The Evolving Need for Workforce Planning in Humanitarian Organizations
The sad truth is that the ICRC is now needed more than ever. With that, the organisation faces the challenge of increased recruitment efforts, but also equally important, the ability to streamline their workforce planning.
In summary, workforce planning is the strategic process used by organisations to ensure they have the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right jobs, at the right time. It involves forecasting the organisation's future workforce needs, assessing current workforce capabilities, and developing strategies to bridge gaps between the present and future workforce.
For the ICRC the focus is very much on leveraging data whilst not losing sight of the human elements when interpreting and applying the gained insights.
In a recent podcast with Impactpool, Sophie Rwegera Khadhraoui - Head of Staffing Division - explains:
“...workforce planning, especially in the humanitarian sector and in staffing is the backbone of effective staffing decisions. So at the ICRC a few years ago, we identified that workforce planning was key, workforce planning was a game changer. So we invested heavily in strengthening our workforce planning approach by identifying and tailoring a dedicated tool. We're actually about to roll out the tool. We have trained the teams, and this will be key because number one, it will give clarity on staffing needs, having clear data on the needs, on the historical needs over the past years, the different crises, but also the forecasts in terms of needs, having big clarity around the skills that we have, the profiles that we have, and their availabilities. This is number one, clarity on the staffing needs. Number two, it's really being able to identify the gaps in terms of profiles. What do we need? Where the gaps are? And current, but also future gaps.”
Career Growth and Mobility at the ICRC
One of the things the ICRC is actively exploring is what a career path in the development sector looks like. People tend to have a wide range of backgrounds and work that they have done before landing a job in this sector. After the first one or two assignments the question becomes - how can you make sure staff maintain an interesting career path?
As the skills required are evolving it becomes critical to define what the ICRC needs both today as well as tomorrow. One of the things the ICRC is investing in to increase growth opportunities for their staff is, coaching, learning and development opportunities and new job opportunities. The other important element is fostering equity. The ICRC is committed to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion as a key principle in their talent management programs. This is where data comes in. By collecting and analysing the data it enables them to understand in which areas equity is not up to the high standards the ICRC is after. It can help to determine, where the issue is. Whether promotional, the lack of learning opportunities, or maybe in some specific areas in the organisation's portfolio.
“For me, one of the key challenges we face lies in really striking the balance between offering clear career paths and the dynamic nature of workforce planning in the humanitarian sector. So we work in an unpredictable environment; a crisis erupts, although we can still ensure 80 % of staffing needs… what we have observed is that 80 % of staffing needs remain the same but that 20% you know can drastically change the staffing needs and the ideal career path takes a backseat to the immediate operational needs…”.
As a crisis can evolve rapidly, the initial skills needed in some specific contexts might be different from the skills needed when the context evolves. Career opportunities often arise from unexpected circumstances. An ICRC employee's career may take a detour due to sudden deployment, leading them now to a new and different path. This makes predicting and streamlining professional development particularly challenging.
Exploring New Technologies in Humanitarian Work
Whilst the ICRC as an organisation is a well-known and established entity, it may not always be known to the general public what a broad range in career opportunities they have. One of the elements that you can see shifting over time is the involvement of technology in the humanitarian sector, in places where you traditionally would not expect this.
In recent years a number of local as well as international actors started to develop tools to support the humanitarian work. For instance, drones that are being used to deliver medicines in very remote places where you would normally have to drive under difficult circumstances; and where you needed a team to pull this off. Another is the use of virtual reality to actually assess the humanitarian needs on the ground.
As Sophie elaborates further “And so these are really opportunities to leverage data, but also communication, platforms, remote collaboration or remote analysis technologies. And those are opportunities that a humanitarian worker who is tech savvy, who has seen, you know, these kind of tools can identify efficiencies, can identify ways of doing things differently, ultimately to really ensure spend the time really on the more human aspect and not only on the processes and tools aspect.”
Setting the tech experience aside, what is really important for people considering working for the ICRC is having compassion, adaptability and flexibility.
“Being able to go in another country and sit with elderly people, understand the realities, assess humanitarian needs and come back with an adequate response. Being able to be humble, to engage with local actors on the ground.”
Connecting with the ICRC: Upcoming Virtual Career Fairs
One way of learning more about the ICRC is by attending Impactpools' Virtual Career Fairs. The ICRC will be participating in the Virtual Career Fair for Latin America and Caribbean Nationals on 26 September 2024, and the Virtual Career Fair for Asia-Pacific Nationals on 21 November 2024. You can also join the ICRC Talent Pool at Impactpool where their recruiters will be able to view your profile, contact you for current & future vacancies and engage you on opportunities that match your skills and interests.
As the ICRC continues to underline their importance, the need for highly skilled and passionate staff persists. To end with a quote from Sophie:
“ I think the fundamental people skills will remain. The core human skills, the intercultural awareness and of course languages are so key to engage with people on the ground and the heart of humanitarian work remains the same: it's really helping those in need and for that you need people. Machines can't do that for that… you need compassion and for that you need to be able to adapt yourself to be flexible and again a constant commitment to learn from new opportunities, new situations.
So my takeaway would be: focus on the tech, focus on the collaboration, the communication, the partnering, and also ensure the fundamental skills of a manager and worker, because this won't change. It's about people skills, intercultural awareness, and languages.”