Free HR Manual resources for World Humanitarian Day (19 August 2010)
On 19th August, to celebrate the World Humanitarian Day, we will be releasing here for free downloadable sections of the HR Manual which are useful to humanitarian staff anywhere in the world.
Please note that these will only be available to download below between the hours of 09.00(GMT) on 19th August and 09.00(GMT) on 20th August 2010.
- A contract of employment for agencies to use
- Extensive recruitment information for humanitarian agencies
World Humanitarian Day
The second annual United Nations World Humanitarian Day was celebrated on 19th August 2010, helping to raise public awareness, honour and celebrate the work of humanitarian workers.
Thousands of humanitarian workers worldwide, whether in the field or in head offices, have devoted themselves to helping others. Often they are the forgotten heroes - but without them there is no humanitarian assistance.
A collaborative film project for World Humanitarian Day 2010 featuring aid workers from across the globe by OCHA. Music by Krister Linder
World Humanitarian Day not only highlights the challenges and difficulties these dedicated aid workers face, but also emphasises the amazing job they are doing all over the world. With increasing difficulties being faced by them, it is even more vital that we do everything we can to help those that in many instances are literally putting their life on the line to help others.
This event, promoted through the UN, illustrates the global nature of the aid sector and aims to bring together all types of people to celebrate an ongoing and vital part of providing aid worldwide. Humanitarian workers may be different in terms of race, ethnicity, age, nationality, gender and so forth, but we are all united under the same collection of standards that guide our actions.
"Can we also remember another community: aid workers? Like the soldiers, they are working in stressful and dangerous environments; in many cases they, too, are working away from home. Their motivation is purely humanitarian and the column inches covering the disasters that befall them as individuals - let alone the work they undertake for the poor and those affected by disaster around the world - are few to non-existent. My predecessor dedicated a section of this charity's quarterly newsletter to the memory of aid workers killed on duty. If we did that today, with the numbers being abducted or killed, it would fill the newsletter."
Jonathan Potter, Executive Director, People In Aid (Published in The Times, UK, 25 July 2009)
People In Aid and World Humanitarian Day
People In Aid is devoted to improving organisational effectiveness within the humanitarian and development sector worldwide by advocating, supporting and recognising good practice in the management of people.
World Humanitarian Day is an important landmark in celebrating our key interests as an organisation and, moreover, commending the brave and self-sacrificing service that humanitarian workers provide.
People In Aid invests many resources in supporting NGOs engaged in humanitarian response, and we achieve these priorities through a mixture of services and outputs including research, publications, workshops, conferences, benchmarking, audit and certification, networking and advocacy. We offer these to all individuals and organisations working in the humanitarian sector, with our members receiving priority and discounts.
People In Aid Resources
People In Aid’s goal is to improve your organisation’s human resources and people management qualities by making use of the hundreds of practical resources we offer. These resources come in many shapes and forms including publications, newsletters and organisational policies, as well as conferences and workshops. Our most recent development within the sector has been the launch of People In Aid Interactive, an interactive website with wiki pages, calendars and active forums for discussing a multitude of issues with HR staff and people managers all over the world.
Humanitarian organisations involved in emergency response can make use of all the resources listed here, on our disaster response page. Below are links to specific recommendations for resources for those working in:
- Haiti earthquake (January 2010)
- Chile earthquake (February 2010)
- Pakistan floods (August 2010)
People In Aid HR Manual
Christine Williamson is People In Aid's HR Services Manager and has worked in an HR capacity on several humanitarian responses. Below, Christine speaks about why she chose to join the sector, along with a brief description of some of the difficulties she faced on one specific response in Indonesia.
Christine is one of the authors of People In Aid's HR Manual. Priced at £150 for non-members (and £75 for People In Aid's members), the HR Manual is a collaboration of information to provide all HR practitioners and people managers in the sector HR support and guidance to enable them to support their staff in delivering services to the most vulnerable people.
The Manual includes a framework of principles, policies, procedures, guidelines, tips and templates to serve as a practical guide for HR management in field, regional and head offices.
View a flyer with more information on the Manual here.
For those working in disaster response in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti and others working in Niger, Madagasgar, Burundi and other Francophone countries, we also offer the Employment Contract Template and Recruitment Request Form for National Staff in French. To purchase these, please use the link below:
'Modele de contrat de travail' & 'Demande de recrutement pour le personnel national'
The People In Aid HR manual is one of the key tools towards People In Aid certification and sits amongst other valueable resources for organisations such as our Employee Survey and HR Audit Toolkit. For more information on these tools please contact us.
The Humanitarian HR Network
HHR Online brings together HR practitioners and line managers in the humanitarian sector to network and discuss issues related to the recruitment, retention and development of staff involved in emergency situations.
Conferences
People In Aid’s Humanitarian HR conferences provide a unique opportunity for HR professionals to network with their peers, and share discussions on issues they face in daily practice as well as issues from the broader humanitarian sector that impact on the HR function and people management generally.
"I’ve found ideas and solutions for some questions I am facing at work. Practical ideas to take back to my organisation and a lot more questions to spark discussions with colleagues."
HHR Paris 2010 conference participant
HHR Online Forum
The online forum, located on People In Aid Interactive, gives HR practitioners and people managers the opportunity to network on a much more global level and on a limitless number of topics. Humanitarian issues can be discussed at any time by any member of the forum. Discussion range from disaster-specific events to the sharing of policies, job vacancies, resources and more.
If your organisation wishes to support our work in improving the quality of the sector’s response, and particularly the 100 or so of our members working in Haiti, Pakistan, Darfur, DR Congo and elsewhere, please do consider making a donation to our Humanitarian HR Fund: a small investment with a widespread and sustained impact. You can contact us here.
Managing People In Emergencies Wiki
The Managing People In Emergencies Wiki is a people management guide for humanitarian programme managers. The aim of the guide is to help people managers in humanitarian response situations to create, manage and develop their team in an emergency. It is based on the People In Aid Code of Good Practice and shares the Code’s guiding principle that ‘people are central to the achievement of our mission’.
The wiki pages are hosted on our Interactive site, and once a member of our Humanitarian HR Online community, you are free to browse, edit and share the pages for free.