How to Empower Frontline Staff

The Need to Support Frontline Staff in New Ways

Back in the 1990s when I had my first experiences with emergency response overseas no one talked about emotional or mental support for frontline responders. However, the thinking has evolved over the past two decades. There’s a growing awareness related to the need for improved working conditions, training in more diverse skills, enhancement of medical services that include psychosocial support, and an expansion of service and insurance coverage to all responders whether international or local. All of these support elements are forward-thinking and extremely important. Here, however, we’ll focus on how empowering frontline staff with soft skills benefits international relief NGOs in addition to their staff. Better-supported responders mean better-supported affected communities, which, in turn, means better-performing NGOs. 

Where Support for Humanitarian Workers is Today

The international relief community has created an abundance of guidance on how to better manage personnel risk and serve directly affected populations (as examples, see agency manuals UNHCR, OFDA, WFP, SPHERE, and Core Humanitarian Standard). Humanitarian assistance is constantly improving. Gained efficiencies translate into more people served. Clearly, the topic is of paramount importance.

In contrast, while recognition of the need to improve support for responders has grown, codified standards and guidelines on the subject remain scant. True, more NGOs offer basic pre-deployment stress management training these days. Still, the international humanitarian response community needs similar standardized best practices for, and destigmatization of,  training, and support of its frontline workers.

Fortunately, some guidance has begun to emerge (for examples of evolving efforts, see UNHCR,  Cornerstone On Demand Foundation, Cegos, and HNP). These services and expanded skills training are critical to responders’ health and well-being. With these skills and support, relief workers can offer the best service to those directly affected. Healthier, more resilient staff who can more effectively accomplish their work means less risk, lower costs, and more people better served by humanitarian NGOs.

What Happens When Frontline Staff are Not Adequately Supported?

External Context Conditions

Relief workers, and especially those serving in conflict situations or large-scale rapid-onset emergencies face considerable personal risk and often some form of direct or indirect trauma. The latter results from witnessing another person’s dire circumstances or trauma. For example, one study in northern Uganda found that 50 percent of respondents had experienced five or more categories of traumatic events. Similar figures are prevalent for incidences of anxiety and burnout among relief staff in Guatemala.

While spared the threat of violence associated with conflict, slow-onset natural disaster responders face different risks. They also work long hours characterized by constant change, urgent demands, and little or no psychosocial support.

Overall, responders assigned overseas are further challenged with more cultural barriers and separation from their normal support networks (P Salama, 2003).

However, perhaps the most significant consideration is that the level of stress or trauma resulting from a given experience, and the extent of effective coping are both ultimately unique to the individual. This strongly suggests investing in the individual.

Instinctual Stress Response

Let’s start by clarifying what are the typical human responses to threats and chronic stress. The normal instinctual biophysical response to a threat is to take action (i.e., fight, flight, or freeze) whether the threat is personal (idiosyncratic) or widespread (covariant). For their own survival, humans are hard-wired this way.

Furthermore, connection and support are critical pathways to the deactivation and normalization of a stress-destabilized autonomic nervous system (Dana, 2018; Levine, 2010; Porges, 2011). Unfortunately, these rebalancing pathways are often limited or unavailable to the typical externally oriented and self-reliant relief workers operating in fast-paced, rapidly-changing contexts of emergencies.

In these contexts, workers are inclined to develop chronic stress and resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol abuse, chain smoking, and other risk-taking behaviors in an effort to discharge and self-soothe. They can experience anxiety, depression, psychosomatic issues, burnout, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (McEachran, 2014, Ager, 2012, the Guardian, 2015; Jachens, 2016; Stroshiemer, 2018, and Antares Foundation).

The situation can be particularly debilitating for career relief workers. Since they tend to specialize in emergency response, they commonly serve in consecutive emergency operations, sometimes without breaks in between deployments for adequate rest, decompression, and recuperation.

The Mind Under Stress

Most people are familiar with what’s variously referred to as the survival, “fight/flight,” or fight/flight/freeze response. They may also have knowledge of the common physiological changes associated with it. But, what about the changes the mind undergoes?

Everyone has their own unique reactions to and ways of managing stress. However, humans are wired in a certain way. Under stress, the body reroutes blood and energy from the head to the extremities (Harvard Health Publishing, 2011). As a consequence, the stressed conscious mind doesn’t perform optimally. To conserve, it becomes narrow- or even hyper-focused and inflexible (for more). Because of its narrow focus, the mind is less open to alternative viable opportunities. This inflexibility translates into a lack of originality or creativity when problem-solving and decision-making.

