20 – Staff Supervised by a Spouse

Background

During a review and lessons learned of a critical incident, one of the factors of the incident was that a staff person was being supervised by their spouse. This resulted in less information being available than should have been.

Advice

Whilst the general best practice is that an SIL staff person should not be supervised by their spouse, there are a few situations such as joint projects where one spouse, for the sake of the HR information system, has to be designated the lead;  where because of location the best assignment is with a spouse; or where because of an open position a spouse becomes the “de facto” supervisor.

Where the supervisor of an SIL staff person is their spouse, the following additional management practices should be put in place:

1. A third party will conduct the quarterly reviews, goals setting and annual summary review of the staff person independent of the spouse.
2. A third party will review and sign off on any financial authorisations of the staff person.
3. A third party will review and sign off on any risk assessments.
4. If appropriate, the sending organisation will be notified so they can arrange to debrief or conduct a staff welfare conversation with the staff person independent of the spouse.

These additional management elements provide the spouse and organisation protection from any conflict of interest.