Harris Hill Salary Centre

We're delighted to be working in partnership with Maudsley Charity on their biggest and most important recruitment drive to date. We'll be working exclusively to support the charity’s ambitious growth plans for 2022/2023 as it continues to raise its profile and increase the diversity of its team. We're also delighted to welcome back guest writer Nicola Greenbrook, who explores this exciting collaboration further, finding out what it means for the charity, its people and the communities it proudly serves. Maudsley Charity is a mental health charity based in South London. It funds and promotes innovative, collaborative projects and ideas that make a tangible difference to the lives of those who experience severe mental illness. Working alongside South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, the charity brings together researchers, frontline clinicians, service users and their families, and a wide range of voluntary and community organisations to prevent mental illness, improve care, and support recovery. They work primarily within South London but believe that all the work they fund has the potential for wider impact at both national and international levels. Ambitious plans for change Maudsley Charity is undergoing a significant period of growth and change — and exciting times are ahead. The charity has been building a solid foundation since becoming an independent entity in 2018 and is now entering a period of expansion. It has bold ambitions about maximising impact, addressing issues of discrimination and exclusion in what it works on and how it works, and generating funds to extend its work and build support communities. The charity plans to grow its headcount to approximately 18-20 staff by March 2023. Key appointments in the past 12 months include a new Director of Fundraising & Communications, Communications Officer and Grantmaking Systems Lead. Growth continues with a new Programme Manager, Senior Impact and Learning Manager and NHS Trust Engagement and Fundraising Manager amongst other important new hires. However, it’s not simply about increasing headcount. The wider context In May 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was murdered in the US City of Minneapolis by a white police officer. His murder led to widespread protests about police brutality, police racism and the lack of police accountability and sparked a global movement, as countries across the globe held some of the largest Black Lives Matter protests in their history. In the UK, George Floyd’s death both devastated and galvanised the nation, sparking mass activism. According to The Guardian, within days of his death, thousands of people across 260 towns and cities in the UK defied the COVID-19 enforced lockdown to join large anti-racism rallies which resulted in a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. The landscape has irreversibly shifted since the murder of George Floyd, and Maudsley Charity knew that they had to step up and do more. The charity funds many projects that are helping to address the health inequalities that minoritised communities face within the mental health system (particularly Black people with African and Caribbean heritage and South Asian communities), but realised that more focus needed to go on inclusive recruitment and employment practice. They demonstrated a clear willingness and openness to change in order to become a more inclusive employer. One of the first steps was to recognise that its workforce was not as diverse as the communities it serves. Reflecting diverse communities The charity is based in South London, in an area with some of the highest levels of mental ill health in the UK driven by deprivation and discrimination. It has made an active commitment to ensuring sustained diversity within its team in terms of ethnicity, class and lived experience of mental ill health and, crucially, one which reflects the communities it serves — including Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and beyond. In addition, it recognised that as part of their attraction strategy, the charity needed to work towards changing the external perception of the charity and become well-known and trusted in South London and beyond. Maudsley Charity is underpinned by principles that actively value and encourage respectful and positive attitudes to differences. Their values include: Knowledge teeeeeetx Improvement We value diversity of experience, expertise, and perspective. We will build into our organisation, and every aspect of our work, a range of voices, including those of people who experience mental illness. We care about maintaining high standards and improvement. We will be open about where we could do better, learn from our successes and failures and expect those we work with to do the same. Recruitment practices: doing things differently With this new recruitment drive, Maudsley Charity committed to trialling different methods to address any unintentional blockers and biases in their hiring practices. It reviewed its processes and, working in partnership with Harris Hill, ensured that the channels they are using to recruit new talent are clearly aligned with its objectives. Some of these