Technical Competency
Risk Recognition
Performance Review
Often performance reviews will be founded both on a job description or Terms of Reference (see the Anchoring section for suggestions) and on annual work plans or objectives (which can include soft skills or values). It is important that concrete criteria and expectations are set. Here is a reminder of the job description/Terms of Reference provisions suggested for this competency:
“Conduct risk assessments for all aspects of information-related processes (interviews, storage, sharing) and implement mitigation measures to reduce risks to survivors, affected communities, project personnel and information gathered.”
“Ensure evidence-based and risk-assessed responsible decision-making, design, implementation and monitoring of all work and activities.”
“Consider broader impacts and unintended consequences of work on survivors, affected communities, services and community-based organisations, undertake risk assessment and mitigation measures, and keep under review.”
“Undertake regular risk reviews and audits to ensure safety, ethicality and effectiveness of work.”
“implement do no harm/mitigation measures to minimise risks for survivors, communities, partners and team.”
“create safe engagement points with survivors, and risk assessment protocols and tools for survivor engagement without an unexpected and unprepared approach.”
Prompts for annual review:
“How have you/this person contributed to or improve the risk recognition and management/safety of project activities/our work during this period?”
These could be incorporated into an annual plan or review using the Deep Dive table and a scale such as:
Exceeds Expectations: proactively identifies wide range of risks based on a gendered, intersectional and contextual understanding; consistently conducts comprehensive, systematic risk assessments that cover survivors, communities, staff, and data, identifying risks others might overlook; designs and implements creative, practical work tools to mitigate risks; routinely integrates risk analysis into all decision-making and proactively adapts plans when new risks emerge; consistently and regularly reviews and monitors; engages community based expertise and survivors in both the identification of risks and mitigation; creates environment in which concerns and risks can be raised and discussed.
Meets Expectations: consistent identification and effective mitigation of range of significant risks relevant for key activities and processes, with context, gender and intersectional dimensions considered; participates in regular reviews and encourages monitoring; considers broader impacts on communities; adopts individual survivor participation for individual engagements; raises concerns and risks with management and partners; prioritises safety and risk management over results. (See relevant Deep Dive columns.)
Needs Improvement: limited risk assessments, without review or without contextualisation or gendered/intersectional dimensions; prioritises task objectives over survivor concerns or perceived risks; overlooks some significant risks and broader impacts; needs help designing mitigation measures; interacts or engages survivor without individualised risk assessments. (See relevant Deep Dive columns.)
You can choose to focus on specific aspects or tailor the expected behaviours specifically to the job or tasks and include these more specific expectations in an annual work plan or job description.
It is important to include free-narrative boxes for evidence-based assessment and explanations both for a person’s own self-assessment of their work, and for the line-manager’s/supervisor’s constructive comments.