A salary scale is a table that an employer uses to make sure that all employees doing the same or similar jobs receive similar compensation. It lists all the types of positions in a country program and give a salary range for each. We’ve attached an example here:
Each country program should have one in place. But after an emergency there may be some competitive pressure to decide on salaries outside of the scale or to change the scale entirely, and you may be involved in determining whether or not we should.
After a significant emergency event, the emergency area will be flooded with NGOs. They will be aggressively recruiting staff and sometimes overpay to obtain them. While this is going on, you will need to keep your current staff and perhaps compete to hire new staff. So it is important that you know the market price – and how and why it might be changing – for local staff at all levels.
You must check the current salary scale against this new environment or, if CRS is new in the country, come up with one from scratch.
The goal? Make sure CRS’ salaries are fair to new and existing staff without making unsustainable increases.
How to do this? It’s an art, not a science, but here are some tips:
- Make sure to work closely with CP HR staff as you work with the salary scale. You can also contact the region’s DRD MQ and the Compensation Manager in HQ for guidance.
- Establish (or use existing) contacts with HR staff at other INGOs. From them you can get information on local HR nuances – and it is perfectly normal to request that they share their salary scale with you.
- Try to coordinate any plans for dramatic salary changes with other organizations similar to CRS. You can usually find the people you need to consult at one of the many coordination meetings that happen during a response.