Consultant for enhancing staff capacities on career development, performance management and engagement

Contract

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Title: Consultant for enhancing staff capacities on career development, performance management and engagement Type of engagement: Consultant Duty Station: UNICEF / Prishtina Duration of Assignment: 7 months

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Background The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. The overall goal of the UNICEF Kosovo is to contribute to enabling all children, adolescents and young people in Kosovo, especially the most marginalized, to have their rights progressively fulfilled and to develop to their full potential in a protective and inclusive society. As such, the Kosovo Programme is rights-based, equity and gender-focused. UNICEF globally has made great strides in recent years to build a truly inclusive workplace – one in which every staff member feels welcome and valued while together carry out the shared mission for children and young people around the world. The Kosovo Office staffing structure is based on the programme design, as well as staff capacities based on a skills mapping and Belbin and Gallup Team Roles exercise. These activities showed that the Kosovo team works best when feeling productive; has a high sense of commitment to values such as honesty and loyalty; and can proactively integrate team members to achieve results. The team also shows eagerness to continuously learn, improve and recognize others’ potential, resulting in a dynamic working environment conducive to results. In contrast, the overall office showed a lower prevalence of strengths within the Influencing domain, which will be addressed through the office learning plan for 2021 and further.

Scope of Work:

Consultant will support UNICEF staff on career development, performance management, data analytics and implementation of learning & development plans. The consultant should conduct tasks by analyzing and synthesizing issues and problems and interpreting established formal guidelines to address and recommend solutions or further actions required. He/she will help in maximizing managerial and team performance across the office through positive collaboration between staff and to establish a trusting relationship with accountability and responsibility, and creating a growing, healthy relationship among supervisors, supervisees and peers. The consultant will work in close consultation with the office management and staff associations to address the subjects presented above, always referring to UNICEF competency framework. He/she should facilitate and contribute to encourage and maintain high professional, friendly, teamwork, and promote a respectful working environment and behavior. The consultant will support management on providing research, analysis and recommendations on a range of HR functions. Therefore, this consultancy will contribute substantively to implementation of the organization-wide HR strategies within UNICEF Kosovo. The consultant will provide support to all staff by executing HR services through applying knowledge of theoretical HR models, as well as understanding of organizational HR policies and procedures. Through research of policies and analysis of data, support advising clients on HR-related needs and developing subsequent plans of action. With this consultancy support, UNICEF office would support

• Strengthen career management to enable staff members with a wider understanding of what is needed, be it growth in one’s current position, new skills and experiences, exposure to different teams on a short-term basis or moving up in positions. Increasingly, as UNICEF Kosovo moves towards multi-functional teams across thematic priority areas, staff will have opportunities to learn, grow and do more outside of their scope of work.
• Strengthen performance management culture through empowering staff members on giving and receiving constructive feedback. Recognizing and appreciating high performers, and those colleagues who exemplify the core values as well as deliver results consistently, is important and something the office wishes to enhance.
• Provide coaching and mentoring support for staff members. Staff members will be provided support in becoming aware of their blind spots and unconscious biases. The consultant will support prioritization and sequencing of several initiatives tailored for staff members and teams to ensure that staff members develop career agility, engages in office improvement plans and activities including volunteering, exploring and innovating. 4. Promote speak up culture in the office.it is crucial to develop a healthy, supportive and safe office environment where each staff member is empowered and encouraged in self reporting and speaking. On performance management, the office may benefit from additional support on how to give and receive constructive feedback. Recognizing and appreciating high performers, and those colleagues who exemplify the core values as well as deliver results consistently, is important and something the office wishes to enhance.

**PHASE I ASSESSMENT PHASE:

Staffs’ (and the office’s) skills, interests and the like are identified**

Task/Milestone: Conduct one to one meeting with staff members for understanding their needs, expectations and aspirations, building up the supportive environment, rapport, trust and a positive relationship with all staff.

