United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Executive Board ex

Hundred and sixty-fourth Session

164 EX/41 PARIS, 19 March 2002 Original: English

Item 7.4.1 of the provisional agenda

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM:

RECRUITMENT, MANAGEMENT AND RETENTION (JIU/REP/2000/7)

SUMMARY

In accordance with Article 11 of the Statute of the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), the Director-General transmits the above JIU report to the Executive Board for consideration, accompanied by his own comments and observations. The text of the report is annexed to this document.

Decision required: paragraph 13.

1. The report analyses the policies and practices in selected organizations of the system, including UNESCO, with regard to the recruitment and management of entry-level professionals, with a view to making recommendations as to ways to prepare and retain a cadre of dedicated and competent professionals for these organisations.

2. The Director-General found this report to be very useful and reviewed the recommendations with great attention.

3. As to Recommendation 1, which encourages organizations to make efforts to reduce the age of recruitment for professional posts, UNESCO has already taken measures by fixing a maximum age limit of 30 years of age for the Young Professional Programme (YPP). The average age of the professionals who are recruited under this Programme is 27 or 28, and that of professional staff on P-1/P-3 posts, outside the YPP and Associate Expert schemes, is 35.

4. The Director-General fully supports Recommendation 2, which points to the need for trends on separations of professional staff to be carefully monitored. As to Recommendation 2(a),

164 EX/41 – page 2

UNESCO already keeps data on separations for the purpose of calculating the turnover rate, which is very low. In 2003, the Bureau of Human Resources Management (HRM) plans to create and regularly update a booklet on “The State of UNESCO staff”, which will provide comprehensive information on all staff including trends analysis. With regard to Recommendation 2(b), the Director-General is of the view that it is indeed extremely useful for an agency to be aware of the causes of resignations, in particular as they affect junior professional staff, although the number of resignations in UNESCO is relatively low. In practice, a short exit interview will be introduced on a voluntary basis to capture relevant information. Concerned supervisors and/or Human Resources staff will be asked to report to HRM on a regular basis in this respect. The Director-General also finds it useful to get information on the reasons why candidates appointed to posts, or about to be appointed (at all levels), eventually turn down the offer, so as to draw lessons of such “unsuccessful recruitment” and propose appropriate corrective actions.

5. UNESCO is in the process of revising and streamlining the recruitment process with a view to shortening the time lag for recruitment, as recommended in Recommendation 3. One of the key measures that will be introduced is advance recruitment planning, whereby the recruitment process will be initiated well before the actual date of vacancy, with the objective of filling the post at the right time.

6. The Director-General welcomes Recommendation 4, which encourages further efforts to accelerate the placement of National Competitive Recruitment Examination (NCRE) candidates. In UNESCO, timely placement has sometimes been an issue for some young professionals and, to facilitate their placement, it has been decided to better focus the recruitment efforts by defining in advance with managers, the required skills and competencies based on identified upcoming vacancies in their Sectors/Bureaux.

7. Recommendation 5 concerns the organization of the examination in the context of the NCRE and the Director-General has no comments thereon.

8. The Director-General fully concurs with Recommendation 6. With regard to Recommendations 6(a) and (b), the UNESCO YPP has a designated focal point in HRM and a tailor-made orientation programme. With regard to the introduction of a mentoring programme contained in Recommendation 6(c), the Director-General finds it to be very pertinent and believes that it should function on a voluntary basis, whereby senior officers would commit some of their time and energy to assist junior colleagues to integrate into their new environment and advise them on career and other issues. Such mentoring programmes will be introduced in UNESCO in the context of the rotation scheme, to provide a meaningful support to staff when assigned in a new duty station.

9. The Director-General agrees with Recommendation 7, which encourages the introduction of study leave schemes in so far as they would apply to all staff members, and not just junior professionals. Indeed, given that UNESCO is a knowledge-based organization, the Director-General believes that learning should be promoted throughout a professional career and not just at the start of a career.

10. The Director-General fully supports Recommendation 8, which encourages opportunities for young professionals to be assigned both at Headquarters and in the field in the course of their first five or six years of service. This will be applied in UNESCO in the framework of the rotation policy under which junior professionals will be particularly encouraged to move to the field after a first assignment at Headquarters.

164 EX/41 – page 3

11. With regard to Recommendation 9, the Director-General fully agrees with the encouragement for managers to devote sufficient time and attention to the development of their junior staff, but believes that it should apply to all staff members.

12. Finally, the Director-General also agrees with Recommendation 10. Spouse employment being a key facet of the work-family agenda, the Director-General believes that barriers to spouse employment affect recruitment at all levels, and that actions to facilitate the employment of spouses should be pursued and intensified.

