Re-Advertisement: Staff Counsellor, NOC, Kyiv, Ukraine, Open For Ukrainian Nationals Only

Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 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, hope

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, 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. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Strategic office context:

In its eighth year, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on the civilian population of 3.4 million people, including 510,000 children, living in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. This protracted crisis has disrupted the daily lives of children and their families living on both sides of line of contact, leaving them in continued need of humanitarian assistance. Since November 2021, the risk of a further escalation of conflict in the east has increased significantly, with the security situation along the contact line currently very volatile. Alongside this, current and now extremely heightened geo-political tensions point to possible intensification of conflict that could spill beyond the east and affect other parts of the country.

Currently, UNICEF Ukraine staff is working in a demanding context and needs increasingly complex skillset to address the emerging needs and ensure timely and quality delivery of humanitarian activities. In this context, it is not easy to continue concentration on the work while dealing with extra pressure. Meanwhile, it is easy to slip into working six or seven days a week and difficult to take an extra care for their wellbeing so that to meet the requirements. Also, the majority of staff has dependents, including children and often lacks knowledge and skills to address the needs of their family members in distress.

UNICEF's global staff wellbeing programme is available to ensure the psychosocial wellbeing of all staff. It incorporates evidence-based and best practice techniques to build personal resiliency, lessen traumatic stress, prevent burnout and improve mental health. The programme managed by the Staff Wellbeing Team, has a global outreach with staff counsellors in all regions offering individual or group consultations in person or remotely. However, in UNICEF Ukraine, there are staff members who have some language and cultural barriers and need counselling and support for themselves and for their dependents in their local language for national staff, and in English for international staff.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job:

Under the direct supervision of the Human Resources manager and technical guidance of Regional Staff Counsellor, the counsellor will provide individual psychosocial counselling to staff and their family members in need, promoting work-life balance and healthy habits in staff, as well as disseminating psychoeducational materials and webinars in collaboration with the Regional Staff Counsellor. He/she should be familiar with basic principles and approaches to the Psychosocial First Aid (PFA). The Counsellor will have responsibility for the administration of a range of stress management activities, including support to the Office management in planning and implementation of a staff wellbeing strategy in line with the UN Workplace Mental Health Strategy and UNDSS standard operational procedure on critical incident stress.

In addition, the Counsellor will support the Office management in identifying and addressing the following issues:

• What do staff already do to care for themselves and team members?
• What do staff know about individual and team stress, and stress management?
• How do managers understand staff stress?
• How well do staff currently feel supported by the organization?
• What kinds of existing support do staff find helpful?
• What other kinds of support do staff feel they need?
• What are the main stresses staff feel they are facing?

• How do managers and supervisors understand their role and responsibility in supporting staff?

  Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

The Staff Counsellor will provide the support to UNICEF UCO offices and managers to promote offices' and teams' resilience and foster a positive working environment by:

• Applying principles of psychology to resolve problems that may arise in the workplace.
• Performing regular assessments of psycho-social risk factors affecting staff adversely and proposing a course to remove or modify these to improve staff's performance, job engagement, work-life balance and staff's behavior within the workplace.
• Collaborate with UNICEF management and liaise with mental health professionals with the objective of establishing a network of professionals ready to support and intervene in cases of a need.
• Providing support and consultancy to leadership and management on organizational culture, workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, management styles, hybrid work modalities, team dynamics, learning and motivation, communication expectations and feedback.

• When feasible, carrying out scientific research of organizational behavior and processes.

• Supporting newly joined staff through the onboarding process (conducting resilience briefings prior to start date, adjustment briefings 2 months after start date)

  The Staff Counsellor will design and implement workplace interventions to strengthen individual coping and foster a positive work environment (e.g. culture change, promotion of UNICEF core values, enhancement of teams' cohesion, collegiality, mutual support and care in the offices and within teams) by:

• Facilitating regular activities to increase staff awareness and promote the development of personal, team's and offices' well-being plans through field well-being missions and remotely.

• Cooperating with HR teams in their activities to integrate well-being programs into their learning strategies.
• Assist in the development and implementation of a stress management programme for UNICEF Ukraine Office.
• Analysing data using statistical methods and applications to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.

The Staff Counsellor will facilitate effective stress management interventions for all staff by:

• Providing staff with individual and group counselling (i.e. assessment, short-term intervention, referral), following self-referral or referral by the supervisor or another professional.
• Facilitating referrals to external mental health professionals for psychological / psychiatric support (including coordination with UN Medical Services).
• Guidance to supervisors and senior management on the management of staff where mental health conditions are involved.
• Identifying adequate local resources for referrals whenever necessary, especially for cases requiring referrals for further mental health support.
• Supporting staff members with mental health conditions by providing rehabilitation strategies and the staff's return-to-work intervention.
• Strengthening a network of Peer Support Volunteers (PSV), including the training and technical supervision of the Peer Support Volunteers.
• Serving as the focal point for exchanging information on referral and consultant resources.
• Employing a holistic approach while providing emergency psycho-social support to staff who have been involved in critical incidents.
• Contacting the affected staff member(s) via various communication channels, offering practical support, psycho-education, psychological first aid and referral information.
• Facilitating appropriate traumatic stress interventions to staff and their dependents.
• Advising the leadership on emergency psycho-social support management.
• Coordinating with UNDSS, Regional Staff Counsellor, agency counsellors, and Peer Support Volunteers to ensure adequate psycho-social support during emergencies.
• Contribute to effective global policies on staff mental health and well-being and perform administrative duties, including participating in regional meetings and other activities, completing reporting requirements, etc.
• Coordinating the collaboration with external mental health organizations in supporting mental health and wellbeing for UCO office.
• Travel to the Field Office in order to implement preventative and mitigating stress management activities for the staff, if security situation allows.
• Provide monthly reports to the management, Human Resources and to the Regional Staff Counsellor including online reporting of statistics.
• Provision of pre- and post-deployment briefings to staff deploying to all duty stations in Ukraine.

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

Education:

Advanced university degree in psychology, psychiatry, counselling, clinical social work or other related mental health professions.

University Certification or country-specific licensure authorizing the incumbent to deliver mental health services.

Experience:

Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in psychological counselling.

Additional training or experience in a broad range of related fields, such as alcohol/substance abuse, stress management, critical incident stress and cross-cultural communication would be an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English and local language is required. Knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

Core Values

• Commitment
• Diversity and inclusion
• Integrity

UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

Core competencies

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2) Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable women are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.