Deliverables/Outputs: Meeting with staff successfully conducted. Relevant report with observations provided.

Timeline: March - April

Task/Milestone: Facilitate discussions in small groups of the GSS data in a deliberate and thoughtful way, seeking to understand better the findings and to get to the underlying causes of the GSS findings proposing ways to solutions.

Deliverables/Outputs: Brief proposal on way forward for addressing the GSS low rated subjects.

Timeline: April - May

PHASE II DIRECTION PHASE:

Support staff in determining the type of career that they would like to pursue as well as in identifying the steps to make their career goals a reality. In this phase the consultant will work closely with LTC , staff association etc. at refining the detailed office learning & development plan and GSS Action Plan for 2021 and her/his contribution to it

Task/Milestone: Ensure the GSS Action Plan is focused on the most impactful actions that will make a real improvement in the workplace culture.

Deliverables/Outputs: Supported refining the GSS action plan and implementation of the actions.

Timeline: April - May

Task/Milestone: Assist the office learning & development committee LTC to refine the 2021 office learning and development plan to capture individual plans and the office plan

Deliverables/Outputs: Staff capacity development needs identified

Timeline: April - May

PHASE III ACTION PHASE: Support creating and enhancing staff skills to prepare for growth and self-improvement through coaching, monitoring, job rotation, group and individual learning opportunities and so on

Task/Milestone: Facilitate speak up/voice training for staff, or training on non-violent communications and courageous conversations.

Deliverables/Outputs: Training successfully conducted

Timeline: June-July

Task/Milestone: Coaching staff from a position of believing they can address and resolve their own issues by approaching them in the right mental framework. Deliverables/Outputs: Coaching sessions with Individuals

Timeline: March - October

Task/Milestone: Support in organizing staff retreat (virtual or in person) to discuss and define behaviors expected of individuals in UNICEF Kosovo, bringing the team together around a common vision of the culture we are building together. The Global Values Charter may be a useful starting point.

Deliverables/Outputs: Retreat successfully conducted, report submitted.

Timeline: April - June

Task/Milestone: Share best practice examples from outside on how to live the core values, building up psychological safety and Emotional Intelligence of teams.

Deliverables/Outputs: Good practices examples shared to staff.

Timeline: March - October

Task/Milestone: Organize follow-up sessions for the team and selected staff for coaching and document the process and improvement through case study of feedbacks

Deliverables/Outputs: Report for monitoring on improvement developed and validated

Timeline: March - October

Task/Milestone: Assist the office learning and development committee in identifying other capacity development needs and a proposed follow-up plan and acquire new skills to support career development.

Deliverables/Outputs: Staff capacity development needs identified

Timeline: March - October

Task/Milestone: Participate as a resource person in regular capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of staff

Timeline: March - October

Task/Milestone: Proactively advise clients on the resolution of human resources issues ensuring equitable and transparent solutions that protects both the staff and organizations interests in accordance with policies, regulations and procedures.

Deliverables/Outputs: Proactively provided advices to clients.

Timeline: April - October

**Minimum Qualifications required:

Education:** Master’s degree in human resource management, business management, international relations, psychology or another related field is required.

Experience: Minimum of two years of professional experience in human resource management in an international organization and/or large corporation is required. Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of local languages is considered as an asset.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Competencies

• Nurtures and Manages People • Works Collaboratively with others • Builds and Maintains Partnerships • Thinks and Acts Strategically • Manages ambiguity and complexity • Applying technical expertise • Follows instructions and procedures

Technical skills: Advanced knowledge of the principles and concepts of human resources management.

Ability to identify issues, conduct rigorous research, and make conclusions and recommendations.

Strong research, planning and organizational skills.

Ability to communicate effectively in a diverse organization tailoring language, tone, style and format to match audience.

Ability to empathize with supervisors and staff while advocating for consistent and equitable applications of promulgated HR regulations and rules.