13. The Executive Board may wish to consider the following decision:

The Executive Board,

1. Having examined document 164 EX/41, containing the comments by the Director-General,

2. Thanks the Joint Inspection Unit for its report entitled “Young Professionals in selected Organizations of the United Nations System: Recruitment, Management and Retention” (JIU/REP/2000/7);

3. Takes note of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report and of the Director-General’s comments thereon;

4. Invites the Director-General to pursue his efforts to improve the policies and practices with regard to the recruitment and management of entry-level professionals, taking into account, as appropriate, the relevant recommendations of the Joint Inspection Unit.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN SELECTED ORGANIZATIONSOF THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM:

RECRUITMENT, MANAGEMENT AND RETENTION

Prepared by

Francesco Mezzalama

Joint Inspection Unit

Geneva2000

164 EX/41Annex

JIU/REP/2000/7

ANNEX

iii

CONTENTS

Paragraph Page

ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OBJECTIVES, CONCLUSIONSAND RECOMMENDATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6 1

II. SUCCESSION PLANNING: AN IMPERATIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-19 2

A. The need to rejuvenate the staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9 2

B. Obstacles to replacement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-19 3

III. POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR THERECRUITMENT OF YOUNG PROFESSIONALS. . . . . . . . . . . 20-43 6

A. The National Competitive Recruitment Examination. . . . . . . 20-27 6

B. Young Professional programmes and regular vacancymanagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-33 8

C. Comparative advantages and disadvantages ofthese various recruitment schemes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-43 9

IV. REDUCING THE EXPECTATION GAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44-60 11

A. Staff integration, induction and development. . . . . . . . . . . . 47-52 11

B. Career management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53-57 12

C. Changing the corporate culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58-60 13

V. CONDITIONS OF SERVICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61-76 15

A. The work-family agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64-69 15

B. Spouse employment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70-76 16

ANNEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

iv

ACRONYMS

ACC Administrative Committee on CoordinationAPO Associate Professional OfficersCCAQ(PER) Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions (Personnel

and General Administrative Questions)EU European UnionFAO Food and Agricultural Organization of the United NationsILO International Labour OrganizationICSC International Civil Service CommissionIMF International Monetary FundISCC Information Systems Coordination CommitteeJPO Junior Professional OfficerJIU Joint Inspection UnitMTP Management Training ProgrammeNCRE National Competitive Recruitment ExaminationNPO National Professional OfficerOECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentOHRM Office of Human Resources Management (United Nations)PAMS Participating Agencies Mobility SystemSOA Special Operational ApproachUN United NationsUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesUNICEF United Nations Children’s FundUNOG United Nations Office at GenevaWHO World Health OrganizationWFP World Food Programme

v

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OBJECTIVE, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

OBJECTIVETo compare and analyse policies and practices in selected organizations of the system with regard tothe recruitment and management of entry-level professionals, with a view to makingrecommendations as to ways to prepare and retain a cadre of dedicated and competent professionalsfor these organizations.

A. The demographic profile of staff in mostorganizations of the United Nations (UN) system,where up to half of the members of the secretariatsare due to retire during this decade, combined withevolving mandates and policies requiring new typesof skills not always available among the current staff,call for a rejuvenation of the human resources of thesecretariats and for careful succession planning. Anumber of statistical factors, however, hamper thisrejuvenation by limiting the net intake of youngerprofessionals. These factors include an increase inthe age at entry level and, in the case of the UnitedNations, a steady outflow of young professionalsthrough resignations. Data on separations, and inparticular resignations, are not available for allagencies, limiting opportunities to analyse andcompare trends.

Recommendation 1

Secretariats should undertake specific efforts toreduce the age at recruitment for all Professionalposts, and for P1 to P3 posts in particular. TheUnited Nations Secretariat may wish, for its part,to review the adequacy of the age limit1 presentlyimposed for NCRE (National CompetitiveRecruitment Examination) candidates (seeparagraphs 8 to 13).

Recommendation 2

Trends on separations of Professional staff in theUnited Nations system should be more carefullymonitored through :

(a) The inclusion by the ConsultativeCommittee on Administrative Questions(CCAQ (PER)) in its “PersonnelStatistics” annual publication of data onseparations of professional staff brokendown by grade and type of separation;

(b) The design of exit questionnaires, bySecretariats that have not yet institutedthem, to better identify causes ofresignations. Such questionnaires may becompleted or replaced by structured exitinterviews (see paragraphs 15 to 18).

B. The United Nations is the only organizationwhich recruits young professionals through nationalcompetitive recruitment examination, a secure andconfidential process which has a positive impact onthe quality of recruits but has proved rathercumbersome. Although significant progress has beenachieved in this respect, the main weakness of theNCRE still resides in the delays linked to theplacement of candidates featured on the roster.

C. The other organizations reviewed recruityoung professionals either through targeted programmes or regular vacancy management. Whilethey require significant investments from thesecretariats, Young Professional programmes haveproved to be, like the NCRE, useful tools forachieving more equitable geographical distributionand gender balance among professional staff, andthey can assist in building a sense of loyalty andsolidarity among a given generation of staff whichmay not exist otherwise. All these variousrecruitment systems, however, tend to involveprotracted and overly bureaucratic processes.

Recommendation 3

Secretariats of all organizations concerned shouldspeed up recruitment processes by imposing strictdeadlines for the review ofapplications by managers and the placement ofcandidates (see paragraphs 35 to 37).

