SociaLink, which supports the Western Bay of Plenty social and community sector, has come up with a solution for social agencies struggling to get to a lot of those administrative tasks on the bottom of many managers’ to-do lists done.

General manager Liz Davies said for many of the organisations SociaLink worked with, back office functions - administration, IT, policy development, client management, reporting - came second to delivering services.

“Many smaller organisations may not have the funding to employ staff or contractors to provide these services,” she said.

By subscribing to the service for a small fee, depending on the size of the organisation, they can have access to an assessment of back office services, if they wish, and hands-on help for up to 20 hours.

“Some may have scaled up rapidly from small groups of volunteers and now need to become more ‘professional’ in back office requirements. Without back office help there can be privacy and security risks for clients and data which the organisations hold, and they may struggle to report on their successes to obtain government and charitable funding.

SociaLink completed a feasibility study into how it could provide back office efficiencies through shared services for the sector. The pilot service is called SOS - SociaLink Office Support: Helping you get things done.

Organisations can contract a senior administrator for up to 20 hours who can provide hands-on help. An organisation may also have a particular project it needs help with, such as data entry, which this person can help with.

SociaLink has also developed a directory of “business heroes” that offer competitive/discounted rates or a benefit of some kind in, for example IT, insurance, accounting, health and safety or HR for not-for-profit organisations. The directory is at www.businessheroes.org.nz

Services may also be able to be provided free to organisations by volunteers through Volunteering Services, which is part of SociaLink.

“Improved operational efficiencies can ensure agencies can use more of their funds for delivering their services, and ensure they are better positioned to secure funding in the future,” Davies said.

To launch the project, SociaLink is offering a 50 percent discount for small Tier 4 organisations for their first three months.

Organisations can find out more about the service by emailing christa@socialink.org.nz

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