practices include: • Writing helpful, friendly and engaging adverts; avoiding gender-driven language and using a tone of voice that speaks to candidates the charity may not necessarily have spoken to before. For example, stating that, ‘as a team we value and acknowledge diverse experiences, voices and perspectives, particularly those who come from minoritised communities and/or have direct experience of living with mental illness or being a carer for someone living with mental illness’ and ‘we welcome your application if you are from a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic background, have a disability, are LGBTQ+, have any other protected characteristic, or have lived experience of mental illness’. • Using images in recruitment packs that aim to be more reflective of the communities that it serves. • Engaging candidates on social media platforms such as Twitter by telling them that they are interested in their potential as much as their existing skills and experience. • Using ‘blind’ recruitment processes (removing a candidate’s name and other identifying factors, such as age, location, and school or university names from their application) to make it easier for hiring managers to make objective decisions about the candidate’s skills, experience and suitability for a role — and lessen the risk of conscious or unconscious bias. • Offering candidates the opportunity to see interview questions in advance to aid preparation. • Ensuring interview panels are diverse and comprised of people from different teams, and asking values-based interview questions, not just competency-based, to attract people who are motivated by the charity’s values but may not have the relevant qualifications at this stage. • Reviewing the recruitment process at each stage to ensure it is as inclusive as possible; removing any potential barriers, identifying new ways to remove any unconscious bias and ensuring that candidates are not being set up to fail. Why work for Maudsley Charity? Lisa Williams joined Maudsley Charity in 2018 as Business Support Manager. Her main responsibilities include HR, contract management and governance. She is also the Secretariat to the Board of Trustees. After the pandemic, the charity knew it needed to get to grips with its people policies and procedures and establish its HR function — and this is where Lisa’s role comes in! She is working towards an HR qualification and somehow finds the time to volunteer too — so she can truly feel the impact of how other charities make a difference to their service users. Lisa believes the charity offers its people the chance to grow and develop in their roles and focus on their continuous professional development. She has particularly enjoyed working with Lisa Kiew, Director of Finance and Operations, whose “drive and vision to make changes has been the making of us and our improvements, and how far we have come.” She recognises that the charity is in a fast-paced place of change — and that change has been challenging but is being embraced. She said, “I have never been an employee of a charity before where people really want to get it right and make a difference in this way.” Lisa believes the charity, its senior leaders and people demonstrate an openness to try different things and to reflect on its learnings; what went well and what could be improved, but also to celebrate what has been achieved. On this journey, the charity learnt that, not only do they need to be clearer in how roles are described but also, how important it is that candidates get a feel for the charity’s developing journey. This has given the charity a great opportunity to reflect on other HR processes and practices. She believes that the charity is very good at collaborating and coming together as a high-performing team; they share and respect ideas, work towards achieving common objectives and really live the charity’s values. Lisa and the team are looking forward to the changes ahead and are keen to see improvements, motivating and supporting each other along the way. Harris Hill are delighted to be working with Maudsley Charity and helping them to find new talent to join their excellent teams. The new partnership will inform the way that the charity works moving forwards and represents an exciting time in its history with a sharper focus on impact in all they do. Nicola Greenbrook, London based freelance writer, podcaster and HR Specialist. teeeext • Contact Nicola teeeext • Follow Nicola on Twitter You can find out more about vacancies at Maudsley Charity here ► More from the Harris Hill Blog How to handle competency-based interviews - part 1 They’re a great opportunity to show you’ve got the necessary skills, but what exactly are they and how can you be sure to shine? Director Jenny Hills of our executive practice offers detailed insight and expert advice in the first of a two-part guide. Read more ► What’s the going rate for your charity sector role? Whether you’re a head of fundraising for a small charity, digital manager for a household name, or in any of almost 200 other positions in the sector, you’ll find answers in the brand new 2022 Harris Hill Salary Survey. Read more ► Back to the Harris Hill Blog homepage ►

