International Consultant for Development of a Policy Recommendation to Promote Flexible Working and Family-Friendly Policies in the Workplace

Consultant

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with offices in 180 countries. Globally, the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion each year.

The UNDP office in Skopje employs a team of 65 and currently manages a portfolio of projects in social inclusion, environmental protection and good governance worth USD 15 million per year.

Women economic empowerment has been an important area of work for UNDP. Support to vulnerable groups is part of the biggest Social inclusion and employment portfolio with a number of interventions designed to address obstacles for active participation at the labour market.

UNDP is working towards supporting environment for creation of new jobs while addressing the barriers towards accessible labour markets and creating increased opportunities for vulnerable groups. SMEs created by the members of vulnerable groups through the employment programme have been offered different consultancy services to increase the chances for more sustainable businesses. This support in terms of specialized mentoring has been extended and companies will be further offered a comprehensive set of tools to help them cope with the COVID19-induced economic crisis.

As part of the support efforts, companies should be better equipped with knowledge and practical examples to deal with the emerging needs of many workers to provide additional care within their families in a situation of disrupted education and childcare, as well as family illness care services. The crisis further accentuated disproportional burden carried by women in households, worsening their opportunities to actively participate in the labour market and the society at all.

With this intervention, UNDP is seeking an International consultant to support development of guidance and tools for putting into practice flexible working arrangements. The later have been already part of the Macedonian Labour law but appropriate support needs to be offered to the employers to reconsider those options in the situation of crisis and offer family-friendly working arrangements to parents and family members that need them. Policies and practices shall also take into consideration importance of having good support system and identify elements that can make a critical difference and are enabling factors.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment

The overall aim of this consultancy is to support the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP) in providing guidance and identifying practical tools that would support employers to offer flexible working arrangements to employees that have to cope with increased need to protect and care for their family members, especially in the situation when negative consequences from the COVID19 crisis are affecting their businesses.

Consultant shall provide clear roadmap from assessing and designing family-friendly policies to putting into practice flexible work arrangements, while identifying weak points that could jeopardize the implementation of such family friendly practices. Recommendations should serve the MLSP in further streamlining of regulatory mechanisms and should give guidance for further creation of support measures towards employers.

Scope of Work

The methodology of work will consist of desk review of relevant project documentation, experiences from other countries, direct consultations with employers and employees, to understand the reasons and obstacles of the current system.

Proposed Roadmap shall consist of clear guidelines for operationalization of flexible work arrangements while emphasizing enablers and key actions that have to be taken, from the state, employers, workers, business support organizations etc. in order to put them in practice.

Consultant shall develop training material and have a train-of-trainers (ToT) session with 10 pre-selected business consultants for provision of actual assessment of workplaces within companies. Jointly with national consultants, model for assessing of workplaces will be piloted in 10 SMEs, to showcase successful adjustments on a level of the company.

Recommendations from the Roadmap and the piloted models will be published to provide evidences at company level planning and good practices (model companies). They will also provide guidance for policy adjustments. Legal provisions on the possibility of agreeing a part-time employment to care for close family members and for gradual reintegration into the work process shall be considered within the existing legal framework. Legal provisions regulating entitlement or the possibility of agreeing part-time employment, as well as special protection against dismissal or termination of employment, shall be closely discussed and any recommendations provided agreed with the MLSP representatives. Publication shall also identify the most common barriers and bottlenecks as from the broader experiences coming from other countries.

Options for flexible working arrangements should be the key elements while designing the Roadmap and the training material to help the business consultants and HR units within the companies. Guidelines shall strengthen HR capacities of companies to properly assess and put into practice partial and flexible working arrangements, while ensuring job security and career progress of the workers.

Promoted family-friendly work arrangements for men and women shall at the minimum consider:

1. Flexible working time – flexible start of working hours with possibility for preset “core hours” including remote work;
2. Reduced hours - fewer hours per day or fewer days per week;
3. Compressed week – compensating time off with longer hours on a number of days per week;
4. Job sharing – division of work between two workers.

Assessment tool has to provide clear guidance on determining whether specific job place is to be considered for flexible arrangements, by taking into account key elements, at the minimum i) the nature of the job, ii) the needs of the employee's team or department iii) maximum duration of the arrangement or a period of the day when flexible hours are acceptable etc. Questions set with the assessment tool shall be further used by local business consultants as part of their support services to the local companies. It will be made available in a user-friendly manner to the broader public, on the platform that will be created as a response to the COVID19 crisis offered to the companies.

