About

A collaboration among international emergency response agencies, this website gathers data on humanitarian staffing factors before, during and after emergencies. By gathering and analysing this data, agencies can measure, maintain and mobilise staff capacity, thereby improving their emergency responses.

Consider the following 10 questions:

The HR Metrics Initiative has been developed to help you answer ‘yes’ to each of these questions and to help you understand and manage your staffing needs.

Imagine you are literally in the driver’s seat of your organization. You have a website in front of you that tells you everything you need to know about your team. It tells you how many staff are needed in an emergency, whether you are understaffed, where there are problems and what action you can take. The website will signal where there are gaps between your ideal and the reality. It’s like an early warning system. 

You can also find out about other organizations working in a similar field, learn from each other and share information about staffing issues.

By using this simple website on a monthly basis you will be able to monitor staff capacity, manage deployment to on-going programs and judge whether you are ready for an emergency situation.

The key metrics

Planning

  1. number of staff, national and international
  2. staff by function
  3. open positions
  4. senior leadership – # and emergency experience
  5. management experience of national and international staff
  6. emergency experience of national and international staff
  7. staff experience in natural disasters and/or conflicts
  8. number of staff on emergency roster
  9. number of staff in country emergency department or unit
  10. number of staff responding to an emergency each month

Recruiting

  1. number of new hires
  2. number of national and international staff from other roles and/or locations within agency
  3. time to fill

People management

  1. number with job descriptions
  2. number receiving standard induction/orientation
  3. performance reviews past due
  4. number of promotions

Retention and turnover

  1. numbers of months staff worked
  2. numbers and reasons left the program unwillingly
  3. numbers and reasons left the program willingly

History

The HR Metrics Initiative began life as the Staff Capacity Metrics Project – a collaboration among international emergency response agencies, and their Human Resource (HR) professionals. The Gates’ Foundation 'emergency capacity building project' (www.ecbproject.org) provided funding, as did Microsoft Corporation. The project was hosted by the international relief agency, Mercy Corps.

During a two-year pilot project, from 2005 to 2007, teams from seven humanitarian aid agencies in Ethiopia, Sudan and Indonesia worked together on the project. The agencies involved were: Care International, Catholic Relief Services, IRC, Mercy Corps, Oxfam GB, Save The Children USA and World Vision International. Their aim was to increase agency collaboration and collective responses to emergencies. To do this, they identified key staff issues that could be easily measured over time, and in various emergency and non-emergency contexts. Their work was based on research from consultants, McKinsey and Company.