Health, Safety and Wellbeing for NGOs and Social Enterprises
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
What this looks like in ngos and social enterprises
The parts of health, safety and wellbeing that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Safety and Wellbeing in Field Programmes
Where staff work in difficult conditions and absorb distress.
What this coversHide
Safety and Wellbeing in Field Programmes
Where staff work in difficult conditions and absorb distress.
What this coversHideSector staff frequently work in remote locations, in security-sensitive contexts, and in direct contact with people in distress. Both physical and psychological risk are real and routinely under-resourced.
- Field safety and security briefing before deployment
- Travel, accommodation and communication protocols for remote work
- Lone working arrangements for field staff
- Vicarious trauma and distress exposure acknowledged and supported
- Confidential psychological support, genuinely confidential
- Safeguarding obligations understood by all staff
- Incident and security reporting route that works from the field
- Workload honestly managed rather than absorbed into mission
Vicarious trauma is the sector's most under-addressed wellbeing risk, and the staff most exposed are usually the most junior and most remote.
The general method — what health, safety and wellbeing covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the workplace health, safety and wellbeing page. What is above is the part that differs for ngos and social enterprises.
Other HR topics for ngos and social enterprises
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.