Recommendation 4

Further efforts should be undertaken by theSecretariat to accelerate the placement ofsuccessful NCRE candidates, reduce the number

vi

of candidates presently on the roster, andoptimize the use of this roster, through:

(a) Strengthening linkages between humanresources planning, examinations andstaffing, which should not be conductedas separate operations but as anintegrated process;

(b) Submitting proposals to the GeneralAssembly to further contain the numberof candidates on the roster, such as time-limitations on its validity or the automaticsuspension of the examination inoccupational groups for which the rosterexceeds a predetermined number ofcandidates;

(c) Sharing the roster with otherorganizations, especially for commonoccupational fields (see paragraphs 23 to25).

Recommendation 5

The General Assembly may wish to call onMember States to cooperate more effectively inthe organization of the examination and, inparticular, in its publicity. The Secretary-General could also include in regular reports onhuman resources management examples of goodpractices in this regard (see paragraph 22).

D. Most young professionals enter the UnitedNations system with great expectations as to thenature of the tasks which they will be asked toaccomplish. However, in several cases, insufficientstructures for the integration, orientation anddevelopment of staff restrict their ability to make asignificant contribution to the work of theirorganizations, leading to rapid disenchantment. Limited lateral and upward mobility, as well as ageneral failure of management to provide enoughsupport to young professionals and attention to theirconcerns and initiatives, can also lead to frustrationsand separations.

Recommendation 6

Secretariats that have not done so should set upstructures to assist with the successful integrationof young professionals during their first monthsthrough:

(a) Clearly identifying focal points inPersonnel/human resources services or

substantive departments to assist new recruits with all practical problems;

(b) Designing appropriate orientation coursesfor young professionals. Such coursescould be organized jointly with thesupport of the United Nations StaffCollege;

(c) Instituting mentoring programmes

whereby more senior officers can adviseyoung professionals on substantive andcareer issues (see paragraphs 47 to 50 andparagraph 52).

Recommendation 7

Secretariats of organizations concerned shouldoffer the opportunity to junior professional staffmembers to pursue studies and research in fieldsof relevance to their work by making themeligible sooner for study leave or by institutingnew part-time study schemes (see paragraph 51).

Recommendation 8

Secretariats of organizations concerned shouldincrease opportunities for young professionals tobe assigned both at Headquarters and in the fieldin the course of their first five or six years. TheSecretariat of the United Nations, in particular,should further improve career development foryoung professionals. In due course, it shouldassess the impact of its Managed ReassignmentProgramme to ensure that it facilitates mobilitynot only between departments but also betweenduty stations and that it contributes to upward aswell as lateral mobility (see paragraphs 53 to 57).

Recommendation 9

Managers in organizations concerned shoulddevote sufficient time and attention to thedevelopment of their junior staff. Appraisal of the way in which they discharge thisresponsibility should be an integral part of their performance evaluation (see paragraphs 58 and59).

E. While job satisfaction is undoubtedly themost compelling factor in keeping young staffmembers motivated, progress on “work-life” or“work-family” issues, including enhanced flexibilityin the organization of working time and in theworkplace, can contribute to creating a supportivework environment for high-calibre employees with

vii

family responsibilities. Interviews conducted for thepreparation of the report indicate that of all family-support issues, spouse employment may be the mostcritical in retaining young professional staff. Littleprogress has been achieved in recent years asorganizations of the common system, unlike otherinternational organizations, still fail to providesignificant support to their staff in this area.

Recommendation 10

Efforts to facilitate spouse employment should beundertaken as follows:

(a) Secretariats in major duty stations shouldset up joint family-career transitionprogrammes;

(b) Governing bodies of organizations thatstill forbid spouse employment shouldrescind this restriction by amendingrelevant staff regulations;

(c) The General Assembly should renew itscall to Governments in host countries toconsider granting work permits forspouses accompanying staff members,and monitor the implementation ofrelevant resolutions (see paragraphs 70to 76).

1

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The rapid ageing of the staff in mostorganizations of the United Nations system,especially staff in the professional category, has beenthe cause of debate for a number of years, as theseorganizations ponder ways to ensure that the largenumbers of retirements scheduled for the next fewyears are matched by an intake of younger staff withappropriate skills. However, this intake, and theretention of performing staff, are by no meansguaranteed, as the United Nations system appears tobe losing part of its appeal as employer. In 1998, theSecretary-General noted that for the first time inUnited Nations history, there were more resignationsthan retirements, and that most of these resignationswere occurring at the P2 and P3 levels. It is, he said,as if “having glimpsed the future, those peopledecided to try their luck elsewhere”.2 A few monthslater, the General Assembly also expressed concernat the growing number of resignations of staff in theProfessional category, and requested the Secretary-General to carry out a study to ascertain the cause ofsuch separations.3

2. A higher turnover of staff by itself is notnecessarily a negative evolution, as civil serviceseverywhere want to become more permeable and asthe notion of lifetime careers in single organizationsis increasingly challenged. It also has to berecognized that different agencies operate with different mandates and constraints and have,therefore, different needs in terms of humanresources. However, a steady outflow of youngprofessionals from the system could become a seriousproblem as scores of senior officers leave onretirement. Although specialized agencies do notappear to suffer from retention problems of the samemagnitude as the United Nations, the trend observedat the United Nations may be a harbinger of futuredifficulties in the entire system. At stake is not somuch the latter’s sustained ability to attract largenumbers of applicants, as the need to ensure thatthese applicants have the right skills, feel motivatedand that the best elements among them remain toserve United Nations organizations and assist them infilling their mandates.