The consultant should take the following elements into account for the gathering and analysis of data:

• Desk review of relevant legal documents regulating flexible working arrangements
• Discussion with the following focus groups:

1. focus group of professionals from MLSP within the Labour unit
2. focus group of business consultants (up to 10 representatives)
3. focus group of employers (up to 10 representatives)

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES:

The consultancy is expected to deliver the following outputs:

Deliverables

Tentative date

Propose methodology and conceptual approach on how the assignment will be carried out

By 30th August

Undertake discussions with focus groups and national partners

By 5th September

Develop a Roadmap for establishment of successful model for practicing of flexible working arrangements in North Macedonia, including brief report on the current situation, policy alternatives and expert guidance and recommendations to the i) changes in the legal regulations, ii) good practices by companies, iii) options to the HR units within companies.

By 15th September

Training material for the consultants consisted of key training modules, standards for assessment of job place, and ‘how-to’ guide to HR units for deciding on alternative work arrangements including design of the questionnaire

By 30th of September

Submit Policy paper with recommendations guidance notes and/or policy recommendations on how the proposed model can be piloted within the current business eco-system. Policy paper should cover the exact elements and enabling factors for all relevant stakeholders.

By 10th of October

Institutional arrangment

The consultant will work under direct supervision by the MLSP and the UNDP Social Inclusion Unit Staff. He/she will be in regular communication with the supervisor through e-mail and will provide regular progress reports on weekly basis. All communication and reports will need to be prepared in English language. UNDP Social Inclusion Unit staff estimated lead time to review outputs, give comments, certify approval/acceptance of outputs, etc. shall be within 5 working days.

In course of performing his/her job, the consultant will need to meet with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Employment Service Agency, Center for Social Work in Skopje, Institute for Social Activities, different NGO’s recognized as service providers to persons with disabilities and elderly, training providers etc. The UNDP office will assist with scheduling these online meetings.

Duration of the Work

The assignment shall commence on 25th of August 2020 and the tasks should be completed latest by 10th of October 2020.

Duty station and travel

Total estimated time for this assignment is 20 working days, in the period of 1,5 months.

Competencies

• Excellent communications and facilitation skills;
• Excellent analytical and negotiation skills.
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

The selected candidates shall possess:

• Advanced university degree in economy, law and related areas;
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible relevant experience in related fields of labor relations and HR policies;
• Record of participation in at least 3 assignments related to labor relations, HR policies and strategy development, where experience in designing modalities for utilization of flexible working arrangement shall be considered as an asset;
• Participation or affiliation in national/ international bodies or/ and associations working on issues such as labor relations, flexible working arrangements, well-being policies as part of HR developments etc.
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills in English.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFEr

The award of the contract shall be made to the offeror whose offer has been evaluated and determined using Cumulative analysis methodology. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Being responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score based on the following weight of technical and financial criteria for solicitation as per the schedule below:

* Technical criteria weight: 70%

* Financial criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) in the technical evaluation shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

For the considered offers in the financial evaluation only, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (Pn / Pl) * 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.

Technical Criteria:

Criteria

Maximum points

70

Advanced university degree in economy, law and related areas.

• BA=3
• MA = 4
• PhD = 5

5

Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible relevant experience in related fields of labor relations and HR policies.

• Up to 10 years = 15 points
• Above 10 = 20 points

20

Record of participation in at least 3 assignments related to labor relations, HR policies and strategy development, where experience in designing modalities for utilization of flexible working arrangement shall be considered as an asset15 points

• more than 5 assignments of interest - 20 points

25

Participation or affiliation in national/ international bodies or/ and associations working on issues such as labor relations, flexible working arrangements, well-being policies as part of HR developments etc

• No record of participation =0 points
• Record of participation =5 point

20

DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED

Interested offerors are invited to submit the following documents/information to be considered:

1. Offeror’s letter, as per the following form LINK
2. Most updated CV with focus on required qualification as well as the contact details of at least three (3) professional references;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment
4. List of relevant assignment as per the section criteria
5. Financial Proposal The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of lumpsum in US Dollars calculated per deliverables as listed under the Expected Outputs and Deliverables section.

Failure to submit complete set of all required documents will result in disqualification from the process.

Payments will be made only upon confirmation from UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Step 1

1. Click on the "Apply now" button

2. Input your information in the appropriate sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume, and motivation (cover letter). You can type in or paste your short Resume into the last box.

3. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload other required documents listed in the step 2.

Step 2

Interested individual consultants must submit the documents/information listed in the “Documents to submit section” above.

The system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file.

Failing to submit any of these documents may result in disqualification of the application.

Please note that shortlisted candidates might be interviewed.

If the deliverables are not produced and delivered by the consultant to the satisfaction of UNDP as approved by the responsible Portfolio Manager, no payment will be made even if the consultant has invested man/days to produce and deliver such deliverables.

Apply now

Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org