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Say you work in finance and many will imagine a world of six-figure salaries, baffling spreadsheets, detached houses in the Home Counties and a statistically inexplicable number of people called Steve. Working in charity finance however, is – baffling spreadsheets aside – a rather different story, but with their finger on the pulse and their ear to the ground at all times (we should really get them some chairs), our finance specialists are perfectly placed to bring you up to speed on the latest twists and turns. Here’s what they had to say about remuneration and recruitment trends in the current market, in our 2025 Salary Survey. ​​Finance roles have traditionally been among the better-paid charity jobs, carrying a premium in recognition of the extra study required for accounting qualifications. However, employers seem increasingly reluctant to honour this, leading to a fairly flat year for those in charity finance, with only limited increases, largely at the senior end of the market. Nonetheless, economic uncertainty has certainly driven a boom in one thing: charities finding creative ways to meet their staffing needs without actually raising the budget. One of these methods is a scattershot approach, posting the role at the desired rate through multiple agencies, job boards, social media, their own channels – extra admin be damned – and simply waiting it out until someone is desperate enough to accept it. Until recently, this would have been a recipe for certain regret, but with more candidates in the market and many others at risk of joining them, there’s now more chance of an eventual result, even if it’s nobody’s ideal outcome. Another tactic is to underplay the role’s importance, in a bid to justify a lesser salary. We’re seeing an increasing number of roles advertised, for example, as a Finance Manager, which on closer inspection have all the responsibilities of a Head of Finance, just not the remuneration. It’s a little sneaky, and applicants would be well advised to read through job descriptions thoroughly rather than relying on the title - but faced with such existential financial challenges, it’s hard to begrudge charities trying to cut every possible corner to keep costs down. ​In a similar vein at more junior levels, we’re seeing more and more openings for Finance Officers who, rather than being supported by a Finance Assistant, are required to perform that role as well, making for some very long lists of responsibilities that candidates find wildly out of proportion to the salaries on offer. There’s even some of that at the top too, in the shape of Finance Directors increasingly functioning as a secondary CEO but without, of course, the rewards. It’s a sign of the extreme pressure on budgets that we’re even seeing candidates being offered less than their current position, hoping that the role will appeal for other reasons, but it’s vanishingly rare that those reasons are compelling enough for this tactic to bear fruit. Or indeed finance professionals, who are significantly better at the job. Meanwhile, with more candidates competing for fewer vacancies than we’ve seen for several years, many organisations have made the application process more demanding, requiring things like presentations and assessments on top of the regular CV. However, having landed good jobs with less effort in the past, applicants are increasingly unwilling to jump through additional hoops, so this can deter some of the very best candidates. Those with little choice will still apply, but those who can take their pick of employers will simply pick somewhere else. Our advice? Maybe reconsider the assault course. ​For more on the market, or if you'd like our help with a recruitment issue in this field, please contact our finance specialists Simon Bascombe or Joshua Liveras who'll be happy to help.Meanwhile you can find all the figures for all departments in the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for any other queries, you can also contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk​​Search charity jobs​View the survey​Read the Harris Hill Blog​​​​​

The roles we group under ‘Business Services’ aren’t about raising funds or raising profile, but about delivering an organisation’s work – including operational staff at all levels, project managers, programme leaders and all the admin, data and support staff in less visible roles that are nonetheless essential to getting things done. So what’s happening in the recruitment market for those working in these areas? Here’s what our specialists had to say in our 2025 Salary Survey. ​​​Market trendsSalaries make a difference of course, but in these areas, the factor with the biggest influence on application numbers is location. Fully remote roles are highly-prized but relatively rare, simply because it’s rarely practical for those involved in day-to-day operations and service delivery to be based off-site. While this limits potential applicants to those within commuting distance like, say, just about any pre-2020 job, it’s not currently presenting major recruitment challenges due to the rising number of candidates available. However such is the appeal of remote positions that we’re starting to see some senior candidates prepared to consider a pay cut in order to land one, or even just for the security of a stable, full-time permanent role. ‘No-one’s looking for long-term commitment these days’ might be the cry of disgruntled daters, but in 2025 it’s perhaps just as likely to come from jobseekers, given the many once-permanent