Experts Offer Advice to Inexperienced Human-Resources Managers

Following are tips that veteran human-resources officials offer to nonprofit leaders who are new to the personnel field:

Establish an office. Because so much of human resources involves speaking about money, future or past employment, and personnel issues including harassment, workers need to feel as though they can speak confidentially. A human-resources manager must have a private office — or, if not an office, at least access to a private conference room, says Jean Lobell, a human-resources consultant at the nonprofit Community Resource Exchange, in New York.

Keep in mind also that a human-resources manager will be in charge of maintaining files that deal with employees’ health and job performance, says Brian Monahan, director of human resources at the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, in Utica, N.Y. “You’ve got to have a secure filing system,” he says. “It’s important that personnel records remain confidential. If records are spread out all over the place, it’s bad. It’s your obligation to the employee to say that all of your work information is protected.”

Meet the boss. Managers who are new to an organization should make an effort to get acquainted with its leader, says Lynda Ford, a human-resources consultant in Rome, N.Y., who works with nonprofit clients around the country. “Find out what his or her thoughts are on the direction of the organization, what’s critical to accomplish, what’s important about the strategic plan, and how the human resources function fits into it,” she says.

Also talk to employees, advises Mr. Monahan, and keep in mind that if the charity has never had a designated human-resources manager in the past, workers might not know what to expect. “I was looked at kind of suspiciously when I first arrived,” he says. “They knew I was a manager, but I was supposed to be on the side of the employees. Once they warmed up to me, they began to come to me with issues — workplace issues, benefits issues — that they were spending time worrying about instead of being productive.”

Build a network. Join national and local associations for human-resources professionals to make contacts and compare stories. Especially for people who have little experience, these sorts of connections are invaluable, according to Ms. Ford.

For Kinette K. Cager, who handles human-resources duties at A Community of Friends, a nonprofit Los Angeles housing organization, the chance to make connections came through a chapter of the California Employer Advisory Council, a statewide organization that conducts seminars dealing with employment issues.

But for Wendy-Ann Francis, who has similar duties at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., the process has been much less formal: After spending five years working basically on her own, she managed to meet a group of peers at a conference in June for professionals who manage human-resources for nonprofit employers. Now, they gather monthly in San Francisco for coffee.

Consult with insurance and legal experts. In today’s litigious society, ignorance of the law can be dangerous. Firing people for unfair reasons, or failure to crack down on harassment or to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, can get an employer in trouble, and human-resources managers need to know what kind of services are available to them.

“Boards of directors need to know that 95 percent of the claims against them will be related to employment practices,” says Pamela Davis, president of the Alliance of Nonprofits for Insurance, Risk Retention Group, a nonprofit insurance provider in Santa Cruz, Calif., that insures other nonprofit employers.

An insurance provider may be able to offer advice, she says. For example, she notes, “we offer a hotline for significant HR-related events, like a firing, so they can dot their i’s and cross their t’s. A talk with a lawyer — which we supply — can save them, and us, the cost of a claim.”

Take a survey. One of the first jobs of any new human-resources manager is to establish standards for compensation and employment policies, according to William Coy, former human-resources director at Yosemite National Institutes, an environmental education group in Yosemite, Calif., who now works as a human-resources consultant in San Francisco.

While that might seem like a daunting task, he says, much of the work is done by investigating the salary levels for employees of other organizations.

“You don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” he says. “Look at other nonprofits of similar size, similar missions, or in the same area, talk to consultants and other professional associations, and see how they handle different positions.”

Carve out a niche. Employees moving into a human-resources manager position in an organization will also have to make stylistic changes in the way they approach their job, says Ms. Ford. “If you’re stepping into HR from another position, you’ve already got a personal history at the organization, and you have to rise above it,” she says.

That’s particularly important because human-resources employees are frequently in charge of private personnel files and can also find themselves helping to mediate aggravated conflicts between workers and their bosses.

“You have a good sense of the culture of the organization, and a good sense of the history, and that can be extremely valuable,” she says. “But being an HR person, you’ve got to be a little more global in your outlook, and let go of your old perceptions.”

For example, she suggests, “let’s say your old boss is now your peer, and they come into your department and want to see someone’s file that they’re not supposed to, you have to tell them ‘no.’ Even things as simple as that create specific challenges.”