I bet you have already hired your first employee since this was posted, but here is a little after-the-fact advice. The hiring of the first employee is one of the major 'speed bumps' that organizations face. Usually what happens is that all the voluteers, from board members on through, breathe a big sigh of relief and think they don't have to continue with all the hard work they have been doing. Because, of course, there is now an employee! Unfortunately, this often causes one, or all, of several things to happen. 1) Hard feelings between people who think the 'others' aren't continuing to pull their weight. 2) Unrealistic expectations of the employee. 3) Frustration with the employee for not doing "enough." 4) General feeling that the organization is 'not the same.' 5) Upset that the employee is not following directions. 6) Feeling that the employee is 'running' the organization and taking ownership away from the rest of the folks...... and 7) and 8).

The key to this trickly transition is carefully crafting the job description and the performance evaluation criteria for the employee; re-clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the board and the staff; and, re-affirming the duties and expectations of the board when they are board members acting in that capacity, and when they are volunteers acting as staff supervised by the staff person.

This is not an easy transition, but one that is necessary and critical to the growth and development of the organization.

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From: Devon Murphy-Petersen
Posted: 3/21/2012 12:44 PM
Subject: Transitioning from all-volunteer