Human Resources Management Challenges in NGOs Emergency Projects

This report delves into the multifaceted human resource management (HRM) challenges faced by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating in emergency projects. It begins with an introduction highlighting the critical need for skilled humanitarian workers and the impact of resource scarcity in crisis situations. The report then describes the issues, analyzing the roles of international and local actors in humanitarian settings, and explores the complexities of leadership, staff management, and resource planning. It discusses key challenges such as lack of training, inadequate support from leaders, and issues with labor laws. The report also examines actualization by providing real-world examples of how these challenges play out and concludes with recommendations for NGOs to improve their HRM practices, including strategic focus, talent development, and improved training programs. This report provides valuable insights into the critical role of HRM in the effectiveness of humanitarian aid efforts.

HRM Challenges 1
Human Resources Management challenges faced by NGOs in emergency projects

HRM Challenges 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Description.......................................................................................................................................3
General Analysis..............................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................5
Actualization....................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

HRM Challenges 3
Introduction
The crisis of human resources in humanitarian health care is paralleled that represent in the huge
range of health care. This issue is intensified through lack of resources in a range in which the
need of humanitarian is required. At the same time as there is plenty of data to provide that
results of health develop or improve at the time of density of workers is increased, this left an
area of critical under-investment in humanitarian health care. Humanitarian NGOs have found
themselves handling an ample of unprecedented issues in the past several years. This confront is
best amplified in the work of humanitarian that was completed with Rwandan refugees in eastern
Zaire in the outcome of the triumph of the Rwanda Patriotic Front in 1994. It has been found that
complex humanitarian emergency in the form of the multidimensional humanitarian issues
developed by military, social and political factors most often rising from violent internal wars
that become the major reason of state failures. It includes some combination of severe food
insecurity actual human rights violations and macroeconomic collapse. These types of needs
have doubled in the past decade that affects millions of people.
Description
The major reasons for this kind of issues develop from failures of development, the weaknesses
of the state and the contemptuous of its capacity. It has been found that social control is required
over aspects of the population is a major tactical objective of internal war instead of by-product
of other acts of military. There is number of internal wars that are clashed for control over
number of resources become self-perpetuating. The role of state failure can consider a lack of
capacity on the behalf of state institutions to enforce authority and secure territory. It has been
found that the state is unable to secure the rights of citizens and unable to give basic protection

HRM Challenges 4
and develops unable to complete required international legal responsibilities. In such condition,
the role of human resource management has significant value in handling such a situation
because it is the responsibility of human resource management to hire skilled employees and
retain them. It has been found that it is the difficult task for HRM to bring skilled and
professionalism to provide emergency to needed people (World Health Organization,2018).
There are plenty of people available that have skills to protect people from war condition, natural
disaster situation and any other critical situation where risks are higher. They are helpless to
provide such precautions to them due to high rate of danger as they should keep their lives on
risks.
General Analysis
Batti, (2013), stated that humanitarian assistance can be elaborated as help that looks for saving
lives and improving the suffering of a crisis-affected population. A humanitarian operation is
referred as the management of activities and resources that help at providing to the beneficiaries
in context of the crisis in humanitarian organizations. It has been found that this kind of
organization is invested by donations from governments, corporations, and individuals.
Figure: Activities of humanitarian organizations.

HRM Challenges 5
Source:
it has been analyzed that there are mainly two kinds of actor that involved in the activities of
humanitarian setting that include international as well as local actors. There are two types of
activities that are primary and support activities. The role of the primary activities in the
emergency case keeps significant value which needs to be done by human resource management
in providing assistance to needed people. Along with that support activities also keep the great
role as this kind of activities helps the organization to improve efficiency in delivering primary
activities. To accomplish such activities, international actors entail international organizations,
international NGOs, private sector for logistic operations and UN agencies. Along with that local
agency helps in providing a high quality of services to the needed people as it entails NGOs
communities and local governments (Hunt, 2011).
Hunt, (2008), stated that humanitarian operations have become complex as there are number of
humanitarian Relief Organizations in national and international level that facing with an amplify
in the requirement to improve new strategies to answer to the hasty disaster assessments, handle
with the amending donor roles, confronts in getting to the populations in need reasons. These are
the organizations that operate in areas that are far away from town and cities, where there is no
scope of providing health facilities and another kind of social services. Those areas have not
proper accommodations services and full of criminal activities which are out of controllable due
to lack of unique environment in handling crisis. It is expected from human resource
management to fulfill its role in improving appropriate techniques to the ever confronting and
unpredictable working environment. There is a number of studies have been accomplished on
confronting of human resource management majorly on the practices and policies. Chu, Stokes,
Trelles & Ford, (2011), elaborated about human resource management challenges in the