They’re a great opportunity to show you’ve got the necessary skills, but what exactly are they and how can you be sure to shine? Director Jenny Hills of our executive practice offers detailed insight and expert advice in the first of a two-part guide. What is a competency-based interview, and why do recruitment panels use them? A competency-based interview is one that focuses on establishing that you, as a candidate, have the skills, knowledge, experience, etc, to succeed in a role, as evidenced by your achievements so far. These competencies should be made clear on the job description and person specification of a role. If you read these documents carefully ahead of time, there should be no surprise questions in a competency-based interview. Competency-based interviews are used by organisations because: • They are fair and objective. In a well-run recruitment process using competency-based interviews, candidates can be well-prepared as they will have the JD and person specification well ahead of the interview. All candidates are asked the same questions in the same amount of time, and are assessed against the same criteria (the competencies). • They can highlight your potential and transferable skills. If you're going for a promotion (say from Head of Finance to a director role) or looking to move into a different type of role, a good person specification should break down the role into separate points such as 'ability to manage a remote team', 'knowledge of charity accounting rules', 'ability to communicate complex information to non-finance specialists', etc. Each of these are competencies. A step-up candidate can show they have these competencies with specific examples (and can therefore be successful in the new role), without having held that exact title before. • They help level the playing field for candidates who are not natural interviewees. There are people out there who are just good at interviewing. They're able to relax, come up with answers quickly, and can tell a great story about why they would be perfect for this role. Lucky them, but that’s not most of us. Most of us get a little nervous, need to take a breath before answering a question, and despite researching the organisation thoroughly before an interview, don’t turn up thinking we can solve their every issue before lunchtime on our first day. Competency-based interviews actually help you here, because you can prepare, anticipate the questions you’ll be asked, and therefore (fingers crossed), be less nervous. Also, you're not being assessed on your insider knowledge of the organisation - you're being assessed on how your own experience to date has prepared you for this role. These interviews are also effective at weeding out candidates who are good at interviewing (who can talk the talk) but in reality are less qualified for the actual role. Someone who can talk a great game about how they would, say, double the charity’s income in six months, won’t get very far in a competency-based interview if they can’t provide solid evidence of a track record of doing something like that before. How to tell if you’re in a competency-based interview Hopefully, you will have been briefed ahead of time on the format of the interview, but if not, you can spot a competency-based question by its focus on your past career. Some tell-tale phrases are: • Give me an example of… • Tell me about a time when… • Where have you demonstrated… • What experience do you have of… • How have you gone about… If you hear any of these or similar, it’s a competency-based question. Sometimes, the focus on the past might be less obvious, but a competency-based answer is still usually the best way to answer questions like these: • Tell us about your knowledge of… • Describe your ability to… • What’s your awareness of… Even if it's not the main focus, most interviews will include some competency-based questions. So, how do you go about answering them? Answering competency-based questions with the STAR technique The STAR technique is Competency-Based Interview Answers 101. Basically, the STAR technique is about answering a competency-based question with an example in four parts: Situation, Task, Action, Result. What does that mean in practice? Let’s look at an example. The question to be answered is, “Please could you tell us about your experience of leading and motivating a team?” What this means Answer Situation Setting the scene: what your role was, and the challenge or opportunity When I joined my current role as Head of Trust Fundraising, I had a team of five relatively inexperienced staff who were demoralised, felt isolated and were directionless after an extended period without a team leader. The trust bid pipeline was in danger, and was projected to deliver only 60% of the team’s target, which ultimately risked service provision. Task What your responsibility was/what you needed to do I was tasked with stabilising and growing the trust funding pipeline, which required me to develop and motivate the team to perform at a level they never had before. Action Quite simply, what you did I held workshops with the team to review what had been won, what had been submitted, what was in process and what was expected for the rest of the financial year, and an assessment of how likely we were to win each bid. We used this information to write a new annual strategy for trust fundraising. For each member of the team, I gave them a “blank slate” and focused on their performance now and in the future, setting individualised KPIs against the strategy, and regular check ins with me. I set a firm “no-blame culture” across the team between individuals and in group settings. I also set up a “buddy system” with the services team, so my team could see the impact of their work and the services team got a better understanding of what my team needed to write effective bids. Result What was your impact? By the end of the financial year, we had secured the existing pipeline of funding, as well as an additional 15% on top of our target. We were able to review our annual strategy and convert it into a 5-year strategy, which we are now halfway through the third year of delivery, with year on year increases in funding won. The same people are still in the team, with one member promoted by me last year into a manager position in accordance with her development plan, with a new hire reporting into her. Our latest staff survey revealed that the team feels strongly connected to the work of the charity, with a clear sense of their own individual contribution. Why use the STAR technique? The point of the STAR technique is to provide a clear structure to your answer that is easy to remember and follow for both you and the interviewer. Most of us are good at remembering chronological, cause-and-effect narratives – a story - which is basically what an answer structured around Situation, Task, Action, Result creates. It’s easier for you (and equally importantly, the panel) to remember a nicely structured story than a list of facts and figures, no matter how impressive those facts and figures may be. Similarly, don’t feel the need to throw in every single detail you can think of for the example you do give, and risk the panel losing the thread of your story. Stick to what is most important and relevant to the role you are interviewing for. Which is why… Less is (usually) more So, you're asked to demonstrate your communication skills. You’re a great communicator and have loads of examples, but don’t be tempted to reel them all off. Stick to one example that you judge to be most relevant to the role, and tell it well using the STAR technique. Put yourself in a panel member’s shoes as they are listening to your answer. What’s easier to follow: a list of ten projects from across your career (which are probably on your CV already) or one example, put in a context that makes it relevant to the vacancy, and that follows through to an impressive result that they would like to see replicated at their organisation? If you’ve given a strong example and now want to go further and show you’ve done this more than once, you can demonstrate this breadth by finishing with something like, “that was the most complex communications challenge I have faced, but I applied the same principles in the merger at this charity, the rebrand at that charity, and most recently the new service launch in my current role”. In part two, we'll look at how to bring your personality and values into play, deal with competencies you don't have, and inspire the panel with your vision for the future, not just your past. Read part two ► More from the Harris Hill Blog The Harris Hill Salary Survey 2022 What’s the going rate for your charity sector role? Whether you’re a head of fundraising for a small charity, digital manager for a household name, or in any of almost 200 other positions in the sector, you’ll find answers in the brand new 2022 Harris Hill Salary Survey. Read more ► Back to the blog homepage ►

