'When you can create an environment where employees feel trusted and cared for, the outcomes are immeasurable'
Shereena-Lee van de Berkt has worked at medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières Australia (MSF) for more than 10 years, and has witnessed its HR department grow during that time.
“Back then, there wasn't an HR department specifically but there is now,” she told HRD Australia. “We were only 45 people back then; now we're over 160, it’s growing a lot.”
Van de Berkt is the head of domestic human resources at MSF, a role she worked her way into after previously working in the film and visual effects industry. She moved into the non-profit sector after a close family member passed away, which made her think about what she was doing with her life and how she could contribute to change.
“I absolutely love film and visual effects and I still do,” she said. “But when I was thinking about what I wanted to do, MSF was an organisation that I followed for a long time. And I thought ‘I’m going to move to a non-profit and that's the place I want to be.’
“Luckily, my background in visual effects was as a producer, so lots of people management. I formalised my qualifications through a postgraduate in advanced HR management and ended up working here.”
There have been a range of HR policies van de Berkt has been involved in implementing at MSF, from parental leave to flexible working options.
“What I do like is we tend be ahead of the game in the sense that, for example, the 10-day paid leave for domestic violence, we had in place well before it was mandatory,” she said. “We have gender- neutral parental leave, which we've had in place for over five years now. We also pay super on leave during parental leave to try and reduce the gender pay gap.”
During the pandemic, the organisation offered employees 10 additional days of leave a year. And currently, full-time employees are required back in the office two days a week while part-time employees are required one day a week.
MSF also introduced ‘circuit breaker Fridays’ to give employees nearly half day off once a month.
“The office closes at one o'clock on the last Friday of the month to give everyone a break,” van de Berkt explained. “At that time, it was everything from being online constantly to meetings to just having some space to think. We instigated that during COVID and we said ‘You know what, the benefits of that and the impact of just having that little bit of space – a few hours every month – is so positive, we decided we'll keep it’.”
In addition, MSF has ‘quiet Fridays’ where they encourage fewer meetings that day to give their staff time to work on projects without interruption.
“We just try and create that environment where that level of pressure is taken off,” van de Berkt said.
Van de Berkt acknowledged the support that employees in NGOs need.
“Not for profits historically have been famous for not necessarily being the best thing at looking after their people because they’re so externally focused on their mission,” she said. “And that's something that we really wanted to make sure we do as an organisation. We know how valuable our people are but when you're working not for profits, and particularly some of the things that we're exposed to, it can be challenging.
“So we offer our EAP services to people, to all our staff and volunteers. We offer, on occasion when times have been very challenging, vicarious and secondary trauma workshops for people. It's monitoring and just reading the room to see what people might need.”
Having established several policies to support workers, van den Berkt also said the organisation is willing to learn what works.
“We just keep reassessing,” she said. “One of the great things MFS is good at is self-analysing and seeing what they can do better as an organisation. And we do that in domestic HR as well. And not afraid to say, ‘You know what, we didn't get it right’. And we're also happy to say ‘w\We did get it right’.”
For example, when they introduced the circuit breaker Fridays, there was some pushback because of the operational obligations staff had, van de Berkt explained. But on the other hand, some workers were appreciative of the initiative.
“One of the best [types of] feedback we got was ‘Thank you for knowing what we needed before we knew what we needed’,” she said. “So that was really rewarding for us.”
For van de Berkt, the rewarding element of her job is being surrounded by people who have the same commitment purpose.
“It is that shared commitment to doing your best for the work that we do and the people that we support, the patients that we support, the communities that we support, and seeing that impact,” she said.
And for those thinking of heading in the non-profit sector, she said the benefit is being able to make a contribution on a larger scale.
“You know that the support that you're giving to your people is ultimately impacting the work that you do,” she said. “I think that when you can create an environment where employees feel trusted and cared for, the outcomes of that are immeasurable because that shows up in how they work on a day-to-day basis.
“And if you can be part of that, I think that can be just really rewarding from an HR point of view. Even having a part in supporting people to succeed in their role and succeed in the mission more globally, I think it's really rewarding.”
Van de Berkt went on to share a quote that resonates with her, when comes to supporting others.
“One of my favourite quotes is the Maya Angelou quote, which is ‘People don't remember what you said or what you did but they remember how you made them feel,’” she said.
“And that resonates with me because…there's such blurred lines between work and life now that you want people to come to work and feel good and supported. And supported not just with their work life but being able to manage their life as well.”
