FACILITATION OF UNICEF UGANDA STAFF RETREAT

Consultant

Overview

Facilitate a staff retreat for UNICEF Uganda to enhance teamwork and communication.

You have:

• Experience in conducting staff team-building events for over 100 participants.
• Must have been engaged in broad corporate strategy activities for at least the past 3-5 years.
• Working familiarity with UNICEF or similar organizations is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English is required, knowledge of Ugandan languages is an asset.
• Ability to collaborate and adapt to participant feedback during sessions is essential.

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a fair chance

Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path. Together with the Government of Uganda and partners we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of the Uganda National Development Plan, and the planned outcomes of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

Visit this link for more information on Uganda Country Office https://www.unicef.org/uganda/

How can you make a difference?

Background and Purpose

Staff retreats are an opportunity to step back and reflect on the bigger picture of what we do at UNICEF. Over the past year, we’ve experienced a raft of changes as an agency, culminating in a commitment from UNICEF headquarters to do more to create an organizational culture that prioritizes collaboration, respect between colleagues, and clear communication. The UNICEF Uganda Country Office has experienced major programme and staffing changes over the past two years, in addition to the psychosocial challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021. Following the results of the 2020 global staff survey and 2021 pulse surveys, recommenations were made by staff to have an external facilitator for a guided deep dive into the work place cultural issues. To that end, UNICEF Uganda will be hosting a staff retreat to get to know each other better as colleagues, strengthen team bonds, and foster collaboration between staff regardless of function throughout the country office with an underlying outcome of strengthening the organizational culture and interrelationships.

The UNICEF Uganda Country Office (UCO) staff is diverse in terms of gender, age, nationality, cultural backgrounds, and interests. It is important to design a retreat that will be participatory, inclusive, and tailored to the various interests and expectations of UCO staff. The retreat should be facilitated in a way that provides opportunities for conversations around workplace culture and team-building to enhance both personal and professional growth of staff in the following elements of team work.

Justification

UNICEF is committed to achieving the milestones stipulated in its new Country Programme which will conclude in 2025. To help the UCO achieve its milestones along the way, a strengthened team and country office working as one is key in achieving this. The need for a staff retreat is timely in the face of pulse surveys alluding to the need for greater teamwork, management reporting siloed work sub-cultures, a limited understanding of colleagues’ work demands, the need for a greater shared understanding of common goals, and the inter-relationships of teams on each other. A staff retreat is proposed as a catalyst to break the ice, bring down barriers, and foster a uniting commitment amongst staff members towards building a positive and forward-looking organizational culture.

Objectives

Indicative Program Overview

The retreat outlined proposed below is merely indicative and not prescriptive for the consulting entity.

Day before Retreat

Travel to the venue and check into the hotel in the evening.

Day 1

A focus on teambuilding activities and attention to issues raised. This should encompass deep dives and focus group discussions.

Day 2 (Half day)

Call to action and renewal of UNICEF team charter; conlcude by 1:00 pm following lunch.

Duties and Responsibilities

Pre-retreat (estimate 5.5 working days)

• The consulting entity to familiarize themselves with key UNICEF resources pertinent to the discussions, design and activities of the staff retreat. Some indicative documents to be provided will include the UCO Competency Framework and values charter, UNICEF Values (CRITA), staff counsellor’s report, special Country Management Team report, prior UNICEF staff retreat reports if any, team charter, Global Staff Survey and Pulse Survey Action Plans, etc. Materials will be provided by UNICEF.
• Develop an interactive and needs-based programme agenda for the one-and-a-half-day retreat based on the objectives put forward by UNICEF in collaboration with the Staff retreat team.
• Organize the final retreat preparation (including any materials) prior to the meeting/event.
• Participate in a kick-off call at the start of the engagement, a mid-week catch up if needed, and a final presentation.