Under threat, the survival center in the gut calls upon the analytical mind to find the right solution to steer it to safety. The latter gathers potential solutions from its memory bank. It then creates forecasts from different scenarios and predicts the scenario with the best outcome (Kahneman, 2011). In the process, it can become scattered, frenetic, or disengaged from the present moment. In this state, decisions can be rash and entail considerable risk. At best, they’re suboptimal.

With time and the proper attention, a person can typically reset and integrate a stressful or even traumatic event. But, relief workers tend not to pause or exercise self-care. Their schedules and demands are relentless. The needs on the ground and the culture of humanitarian response reinforce a “risk, danger, and, discomfort are normal” and a  “just-push-through-it” mindset. One wonders: what’s the effect on the individual frontline worker, NGO, emergency operation, and disaster-affected population?

Chronic Stress Among Frontline Staff

Repeated stressors over time can lead to decision fatigue and burnout characterized by exhaustion, anxiety, heighten emotions, risk-taking behaviors, and social withdrawal (Pigni, 2017). No wonder, the incidences of chronic stress, burnout, and even (PTSD) are notably high within this community. It’s difficult to get a handle on frontline staff turnover rates partly because a significant percentage of responders work on limited-term contracts and not all costs are internalized by the NGO. However, a study by one NGO found that only 40 percent of responders were reenlisted for a second assignment (Korff, et al, 2015).

Significantly, most frontline workers are humanitarians and mission-driven, hard-working, action-oriented, risk-tolerant, and self-reliant. These attributes, combined with a community-based stigma against emotional or mental distress, create a workforce that typically chooses to internalize stress rather than seek help. Consequently, over time, stress and its symptoms accumulate, deepen, and can become more generalized over the range of normal and even non-stressful or non-traumatic circumstances.

In addition, unresolved stress can lead to dysfunctional and even toxic work environments. A few strategically placed staff in their own mental/emotional storm can create a tsunami within the workforce.

Soft Skills For Empowering Frontline Staff

Technical Over Soft Skills

A quick review of job announcements within the humanitarian relief sector reveals a bias toward technical, logistical, and other implementation-based skills. These skills are obviously a necessity and they’re often in short supply. Nevertheless, NGOs seem to downplay or fail to appreciate the value of soft skills in their staff selection process. Yet, these skills are more universally applicable and critical to a relief worker’s mental and emotional health, safety, agility, and adaptability.

Recommended Soft Skills

The list of applicable soft skills for emergency responders is long and not unlike other professions. Some common examples are good collaboration, strategic planning, problem-solving, and preparation skills. Confidence, adaptability, and decisiveness rank highly as well. Arguably, flexible communication skills, self-awareness, and self-care are of the greatest importance to emergency workers. They are critical to their personal survival and well-being.

At a minimum, frontline workers need to be educated on the biological, chemical, neurological, and physiological responses to stress, chronic stress, and trauma. They ought to be able to identify these signs in themselves and their colleagues. Organizations could equip every responder with a selection of self-care practices. They could offer guidance on when and how to acquire additional support in the field and post-deployment. Peer and other support services should be a fundamental element of every emergency operation.

The international humanitarian community commits to the prevention and mitigation of emergencies. It plans for contingencies and ultimately responds to the critical needs of an affected population. Can the same humanitarian and strategic thinking and planning extend to the relief community itself? What might be the outcome for both responders and disaster-affected populations?

Engaging Donors

In my experience, NGOs struggle with limited resources and the constant pressure to do more, i.e., save more lives and livelihoods. But, just like frontline workers themselves, their organizations are chronically resource-stressed, narrow-focused, and hyper-focused on the immediate. There’s a chronic mismatch between resource levels and results in expectations. This induces chronic stress and undermines the immediate and long-term performance of a relief NGO.

Two initial steps toward better understanding and responding are relatively easy to implement. First, survey staff needs. Second, educate donors on the value of frontline staff development and support in these areas. The response community can work with donors to design new sources of funding for soft skills development. Guidelines on the acceptable use of these resources can ensure that the overall pool of frontline workers can benefit.

Empowering Frontline Workers With Soft Skills Is a Good Investment

Resources are scarce and unfortunately, needs are seemingly unlimited and growing. The empowerment of frontline workers with so-called soft skills is a good investment. This idea has been substantiated and has merit. It benefits the humanitarian community, the well-being of responders, the disaster-affect populations, and the enhancement of humanitarian operations as a whole.

For More Information and Services for Empowering Frontline Staff, See:

• blog post 7 Benefits of Empowering Staff to Make Decisions 
• a sample of my Staff Personal Development and Wellness Workshops
• my Coaching in the Workplace services

Or, Contact Me