Irene Khan – Secretary General

Building effective and responsive INGOs, the strategic role of HR:The IS Job Value Review

8 February 2008

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Agenda

• The project: why we are doing it and what we are doing

• Challenges and issues

• Learning points

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Context

• Need for change has been driven by:– increased threats to human rights in the name

of national security– more NGO entrants in the human rights arena– demand for greater accountability from

members and funding agencies– increased competition in the labour market for

staff with the required skills– significant increase in the number of failed

recruitments

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Context

• The Job Value Review (JVR) project was designed to maximise the impact that the IS has on the human rights agenda

• In order to do this we need to be able to retain and recruit people with the required skills, experience and aptitude

• And therefore, we need to create an employment experience that is inspiring and fulfilling for staff and which enables them to deliver to their potential– ‘tangible aspects’ such as salary and benefits– ‘intangible’ factors such as career progression,

personal development, job design, flexible working arrangements, organisational culture and management capability, capacity and support

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• Phase 1: data collection– A consultation and review process to identify the scale of

the challenge and the work streams required (of which a report on findings and recommendations was the main output)

• Staff focus groups, 1:1 interviews and teleconferences involving approximately 75 staff

• Analysis of historical recruitment and retention data• A staff survey which provided qualitative and

quantitative data from 378 (80%) staff members• An external pay and benefits comparison involving 14

major INGOs and data from established sector specific surveys

The journey - where we were, where we are now, where we need to get to

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• Phase 2:– The development of options and frameworks for consideration

and decision• Establishment of work streams on:

– Job description design– Competency framework– Performance management (now called Contribution and

Development)– Pay and grading– Benefits

• Job evaluation and pay modelling• Outcomes of other work streams: negotiation and

consultation• Phase 3:

– Detailed design and implementation

The journey - where we were, where we are now, where we need to get to

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Employee life cycle

Attract

Recruit

Induct

Deploy

Organisation

Strategy

ValuesLearn &Develop

Perform

Progress

Exit

•Job Description•Pay

•Job Description

•Com

petencies

•Pay & Benefits

•Job

Des

cript

ion

•C&D

•Com

pete

ncie

s

•Job Description•C&D•Competencies

•Job Description•C&D•Competencies

•Job Description

•C&D•Competencies

•Gra

ding

•Pay

•C&D

•Com

pete

ncie

s

•C & D

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Key challenges and presenting issues

• Role of the International Executive Committee• Involvement of the Amnesty International movement• The union• ‘Baggage’ from previous pay and benefits review• Selling the management team the value of engaging with the HR

function, rather than seeing the project being an HR project• Lack of effective and adequate communications infrastructure• Funding restrictions• Identifying our comparators and the complexities of international

comparators (local sections etc.)• Recruitment and retention issues• Organisational culture

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Key learning points• Consultation:

– Can’t start soon enough– Can’t do it often enough– Can’t do it widely enough– Factual data obtained from staff survey and external benchmarking

• Communication– Project set in motion paying too much attention to final end date and not

communications– You cannot tell people often enough; people don’t really engage until they see

the implication for themselves– Need to plan and use the available effective communications channels– Ensure that key players are aware of their responsibilities– Cultural change in emphasis and purpose of communication – from telling to

dialogue– Building trust – proving that what we said made a difference (proof points) e.g.

demonstrating that consultation inputs did make a difference– Not positioning as an HR project and locating within the bigger picture

• creating links for individuals, identifying gaps in understanding• linking everything to the overall strategy and mission of the organisation

– Approaching it in an holistic manner/helping people understand linkages and reaping benefits from integrated approach

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Key learning points• Project Management

– Initially confusing layers of involvement – good intentions though– Continuous assessment of barriers and how to address them as we progressed– The importance of engaging with staff reps throughout the process– Not sacrificing integrity of process for artificial timetable– Degree of pressure keeps the momentum– Reflections:

• Need to keep meetings structured and relevant• Need to ensure keep finger on the pulse all the time• Need to keep the right people informed

– Can be an expensive project because the experts come at a cost

• Impact– Engagement tends to uncover a lot of hidden individual people issues and

managers use the process to resolve issues that should have been dealt with– Prompts thoughts and conversations about other organisational issues, such as

organisational design– Changing the culture to make people into corporate citizens

Irene Khan – Secretary General

Questions ….