3. The Joint Inspection Unit, therefore, decidedto include this report in its work programme for2000, with the hope that it would contribute to thereflection process already engaged in many quarters

on these issues by providing an inter-agencyperspective and allowing for a comparative analysisof the situation across the system as well as for thesharing of best practices. After a preliminary reviewof existing documentation, the Inspector assessed thatsuch a comparison would only be meaningful if itconcerned organizations with a certain “criticalmass” of staff, smaller organizations beingconfronted with different types of problems in thefield of human resources management. Enquiriesand research, therefore, were limited to the UnitedNations, as well as its funds and programmes and specialized agencies with a staff of more than twothousand.4

4. In this context, after reviewing thedemographic situation of staff in large organizationsof the United Nations system, the report looks atstatistical factors which are impeding theirrejuvenation. It then draws a comparison betweenthe various ways in which organizations recruityoung professionals, as well as the ways in whichthey manage the careers of these young professionalsonce they are on board, with a special emphasis onthe issues of motivation, mentoring, training,mobility and supervision. Finally, issues oftendescribed as “work-life issues”, which are not strictlyrelated to the immediate professional environment ofyoung professionals but may have a bearing on theability of organizations to retain and motivate them,are discussed.

5. It should be made clear that for the purposeof this report, the Joint Inspection Unit understandsthe term “young professionals” to mean professionalstaff members at the P1, P2 or P3 levels (alsoreferred to as “entry levels”), occupying budgetedposts. They do not include staff sponsored by theirrespective governments and employed byorganizations as Junior Professional Officers (JPOs),Associate Experts or Associate Professional Officersalthough, as described below, JPOs and AssociateExperts are sometimes recruited as regular staffmembers after the completion of their initialassignments.

6. The Inspector who coordinated thepreparation of this report wishes to extend hisappreciation to all those who assisted him in thisexercise.

2

II. SUCCESSION PLANNING: AN IMPERATIVE

A. The need to rejuvenate the staff

7. The demographic profile of staff in mostorganizations of the United Nations system, where upto half of the members of the secretariats is due toretire during this decade, combined with evolving

mandates and policies requiring new types of skillsnot always available among the staff, call for arejuvenation of the human resources of theSecretariats and for careful succession planning.

Figure 1: Age distribution of professional staff in selected organizations of the UN system (in percentage)

Sources: UN - Composition of the Secretariat, A/53/375 FAO - Statistics provided by Personnel Division, September 2000

UNDP - Bureau of Management, Human Resources Statistics, April 1999UNESCO - Statistical Overview of UNESCO staff as of 1/11/99, PER/HRD/PLNWHO - Human resources: annual report, EB 105/14 Add.1UNHCR - Statistics provided by Human Resources Service, 2000WFP - Statistics provided by Human Resources Division, August 2000

8. Figure 1 above illustrates the incidence of ageing of staff in most United Nations organizations,with the greatest number of professional staff in the

40-59 brackets, and especially in the 50-59 bracket. As a result, the average age in most organizationshas risen steadily, to reach a figure of between 45

3

and 50, and large numbers of staff members at theprofessional and above levels are expected to retire

over the next decade (see table 1 below for selectedstatistics).

Table 1: Age of professional staff and scheduled retirements

UNESCO FAO UNICEF WHO ILO UNHCR WFP UN

Average age ofprofessional

staff48.6 48.5 45

48.5 48 44.643.8 46

Average age ofP2 staff

-- 40.13 36 40.2 33 34.8 37.9 38.5*

Percentage ofprofessional

staff scheduledto retire in next

5 years

31.5% 28% 8% 28.5% -- 8.3% 7.2% 19.4 %**

In next 10 years -- 47% 27% 52.7% 51% 25.2% 22% --

Note: *This figure includes all P2s, whether they are recruited through the NCRE or other means, or promotedfrom the General Service category through competitive examinations.**This figure relates to the percentage of staff on posts subject to geographical distribution who will retireby the end of 2003. The Secretariat of the United Nations also indicates that a total of 400 staff will beretiring each year for the next five years.

Sources: UN - Composition of the Secretariat, A/54/279 and statistics provided by OHRM, 2000UNESCO - Statistical overview of UNESCO staff as of 1/11/99, PER/HRD/PLNUNICEF- Statistics provided by the Division of Human Resources, 2000FAO - Statistics provided by Personnel Division, 2000WHO - Human resources: annual report, EB 105/14 Add.1 and statistics provided by General

ManagementILO - Statistics provided by Human Resources Development Department, 2000UNHCR - Statistics provided by Human Resources Service, 2000

WFP - Statistics provided by Human Resources Division, 2000

9. The large numbers of scheduled retirementsshould not only be seen as an opportunity to cutdown on workforces and budgets, as is often the case,but mostly as a chance for organizations to acquire ayounger staff with a more modern organizationalculture and to ensure an influx of the expertknowledge which they are at present lacking inseveral emerging fields such as informationmanagement and technology, governance, sustainabledevelopment and capacity-building. The changeswhich have occurred on the international stage overthe last ten years, competition from various sourcesincluding non-governmental organizations and fast-evolving management techniques call for a new staffprofile, better aligned with new organizational needs. Entry-level professionals are those most likely tomeet these needs and fill an increasing competencygap.

