Resource Sharing. Part 4

Finance and administration is tasked with setting and monitoring a project, program or operations budget.  The procurement officer or contractor requests bids for special projects such as building renovations, equipment acquisitions, service contracts, and building repairs. This finance and administration group also tracks hours, compensation and benefits.

A smaller nonprofit may depend on revenue from a large fundraiser such as an auction, but lack sufficient resources to manage the financial aspects.  A resource sharing agreement might be activated to access extra help handling financial transactions and final accounting to reconcile accounts.  

In the case of small business the team communicates with logistics and planning regarding how much money is allocated, and how much is remaining in the budget. They may need to ask a section to cut expenses to prevent cost overruns. If a business needs but cannot financially sustain a salary for a full time procurement officer, a solution might be for three small businesses to fund one part or full time salary. Conversely, one organization may have the funds to support a full time procurement officer, but may benefit from the added compensation a resource sharing agreement might provide if there are seasonal or cyclical downtimes.

Humane Work Environments Part 4

The first three parts in this series introduced the concept of a culture of honor. The last recommendation in this series is Resource Management. Resources refer to people, equipment or facilities. In a humane environment people are highly nurtured. They have adequate resources to perform the requirements of their job. Many school district budgets do not provide enough funding for classroom teachers to have access to resources to teach the children. In fact, many teachers pay hundreds of dollars each school year to have the needed resources. And in some school districts overcrowding is a problem. Some fire departments are operating with older, less efficient equipment. In addition, many fire stations would come down in a major earthquake rendering the contents useless and perhaps causing injuries. Lastly, some people work in factories or industrial settings with inadequate heating and cooling, or poor air circulation. Even churches may have asbestos, lead paint or use toxic automatic air fresheners. Humane employers do what is right even when not is required by legal or industry standards. In a culture of honor employees are treated with respect. It is not honorable to expect employees to subsidize the employer's needs, but it is honorable to provide resources and working conditions that bring out the best in employees.