Our work
In 2023 MSF employed nearly 70,000 staff worldwide. 50% of MSF’s total budget of 2.3 billion EUR was spent for salaries. As a socially responsible employer we want to ensure that these salaries are fair, decent and competitive. At the same time we have a responsibility towards our donors and the people and patients in our 70+ countries to use our resources responsibly and efficiently.
For this, we need reliable labour market insights that inform decision makers. In many countries in crisis such insights and data are either scarce, or of limited usability for a medical humanitarian organisation of our size and complexity.
Our team of researchers and specialists therefore conducts regular market analysis in the countries in which we locally employ people. The studies take the form of in-depth interviews with representative employers from the local labour market to discuss general working conditions, compensation and benefits.
All our studies are compliant with strict confidentiality procedures. We share the anonymized results of our surveys free of charge with all participating employers. For sample reports please visit our resources page!
For any questions or cooperation requests, please contact us: benchmarking@oslo.msf.org
Check out our vacancies in field and head office
Download our Annual Report 2023 (Annual Report 2022) (Annual Report 2021)
Download our Benchmarking Brochure (pdf).
See a short presentation on benchmarking: download presentation (pdf).
Why benchmark?
MSF employs people for a broad range of jobs and skills levels who all ensure that MSF can deliver quality health care to those who need it – all over the world.
To do this, we recruit the best, most committed professionals. We often work in locations that lack accessible information on common market practice, cost of living and decent living wages.
MSF wants to ensure that our mandate can be carried out respecting the highest quality standards and accountable use of funds, while at the same time our employees receive fair compensation and local regulations and rules are respected, and without harming the market norms.
There are economic, social and legal reasons why benchmarking is essential for us: employees can provide for their families, talent is attracted and retained, avoidance of disruption of the labour market, MSF complies with labour laws…
MSF surveys have been systematically conducted through a combination of field and desk research since 2012.
We analyse the local labour market, the competitiveness of salaries and estimate the minimum living wage as well as compliance with internal and external policies.
How is it done
The benchmarking methodology is a disciplined approach for determining the relative importance and value of different jobs, and the critical relationships between. It ensures that jobs are compared based on requirements and accountabilities, and not by title, status or other bias.
In order to ensure that jobs of similar requirements and accountabilities are compared, emphasis is put on the core content of each function, reflecting the level of responsibility (knowledge, skills and supervision level) and complexity of tasks.
The methodology provides consistent guidelines for every step of the process, from identification and selection of appropriate organisations, training and tools for the execution of interviews, ensuring that accurate and most needed information is provided, to the final analysis process.
