was driven mostly by a loose sense of wanting to do good in the world. This is how I ended up working on sustainability, international development, gender, agriculture and food security. My Brussels stint, about 10 years ago, was career-defining in that it taught me how to navigate politics and the decision-making environment and be effective. Idealism and good intentions are worth so much more if you also understand the real world. Interestingly, this is something that is stubbornly ignored by the non-profit sector in the UK, where we take too much comfort in surrounding ourselves with like-minded individuals and work on the assumption that we will be heard purely because we mean well. As for the second part of your question, I touched on this a bit earlier. The UK always felt like home culturally, and for me that includes a working culture that is earnest and professional. The only aspects where I felt Europe compared favourably career-wise are work-life balance and the employer-employee dynamic, where in Europe we have a more equal, revolutionary tradition, whereas in the UK the relationship often feels more deferent and feudal. I hope for everyone’s sake that this dynamic will not be further affected by any loss of worker protections as a result of Brexit. Why did you choose to work in the charity sector, given your experience in the EU Parliament? It would have been very easy to walk straight into a well-remunerated corporate lobbying job after my stint in EU politics. That is a common-sense career path for many former political staffers and civil servants. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I always knew that for me it wouldn’t be enough. I grew up in a family where politics and the good society were talked about passionately around the dinner table. My parents dedicated their entire careers to public service. I worked in the non-profit sector both before and after Brussels for the simple reason that it felt like a place where doing right by people and planet was the top priority. So, after all that time, you’re now leaving the UK to pastures new. Given that you have decided to leave, rather than having it as just an option, would you say Brexit has, in an ironic way, given you the motivation and freedom to flexibly look for a new position, wherever you settle? To play devil’s advocate: has Brexit potentially been beneficial to you and your family? Well, there’s the famous adage that every cloud has a silver lining. I don’t really think that’s true. Some things are plain stupid, pointless and thoroughly negative. There’s no bright side to climate change, war or hunger, except for the truly cynical. All we can do is learn from every hurdle, hiccup or failure. For my family, the learning in Brexit is that we are free, that our sense of belonging doesn’t come from a place but from how we feel. That’s a phrase made for Private Eye’s Pseud’s Corner right there, but it’s true. We feel like citizens of the world, which means we are at home everywhere, irrespectively of mean-spirited high-level statements to the contrary (ahem). We will always love Britain, and no one can legislate against that. Two questions in one: what advice would you give to EU nationals living in the UK who are facing similar problems to the ones you have faced; and what advice would you give to UK nationals to assure EU nationals that the UK is still OK to live and work in? (although I appreciate the irony of the latter point!) Well, I don’t have a piece of advice for all EU folk in the UK, we are all different and our own individual realities shape the decisions we make. For me, the idea of becoming a sort of 'tolerated', lesser citizen with permission rather than the right to live here was more than I could accept. I know so many others like me, who have built lives and careers in the UK and find the prospect of asking for permission to continue living here profoundly offensive. However, I also understand those friends who do not feel it fair to throw away the lives they have built for themselves. They have no choice but to jump through the hoops, albeit reluctantly. As for all of our UK friends, I am sure of one thing. Our friendship and love for each other will endure whatever history throws at us. British wisdom, decency and fairness will prevail and if they don’t, you will always be welcome in our homes on the old continent. Thanks for sharing yours with us. Finally, what’s next for you? I feel grateful that for us this otherwise strange time is the beginning of a new adventure, rather than just a painful rupture. We are relocating to Brussels, feeling more European than we have ever done, funnily enough. We’re clearly not immune from Brexit tribalism! Together with a brilliant friend and skilled political expert, I am setting up a new organisation to broker and catalyse powerful, impactful dialogue on the burning issues at the top of the global agenda: climate change, food system reform, protecting democracy and strengthening the rules-based international system, among others. With decades of experience at the highest levels of power and a lot of influential contacts, we are better placed than most to bring together those who can make change happen, from all sectors and walks of life. We will help key actors create solutions so that we can all enjoy the safe and sustainable future we want. The time has come for powerful action – and our new organisation will focus on doing just this. None of us can really afford to stand by and watch our existing systems fail when so many grave dangers threaten our world. We would very much like to be a voice and advocate for our UK friends in Europe and beyond, to ensure Brexit does not diminish your input when urgent global challenges require it most. Look out for Flare in the coming weeks and please reach out to us and remain connected to those who, like you, are fighting for a better world, on whichever side of the Channel we might find ourselves. Andreea Petre-Goncalves Connect with Andreea on LinkedIn We certainly will: our sincere thanks to Andreea for sharing her story with us, and we wish her the very best of luck! Look out for more insight and experience from our network in this field coming soon; meanwhile if you'd like to know more about our work and opportunities in political campaigning, advocacy, human rights and more, visit our Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns page or contact Harry Marven via email or on 020 7820 7324. More billboards from Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys More from the Harris Hill blog text ► Don't go! Tackling talent retention in the charity sector Hiring great people is one thing, but holding on to them can be quite another amid tough competition for talent. Charity Finance Group recently asked our specialists about talent retention among charities and charity finance professionals in particular: what drives them to stay put or move on, and what kind of retention methods are working for charities? Originally published in CFG's Finance Focus magazine, here's what they had to say. Read more... ► Charity Careers: meet Andy Harris, director of income generation for Shelter UK How do you become a fundraising director? Why work for a charity and what's the toughest job in fundraising? Answers to these and much more in the latest Charity Careers, in which Nicola Greenbrook talks to key influencers in the charity sector, inviting them to share their career story and how they navigate the professional world. This month, Shelter UK's Andy Harris explains how his team contributes towards the charity’s invaluable work, why every donation bag tells a story, and what to do when it all gets a bit too cosy. Read more... ► Harris Hill blog homepage

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