Personnel
In country programmes 89% of Personnel Locally Recruited
At the end of 2018, FCA employed 449 people, 129 of whom worked at the office in Helsinki, engaged in telecommuting or were seconded. A total of 34 expatriate employees and 236 locally recruited employees worked at the country offices or on projects.
The proportion of locally recruited employees in relation to the total number of employees at the country offices was 89%. This corresponds with our objective of employing local personnel whenever possible. In cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, we recruited 467 local teachers in addition to our own personnel for the country programme in Uganda.
The total number of person-years accumulated in 2018 was 414. Of these, 11.5 person-years were accumulated by fixed-term employees or F2F and telefundraisers. The average age of the personnel was 41.1 years. On the whole, Finn Church Aid employs an almost equal number of men (53%) and women (47%). The office in Helsinki has a slight female majority while most of the field offices have a clear male majority. Both FCA personnel working in Helsinki and the expatriates had an average of 5.3 years of service at FCA. Most of the locally recruited personnel work on short project assignments.
About 70% of the personnel either working at FCA in Helsinki or sent from Finland hold university degrees while 10% of them have primary or secondary education. The proportion of employees who completed their degrees in countries other than Finland is 30%. When comparing the number of the people who completed their degrees abroad, clearly more are working at the regional offices than in Helsinki. The locally recruited personnel’s level of education varies greatly depending on the assignment.
One Out of Three employees Completed HEIST-training
Security and risk management are an essential part of Finn Church Aid’s operations. In the year under review, FCA focused attention on personnel security training and its further development. The organisation also increasingly developed the training of the people in charge of regional security and continued to develop its security strategy.
A security manager working in Helsinki supports the country offices to develop personnel security under challenging conditions and is in charge of security operations as a whole. The security manager is assisted by a regional security manager based in Africa. The task of the regional security managers is to provide support to the country directors and offices in their daily security work, to act as contacts in any emergencies, and to assist in risk assessments related to trips to the field.
The main security policies and country-specific emergency plans were updated in 2018. Additionally, the country-specific risk assessments made for the benefit of the offices were revised. The standing orders and the separate country-specific policies were also revised to complement the security policy. The standing orders and policies raise the personnel’s security awareness, enabling them to take proper action at the proper time in case of exceptional circumstances.
The most comprehensive security training sessions were held in Nairobi. The topics covered by these five-day security training courses (Hostile Environment Individual Safety Training (HEIST)) included first-aid, fire safety, personal safety, risk assessment and driving safety, among others. About one third of the entire personnel have now completed their HEIST training. FCA also arranged training in emergency First Aid and security responsibility for the personnel in Helsinki.