B. Obstacles to replacement

10. There are several factors, however, whichhamper this rejuvenation by limiting the intake ofyounger professionals. In particular, overall statisticsfor the United Nations system show that 21 per centof total appointments are made at the P1 to P2 levelswhile a significant proportion of the workforcecontinues to be appointed at the P4 and higher levels. More than 50 per cent of new staff members,therefore, are appointed at over 40 years of age. 5 Infact, in some organizations, P3 and P4s havegradually become the normal entry-level posts, to thedetriment of P1 and P2s. This is partly due tofinancial reasons linked to the insufficientcompetitiveness of salaries offered at the lowestlevels of the professional scale.

4

11. Likewise, a recent report by the UnitedNations Secretariat showed that one significant factorin the ageing of the staff is the relative high age at theentry level, linked to the steady rise in the age atrecruitment. The report states that since1988, theaverage age at which professional staff enter theOrganization has risen by five years.6 Studies ofnational public administrations show that this trendis not limited to the United Nations and that in manycountries, the age at which people join the civilservice is increasing. This is not only because peopleare staying in school longer, but because the requisitequalifications have also become stricter. The studywarns that this results in a trend towards over-qualification of new recruits, and creates a gapbetween the level of recruiting and the jobs on offer,which can ultimately pose personnel managementproblems.7 Chapter IV below analyses at some lengththis “expectation gap” at the United Nations andother organizations of the system.

12. One way to reduce this gap, restore asatisfactory match between the expectations ofrecruits and the reality of their first assignments, andensure a lowering of the age of the staff would be toundertake conscious efforts to reduce the age atrecruitment, especially for P1 to P3 posts. Mostdedicated recruitment programmes for juniorprofessional positions described in the next chapteralready impose age limits beyond which candidatescannot apply. Candidates to the UNESCO YoungProfessionals Programme, for instance, must be 30years or younger at the time of their application,while candidates to the equivalent programme at ILOmust be less than 32. Candidates to the UnitedNations NCRE, for their part, must be 32 or less atthe time that they take the examination for P2 posts,and 39 or less for P3 posts.

13. Thanks to these limits, the age for youngprofessional recruits at UNESCO is normally 27 or28, while the age of successful NCRE candidates atthe time of placement is, on average, 30 years for P2sand 36 for P3s. It should be noted, however, that anew United Nations recruit aged 30 will

probably have several years of professionalexperience, and expect to be assigned tasks andresponsibilities of a nature and level notcorresponding to the reality of most P2 posts in theSecretariat, which are “entry-level posts not normallyrequiring any extensive experience”.8 The Office ofHuman Resources Management (OHRM) argues thatdecreasing the age limit would result in lowering thequality of the staff intake. The Inspector wouldrecommend, however, that a study be conducted byOHRM to identify the number of years ofprofessional experience held on average by new P2sat the time of their placement, in order to ascertainwhether or not over-qualification is one of the factorsleading to dissatisfaction and resignations. The studycould include a comparative review of the age ofprofessionals and their qualifications at the time oftheir placement in entry-level posts of similarcategories in a selected number of national civilservices.

14. In addition, the grade structure ofprofessional staff is particularly top-heavy in someorganizations, as shown in table 2. This situation,which also contributes to the ageing of their staff,calls for a review of all posts and functions in theseorganizations to identify opportunities for down-grading posts.

15. Another factor which is hindering therejuvenation of staff in organizations of the UnitedNations system is the fact that young professionalsseem to be the ones most inclined to leave theseorganizations. The situation is of particular concernat the United Nations, where between 1 July 1998and 30 June 1999, more staff resigned than retired(298 resignations, of which 12 were of directors and113 of professionals, as opposed to 176 retirements). A third of the resignations in the professionalcategory were by staff at the P2 level (although mostof these P2s were staff on fixed-term contracts orappointments of limited duration).9 For the calendaryear of 1999, however, there were fewer resignationsamong P2s and P3s, who together represented 35 percent of all professional resignations.

5

Table 2. Grade structure of international professional staff(Percentage of all staff at the professional and above levels)

UN FAO UNDP UNHCR UNICEF ILO WHO UNESCO

P1 to P3 39.3 28 12.6 56.5 36.6 21 18.4 42.7

P4 to P5 47.6 57 58 38.0 55.9 63 66.6 41

D1 to D2 11.4 15 27.9 5.5 7.1 13 14.9 14

Note: UNICEF notes that numbers of international professional staff do not necessarily reflect its real grade structure, as it also relies heavily on National Professional Officers (NPOs). UNICEF presently employs105 NPOs at the NO-A level (equivalent to P1) and 374 at the NO-B level (equivalent to P2).

