Staff Counsellor, P-4, Kabul, Afghanistan

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 134,636 USD and 173,585 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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 chance

More than 10 million children across Afghanistan are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Millions of children are at risk of acute malnutrition and more than 4 million remain out of school. Today, more than any other time, it is critical to ensure children in Afghanistan have a fair chance to survive and thrive.

Join UNICEF team in delivering lifesaving supplies and services for children and mothers. And, more importantly, to deliver hope for every child in Afghanistan.

How can you make a difference?

Due to the nature and location of their work, UNICEF Afghanistan County Office (ACO) staff are frequently exposed to high levels of day to day, cumulative stress, including those stressors related to their workload as well as the demands related to living and working in multicultural, often unstable and insecure environments. These have a debilitating impact on staff members' mental health and well-being, adversely impacting the efficiency of service delivery.

Reporting to the Country Office Representative, with the technical support of the Regional Staff Counsellor, the Staff Counsellor will develop and implement a mental health and well-being three-level intervention program for the UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office staff members and their dependents. It will focus on the interplay between the work environment and the individual and aim to improve organisational and work conditions while strengthening staff members' resilience and psychological flexibility.

1. The Staff Counsellor will provide the support and consultancy to UNICEF ACO 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.
• 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.

2. 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.
• Analysing data using statistical methods and applications to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.

3. 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 the treatment of psychiatric disorders primarily through referrals, including to the medical services division, and through guidance to supervisors and senior management, where appropriate.
• Identifying adequate local resources for referrals whenever necessary.
• 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.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in industrial/organisational psychology, occupational health psychology, counselling or related mental health profession. Additional training or certification in staff support and traumatic / critical incident stress as well as a broad range of related fields, such as Employee Assistance Program, alcohol/substance abuse, family counselling, coaching, stress management.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of national and especially international professional experience in staff support, human behavior and performance, learning and motivation; psychological research methods, assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders, cross-cultural communications and training, and related areas, preferably gained within the UN system or international development/humanitarian aid sector.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Analyzing [II]
• Applying Technical Expertise [II]
• Planning and Organizing [II]
• Formulating Strategies and Concept [II]
• Leading and Supervising [II]

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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 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:

Kindly note that this is a non-family duty station.

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

Employment is conditional upon receipt of medical clearance, any clearance required, the grant of a visa, and completion of any other pre-employment criteria that UNICEF may establish. Candidates may not be further considered or offer of employment may be withdrawn if these conditions are unlikely to be met before the date for commencement of service.