Results from October 2023 Panel Research
In October 2023, 141 UK Heritage Pulse panel members responded to a short survey on the successes and challenges in organisational governance. As we asked respondents to comment mainly on their own organisation, sole traders and freelancers were not invited to participate in this round. The respondents consisted of those who attend meetings of the board or governing body and are therefore familiar with how those systems work.
Recruitment and retention: ensuring diversity within the recruitment process is an ongoing challenge for heritage organisations
- Although almost half of respondents (47%) do not deem the recruitment of new members to governing bodies an issue, many quoted establishing diversity during this process, and therefore within the board, as a challenge.
- However 44% of respondents agreed that recruitment is difficult, while 10% answered ‘don’t know/not applicable’.
- Just 7% stated it was difficult to retain members of their governing body. This figure was higher, at 10%, for respondents from organisations with less than 10 employees.
- 40% of respondents said there are no time limits on how long someone can be a member of the governing body.
- Recruiting members that reflect the population in terms of ethnicity, gender and age was quoted many times as a challenge for their organisational governance:
“It’s at the heart of our mission, so we are always questioning how we can be more diverse and inclusive. It would be great to be funded to train our expert advisors – people with lived experience of mental health challenges and our projects – to take on governance roles.”
“[A challenge we face is] gender issues. Currently we only have 1 female trustee.”
“[A challenge we face is] lack of ethnic diversity on the Trustee board.”
“[A challenge we face is] diversity – ensuring the diverse communities we work with are part of the design process and governance. Not assuming we understand and appreciate their needs.”
Respondents shared which blockers they run into when tackling diversity and inclusion in governance in their organisation. There is a strong focus on tackling these blockers in ways that are unique to their organisation:
“We are a small all-volunteer industrial heritage organisation, as such we tend to attract mostly retired male volunteers. We are conscious of our culture to make all volunteers feel welcome. The age and gender diversity of volunteers has improved significantly over the past few years. Our Board of Trustees is 40% female.”
“It’s at the heart of our mission, so we are always questioning how we can be more diverse and inclusive. It would be great to be funded to train our expert advisors – people with lived experience of mental health challenges and our projects – to take on governance roles.”
“We’ve been able to recruit some younger board members, so that approach has been successful in making the board more diverse.”
The active engagement and available training options for existing members of governing bodies stands as an area of uncertainty. There are suggestions that governance in many organisations is reliant on a core group of members.
- 70% of respondents say induction training is provided for members, and 50% say that continued training is provided for members throughout their appointment. However, a lower proportion (61%) of respondents who are currently members of the board or governing body agree that induction training is provided.
- When asked whether they agree with the statement ‘a smaller subset of people within the governing body do most of the governance work’, 92% of all respondents agreed with the statement. However, respondents who are active board members had a different view, with just 59% agreeing.
- A desire for higher engagement and activity of the governing body appeared frequently when the panel were asked to share one thing that would improve governance at their organisation:
“For Trustees to actively participate, or end their tenure if they cannot and enable a new cohort to get involved.”
“Regular rhythm of meetings that review progress and make decisions.“
“Better engagement with the actual paperwork of governance.”
“More active involvement of board in strategic considerations; more openness to engage on issues such as diversity and inclusion (they’ve been unduly worried by what has happened to some of the charities that have addressed this agenda).”
Over the past 12 months, financial performance, monitoring delivery and performance, and legal and financial compliance were top priorities for governing bodies.
- Respondents rated financial performance, delivery/performance monitoring, and legal/financial compliance as the top areas of importance for their governing bodies, with people issues and public/sector engagement scoring lower. Diversity and inclusion was most commonly ranked the lowest area of perceived importance over this period.
- Legal/financial compliance was ranked the second area of importance by buildings and collections based organisations.
- 75% of respondents said their governing structures include subcommittees with specific areas of focus. More than 60% of respondents said their board includes individuals with specialist areas of focus – such as ‘Board Champions’.
- While 66% of respondents would describe their governing bodies as efficient, only 30% considered them to be ‘inclusive’, 30% ‘innovative’, and 39% ‘diverse’.
- Organisations which are less likely to be building-based (e.g. community heritage, landscapes & nature or cultures & memories) were more likely to describe their governance bodies as questioning, inclusive, efficient, innovative and diverse. Historic buildings and monuments, and collections-based organisations such as museums, libraries and archives gave more mixed responses (see Annex A).
- 70% of all respondents (62% of active board members) said the Charity board of Trustees was the highest level of board/governing body in their organisation. This indicates that a clear majority of responses were from organisations constituted as charities.
What is the highest level of board / governing body in your organisation? All responses:
What is the highest level of board / governing body in your organisation? Members of the board:
Challenges and opportunities around governance: what you told us
Financial stability concerns, workload, lack of representation and a disengaged board were all quoted as key challenges faced by respondents when thinking about governance in their organisation.
Many respondents shared how the lack of funding affects the quality of their boards:
“The lack of any core funding for public film archives in the UK means strategy development is a luxury due to stretched resources of senior staff.”
“Biggest challenge is financial sustainability and how to manage ever increasing costs, whilst income is not keeping pace.”
“Primarily financial – reduced central government funding and allocations, with increasing demands on staff and other resources.”
“Our primary challenge is the lack of funding to complete our development project, resulting in many long term opportunities but short term challenges of significance.”
Although the recruitment of board members is not considered a challenge by 47% of respondents, getting members on board with the desired level of skills and understanding is a sticking point, and results in a degree of inaction. Challenges were shared, such as:
“Recruiting new Trustees with the right skills to oversee the delivery of our strategy.”
“Finding people who give their time and experience free.”
“We could achieve much more but don’t have people who communicate. Our finance person died last month due to long covid People seem to be frozen in terms of motivation and without hope, which I put down to COVID-19 and suffering under present government and effects of Brexit.”
“We struggle to recruit trustees with the experience we need, aka legal or financial.”
“Maintaining engagement of younger directors who need to earn a living.”
However, respondents recognise the challenges they currently face are vital opportunities for development and growth within their boards. Some opportunities recognised were:
“Having empowered volunteers to understand the broader view of engaging with customers, supporting them to carry on developing this skill.”
“We are currently recruiting 2 new members and next year we will need a new Chair – this is an opportunity to review board skills and diversity to target recruitment at identified gaps.”
“Diversity – ensuring the diverse communities we work with are part of the design process and governance. Not assuming we understand and appreciate their needs.”
“Working with the developers, negotiating (both a challenge and an opportunity).”
“We have arrived at a point where we can increase our governing body membership, which offers opportunities to increase skill sets and outlooks.”
“Opportunities around a new Chair, and developing new ongoing training for Trustees so they feel more equipped to tackle both opportunities and challenges. We have undertaken a skills audit and have a plan of direction for future board appointments.”
“We have opportunities to grow our Board’s diversity and have plans to do that next year. with Arts Council cancelling our NPO funding, we want to see if the organisation has a future as a charity, or if we close and donate our collections to others – so recruitment might be hampered by short-life.”
Annex A
Where would you place your governing body between each of the opposing words/phrases below?
Responses from organisations whose primary focus is Community Heritage, Industrial, Maritime & Transport, Cultures & Memories (Intangible Heritage), Landscapes & Nature:
Responses from organisations whose primary focus is Historic Buildings & Monuments, Collections (Museums, Libraries & Archives):
What is your reaction to these results? Please let us know at hello@insights-alliance.com, or share on social media with the hashtag #UKHeritagePulse