HRM Challenges 6
execution of resource planning. It has been found that these challenges include lack of effective
consultation with stakeholders and improper training on resource planning of the company to
staff. According to Hunt, (2009), human resource outsourcing practices among international non-
governmental organizations in Kenya has focused on the risk of human resource outsourcing.
Along with that manager face issue in the context of providing assistance to needed people as
they do not get support from top authority and due to lack of initiative to start and focus on
outcomes of the appraisal making exercise.
An amendment in the labour laws and regulations of government on employment are confronted
with human resource planning. It has been found that human resource planning needs knowledge
of organization on national as well as international labour laws. Hunt, (2011), defines that
planners of human resource of NGOs need to be attentive and active and must be compliance
with employment laws. The ability to get an understanding of the new job competencies in
required improving new staff roles and training of employees. It has been examining that the
strategies, roles and functions of the companies often amend in the function of the organizational
reform. There is a cost implication on companies due to recruitment and selection. NGOs need
huge investment in recruiting as it is the long term process and there are many companies that
evaluate costs as they need to control internal budgets. Due to tighten budget of human resource,
retaining staff is especially tough and for this companies need to focus on different strategies in
order to bring innovative ideas within the business for the purpose of developing key talent
management processes.

HRM Challenges 7
Discussion
Leadership is another concept of human resource management which is often considered as the
key area of concern. This was especially the issue for a huge range of UN and cluster appraisals
which firmly helped for experienced and effectual coordinators to help in brining improved
function in the cluster system. There is an interesting evaluation in such concept of CARE
Myanmar’s Cyclone; it has been found that there was a lack of support culture by leaders as they
put negative impact over the performance of the employees. It has been found that there are so
many NGOs that do not have HR guidelines to support staff management. There are plenty of
issues of staffing management that are completed in an ad-hoc way and it is an inappropriate
expectation from the employees. There are many companies that are not linked with government
labour policies. For instance, there are a number of organizations that give three months leave
with pay to the pregnant lady while there are some organizations that give one month left. There
are many NGOs that have not to record systems of their employees and length of contract. In the
context of advantages of human resource management in humanitarian organizations, there are
various facilities which can be given by this department to needy people. With the help of this
department, humanitarian organizations can keep data regarding activities and trained people for
providing services to the people who are stuck in such conditions (Binagwaho, et. al., 2013).
Coordination among team members can be developed with the help of this department which
enhances the productivity of people to contribute to providing help or support to people. It is
necessary for humanitarian organizations to focus on campaigns in order to make people aware
of hazardous situation which can be done with the help of HRM. With respect to cons of human
resource management challenges faced by humanitarian organizations, it has been found that it is
hard for HRM to convenience people to contribute in a hazardous situation as it is not easy to

HRM Challenges 8
keep lives on risk for everyone. It is quite a tough task for the HRM to make them feel that they
are saving lives of someone. Due to lack of training and planning, an effort of HRM could be
failed which can lead humanitarian organization in helpless situation.
Kakuma, et. al., (2011), depicts the issues in the context of NGOs staff is lack of career
enhancement opportunities. This would entail ongoing working in order to develop new
opportunities for jobs and different strategies to support morale for the team. It has been found
that there are many organizations that equipped employees to complete requirements of the
organization by training and development interventions. However the cost of training and
development program has increased due to involvement of new technology within the business.
There are many organizations that they do not entertain such a system within the business as the
reality of trained employees leaving the company before making a noteworthy contribution in the
development of the company. This kind of activity increases the cost and wastage of time on
those who are not ready to give contribution in bringing change within the business.
Actualization
It has been found that there are many humanitarian organizations that are operating in context
where national qualified human resources are not available such as people migrations and
escaping war areas. It is required for them to keep the focus on such strategies in order to
develop, create, talent pool, training and competence for the purpose of addressing regarded
concerns which are ready for any potential deployment and make sure service continuity after the
exit. There is a number of challenges faced by the human resource department because of lack of
support from the skilled person. There is recent incident of the tsunami in Indonesia in which a
number of people got injured and many died. Due to lack of availability of transportation and

HRM Challenges 9
high-risk acceptance, many people are bound to not giving support those people as they can get
stuck in such situation. it has been found that there are some humanitarian organizations such as
Mennonite Central Organizations, Direct Relief International, International Red Cross, REACT
International and All Hands that support people in their hard situation due to natural disaster and
fleeing war. However, above-stated organizations are ready to give support but due to lack of
human resource department they can face challenges to not giving support at right time. The
major reasons behind such situations are lack of planning, training and development program and
rewards and recognition. It is required by the humanitarian organizations to appreciate them to
involve in such situations or war to give support needy people. It would increase their attention
in providing high quality supports to them so that they can connect with such activities for a long
period of time (Peopleindia, 2018).
On the basis of listed challenges in managing human resources NGOs in the development sector
need to implement strategic focus in human resource management. According to Rodríguez-
Espíndola, Albores & Brewster (2018), small organizations has system of ad hoc HRM which
reflect of the backgrounds of entrepreneurs and founders. It has been analyzed that there is a
need of borrowing and contextualizing HR effective and promising HRM practices used by the
enterprise sector in order to develop organizational HR management. This would help in
addressing the concern that raises as a consequence of having ad-hoc HRM practices that are
affected through the founder of the local and international NGO are not contextualized to fit the
context in which an organization operates. There are some possible solutions that would be
pertinent if adopted and executed to deal with the ongoing confronts that local NGOs have in
handling human resources (Bartram, Hoye, & Cavanagh, 2014).