Sources: UN - Composition of the Secretariat, A/54/279UNESCO - Statistical overview of UNESCO’s staff as of 1/11/99, PER/HRD/PLNUNICEF - Statistics provided by the Division of Human Resources, 2000FAO - Statistics provided by Personnel Division, 2000WHO - Statistics provided by Human Resources Services, August 2000UNDP - Bureau of Management, Human Resources Statistics, April 1999ILO - Composition and structure of the staff, GB.277/PFA/8UNHCR - Statistics provided by Human Resources Service, 2000

16. Of all the staff recruited at the P2 levelthrough the NCRE since its inception 26 years ago,22.6 per cent have since resigned, the great majorityof them during the first five years of their service,with significant departures, in particular, during thesecond and third years of service. Of special concernis the fact that among certain nationalities, up to athird and even sometimes half of all NCREsuccessful candidates have resigned from the UnitedNations.

17. Since 1999, OHRM has instituted exitquestionnaires for staff separating from theOrganization, a practice which the Inspector sees ashelpful in identifying the specific reasons for theseseparations, and which could usefully be replicated inthose agencies which have not yet adopted it. Therate of return for these questionnaires, however, hasso far been very low, although they are supposed tobe mandatory. It may be more effective, therefore, tocomplement or replace these questionnaires bystructured exit interviews.

18. Numbers of separations broken down byprofessional grade are not available for all agenciesand funds, impeding meaningful comparativeanalysis. It would be useful for CCAQ (PER) toinclude data on separations of professional staffbroken down by grade and type of separation in itsannual publication on “Personnel Statistics”. Somestatistics were made available to the Inspector during

or after interviews for the report. UNICEF and WFPthus indicate that resignations at the P1 to P3 levelsaccount for 47 per cent and 69.4 per cent respectivelyof all resignations by international professionals. FAO, for its part, states that resignations byprofessionals at the P1 to P3 levels have represented,over the course of the last four years, 24.6 per cent ofall resignations by staff at the professional or abovelevels. ILO indicates that resignations of P1 to P3staff represent 34 per cent of all resignations amongprofessional staff. While statistics on separations atUNDP have not been made available to theInspector, an internal working paper drafted in 1999by young and new professionals to “improverecruitment and staffing practices in UNDP” statedthat every year, the organization lost a large numberof highly qualified and motivated youngprofessionals, especially women, who used theiracquired knowledge and skills to move on to otherorganizations.10

19. As stated in the introduction to this report,separations in themselves are not necessarily negativeand are a normal part of the evolution oforganizations seeking to become more permeable. Itis nevertheless important to monitor trends in thisrespect and to ensure that the organizations of theUnited Nations system remain able to integrate,develop and retain promising staff to succeed theirpresent leadership.

6

III.POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

A. The National Competitive RecruitmentExamination

20. Two Joint Inspection Unit reports issuedrespectively in 1984 and 1995 described at somelength the background for the organization ofnational competitive recruitment examinations conducted yearly by the United Nations, as well asthe methodology followed for these examinations,issues on which this report does not need to comeback.11 Twenty years after its inception, thestrengths and weaknesses of the NCRE can bedescribed as follows:

Strengths

21. First, the system has the strong backing ofMember States, who have, year after year, reaffirmedthat it is a useful tool for selecting the best-qualifiedcandidates from inadequately represented countries.12

In 2001, the examination will be administered in atleast 38 countries (list reproduced in the annex to thisreport). Second, it is, according to OHRM, relatively cost-competitive. Table 3 shows that in1999, the estimated cost per successful candidate hasdropped to US$ 7,828, partly as a result ofsimplification of processes and economies of scale.This is cheaper, for instance, than resorting toheadhunters, who normally charge a fee equivalent to20 or 30 per cent of the recruit’s annual salary. Thiscost may be further reduced through the organizationof regional competitive examinations, an optionsuggested in JIU/REP/95/1 (Part I) but which,apparently, has never been seriously explored. Thetable also shows a significant increase in the numberof candidates, which reached more than 8,700 peoplein 1999 for P2 and P3 posts. The mere fact that themachinery has been able to absorb such an increasein the number of candidates is evidence of theorganizational capacity of the examinations sectionof OHRM. Third, the NCRE is a secure,confidential and fair process, which guarantees thatthe selection is not subject to influence and nepotism,and is, therefore, defensible (there has only been alimited number of appeals over the years). Finally,it has contributed to improving gender balance inposts subject to geographical distribution. Of 123appointments made under the desirable rangesbetween 1 July 1998 and 30 June 2000, 47 weresuccessful NCRE candidates. Of these 47appointees, 25 were women (or 53.2 per

cent). As a result, the representation of women at theP2 and P3 levels (47.5 per cent and 44 per centrespectively in 1999) is higher than for allprofessional level posts (38.1 per cent at the samedate).13

Need for improvement

22. On the other hand, the responsiveness of theNCRE system leaves a great deal to be desired. Theprocess is lengthy and cumbersome, involving no lessthan ten steps from the moment that the writtenpapers are collected to the placement of candidateson the roster, and lasting one whole year. OHRMhas recently instituted a number of changes whichshould simplify and accelerate the process, but itsvery nature will make it hard to compress further. Upstream, another difficulty is linked to the unevenquality of the cooperation received from MemberStates in the organization of examinations, andparticularly in publicizing them. The limitedresources available to OHRM for this purpose makeit impossible to organize missions to promote andadvertise the examinations.

