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Human resources department : extract from ICRC Annual Report 2009
19-05-2010 Annual Report
The Human Resources Department is responsible for ensuring that the ICRC has a sufficient pool of trained staff to meet its operational needs worldwide. It recruits, trains and supervises the career development of staff.
Its policies are geared towards raising professional standards, developing the particular skills required for humanitarian work and promoting and supporting management of staff through its professional hierarchy. The Department strives to promote internal cohesion within the ICRC by encouraging staff to identify with the organization’s visions and objectives. The ICRC is an equal opportunity employer.
In 2009, an average of 9,991 national employees* (slightly more than in 2008) and 1,519 expatriates (slightly more) were working in the field, and 846 people were working at ICRC headquarters.
The Department strives continuously to reinforce the ICRC’s capacity to manage its multidisciplinary and multicultural staff in increasingly complex environments.
By maintaining pools of personnel with different professional profiles, the Department was able to fill more than 97% of all field posts at any one time. During the course of the year, for various operational reasons, the ICRC reduced the number of posts for generalist delegates in some delegations (e.g. Chad, Sri Lanka and Sudan), which meant that the Department had to resolve unforeseen planning issues.
The demand for specialized delegates, particularly those with specific language and professional skills, remained high throughout the year. Thanks to significant efforts made to recruit more Arabic-speakers, the ICRC’s Arabic-speaking pool included some 100 expatriate staff by the end of 2009. The hosta ge crisis in Jolo, Philippines, followed by the abduction of two expatriates in Chad and Sudan who remained in captivity at the end of the year, mobilized several heads of personnel, mainly for the purpose of maintaining contact with and supporting the hostages’ relatives. A review was under way aimed at making recommendations regarding improved long-term management of such situations.
Planning and career path management
The Directorate has approved a reference framework for human resource management at the ICRC from recruitment to the end of the employment contract. The framework covers the administrative side of contract management, skills development, career-path management, support for those who leave the organization, health-related issues, and the protection of the physical and mental integrity of every individual. It includes several measures that aim to improve interaction between staff members, their line managers and the Human Resources Department regarding management of their career paths.
Building on the existing Career Assessment Commission for senior managers, similar commissions have been established for mid-level line managers and specialist middle managers. A general job description was drafted for each middle management function to help identify the skills required for management positions. This will be refined with a project launched to define more clearly the skills required in senior managers and the institutional outcome of the second round of management training for senior managers (see People Leadership and Management below).
The relevance and effectiveness of the Career Advisory Service ( Service Avenir ) was reviewed by a team of external consultants, which found that the services provided respond to a need but reach too few staff members. A plan of action will be proposed to the Directorate at the beginning of 2010.
Key performance indicators
A project to overhaul the Department’s data collection and management has begun in cooperation with the Finance and Administration Division. By the end of 2009, the extension of the existing data warehouse with human resources management statistics and indicators based on data extracted from human resources databases was in its final testing phase.
Global learning and training strategy
In 2009, the Human Resources Training Unit, together with those responsible for training from all ICRC departments, refined and set up the general approach underlying all learning and training processes in the ICRC to achieve better coherence. This approach is based on three main pillars:
a systematic analysis of training needs, taking into account operational realities in the field
a learning method that includes self-teaching,distance learning (e-learning), classic training courses and work-based learning
a thorough evaluation of all training courses
Deployment of the new staff integration programme
The full cycle of the revamped introductory training course for new delegates, based on the approach described above, was held at ICRC headquarter s and Regional Training Units in the field. Subsequent feedback and written evaluations confirmed that the initial objectives were reached.
People leadership and management
The People Leadership and Management (PLM) training course for middle managers was successfully extended to delegation employees with managerial responsibilities.
A second round of training (PLM 2) was launched for senior managers, aiming to:
support managers individually in their working environment
define and implement institutional standards of competency regarding people and team management
Learning resources centre
The ICRC learning resources centre (Centre des Ressources Educatives) opened its doors in 2009, offering:
an online training platform
pedagogical and technical support for all distance and e-learning training projects
continuous training in the use of the platform and the creation of training software
With the support of external auditors, the administrative management system was revised and updated in response to changes in the ICRC’s staff population and pursuant to the 2008 analysis of the complex management processes involved. This will ensure better control, coherence and transparency, as well as compliance with statutory and internal audit norms. The new set-up makes a clear distinction between operational and administrative management, including a better distribution of tasks between personnel managers and administrative managers. A new crosscutting committee is responsible for governance and has an overview of all exceptions to management rules.
The new system offers a human resources “self-service” element, available early next year. Headquarters and field staff under Geneva contract will have permanent on-screen access to their own administrative human resources data. They will be able to modify them, manage requests for leave online, and eventually submit expense claims.
Recruitment worked in closer cooperation with all units requesting staff, with a view to ensuring that new recruits correspond as closely as possible to the profiles required and are available as needed.
The ICRC remained an attractive employer in 2009, with the number of job applicants increasing to 6,200 (4,800 in 2008). There was an ongoing need for delegates with specific language skills such as Arabic (see above) and Pashto in order to facilitate ICRC access and proximity to the beneficiaries of ICRC operations in the Middle East and North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Overall, the number of newly hired staff decreased slightly from 330 in 2008 to 290 in 2009, but corresponded to the average of the past 10 years.
* Daily workers not included
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