HRM Challenges 10
Recommendations
Develop Mechanisms That Support Identification, Development and Utilization of Staff
Capacity
It is necessary for local NGOs to make and develop chances that will use the future their
employees. As per Ahmad, (2015), the reality is that people are undervalued and not getting
exact training to get prevented from hazardous situation. There are number of organizations that
feel they are not given chance to prove themselves in order to show their capabilities to other for
the aim of using the knowledge they have attained in the same kind of last positions. It is
required for NGOs to focus on various kinds of approaches in ob designing and placement so
that staff capacity can be utilized in an adequate manner. Along with that, it is required for the
company to help talent management processes in order to give preference in amplifying capacity
of personnel (Raptim, 2018). There are some NGOs that can improve simple human resource
information database in order to keep records of all kind of activities which is done within the
business.
Developing an HR Risk Management Plan
It is recommended to humanitarian organizations to keep the focus on human resource
engagement and management as it poses risks to local NGOs. That is why it is needed by the
organization to recognize the HR risk factors and maintain mechanisms to reduce the sources of
risks to keep away from costly lawsuits carry on by federal and state organs. There are some
NGOs that unaware about legal contractual obligations as they create contracts for employees
and another kind of risks that happen as consequences of mingling staff in an enterprise (de Jong,
et. al., 2015).

HRM Challenges 11
Outsourcing HR Functions and Undertake Annual Organizational Knowledge
There are some major functions of HR that has the scope of outsourcing such as staff
counselling, career development, recruitment and selection, and organizational policies and
practices. It is needed for local NGOs to focus on such functions of HR to provide support
needed people. It is necessary for humanitarian organizations that include recognition of major
competencies for job profile needed in the company and helping what is necessary for existing
employees. This kind of activities helps NGO management to recognize the competencies and
skills that remains in the company. Along with that this exercise will encourage peer to peer
learning and facilitates in focus on being independent. This practice is helpful because of
amendment nature of strategies and techniques in project implementation (Weiss, 2018). This
will decrease unsteadiness in the implementation of the program at the time of monitoring
competencies within the company.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from above discussion that there are human resource management challenges
that are faced by a number of humanitarian organizations in emergency projects. It is necessary
for NGOs to be attentive that experienced employees together with effectual HR systems and
exercises are aspects required for locking sustainable competitive advantages in their market
niche.

HRM Challenges 12
References
Ahmad, S., 2015. Green human resource management: Policies and practices. Cogent Business
& Management, 2(1), p.1030817.
Bartram, T., Hoye, R., & Cavanagh, J. M. (2014). Special issue on human resource management
in the NGO, volunteer and not-for-profit sector.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.970391
Batti, R. C. (2013). Human resource management challenges facing local
NGOs. Technology, 2(4).
Binagwaho, A., Kyamanywa, P., Farmer, P. E., Nuthulaganti, T., Umubyeyi, B., Nyemazi, J.
P., ... & Ngirabega, J. D. D. (2013). The human resources for health program in Rwanda
—a new partnership. New England Journal of Medicine, 369(21), 2054-2059.
Chu, K., Stokes, C., Trelles, M., & Ford, N. (2011). Improving effective surgical delivery in
humanitarian disasters: lessons from Haiti. PLoS medicine, 8(4), e1001025.
de Jong, J. T., Berckmoes, L. H., Kohrt, B. A., Song, S. J., Tol, W. A., & Reis, R. (2015). A
public health approach to address the mental health burden of youth in situations of
political violence and humanitarian emergencies. Current psychiatry reports, 17(7), 60.
Hunt, M. R. (2008). Ethics beyond borders: how health professionals experience ethics in
humanitarian assistance and development work. Developing World Bioethics, 8(2), 59-
69.

HRM Challenges 13
Hunt, M. R. (2009). Strengths and challenges in the use of interpretive description: reflections
arising from a study of the moral experience of health professionals in humanitarian
work. Qualitative health research, 19(9), 1284-1292.
Hunt, M. R. (2011). Establishing moral bearings: ethics and expatriate health care professionals
in humanitarian work. Disasters, 35(3), 606-622.
Kakuma, R., Minas, H., van Ginneken, N., Dal Poz, M. R., Desiraju, K., Morris, J. E., ... &
Scheffler, R. M. (2011). Human resources for mental health care: current situation and
strategies for action. The Lancet, 378(9803), 1654-1663.
Peopleindia. (2018). Analysis of HR/ People Management in Humanitarian Evaluation -
Summary Report. Retrieved from:
Raptim, (2018). 34 Disaster Relief Organizations. Retrieved from:
Rodríguez-Espíndola, O., Albores, P., & Brewster, C. (2018). Disaster preparedness in
humanitarian logistics: A collaborative approach for resource management in
floods. European Journal of Operational Research, 264(3), 978-993.
Weiss, T. G. (2018). Humanitarian challenges and intervention. Routledge.
World Health Organization. (2018). Summary report on the thirtieth intercountry meeting of
national EPI managers and seventeenth intercountry meeting on measles (No. WHO-
EM/EPI/351/E). World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern
Mediterranean. http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/272557