AMEND CONTENT

Safer Recruitment: Guidance for HR Personnel

As part of our commitment to Safeguarding, CARE recognises the importance of organisational culture and accountability in creating a safe and supportive organisation for our staff, partners, and the communities with whom we work.

All CARE offices and their HR staff are continuously improving CARE’s HR policies and practices to ensure we are promoting the values and culture that support our vision and mission. We strive to ensure that we attract new employees, Board members, consultants, volunteers, interns, and contractors who demonstrate the culture and behaviors that promote and reinforce our safeguarding culture, gender equality & diversity and a safe workplace, free from harm.

With more than 90 offices globally, the CARE confederation is bound by different legal obligations within the countries we work and therefore our offices adopt HR policy and practices that are locally relevant, within local legal frameworks.

In order to meet your safeguarding commitments and ensure that safeguarding is fulling embedded into the employment cycle please refer to the Safeguarding and HR: Safer Recruitment Guidance.

Pre-Employment

  • Include reference to CARE’s Safeguarding commitments in all job advertisements both online, and on job advertisement boards.
  • Ensure that every job description explicitly includes that the responsibility for preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, harassment and abuse, and child abuse. For management roles, make clear their additional responsibilities for safeguarding included monitor the development and implementation of SEA-related work in the CO emergency plans.
  • Include a question relating to Safeguarding and PSEA in every interview – this will help you to ascertain the candidate’s commitment to safeguarding and their attitude towards PSEA-CA. For examples of questions you can ask for specific job roles please refer to our Safeguarding and Code of Conduct Questions for Interviews
  • To avoid recruiting unsuitable candidates, conduct a minimum of 3 reference checks before any new hiring. Include specific questions in reference checks safeguarding and their suitability for the role taking into consideration past behaviour.
  • Where legally applicable, ensure that every recruitment abides by the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS). Refer to the MDS in all Job Descriptions and Job Advertisements, making clear to the candidate the expectation of CARE in relation to reference checking.
  • Include the CI Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct in every employee contract, making clear that a breach of the policy could lead to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
  • Ensure that every staff member, including management, consultants and volunteers, and other temporary staff working on the response to an emergency receives a copy of the CARE International Safeguarding PSHEA-CA policy, signs the relevant Code of Conduct.
  • Strive for gender balance in staff. Include at least one or two women in programme locations e.g. distribution teams, post distribution monitors.

Onboarding process

  • Ensure all staff must are made aware of the established procedures to report any incidents of sexual exploitation, harassment and abuse, and child abuse in the particular emergency setting.
  • Ensure that each staff member is required to sign the CI Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct an agreement as a mark of having read and understood the CARE Code of conduct/policy and procedures, and that they will abide by the policy, at all times whilst employed by CARE
  • CARE’s policy/code should be communicated/discussed with all partners and their staff and included in the partner agreements. Partners should be encouraged to get all their staff to review and sign a similar code.
  • Organise additional skill-building events for those with significant responsibilities, for receiving, investigating and/or responding to reported incidents.
  • All staff must receive a comprehensive orientation on CARE Safeguarding requirements (see below). In additional all CARE Staff and related personnel must receive training on Safeguarding within their first month of joining. Please refer to our CI Safeguarding Training resources.

Orientation 

All new employees must be given an orientation in to safeguarding requirements at CARE. The following topics must be included as a minimum:

  • Overview of CARE’s Safeguarding and PSHEA-CA work within the confederation.
  • Safeguarding and PSHEA-CA obligation for the confederation and individuals included in the PSHEA-CA policy.
  • Discussion on terminology including Safeguarding and PSHEA-CA.
  • Survivor centred approach to safeguarding at CARE, and response to concerns raised.
  • How to recognise and report Safeguarding / PSHEA-CA concerns including using CARE Line.
  • Overview of Safeguarding / PSHE-CA within the sector, why incidents occur and collective responsibility of all to mitigate and report.
  • Reminder to complete the Safeguarding training and signing of the Safeguarding Code of Conduct and Policy.