Portrait of staff - Nicole Bächtold - Finance / HR Manager (ENG)

Are you MSF?

5 questions to Nicole

MSF219606

If you think this image is in any way inappropriate, please report it, by including its URN/identifying code and a brief description of your concern in sending an email to [email protected]

Linked assets

Portrait of staff - Nicole Bächtold - Finance / HR Manager (FR)

Subt. French

Portrait of staff - Nicole Bächtold - Finance, HR Manager (DE)

Subt. German

Portraits of staff

Add to lightbox

Add to cart

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF219606

Date taken / Date Recorded 23/12/2017 12:00 AM

Country Unspecified Country

Commissioning section MSF-SWITZERLAND

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 3m23s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 482.04 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Are you MSF?

I never regretted it. I made the right decision and I recommend it highly. Now, to tell you why... It is personal. I think there is so much to learn and to discover that you end up finding yourself.

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
Nicole Bächtold
Finance / HR manager

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
What is your role as Finance/HR manager?

ITW:
In the field, I work as a Finance and HR manager and I have been working at MSF for a year. A great deal of the role relates to personnel management, so anything to do with recruitment and monitoring employees from the interview stage to the final selection. It also involves completing contracts and paying salaries. I also need to ensure that staff members receive a good introduction to MSF, manage invoices and monitor the budget. But when I am working on a project, I always try to spend time with the beneficiaries, see what MSF is doing and observe the medical activities because, at the end of the day, the administration work is there to support the medical work and so it is very important for me to see what is happening. It actually has an extremely wide scope and that is what I like about it.

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
How did you end up at MSF?

ITW:
I have a Bachelor's degree in business administration and a Master's in marketing. I felt as though I had come full circle when it came to both marketing and sales in large companies, and so I asked myself: OK, what do I really want to do with my life? And I realised I wanted to do something useful.

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
What is life like on a project?

ITW:
When you are working on a project, everything is related. You live and work with the same people. At first, it was a struggle to get used to being with my colleagues all the time, both at home and at work. But that is also a bonding experience. We are much closer, we have many incredible experiences and that is really what I like about it at the end of the day, even if it is not always easy.

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
And what about the tough times?

ITW:
There were redundancies that were not necessarily due to economic reasons but rather due a decrease in activity. Having to tell them was difficult, knowing that it would not necessarily be easy for them to find more work, that they loved MSF and that some of them had worked with us for a long time. So those were tough times. Also, when I was in Lebanon, unfortunately a co-worker died from a disease. It affected me. These moments are never pleasant. And the whole follow-up procedure when her husband came to the office for administrative procedures was hard.

TEXT ON-SCREEN:
Why MSF?

ITW:
I love the MSF values and its truly neutral position, it is something that you can really feel. It is not just something that is simply written down on paper, etc. If there is an emergency, the teams and logistical equipment are deployed at an impressive speed. Actually, I have always wanted to see the logistics centre in Bordeaux because I imagine it must be impressive to see the organisation that happens behind the scenes. So I love how effective they are in the field.