HR for Healthcare NGOs: what to set up first

A health NGO runs a mobile-medical-unit across three blocks. A village-health-nurse spends Monday on antenatal checks, Tuesday on a screening-camp for anaemia, Wednesday at the sub-centre and Thursday on a tuberculosis follow-up. Her salary is paid from two grants. When the donor asks for a utilisation-certificate, the finance officer has to guess how her hours were split. The nurse has no timesheet. The programme officer remembers some days. The report is sent late and with a note of apology.

A healthcare NGO has many moving parts and few people. This guide gives an order for setting up the people side, so that the first thing you build is the first thing a donor, a nurse or a volunteer doctor will need. It follows the pressure points on the healthcare NGOs page and the wider NGOs and foundations hub.

Every salary in a grant-funded programme needs a project-code split. The nurse above might be sixty percent maternal health, forty percent TB follow-up, but the actual proportion varies by month. Give every staff member a one-page monthly time-allocation sheet that lists the project codes and the days spent. The programme officer signs it. Finance reads it. The donor report draws from it. No guessing.

Name, role (ANM / village-health-nurse / counsellor / field-coordinator / data-entry-operator / programme-officer).
Month and working days.
Days on project code A, B, C and unfunded work.
Camp days, home-visit days, training days and leave.
Signed by the staff member and the programme officer.
Filed with the beneficiary-register extract for the month.

Field staff carry the work and the costs. The bike allowance, the bus fare, the lunch on a camp day and the phone recharge are all claims. If reimbursement takes six weeks, the nurse is financing the programme from her pocket. Write a rule with a ceiling per kilometre or per day, a one-page field-visit-log with place, purpose, time and beneficiaries met, and a promise to pay within a fixed number of days. Pay small claims weekly. Delayed TA/DA drains goodwill faster than a low salary.

1. 1

   Define what is claimable

   Fuel or bus fare, a meal on a camp day, a phone recharge for field calls. State ceilings.

2. 2

   Use the field-visit-log

   One line per visit: date, village, purpose, start and end time, people reached, odometer if by bike.

3. 3

   Attach the proof

   A bus ticket, a camp register page, a photograph of the signboard. Do not ask for more than the claim needs.

4. 4

   Approve and pay on a calendar

   The programme officer approves within three days. Finance pays on a fixed weekday.

A healthcare NGO has specific risks. Sharps and needle-stick injury, biomedical-waste handling, hand-hygiene at camps, vaccine-carrier and cold-chain discipline, and safeguarding for women and children. Keep a training matrix with each person's name, topic, date and trainer. Refresh annually and after any incident. When an incident occurs, the first question is whether the person had been trained, and the matrix answers it in a minute.

• Sharps and biomedical-waste handling before the first camp.
• Hand-hygiene and glucometer, BP-apparatus and pulse-oximeter use for field staff.
• Cold-chain and vaccine-carrier handling for anyone who handles immunisation.
• Safeguarding and consent-form procedure for all staff and volunteers.

A volunteer doctor adds value and risk. Give each a one-page agreement: scope of work, hours, what they will not do, a confidentiality line on patient information, and who to call. Give a short briefing on referral-slip use, consent, record-keeping and how to speak with village women. Collect brief feedback after each camp from both the doctor and the field team. Visiting specialists should be thanked in writing, with a note that their name can appear in the donor report only with their consent.

Project-linked roles end when the grant ends. Build an exit-plan into every offer: the funding period, the likely review month and what happens if the grant is renewed, delayed or not renewed. Track bridge-funding talks and tell staff early. People forgive uncertainty more than surprise. Use the HR documentation process to keep letters, extensions and notices in order.

Staff meeting grief, outbreaks and hard cases need a place to talk. Add a monthly debrief by an experienced supervisor, separate from the performance review. Rotate heavy camps. Offer a half-day off after an outbreak response. A tired counsellor cannot hold a family through a difficult diagnosis.

Month one: time-allocation sheets and project codes. Month two: field-visit-log and reimbursement calendar. Month three: training matrix and the volunteer briefing. For related reading, see the health and safety process for healthcare NGOs and the attendance and leave process. To shape this with us, send your requirements.