During the retreat (1.5 days)

• Facilitate and engage with participants to foster team spirit through engaging activities that encourage respectful communication between colleagues, cooperation between work teams, and ways to manage conflict when it arises.
• Aid and support participants in developing a clear understanding and commitment of all of UNICEF’s values (CRITA), the organization and workplace culture, along with individual roles and contributions to ensure that UNICEF Uganda achieves a positive work place culture.
• Lead milestone review sessions to ensure progress towards the retreat’s objectives and adjust the agenda, as necessary.
• Create forums that enable participants to voice concerns, ask questions, propose solutions, feel involved, and speak up on staff wellbeing issues.
• Facilitate participants to socialize, get to know and appreciate colleagues, hear new ideas, learn, share knowledge, and have fun.

After the retreat (estimated 0.5 day)

• Prepare brief report on the work carried out and key observations as well as recommendations for Country Office management and staff to address in relation to the key issues and topics covered during the retreat.

No

Major Task

Deliverable

Timeframe (man-days)

Comments

1

Prepare tailored resource materials.

Resource materials/modules tailored for participants’ needs and use-ready

5.5 working days (pre-retreat)

The UCO HR team remains available to provide guidance, resources, feedback, and discussion throughout this week to assist in tailoring the programme design and providing comment on materials.

1.1

Pre-retreat discussions and tailoring of sessions

Kick-off meeting, mid-week check-in (if needed), and final presentation

2

Conduct/facilitate the sessions using different engaging methods

Retreat Agenda and tailor-made resources (with inputs from the retreat committee and management prior to print)

1.5 working days (retreat)

Venue arrangements to be handled by the UCO.

Consideration for compliance with Covid-19 regulations to be adhered.

3

Evaluation of retreat and final report

Final report capturing retreat observations, feedback themes, and performance improvement recommendations for a strengthened organizational culture and a revised UNICEF Uganda Teams charter.

0.5 working days

Report is ideally presented to the team.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

A suitably qualified individual or entity is expected to show experience in conducting staff team-building events/activities for over 100 UNICEF staff members. Experts with extensive previous experience in deploying solutions of this type should consider bidding for this assignment. The bidders should provide evidence of their capacity to manage the event, innovative methods used to engage participants, names of key clients served before, evidence of previously used materials/agendas, or any other information to support their proposal.

The bidding company / individual shall have the following:

• Must have been engaged in broad corporate strategy activities for at least the past 3-5 years, using process learning methods involving lectures and group activities. Prior work conducted in a United Nations, or INGO environment is seen as highly desirable.
• Experience in events organizing / management preferred to ensure orderly and professional conduct of the team-building retreat.
• The ability to be collaborative and flexible both in the lead-up by working with the hosting team to design a tailor-made programme, as well as, during the retreat in anticipation of incorporating feedback to inform activities on the go.
• Must be able to submit a list of clients, events handled/managed for at least the past 3 years, and any relevant exemplar materials i.e. agendas/training resources, along with at least 2 recommendation letters.

The successful bidder shall demonstrate capabilities to manage different kinds of participants as evidenced by their proposed team to manage the session.

Language Proficiency

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of local Ugandan local languages is an asset.

Conditions:

• Retreat dates: 24 to 25 March 2022 (1.5 days) (subject to final venue availability)
• Both country and zonal office teams will be expected to report to the venue on 24 March 2022.
• A detailed programme agenda will be developed by the task team and shared with all staff.
• Facilitators: Professional external facilitator(s) or organization will be required to achieve the retreat objectives.
• Venue: To be determined
• Coordinate with the staff-retreat task team to ensure smooth execution of the staff retreat.
• Payment is linked to agreed deliverables upon satisfactory completion and certification of deliverables by the supervisor.

Application Procedure/Call for Proposals

Interested candidates are required to submit a technical proposal on how they intend to approach the work. The proposal should include a timeline, and methodology, based on the Terms of Reference. The proposal must also include detailed CV of the consultant, past-work deliverables/resources where applicable, as well as a financial proposal. The financial proposal must be inclusive of all costs (consultancy fees, resource materials, or any other allowances).

Evaluation of Candidate:

The consultant will be competitively selected from a list of applicants based on their past experience of doing similar work and financial proposal.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

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Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org