23. The greatest weakness of the NCRE,however, resides in the later stages of the process,most particularly in the placement of candidates. Until now, the NCRE programme decisions were notbased on an analysis of organizational needs andwere not linked to workforce planning. Candidateswere identified regardless of actual needs for staff,which resulted in great delays in placement and theincrease in candidates on the roster. Some were nolonger available when they were finally called. Atthe beginning of 1999, and before inclusion of the1998 successful candidates, the list included morethan 200 people, some of whom had taken theexamination as early as 1991. This situation ledMember States to call on the Secretary-General toadapt the number of occupational groups selected forexaminations to the requirements of theOrganization. It also requested him to ensure thatcandidates are placed in a timely fashion and thatspecial efforts are made to recruit candidates from theroster until it is cleared.14 Determined endeavoursundertaken by OHRM in the past year and a half toupdate the roster (by deleting the names of those whowere no longer interested or available) and to placecandidates, have led to a significant improvement inthis area, with only 107 candidates remaining on theroster by August 2000.

7

Table 3: Number of candidates and cost of examination, NCRE 1996 to 1999

Number of candidates

ExamYear

Type ofexam

AppliedConvokedto exam

Sat forwritten

part

Recom-mended

Placed

Averagecost per

successfulcandidate

(US$)

NCRE-P2 2 462 691 412 36 251996

NCRE-P3 659 110 86 16 913 695

NCRE-P2 2 726 726 502 45 271997

NCRE-P3 520 97 71 16 53 540

NCRE-P2 5 814 1 274 768 49 291998

NCRE-P3 435 68 41 10 712 280

NCRE-P2 8 214 2 247 1 402 107 481999

NCRE-P3 511 63 51 2 17 828

Total NCRE-P2(1996 to 1999)

19 2164 938

(26% ofapplicants)

3 084237

(4.8% ofconvoked)

129(54.43% of

recommended)

Total NCRE-P3(1996 to 1999)

2 125338

(16% ofapplicants)

24944

(13.02% ofconvoked)

22(50% of

recommended)

Source : OHRM data

24. OHRM expects that structural improvementsbrought to the system, such as a better adequacybetween the specialized fields in which theexamination is offered and actual staff needs, as wellas the computerization of the roster and regularcommunications between OHRM and requestingdepartments, will prevent the roster from increasingagain to similar numbers in the future. The Inspectorrecommends, however, that mechanisms should bedeveloped to automatically prevent the recurrence ofthis serious problem. This could include, aspreviously suggested by OHRM, limiting the validityof the roster to one year, which would have the addedadvantage of prompting managers to speed up theirselection for fear of “missing out” on a particularlyinteresting candidate. Such a limit could not, ofcourse, apply retroactively to those candidates whotook the examinations in years past, and newcandidates would need to be clearly informed clearlyof this policy.

25. Another possibility would be to suspendexaminations in occupational groups in which theroster exceeds a fixed number of candidates, a

practice already applied by OHRM and which couldbe institutionalized. In addition, OHRM may want toconsider the possibility of sharing the roster withother organizations of the system which may find ituseful to identify potential candidates from non-represented or under-represented countries or withspecific skills. CCAQ (PER) could study moregeneral mechanisms for the joint identification ofcandidates for occupational fields common to allmajor organizations of the system.

26. As a result of the delays described above,the United Nations is certainly losing some of thebest qualified candidates who may accept offers fromother employers. OHRM points out that it also losessome very good candidates because of the policyestablished by the General Assembly in 1953 thatpersons in permanent resident status in host countriesare ineligible for appointment as internationallyrecruited staff members unless they are prepared tochange to a non-immigrant visa status. The policywas adopted because it was considered that “adecision to remain in permanent resident status mayweaken the ties with the country of nationality”.15

8

27. The JIU Report on CompetitiveExaminations in the United Nations mentioned abovespoke enthusiastically of the “superiority of thenational competitive examination method” andstressed that “the quality of the successful candidatesrecruited has been outstanding”. It envisaged,therefore, that once the system had been fully appliedin the United Nations, it could be usefully extendednot only to the major programmes affiliated to theUnited Nations, such as UNDP, UNICEF, WFP orUNHCR, but also to other organizations in theUnited Nations system.16 In the light of theexperience gained in the last fifteen years, theInspector shares his predecessor’s overall positiveassessment of the impact of the NCRE on the qualityof recruits. Nevertheless, he would not necessarilyadvocate that this rather cumbersome process bereplicated in other organizations which do not havethe same constraints or mandates as the UnitedNations.

B. Young Professionals programmes andregular vacancy management

28. Many large international organizationsoutside the common system operate well-establishedYoung or Junior Professional programmes. Amongthem, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), theWorld Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation in Europe (OECD), the Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank and the Asian Development Bankall run specific programmes to recruit professionalsat the entry level soon after the completion of theirgraduate studies. These programmes are seen as the“golden gate of entry” and starting points for careersin these organizations. The three followingorganizations in the United Nations system operateprogrammes along the same lines.

