HumanSurge seeks to offer its basic services to each humanitarian professional free of charge. We are also committed to keeping this basic package (eg. all services on offer today) free for professionals in future.

HumanSurge charges a fee to organizations as part of a sustainable social business model. This will enable us to continue providing the service in an independent, transparent and accountable manner, as well as allow us to expand functionalities according to identified needs. The fee currently depends primarily on the scope of profiles an organization seeks to access, which is generally categorized as either national or international profiles.

HumanSurge has specific terms and conditions for professionals and organizations. The terms and conditions outline the relationship, rights and obligations of each party. During the registration process, you are asked to read and accept the terms and conditions specific to your type of registration (eg. professional or organization). HumanSurge recommends that you read these terms and conditions.

Yes. HumanSurge is an open platform for all humanitarian professionals. Anyone with experience and skills relevant to the sector is welcome to register. In fact, we encourage you to share the website (humansurge.org) with your colleagues and peers by email or on social media.

HumanSurge has consulted with many senior HR recruiters to identify the core characteristics when looking for qualified professionals, upon which a first selection or shortlist is made. When registering, HumanSurge primarily requests profile input as a standardized set of core characteristics - making registration quick and easy!
However, we recognize that every professional is unique. By logging into your profile, you can edit and add many more profile specifics, such as key qualifications, the employers you worked for, details about your main study, if you are on a roster, etc. We encourage you to complete your profile. The more information you provide, the more likely it is you will be shortlisted and contacted.

Your current geographic location (at country/territory level only) may be of interest to recruiting organizations during an emergency. If you are already located near a disaster-affected area, it implies a shorter deployment time and greater contextual knowledge, increasing your chances of being shortlisted.
Moreover, your nationality and current geographic location make you visible to organizations opting for a LITE package within that country/territory, as they can only see and contact profiles from one particular country/territory. This means that non-nationals currently located in a foreign country are also visible to organizations recruiting within their geographic location (whether these are national organizations or country-offices of international organizations or agencies).

We recommend you do. The more details you provide about the various jobs and assignments (period, locations, and context), the more accurately your profile can be classified. Recruiters are particularly interested in your experiences: the total time deployed in emergency or early-recovery/rehabilitation contexts respectively, the countries or territories in which you worked, the position you held, etc. Hence, the more details you provide, the more likely it is that you will be shortlisted and contacted.
HumanSurge calculates the total time deployed in emergency and early-recovery/rehabilitation contexts. This number is contrasted with the self-reported number of years of relevant experience and should not reveal major discrepancies.

Yes. After your initial registration you can edit your profile. There is ample opportunity to provide more details, such as adding key qualifications, a second nationality, adding more languages, and many more.

Organizations are mainly interested to know if you are fully operational (proficient) in a particular language. Therefore, you should only list a language that you read, write and speak sufficiently to perform all the tasks required in your profile / position in that language. Although it is nice to have some basic knowledge or a certain language, and it may help in situations, this is not crucial information. You can still mention it at a later stage, after being contacted, or in the elevator pitch if you believe it is important enough in your particular situation.

HumanSurge is still in beta and capturing only key information. In future, we may add the option to register your main trainings. For the moment, we recommend that you list them under your key qualifications and other skills (Go to ´Profile´ to add).

Each person is unique, with specific skills, preferences and a personal situation. Fortunately, no standard questions can ever hope to capture your individuality.
At the same time, these specifics are important to who you are. Sharing these specifics in a few sentences will ensure that a recruiter understands better who you are and what you are looking for, so that organizations only contact you if they have something that is really of your interest. A win-win situation.
The elevator pitch option lets you add a personal note and stand out from the crowd.

HumanSurge placed the humanitarian professional at the center. Any experienced and qualified professional has a clear picture of what s/he wants or does not want. By stating these preferences, this also becomes clear to the recruiters, thereby increasing the likelihood of a successful contact, while avoiding the need for a professional to ´say no´ to an organization.

Preferences to indicate (will) include:
Time required to deploy; Maximum period willing to deploy; Country or region of work; Any ´no-go´ countries; Type of contract (employee or service contract); Preferences for any organization; Disposition to work with a religious-affiliated organization (note: we do not ask for, and advice against, the identification of your religion through the HumanSurge platform)

Time is key in an emergency.
HumanSurge seeks to reduce recruitment times and costs by bringing available qualified professionals in contact with responding organizations. In order to avoid losing valuable time you should keep your availability status up-to-date.
HumanSurge will display the last day you confirmed your availability in the search results. Those who most recently confirmed will be listed higher. Someone who confirmed yesterday or last week, is more likely to actually be available, than someone who confirmed a month ago. Hence, recruiters are likely to contact those qualifying candidates who most recently confirmed availability, increasing the likelihood of a successful contact.
In your personal settings, you will be able to specify the frequency with which you want to (re)confirm your availability. HumanSurge will then send an email at the set interval and all you need to do is confirm.

In an emergency, every minute counts.
HumanSurge encourages you to respond immediately if you are contacted by an organization. It is not important if you confirm or reject an offer. Every person and situation is unique, and you can have good reasons for not being available (already contacted and deployed with another organization, the position or organization does not have your interest, any personal situation, etc.). The most important thing is that you inform the organization immediately, so there is no time wasted unnecessarily in finding the most suitable candidate.
HumanSurge will track response times and may report on them in future, boosting profiles who always provide a quick feedback.

An organization can contact you through the platform, based on the profile you provided. You will receive a notice in your account and an email to the email address you registered with on HumanSurge. The first contact will typically contain the following information: (1) organization name, (2) position, (3) period of deployment, and (4) location. Based on this information, you should confirm interest or decline. When confirming, your full name and contact information will be provided to the organization, so they may contact you and complete the recruitment process. Also, additional information may be sent automatically, such as a complete job description (if provided by the organization). In case you decide to decline, you have the option to send a note to the organization, clarifying your motive for declining. No contact information will be exchanged in that case.

Maybe.
Why maybe? Well…
No, HumanSurge does not hire, nor guarantee that any organization will contact you or that such a contact will lead to an employment or service agreement, irrespective of your profile or total time registered on the platform.
And yes, if your profile and availability meets the needs of any organization, they may contact you. From that contact, you may reach a mutually satisfactory agreement to deploy (independent of HumanSurge, we do not get involved) - in which case you would end up with a job.

NO. And this is important. HumanSurge facilitates contact between humanitarian responders, professionals and organizations. We do not engage in contractual negotiations, nor consult on the matter. This process is at the sole discretion of, and upon agreement between, the contracting parties. Professionals and organizations are themselves fully responsible for the recruitment process, its outcome and consequences.

NO. HumanSurge does not contract anyone for humanitarian response operations and does not have an active field operation. It is the organization, which contacts professionals through the platform, who may engage in an employment or service agreement with said professional.
HumanSurge is a service provider to the humanitarian sector and consists of a small team of dedicated humanitarians, professionals and volunteers. At this stage, we are not recruiting.

Your last name and contact details are only exchanged with an organization that contacts you, and only after you confirm interest in the position on offer at that organization.
In the search results, only your first name and profile details become visible. The public search function is limited and does not provide full details of individual profiles (such as the elevator pitch or experiences), nor does it list all profiles.

HumanSurge has stipulated and published its privacy policy. You can access and read the privacy policy on our website humansurge.org.