roles now offered only on a temporary basis. They’re accompanied by more part-time and job-share positions than we’ve seen for many a year, suggesting that charities are increasingly open to any means of covering key functions without inflating the full-time, permanent payroll. If necessity is the mother of invention, desperation is apparently the father of dropping your previous objections and giving it a go. That’s also evident in the growing number of charities currently experimenting with a four-day working week, an idea that certainly has plenty of fans among the workforce. As there’s typically no reduction in salary this isn’t a cost-saving measure, but the evidence from trials to date has shown, perhaps counterintuitively, that a shorter week can actually increase productivity, while giving organisations an unbeatable means of attracting and retaining talent, which is well worth having when salaries leave something to be desired. Where the opportunities are nowA troubled economy and widespread sector redundancies have created more competition for fewer vacancies than we’ve seen for several years, replacing the challenge of finding a strong six-person shortlist with the difficulty of narrowing it down to a number that could fit on a bus. However there are still plenty of opportunities open for those with data, IT or monitoring and evaluation experience, in particular. We’ve also seen more openings for those who can deliver transformation, both in the data/digital sense and in HR, where it’s generally code for restructuring: those dedicated workers won’t fire themselves, you know. New opportunities are also being created where last year’s big trend for rolling two jobs into one (think Head of Finance & Resources) has collided with the reality that in many cases, the two halves require very different skills that rarely co-exist in one person, resulting in the role splitting back into separate positions.Meanwhile, relatively little has changed with regard to another of last year’s trends: the growth of inclusive recruitment practices like sharing interview questions in advance, for the benefit of those who may struggle on the spot. While this hasn’t declined, there’s been little further progress either - although perhaps we should count ourselves lucky that, on this side of the Atlantic at least, considering the needs of different groups has yet to be deemed unlawful. ​​For more on the market, or if you'd like our help with a recruitment issue in one of these areas, please contact our specialists Lizzy Clark or Giuseppe Di Maria who'll be delighted to assist. Meanwhile you can find all the figures for all departments in the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for any other queries just contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk ​​​​Search charity jobs​​View the survey​​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

How have charity salaries progressed in the last 10 years? Who's seen the highest and lowest increases? And how has the sector fared against others and the cost of living? Our 2025 Salary Survey gives us a tenth year of directly comparable data, so this time, along with the latest rates for third sector jobs, we look at the longer-term changes too, travelling back to 2015 to compare rates of pay then and now. How well has your salary kept up with the times?How we’ve made these comparisons Salaries for any given role fall within a certain range (e.g. £42,000 - £48,000) as featured in our survey. However, comparing ranges can be misleading if they vary in width from year to year, as indeed they do. For a clearer picture, we’re using a single value – the exact midpoint (e.g. £45,000 in the above case) of each range in our 2015 and 2025 surveys as an approximation of the average – to compare 2015 salaries in six key charity departments with those of the same roles today. It’s not perfectly scientific: for one thing, the figures aren’t weighted for the relative number of people in each role (managers outnumbering heads of department, for example), but it gives us a decent approximation of the relative increases in each area and across the sector as a whole. ​2015: Setting the scene Cast your mind back if you can, to what might now seem like the halcyon days of 2015. Set to be described by future historians as ‘the year before it all started going horribly wrong’, it was a time of (relative) peace, when the world was yet to be (quite so often) on fire, when a certain president was merely the host of a reality TV show, and when the Grim Reaper’s extra-busy year of bumping off beloved celebs on a weekly basis was still several months away. A pint of milk cost 44p, a pint of beer just £3.45 and hot topics in the charity sector included the recently-introduced Lobbying Act, described as a ‘gagging law’ by charities like Shelter and Friends of the Earth, while debate raged over the ethics of fundraising, after 92-year-old poppy seller Olive Cooke sadly took her own life, many holding the thousands of donation requests she had been receiving each year at least partly responsible. Elsewhere, Queen Elizabeth II became the UK’s longest-reigning monarch, 195 countries signed the Paris climate agreement, while the internet tackled an even more pressing concern: what colour was that black and blue dress? Since then, it’s turned out to be a bumpy ride in this handbasket, while for reasons you won’t need us to run through here, the cost of simply existing has risen substantially. The question is: have salaries in the charity sector done the same? [Spoiler alert: let’s just say it’s