National Individual Consultant for Staff Counselling (part-time)

Consultant Human Resources Medical & Health Programme & Policy

Overview

Provide counselling services to UNICEF staff and improve wellbeing initiatives.

You have:

• University degree in Psychology
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in individual and group/team counselling
• Certification for individual and group counselling
• Fluency in English and Romanian, including excellent writing skills
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills
• Strong communication and active listening skills
• Good judgment, high sense of responsibility, tact, and discretion
• Demonstrated cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multicultural environment

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.

Why working for UNICEF video

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF Romania CO staff members have been working in the highest level of emergency since March 2022 that was gradually lowered to L2 and L1 emergency levels and have been directly involved in refugee crisis response by supporting the national government and local partners in delivering assistance and protection services in protracted period of time. Tireless efforts have been made by our colleagues who have been working to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for the children and families who have been impacted by the devastating war in Ukraine.​​​​​​​ At the same time, office significantly expanded its human capital that resulted in new dynamics, structure, relationship, and this was followed by the rightsizing exercise that affected number of staff. Romania CO HR Unit has collaboratively worked with the Senior management, COSA EC, all staff, and ECA Regional Staff Counsellor to develop a staff wellbeing action plan that included, among others, engagement of a local staff counsellor.

The local Staff Counsellor will provide Counselling Services to 50+ staff, both in English and Romanian languages.

In line with the UNICEF HR model of ensuring people-centric service delivery, the engagement of local Staff Counsellor will facilitate efficient support to the existing staff well-being initiatives at local, regional and global level of the Organization.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will work closely with the HR Officer and Representative, and in regular consultation with ECAR Regional Staff Counsellor in order to coordinate and facilitate the group / individual sessions. The consultant’s work will be monitored by the HR Officer and technically supervised by the ECAR Regional Staff Counsellor. Respect to confidentiality of personal information will be upheld.

Work implies frequent interaction with UNICEF staff members (and/or dependents), UNICEF Representative and CO Senior Management team, HR Officers.

Key Tasks:

Under the overall guidance of the HR Officer, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

• Provide individual Counselling Services to staff (if need be overall assessment of the psychosocial needs of the staff members, development of the services, etc.).

• Perform individual assessments in the case of individual staff members experiencing difficulties coping and/or presenting mental health-related symptoms.

• Advise the Representative and HR Officer, on the observations made on group/individual sessions to UNICEF Romania CO staff, with the aim of improving the working environment in the Office and resolving problems of a work-related or personal nature that adversely affect job performance and productivity.

• Monitor environmental factors that could lead to stress, with particular focus on stress related to critical incidents, including emergency and crisis situations.

• Plan, develop and implement stress management training to all staff members.

• Perform Psychological first aid (e.g., individual and/or group) whenever and wherever there is a need.

• Develop, organize and implement a resilience-building program for all staff.

• Design and facilitate group counselling sessions.

• Prepare a report with findings and recommendations following the group sessions.

Work assignment overview Deliverables/Outputs Delivery deadlineComprehensive resilience building program available, including psycho educations; contingency and preparedness for crisis and emergency situations plan developed.

Design and facilitate/conduct Group counselling (fee per one session)

Deliver by end of May 2024Easy access and culturally sensitive professional counselling services to all UNICEF staff.Conduct Individual counselling sessions (fee per one session)From February to December 2024 when needed

Ongoing improvement in the working environment and monitoring mechanism of the stressful factors and provision of technical advice to senior management.Develop reports and recommendations following group sessions (fee per day).

Develop a plan of actions to be implemented by the CO in order to decrease pressure and stress among staff members and improve their wellbeing, facilitate, improvement of psychological safety and speak up culture in the office. (Fee per day).

From February to December 2024 when needed

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

Education: University degree in Psychology

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in individual and group/team counselling is required.

• Certification for individual and group counselling

• Proven experience in facilitating and moderating group discussions and exercising large team building/cohesion activities.

• Fluency in English and Romanian, including excellent writing skills.

• Strong organizational, and interpersonal skills.

• Strong communication and active listening skills to establish trust and rapport with clients.

• Good judgment, high sense of responsibility, tact, and discretion.

• Demonstrated cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multicultural environment;

Application procedure:

The application will be made in the dedicated UNICEF platform and it must include:

1. An updated CV focused on the skills and experience matching those requested by the current consultancy.
2. Financial Offer should indicate the GROSS amount in RON as per the attached template. Financial Offer Staff Counselling.xlsx

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Potential interview questions

Added 2 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org