Charity Case Study

Name: MENFA - Mentoring For All.

Sector: Charity

Website:  http://www.menfa.org.uk/index.html

Project Description

1. Make processes easier to implement by the volunteers.
2. To build a team mindset.
3. Raise awareness of the achievements of MENFA.
4. To provide a high quality service and achieve Investors in People.

Consultants Online provided grant funding and advice to ensure all members of the organisation received training to update their skills and knowledge and ensured everyone understood how to take ownership and responsibility for decisions.
 

A six month plan was agreed which included:

• Involve people when developing their Vision & Values and when agreeing team and individual objectives.
• Defining the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to lead, manage and develop people effectively.
• Giving people constructive feedback on their performance regularly and when appropriate.
• Encouraging people to take ownership and responsibility by being involved in decision-making.
• Benchmarking the organisation’s overall investment of time, money and resources in learning and development.  
  

Project Results: 

• The way the organisation works and its effectiveness have improved
• The Committee members, Director and Manager are all able to describe the strategy, resources and programmes needed to support staff and volunteers.
• Senior managers and members of the Management Committee have a shared vision of what they believe MANFA can become.
• Project Coordinators know the learning and development requirements for their projects, and the resources and plans to address these needs.

• Establish a Vision & Values for the organisation - shared by the whole team.
• Defining the knowledge skills and behaviours of leaders and managers.
• Encouraging people to take ownership and responsibility for decisions that affect the performance of the team and the organisation.

Tools and Techniques Used - Investors in people Framework

This is the most successful framework for business improvement through people: it is easy to use, flexible, and focused on outcomes. 

The framework tells you what you need to achieve to meet your organisations goals - at the same time recognising that every organisation is different - so the exact way you reach your end goal will depend on what's best for you.

The IiP framework has been successfully used by more than 35,000 organisations in 50 countries - including start-ups with two people, charities, and major corporations employing thousands of people.

Once the key business issues were defined, we applied three core principles that the framework helps you focus on:

Plan: Develop strategies to improve performance.

Do: Take action to improve performance

Review: Evaluate and improve performance

The three principles break down into ten indicators. At MENFA we invited people to review each of the indicators in turn (one each week) and discuss exaples of how these were applied in the practice.

To become an Investor in People, MENFA were assessed against all the evidence requirements of each indicator.

As a result of this process, staff became more confident and processes became easier to implement by the volunteers. People knew what was expected of them, and there was a more open, approachable and supportive culture.  

Everyone confirmed that there is open communications and plenty of opportunities to receive constructive feedback including staff and project meetings, one to one reviews, and informal discussions at the end of project activities