unlikely]. Break out the bar charts! We’re going in. (Contains scenes of mild peril). ​Fundraising With an average rise of 18.3% in total, fundraisers have seen the greatest improvements in pay over the last ten years, largely thanks to their scarcity. Those at each end of the scale have seen the highest percentage increases, although as those at the bottom might reasonably point out, even 28% of not very much is still…not very much. Drilling further into that overall average, there are some significant variations between revenue streams, with salaries for Trust & Statutory roles rising an average of 19.6% and topping the table, while those in Direct Marketing have had to make do with a mere 3.7%. In a decade. Tough gig. OperationsAfter fundraisers, it's those working in operational and service delivery roles who've seen the greatest improvements, with average increases of 15.5%. As in fundraising, some of the highest percentage increases have been at the most junior level, albeit in large part due to starting from a very low base. Further up, increases have followed a similar pattern across the board apart from the heads of department, where those in large organisations have been rewarded, if not lavishly, at least more respectably (+12.3%) than their counterparts in small charities (a big fat zero). ​Data Management More than in any other area, salary increases for data management roles have primarily gravitated to those at the upper levels, which might explain why this is also where the gap between rates of the highest and lowest earners has widened the most, by approximately 54%. That’s followed by Fundraising (+33%) and Marketing (+10%), but in Finance, Operations and HR, the gap between the highest and lowest-paid staff has actually narrowed, by 6%, 12% and 13% respectively. ​FinanceIn Finance it's actually those in junior positions who've seen the strongest percentage increases, while progress has been more sluggish for their senior colleagues. With one exception: Heads of Finance at major charities, where a significant disparity between their pay and that of their equivalents in smaller organisations has opened up. ​Human Resources Not a great decade for heads of HR, whose salaries have largely flatlined and may even have slipped backwards in some cases. Their junior colleagues have fared better in that respect, particularly in smaller charities where some of the most substantial rises have been seen, if only because their lower starting points left them a lot more ground to make up. ​Marketing Given how infrequently ‘marketing’ and ‘salary increases’ have shared a sentence in previous editions, it’s no great surprise to see where the smallest advances have been, with salaries rising by a grand total of 11.8% since 2015 – just a fraction over 1% per year. It’s the law of supply and demand at work, yet perhaps a little surprising given that a strong brand and compelling communications (particularly in the digital sphere) have only become more essential in the past ten years. However, that 11.8% average masks quite a contrast between the story at smaller charities (+17%) and larger organisations (+6.7%), closing the gap between them to some extent. What does this tell us?This shows there are some clear differences in salary increases between departments, albeit within a fairly narrow range (see below), which averages out at 14.1%. However, given the greater number of fundraisers and operational staff than those in finance or HR, for example, 15% is probably a better estimate of the average increase across the sector. It’s not a huge amount for a decade, but at least it’s movement in the right direction. At least, until you stir in the final ingredient of this salary soufflé: inflation. ​Since 2015, the cost of everything those salaries have to pay for has risen between 36.1% and 53.3%, depending on your chosen measure of inflation. ​​​► A quick sidebar: the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI) track different items to determine the rate of inflation, CPI giving a lower rate by some distance. Both have their merits and shortcomings but both are valid: the truth probably lies somewhere in between. ​​​​Having climbed just 15%, charity sector salaries have fallen well behind either measure, behind public sector pay (up 29.9%), and far behind the UK’s average full-time salary, up 35.6%, just a fraction behind inflation. For most then, and certainly within the charity sector, there’s been no increase in real terms over the past ten years — the only question is how much the value of your pay has declined: marketers being the worst hit, but even fundraisers faring only slightly better. Still, tell us again how wages are rising faster than inflation. We love that one. ​How much does this matter? It’s not great news, clearly, and certainly explains why your budget never seems to stretch as far as it did, but it’s hardly shocking news that however competitive they claim to be, salaries in the charity sector aren’t about to win any prizes. That’s widely expected, and while inflation-busting increases all round would clearly be desirable, most in the sector are well aware of the trade-offs that would be required, and that they would very likely oppose. Right now, back in a world where candidates compete for jobs rather than the other way around, the impact on recruitment is limited, but what these figures show is charity salaries falling further behind those in other sectors all the time, with concerning implications for the future. In a less employer-friendly market, letting that gap grow any larger could significantly damage organisations’ ability to retain and hire new talent, and therefore to achieve their goals.Thankfully, there’s a saving grace to help us finish on a brighter note. Much as we’ve focused on pay (as salary surveys tend to do), it’s worth remembering that in reality, and for charity professionals in particular, it’s not all about the money. Let’s be honest: if it were, we’d all be working somewhere else. Staff in the sector may not make huge sums, but surveys consistently find them with higher levels of job satisfaction, a better work/life balance, and more passion for what they do than those in almost any other line of work, which is why they’re regularly ranked among the happiest workers in the UK. Salaries aside, that’s surely something to go out and celebrate. Just make sure it’s somewhere with a deal on.