About market-based compensation

The wages of our employees and Chief executive officer, CEO are sometimes the subject of discussion on social media. Especially in times of emergency relief actions (for example, after a severe earthquake in Indonesia) and our annual sticker campaign, the articulate Fleming sometimes wonders out loud why our CEO does not donate part of his salary to help eradicate all suffering.

If only it were that simple of course! All our staff, including our Chief executive officer, CEO, earn - literally and figuratively - a market wage. Why? We clarify that below.

The importance of expertise and focus

Our organization has approximately 13,000 enthusiastic volunteers and 1,500 motivated employees who are involved in many different activities. To guide these nearly 15,000 people properly within a professional context, the right expertise and the right focus is crucial. The responsibility to guarantee the continuity and efficiency of our organization is not one of the least. That responsibility does not begin at 9 a.m. and does not end at 5 p.m. Our clinical biologists, for example, also provide expert advice to hospitals at night for difficult transfusions, and our intervention staff are also on call at night and on weekends in the event of disasters such as the attacks in Zaventem.

Additional assignments

In addition to being responsible for that good policy, the volunteers and staff of the organization, there are a number of specific tasks that come with being Chief executive officer, CEO of our organization:

safely collect and distribute blood throughout Flanders so that every patient can be helped ... at any time of the day, week or year;
be a reliable helper to the government in terms of refugee reception;
Conduct scientific research on Red Cross activities;
and there is also membership in International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC). These two umbrella organizations stand up for humanitarian disasters following natural disasters (IFRC) and in conflict (ICRC). The CEO also bears ultimate responsibility for this wide range of activities.

Efficient use of income

With clear responsibilities comes proper remuneration. This is the only way to attract skilled, talented people with the right attitude and vision for our organization in a professional world. Because - and this may be where we differ from other organizations or companies - every euro that comes into Belgian Red Cross-Flanders must be spent efficiently. This is why we substantiate all our activities with scientific research, regularly examine our processes and procedures and improve them where necessary, and communicate about this transparently via our website, our annual report, etc...

Only in this way can we help even more people ... both in Flanders and abroad.