Find the latest charity rates in the 2022 Harris Hill Salary Survey

				What’s the going rate for your charity sector role?
				Whether you’re a head of fundraising for a small charity, digital manager for a household name, or in any of almost 200 other positions in the sector, you’ll find answers in the brand new 2022 Harris Hill Salary Survey. The new report arrives with our thanks first of all to the several hundred superb organisations who’ve entrusted us in the past year and more with the diverse range of roles that form the basis of the survey. From there, we add the insight and expertise of our experienced specialists in each field, working role by role to identify misleading or unrepresentative cases that might distort the picture – for example, roles that are far more senior/junior than the title suggests – and applying their up-to-the-minute knowledge from handling similar roles every day to ensure we reflect what’s actually being paid (not just what’s advertised) for each role throughout the sector. Our thanks too, for the many (many!) requests and enquiries we've had from people patiently awaiting the next edition: we’re delighted to say that it’s now here and available to download from the link below, and we hope you find it a valuable reference for the year ahead.

				With salaries for everything from entry-level roles to director positions, the survey covers each of our specialist areas: Chief Executives & Directors • Data Management • Finance • Fundraising • Human Resources Marketing, PR & Digital • Operations, Admin & Support • Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns • Temporary & Interim

				Market trends We’ve also examined some of the key issues currently affecting the market, not least the widespread and seemingly ever-more-acute shortage of candidates: why have numbers fallen and where to find new talent now? And after two years of turbulence and quite radical change in the working landscape, what impact has the pandemic and the rise of flexible working had on salaries?
				A (very) recent history of the survey It's our 15th annual guide to salaries in the UK charity sector, but in this case, the first since the outbreak of a global pandemic, whose many crimes (though admittedly among the more benign) include putting paid to the last two editions. Work was just underway in 2020 when much of the world shut down, closing off key fundraising avenues for charities (while demand for their services often increased), and triggering widespread fear of redundancies, job losses and for some, even the prospect of having to cease operations entirely. In which context, reporting on the previous year's salaries seemed rather like reviewing the Titanic’s restaurants for passengers clinging to the lifeboats: information that may have been welcome yesterday, now eclipsed by some rather more pressing concerns. Uncertainty still prevailed by the spring of 2021, but we're delighted that the last year has been characterised by a strong and consistent recovery, each month surpassing the last, creating the clear picture needed to bring you this brand new report.


				For more information... Throughout the report you'll find details of the relevant specialists together with the salaries in their respective fields, and they're by far the best people to call with queries relating to those areas. Meanwhile for more general enquiries, feedback or requests relating to the survey, please call us on 020 7820 7300 or get in touch by email.

Harris Hill Salary Centre

Find the latest charity rates in the 2022 Harris Hill Salary Survey

What’s the going rate for your charity sector role?

Market trends

We’ve also examined some of the key issues currently affecting the market, not least the widespread and seemingly ever-more-acute shortage of candidates: why have numbers fallen and where to find new talent now?

A (very) recent history of the survey

For more information...

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The Harris Hill Charity Series

Advice, news, events and specialist insight from the Harris Hill Blog

It's the 2022 Charity Softball Finals!

Introducing an exclusive partnership with Maudsley Charity

Small charities, (more) big opportunities

Market trends: the rise of flexible working

Market trends: why the shortage of candidates?

How to handle competency-based interviews - part 1

How to handle competency-based interviews - part 2

What to expect as a charity sector temp

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