​​For more on charity sector salaries and the latest figures, you can find the full 2025 Harris Hill Salary Survey here, or for any other queries or assistance with recruiting or your next move, please contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300, or send us an email.​Search charity jobs​View the survey​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

As a charity professional, your experience of working and job-seeking in the sector will very much depend on the type of work you do, which is why our 2025 Salary Survey looks at the trends and challenges for each specialist area in turn. You can find the figures for all departments in the full survey here, but in the meantime, here’s what we’re currently seeing in the market for those in marketing, communications, PR and digital roles. ​​As regular readers will know, this is perhaps the last place you’d expect to see a salary increase in the wild. Even during the great candidate droughts of 2022/23, marketers have simply never been a rare enough species to put any serious pressure on pay. Yet elusive as the marketing pay rise may seem — digital veterans claim to have spotted one in the 2000s but many are sceptical — our analysis of the ten-year trends suggests that in reality, salaries here lag only slightly behind those of other departments over the longer term. As for this year, the main story is that we’re actually seeing significant growth. Of jobs? No. Of salaries? Also no. Of the volume of work expected for those salaries? Bingo. Employers’ penchant for piling more responsibilities on to existing plates is nowhere more pronounced, but here it’s often with surprisingly little regard for the role of those concerned, or their level of experience, resulting in staff at all levels doing increasingly similar jobs. That can sometimes be beneficial – giving junior staff a chance to prove themselves on bigger projects, for example – but as we’re increasingly seeing, it can also manifest as Heads of Marketing held back from planning long-term strategy by the demands of everyday campaigns, or junior execs on sub-£30k salaries bearing sole responsibility for all communication channels (and thus the organisation’s brand and reputation) – responsibilities that some may welcome, but for which they would not unreasonably expect to be better rewarded. Blurring these lines means that rather than progressing along a linear path, charity marketers’ careers are more like running in circles, steadily accumulating responsibilities but never leaving any behind. Nor, it seems, should they try, as we’ve seen things like top senior strategists turned down for lacking recent experience of everyday admin, which is a bit like rejecting a BAFTA-winning legend for a lack of bit parts in EastEnders lately. With pay largely running on the spot too, many experienced marketers are leaving the sector in search of real progression, a significant loss of charity-specific expertise that even below-inflation increases might have prevented.​Elsewhere, while you might expect the current abundance of available candidates to deliver a broader intake, that’s not exactly the case. Confident of finding exactly what they want, many organisations are narrowing their criteria and being more, not less, prescriptive. Candidates from other sectors, often courted by charities in the past, now stand little chance against those with charity experience, preferably doing the exact same role in a near-identical organisation. And if they can’t be found at first, organisations will sooner wait than broaden the criteria or raise the offer: someone ticking every box will come along eventually. However, they’d come along much sooner (and likely be more committed to the role) were organisations to provide some incentive to make the move, be it financial or simply better conditions, prospects or support. Sure, in this market, simply having a vacancy will attract applications, but the strongest candidates aren’t going anywhere that doesn’t value them enough to offer even slightly more than their current wage. Yet despite the challenging market, there are reasons for optimism too. Charities’ marketing, brand and digital flair is only growing more important to their success, so this expertise is needed – just as it is when new media and marketing channels arise. In fact, we’re already seeing high demand for pay-per-view and digital marketing technical skillsets, as well as for policy and public affairs professionals with government/third sector experience, while a blend of communications and charity expertise goes a long way in areas of international development, policy and advocacy. If that’s you, it’s likely worth sticking around, bolstering your skills, contacts and knowledge (and making sure people know about them) leaving you well placed to benefit when charities are ready and raring to hire again. ​​For more on the market, or if you'd like our help with a recruitment issue in this field, please contact our marketing specialist Hannah Whittington who'll be delighted to assist.Meanwhile you can find all the figures for all departments in the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for any other queries just contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk​​Search charity jobs​Recruit for your organisation​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

