Recruiting

When you know what you are looking for, and how fast you can bring them on board, start discussing with the CP who from their staff, in addition to the team you already have, can come on TDY to temporarily fill some of the positions while also helping you hire and train new staff.

Meanwhile, start recruiting new staff.  Use the CP’s HR staff (even if they are located remotely), procedures, and forms. The HR section of this manual deals with recruiting.

If there is no CP, or if their staff and manuals are not available to you for some reason, see the HR section called Hiring Regular Staff for details on recruiting processes – including job descriptions, tests, interview questions, and other materials.

Tips:

  1. Plan to start testing and interviewing for long term positions in your second week on site.  This means either asking partner organizations to post job announcements for you before you arrive, or shortening the posting time to one week.
  2. You should post job opening announcements as soon as possible – even if you don’t have perfect job descriptions (JDs).  You can post generic JDs to generate candidates and then refine your staffing structure while CVs come in.  The organization chart is probably going to change a lot anyway in the first few months.
  3. Focus recruiting in the field location.  Most staff should be from the region near the field office or have significant work experience there.  See this list for ideas about where to post in the field:  Advertise the Position
  4. Even though you will focus recruiting in the field location, you should post higher level positions (e.g. Senior Administration Officer, Programming Specialists) in the main office or in the regional capital at the same time as they are posted locally, in case it is difficult to find qualified candidates in the field location.
  5. Given the sensitivity of guard positions, and the speed with which you will need guards, you can start off by asking trusted contacts for recommendations of people, and then hire those people, if suitable, with a Temporary Service Agreement.  Post the long-term positions while the temporary people are filling the need, and the temporary staff can apply for them if they would like to.