Core Value
Composure and Balance
Anchoring the Value into Recruitment Processes
Step 1: Integrating it into existing frameworks and procedures
For those with no existing Competency Framework, this is relatively simple and is does not require integration or finding an equivalent within your own system. For those with Competency Frameworks, such as the UN, European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) and other agencies and organisations, you can find a table below of associated values, behaviours or competencies within other frameworks to allow you to incorporate and test this value within an equivalent in your existing system.
| Murad Code Value | UN System (Old Values and Competencies, New Values and Behaviours) | Other systems |
|---|---|---|
| Composure and Balance | Old: Professionalism
|
EPSO: Self-Management
IOM: Professionalism |
Step 2: Adding language into your vacancy announcement, job description and Terms of Reference
In order to anchor this value within the recruitment process, and onwards into expectations in terms of job performance, it is important to include wording in your vacancy announcement, job description and terms of reference. Some model wording for this value is included below.
In the job/position tasks and responsibilities section:
“Maintain composure and a good balance between appropriate professional boundaries and engaging and supporting survivors before, during and after disclosure/an interview.”
“Ensure self-care and emotional balance and well-being while implementing tasks and responsibilities.”
In the qualifications/experience section - what we are looking for?
“Demonstrated ability to provide a calm, safe space to work with traumatised survivors.”
“Validated track record of working with survivors in a composed structured way which give them space and control to recount their experience at their own pace and in their own way.”
“Passion for and commitment to empathy and humanity balanced with awareness and appropriate boundaries for self-care/well-being.”
“Candidates should be expected to demonstrate the following values:
Composure and Balance: keeping a sense of calm and composure when hearing of trauma, suffering and atrocities – to be a grounded companion/enabler as the recounting of trauma and atrocities unfold, being able to keep structure while ensuring the survivor feels in control of how and what they recount, and finding a balance between being supportive and not overpromising or overextending and between commitment/being present and self-care.”
Step 3: Designing written tests or interview questions which assess this value
One of the most useful ways of understanding a candidate’s values is to set either case scenarios or hypothetical examples to understand how they would react. These can be tailored to the relevant field of work or specific job. A few broad examples are provided below, both as written tests and for interview questions.
Sample written test examples
Hypothetical (can be based on relevant context and job requirements):
You are conducting a research interview using an interpreter and you have asked an open question to prompt a free narrative from a survivor, but the survivor is not talking in any order, they are expressing range of strong emotions from anger, grief and pain and it is hard for both you and the interpreter to follow. How can you manage this situation in a survivor-centred, trauma-informed way?
Technical:
How can/do you balance empathy with maintaining professional boundaries in this work?
How do you ensure a survivor feels a sense of control over a disclosure?
If a survivor makes choices that you feel are unsafe and beyond your own risk comfort levels, how do you respond?
Sample interview questions
Please share an experience in which you felt overwhelmed, emotionally affected or personally triggered by a survivor’s story. What steps did you take and what did you learn?
Describe a time when you were working with someone who had a strong emotional reaction, such as anger or frustration. How did you deal with it?
Please share a work example with us when you faced very fluid, rapidly changing circumstance and how you adapted to those.
Tell us about a time when you had to set boundaries at work for your own self-care and well-being. What happened and how did you do it?
A survivor that you interviewed last week calls you up on your mobile phone. It’s midnight. They are upset and having nightmares stirred up again by the interview. They are alone and afraid in the dark. How do you respond?