Driven by high demand and short supply, fundraisers' salaries have been rising in recent years, but how have things changed in the last 12 months? What kind of roles are organisations offering and which are the most challenging to fill? Here's what our fundraising specialists had to say in our 2025 Salary Survey (available here).​​It’s not the way we might want it to happen, but a combination of fewer vacancies and significant redundancies across the sector has boosted the number of fundraisers in the market for new jobs, alleviating some of the more extreme candidate shortages that have characterised the last few years. That’s taken much of the pressure off salaries, which are broadly where we left them a year ago, with some in areas like trust fundraising for smaller charities even having slipped back slightly. Any uplift has been mainly at the most junior levels, thanks to candidates turning down starting salaries around £23k, on the understandable grounds that living on them has progressed from challenging to near-impossible, however many luxuries (travel, food, basic human dignity…) you’re prepared to give up. Rising costs and their causes are also behind a sharp rise in the number of 12-month contracts ‘with a view to extend if successful’. That’s essentially fundraising code for ’if you’re bringing in enough revenue for the role to pay for itself’. At a time when predicting anything much beyond a week in advance seems audacious, secure funding for the future is increasingly rare. As a result, we’re also seeing an increase in roles covering two or more fundraising functions, such as Corporate Partnerships and Trusts, Corporate and Community, or Community and Events. Nonetheless, fundraisers have been valiantly hitting targets and maintaining revenue despite the challenging market. The only trouble is that rising operational costs mean they need to be raising more than ever just to stand still. ​It’s not who you are, but where you’re at You’d imagine that having more fundraisers on the market would make vacancies easier to fill, but for every position where that holds true, there’s another that’s as challenging as ever, and the difference is often location. With charity HQs (particularly of larger organisations) heavily concentrated in the South East, fundraisers are too, presenting challenges for those hoping to recruit them further afield. Back within the fundraising heartlands however, it’s perhaps less about the office location than how often you want people there. Flexibility is still hugely important to candidates and fortunately for them, there’s little sign in the charity sector of the growing ’back to the office’ push currently afflicting the business world. For many organisations, that’s likely because the funds saved on office space are now a lifeline elsewhere, throwing a spanner in the works of any reversal. As such, flexibility looks ironically permanent, and asking candidates for more than three days a week on site is asking for trouble finding potential applicants. One reason is that many fundraisers have seized the opportunity of remote and hybrid working to swap the country’s priciest corner for places where their salaries will stretch further. Having done so, the prospect of returning to a longer and more expensive daily commute has all the appeal of a three-day train delay outside Milton Keynes, as they’d rather not discover in person. As for the most sought-after candidates? Making their tenth appearance too, it’s fundraisers with around a year’s experience: the sweet spot at which they’ve been trained (crucially, at someone else’s expense) and can add value, but are still junior enough to accept a lower salary. And as ever, there are very few of them around, largely because no-one wants to be the mug that invests in training new starters, only for everyone else to poach them the moment they’re done. So what is the solution? And will we still be asking this question in another ten years? That might be the one prediction we can make with absolute confidence...​​For more on the market, including this year's figures across each major department, see the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for help with recruiting or your charity job search, just contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk​Search charity jobs​View the survey​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

