fast track to experience by way of burnout - Country Director Relief International Employee Review

Dear Writer, Thank you for 3 years of service in such an important role. We are glad you found RI a place where staff can grow and learn and hope that you return to RI in the future with a different perspective and energy. Let us address your concerns in order to help you and other readers better understand how RI deals with such issues. You stated that interns and lower level staff are paid well below market rate. RI benchmarks its salary scales across all different markets in which we operate on an annual basis. HR Managers and CDs conduct an Internal Equity Analysis and, when needed, make market-based adjustments for employees who are below salary scale. Our Internal Equity rate this year is 95% for U.S.-based staff. The other 5% are above the relevant grades. The same analysis is followed at all of our field offices. Working for international NGOs can also be stressful with the limited resources, flawed systems, hardship, insecure environments, multiple time zones, etc. With that, burnout can be a concern. Within our limited resources, we try to provide staff-care initiatives, cover RI staff with proper levels of insurance so that they have peace of mind, provide them with adequate leave and R&R, deploy or connect staff with psychologists after a traumatic incident, provide pre-counseling sessions to new expats joining RI, etc. More to come as we focus on staff-care in 2018. It is quite concerning to hear your perceptions as it relates to harassment and misconduct and that they are sometimes brushed aside. Within your role as CD, you may have known or heard that over the past couple of months, RI has taken prompt and decisive actions after investigating claims related to abusive or degrading language. Additionally, RI is about to launch its new Incident Reporting Policy and Process that aims at strengthening its reporting mechanisms. As a former employee of RI, and as all employees have a “duty to report”, we encourage you to anonymously report any claims of misconduct that you suspect or was aware of. If you have worries that RI management may not take those seriously, we are sure you are aware of mechanisms available to report those to the Ombudsman. RI is committed to reviewing those claims promptly and decisively. Again, thanks you for your 3 years of service, your feedback is appreciated and will allow us to review our own processes. Sincerely, HR