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.

The Human Resources Department recruits staff, plans their assignments and supervises their management and career development. In 2008, an average of 9,512 national employees[1] (a slight decrease compared with 2007) and 1,457 expatriates (no change) were working in the field.

The Department strives constantly to reinforce the ICRC’s capacity to manage its multidisciplinary and multicultural staff in increasingly complex environments.

An internal enquiry (VOICE) among all expatriate staff and at Geneva headquarters helped identify the main factors underpinning staff adherence to the institution and its management policy, as well as their reservations in this regard. The Directorate subsequently approved a plan of action based on the enquiry’s findings and aimed at sustaining staff motivation and strengthening dialogue with senior staff members. The ICRC’s management culture and how to help managers develop best practices are also subjects of ongoing reflection and analysis.

Thanks to the decision to maintain a pool of personnel, more than 97% of field posts were filled at any one time.

In keeping with the conclusion of a 2007 external evaluation of the ICRC’s internal planning process that synergy between the Human Resources Department and the Department of Operations should be reinforced, six human resource focal points worked in close cooperation throughout the year with regional coordination teams within the Department of Operations. The outcome of this process will be assessed in 2009.

Following their analysis by a working group, the working procedures of the staff evaluation commissions, which play a key role in career path management, were revised and validated.

A project was initiated to identify key performance indicators. The aim is to define, set up and implement the process and organization of such indicators for human resource management, in order to measure staff performance and provide input for the Human Resources Department. The indicators will also serve to measure the impact of human resource policies and their alignment with ICRC institutional strategy.

The remuneration and benefits system introduced almost 10 years ago is under review. The review has several aims: to strike a better balance between the field and headquarters, to address today’s reality of increasing internationalization, to enable further progress to be made towards gender equality, to enhance recognition of the capacities of regional and specialist staff, and to provide staff with improved management and fringe benefits.

An analysis of the Department’s management processes resulted in the identification of organizational changes designed to reinforce control procedures in administrative management; these were supplemented by the findings and recommendations of the ICRC’s external auditors on the same subject.

The administrative management and control procedures are currently being updated in order to meet the new internal control system requirements of the Swiss authorities.

The Department worked in closer cooperation with units seeking to hire 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 2008, with the number of job applicants increasing to 4,800 from 4,500 in 2007. There was a marked increase in the need for Arabic-speaking delegates able to facilitate ICRC access and proximity to the beneficiaries of ICRC operations in the Middle East and North Africa. The appointment of a decentralized human resource specialist in Cairo facilitated the recruitment of Arabic-speaking personnel.

Overall, the number of newly hired staff members increased from 260 in 2007 to 330 in 2008.

In keeping with the ICRC’s policy of enhancing the international character of its expatriate staff, 84% of the delegates recruited for the first time in 2008 came from countries other than Switzerland. In addition, 61% of new recruits in 2008 were women.

In another first, the ICRC engaged in cooperation on human resource matters with the Qatar Red Crescent Society, which made health professionals available for ICRC operations.

In 2008, having completed its reassessment of the introductory training course, the Department launched a new introductory programme for newly recruited staff. This programme no longer consists of a single course but combines distance learning, on-the-job learning and traditional courses. Three hundred new staff members followed the introductory training programme in 2008.

The People Leadership and Management course launched in 2007 was maintained. All senior managers (137 participants: 34 women and 103 men) have now attended the course, including 49 in 2008. After evaluating the results, the Directorate defined and approved a number of follow-up measures. The course has also been taken by around half of all middle-level managers (210 participants: 56 women and 154 men), including 143 in 2008. The objective is to ensure that 550 management staff have taken the course by 2010.

Most of the training courses conducted in the field were coordinated by the four Regional Training Units in Amman (Jordan), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dakar (Senegal) and Nairobi (Kenya).

They included 20 courses in presentation techniques and 21 courses on team leadership. Courses were also dispensed on stress and security issues, IHL, communication, logistics, train­ing of trainers and other specialized subjects.

In order to ensure that training is commensurate with staff needs, delivered and evaluated, training relay teams are being appointed in nearly all delegations. Training evaluation missions were carried out in Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan.

The training cycle to enhance the computer skills of the ICRC’s secretaries was pursued.

The HIV/AIDS workplace programme aims to protect the rights of employees and fight stigmatization/discrimination of those who are or may be infected with HIV. It also aims to prevent HIV/AIDS through awareness-raising, training, education, voluntary counselling and testing, and by promoting behavioural changes among delegation employees, their families and expatriate staff via a global policy of prevention and awareness-raising. Complete medical care is provided and includes drug therapy to lower morbidity and mortality. In 2008, the programme was implemented in 21 countries. Fifty people were provided with anti-retroviral treatment.

By the end of the year over 3,000 people had benefited from the programme.

Note:
1. Daily workers not included