​The 2025 Harris Hill Salary Survey is out now (get your copy here), reporting on charity and not-for-profit sector salaries over the last 12 months, with the latest rates and expert insight for each of our specialist areas. This year we're also looking at how pay in the sector has evolved over the last 10 years, but first, here's what we had to say about the charity recruitment market in 2025.​What’s happening in the charity recruitment market?Sometimes it takes an expert, well-trained eye to tease out the trends in the salary data, but with this year’s crop of charity jobs, two things hit you in the face at first glance, as if you’ve deeply insulted their mother’s honour or gone for a night out in Kent.The first is the significantly lower-than-usual number of them, indicating a clear slowdown in hiring. That’s been reflected in the reduced activity on sector job boards, CharityJob recently reporting a 20% fall in job postings, following a 22% fall in the year before, figures that broadly align with our own experience.Faced with challenging economic conditions, a significant wave of redundancies still rippling through the sector, and a highly uncertain outlook, it’s no surprise to find charities fairly reticent about recruiting.That uncertainty is also behind the other striking feature of this year’s jobs: just how many have been offered on a temporary, interim or contract basis. However, closer inspection reveals that many of them are 12-month roles that are intended to be permanent, but funding beyond the first year is very much TBC.It’s just one of the many contortions — sorry, creative strategies — that are having to be adopted to keep essential roles covered.Evidence of another can be seen in the ever-increasing length of job descriptions. Hiring hasn’t reduced because there’s less work to be done – quite the opposite in fact, with 86% of charities reporting increased demand for their services, according to recent CAF research. This inevitably means more work for existing staff, adding extra duties to roles that many feel are already out of proportion to pay.​Recently we’ve even seen a marked rise in remits that are wildly unrealistic for one person, suggesting that for some organisations, the pressure to stretch resources ever further is severe enough to quash practical concerns like ‘could anyone actually do all this?’ and ‘will anyone be prepared to for £32,000?’As we’ve noted before, the choice for many workers is increasingly between no job, or a job doing the work of multiple people, but how far can this go? For as long as services are broadly unaffected (staff picking up the cost in terms of their time and wellbeing), we suspect it’s unlikely to change, but despite their limited leverage in the current market, some candidates are starting to push back, rejecting offers that fail to reflect the scale of the task they’d be taking on.​The pendulum swings backWith application numbers up by more than 50%, it’s a dramatic turnaround from the candidate-short market of just two years ago. Yet any time saved on searching is lost twice over to the now bigger task of managing candidates through the process and sorting the superstars from the standard balls of space gas.If only there were a specialist agency who could help…Meanwhile if you’re seeking a move......there’s no denying the extra competition you’re likely to face. However you’d be surprised how far up the pecking order you can jump by simply tailoring your application, polishing your CV, writing a strong supporting statement and preparing for interviews. Many who landed their last job with relatively little effort make the mistake of expecting to do so again, so you can leapfrog a lot of them by avoiding corner-cutting and simply doing the basics well.​​​​​For more on the market, including this year's figures across each major department, see the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for help with recruiting or your charity job search, just contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk​Search charity jobs​View the survey​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

​The way we communicate at work has changed dramatically over the past few years. With an array of digital tools and social platforms at our fingertips, we're communicating and meeting more frequently and efficiently than ever. But is digital evolution at the cost of meaningful connection?If we rely too much on Teams and not enough on being a team, what do we leave behind? Freelance writer Nicola Greenbrook explores the balance between convenience and connection - and asks if it’s time to rethink how we communicate in a hybrid world. A shift in workplace connection Communication at work has undergone a major transformation. In the 1980s and 1990s, we were in our desk phones, memos and face-to-face meetings era. A quick desk-side chat or water cooler moment was an essential part of the working day. Email arrived with a bang (or rather, a ping) in the early 2000s and became ubiquitous at the office, along with mobile phones and text messaging. By the 2010s, smartphones were omnipresent, fax machines made way for scanners and chat tools like Yammer joined the party. With a growing focus on seeking work-life balance and not being tethered to the office, these digital tools helped create a remote workforce. Still, sadly, not a distant memory, 2020 brought the COVID-19 pandemic—and with it, a sudden upheaval in how we worked. As remote work became mandatory, platforms like Zoom and Teams surged in popularity, keeping us productive and connected through uncertain times In the current landscape, hybrid working has reshaped our daily interactions. From digital tools like Slack for real-time collaboration, Google Meet video calls for meetings and project management platforms like Trello to align and update on shared goals, we’re spoiled for choice. How digital tools power remote teams The upsides to using digital tools to work remotely are wide-reaching. Arguably, one of the biggest benefits is the positive impact on our work-life balance. Remote working allows us to fit work around our busy schedules and balance professional responsibilities with personal ones; from caregiving to