• Recruitment overview
• Job description
• Person specification
• Diversity and equality
• Head hunting and poaching
• Advertising
• Applications and short listing
• Testing
• Interviewing
• Selection
• Offer of employment
• Checks

• Case studies
• Resources
• Further reading

• People In Aid Code

Diversity and equality

This page concentrates on gender and draws heavily on "Women, girls, boys & men, different needs – equal opportunities" – see further reading. Similar considerations apply to ensuring that there is a balance and equality on ethnic and religious grounds

Equality

Equality between women and men:

• refers to the equal enjoyment by women, girls, boys and men of rights, opportunities, resources and rewards.
• is enshrined in International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

Balance

Ensuring that there is a balance of women and men at all levels in the team has practical advantages for your programme by:

• creating more possibilities for discussing and addressing the differing impacts of policies and programming on women and men.
• allowing your team to reach out to a wider cross-section of the beneficiary population.

Ensuring that there is a balance between women and men in your team may also be the requirement of your organisation, donors or applicable legislation.

Examples

• In Afghanistan, foreign males or non-blood relatives can not talk to local women. Women working with humanitarian agencies are however able to talk to both Afghan women and male leaders .
• A well-prepared man may be better placed to speak with a warlord while a trained woman may be better suited to speak with a female survivor of sexual violence.

Practical ways to have a balanced team of women and men

• Widely distribute vacancy announcements to attract a diverse pool of applicants
• Check that experience and education requirements are not too narrowly defined.
• Where women or men are underrepresented, the vacancy announcement could say “Qualified women/men are encouraged to apply.”
• Include both women and men on interview panels.
• Evaluate all candidates against the same criteria.
• Do not assume that some jobs are too difficult or dangerous for women.
• Consider alternative working arrangements to overcome cultural limitations to women’s employment, such as the employment of brother/sister teams.
• Provide training on gender and cultural diversity to all staff.
• Offer separate facilities (toilets, sleeping quarters) for women and men; provide child care to staff, where possible.
• Keep all staffing data disaggregated by sex for easy monitoring.