volunteering and creative pursuits. For many, productivity levels are supercharged, with fewer workplace distractions and less commuting helping us accomplish more. Plus, there are cost-efficiencies for employees and employers, saving on travel and food expenses, as well as reduced overhead costs related to office space and utilities. All of this is powered by digital communication tools that connect us globally, instantly and asynchronously. With screen-sharing, greater inclusivity and real-time editing, we’re streamlining like pros and communicating at warp speed! ...and the downsides of digital dependence Digital tools may have transformed how we communicate and what we can achieve, making conversations quicker, more efficient and global — but have we sacrificed the warmth and spontaneity that come with in-person meetings and phone calls? There’s also a subtle shift in how we value time and interaction. With the advent of video calls, a quick check-in or casual chat now often feels like a scheduled event that must be carefully planned into an already meeting-heavy day. Real-time conversations — whether over a screen or in the office kitchen — can feel intrusive or draining, especially after hours of screen time. Other disadvantages include: Technostress, which People Management defines as the feeling of anxiety, frustration and overload caused by the use of technology. Constant connectivity can disrupt concentration, increase mistakes and leave us feeling dissatisfied and empty. Screen fatigue and Zoom gloom, where the pressure to be constantly visible makes connection feel superficial, and endless scrolling and video calls leave us feeling exhausted. Digital burnout, when non-stop connection can lead to emotional exhaustion, decreased productivity and even a disconnection from real life. Loneliness. The Institute of Directors reports the risk of developing isolation when working remotely and feeling excluded from discussions, decisions and the workplace culture as a whole. We may be efficient, responsive and available, but are we truly connected? Di Gates, writing for People Management, doesn’t think so, and believes that “colleague relationships, not physical location, drive engagement, productivity, wellbeing and retention.” Di, the founder of Connection Heroes, a learning community for organisations that want to understand and improve employee connection across their remote and hybrid teams, reports that human connection at work is eroding - and this is a critical problem. Slack threads filled with playful emojis may spark quick replies and seem fun at the time, but they can sometimes water down empathy and lose a sense of genuine interaction. Rebuilding connection in a digital age: practical tips So, how can we start to rebuild meaningful workplace relationships and turn our focus to connection, rather than connectivity? Leaders and people professionals play a crucial role. Here are some strategies that could help foster authentic connections in remote and hybrid setups. Create opportunities for socialising: re-introduce on-site days, shared lunches and team off-sites to deepen relationships. Add workshops and creative huddles to build togetherness and collaboration and help tackle loneliness. Great creative with knowledge sharing: Whether it’s lunch-and-learns, casual but engaging internal talks or more structured mentorship programmes - offered in-person and digitally - it means best practices don’t get lost or siloed, and innovation thrives. Don’t make it all about work: Schedule regular catch-ups, virtual coffees and agenda-free chats for lighter-touch and more meaningful conversations. Upskill and equip leaders and teams: From active listening to using open questions in team meetings, consider training that will build a psychologically safe work environment and bolster work relationships. Offer emotional support to remote workers: Don’t forget regular check-ins, and encourage social interaction and personal contact if it’s been a little too Teams or Slack-heavy. This can help prevent feelings of isolation and disconnection. Revive the water cooler: Consider creating ‘gather’ spaces where unplanned, happy interactions can flourish. Sure, it could be replicated digitally - but if you can do it physically, even better. Stephen J. Bronner, writing for Inverse dives into the positive impact it can have on workplace culture. Go retro: Video calls can feel more like an obligation than a natural conversation, so why not give them a call instead? Phone calls help us to connect without the pressure of being 'on camera'. Face-to-face meetings allow for natural, nuanced exchanges, where body language and tone are key players. If there’s biscuits, even better. Reconnecting with what matters Digital tools offer countless benefits, but technology should enhance, not replace, connection. Remote and hybrid work might be here to stay, but so is our need for genuine, authentic work relationships. Rebalancing our communication culture with a thoughtful blend of digital and in-person catch-ups could help restore that all-important human touch. See you at the water cooler! ​Nicola Greenbrook London based freelance writer, podcaster and HR specialistContact Nicola​​​Meanwhile if you're currently seeking or recruiting for a remote, hybrid or even an office-based job in the charity sector, just reach out if you'd like our help: contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or select an option below.​Search charity jobs​Recruit for your organisation​Read the Harris Hill Blog​

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