29. A Young Professionals programme hasexisted at ILO since 1982, although until now it hasnot really been a separate career developmentprogramme but rather a simplified recruitmentprocess through which one third of the vacantprofessional level posts was supposed to be filledeach year. However, the secretariat recentlyannounced a “major new initiative”, whereby it willnow commit itself to the annual recruitment ofaround ten young professionals to participate in astructured five-year training and development YoungProfessionals programme. The programme will beaimed at young people with very high potential,primarily from under-represented countries andbiased towards young women.17 A university degree(preferably at the master’s or doctoral levels) will bea requirement, but work experience, although“desirable”, will not be. The yearly process will start

in October with prospection missions andadvertisements. After reviewing applications,approximately 24 candidates will be invited to gothrough an ILO Assessment Centre, a process whichwill include being interviewed by senior officials andsubmitting written papers. Appointment offers willbe made in August or September of each year to theten best performing candidates and they will all beexpected to join the Programme in January of thefollowing year.

30. The UNESCO Young Professionalprogramme was reactivated in 1989 and has sinceallowed the recruitment of 69 young professionals,all from non-represented or under-represented States. Recruitment campaigns are launched every yearthrough the national commissions of UNESCO, andseveral hundred candidates normally send inapplications including essay-type questions. Candidates must hold a university degree. The bestamong them are brought to headquarters for languageexaminations and interviews which focus on generalquestions and problem-solving skills. The objectivesof the programme are threefold: to rejuvenate thesecretariat, to improve gender balance and to ensuremore equitable geographic distribution amongprofessionals. During their first year, the cost ofwhich is charged to the programme, youngprofessionals benefit from on-the-job experience andan intensive tailor-made training programme. Afterone year, their performance is assessed prior to theirbeing assigned to a regular post. UNESCO nowhopes to recruit ten young professionals each yearthrough the programme.

31. UNDP established a Management TrainingProgramme (MTP) in 1988 to recruit new staff at theprofessional level from among JPOs, national staff incountry offices and external applicants. The MTPwas described to the Inspector as a highlycompetitive screening process through whichbetween 10 and 20 candidates were recruited eachyear. Because of post cuts, however, it has notoperated since 1996, and has been held only twicesince 1993. In any case, the Programme differs fromthe Young Professional programmes described abovein that its participants were mostly selected from apool of internal candidates based on therecommendation of the immediate supervisor, whichmight have led to insufficient transparency. TheAdministrator has now announced that theprogramme will be resumed, and it is expected thatsome 20 young people will be identified in 2000,from a larger pool of applicants. Eligibilityrequirements will include a master’s degree plus atleast five years work experience.

9

32. It should be noted that none of the threeprogrammes mentioned above are the exclusiverecruitment avenue for entry-level professionals inthe organizations concerned. Some P2 posts are alsosometimes filled through regular vacancymanagement. A number of other agencies (includingWHO, UNHCR, FAO and UNICEF) recruit all theiryoung staff through regular vacancy management, byadvertising vacant posts and applying their normalselection processes for recruitment at the professionallevels. In UNICEF, for instance, JPOs, NPOs andGeneral Service Staff may apply to any post which isadvertised internally and for which they considerthemselves suitably qualified. It should be noted,however, that FAO has recently decided to establish,as part of its human resources management strategy,a targeted recruitment programme, which should beimplemented within the next two years.

33. WFP, for its part, has instituted since the endof 1998 a new system whereby it maintains rosters ofqualified candidates, from which managers mustrecruit when vacancies occur. There are currently tensuch rosters, some of which are divided into sub-rosters. The professional rosters cover a range of 17different profiles. Specific vacancy announcementsare only issued if there is no profile from a roster orif no suitable candidate can be identified from theroster, which is an exception.

C. Comparative advantages and disadvantagesof these various recruitment schemes

34. It was pointed out to the Inspector thattargeted recruitment programmes present the risk ofcreating unrealistic expectations among youngprofessionals in terms of careers, and tend to churnout recruits with general skills, regardless of thespecific needs of posts actually available. This canlead to delays or difficulties in placement such asthose described above for the NCRE, delays whichhave also occurred to a certain extent with the MTPat UNDP (it took nearly two years to place all the 14candidates recruited through the MTP in 1996). InUNESCO, it has also been increasingly difficult toidentify suitable posts for graduates of the YoungProfessionals programme, due to budgetaryconstraints.

35. Dedicated programmes also tend to be tied tospecific schedules and may not be flexible enoughfor organizations which need to recruit in very short

time-frames to deal with emergencies. UNHCR thusindicated that the average time which elapsed, in1999, between the posting of a vacancyannouncement and the actual job offer was 76 daysfor posts filled externally.

36. In most agencies, however, the recruitmentprocess through vacancy management is as lengthy asthat involved in a Young Professional programme. WHO, for instance, indicated that the whole process,from the issuance of the vacancy announcement tothe actual job offer took, on average, six to eightmonths. In FAO, it takes on average 250processing days from the issuance of a vacancyannouncement to the final selection of the candidateby the Director-General. In ILO, 11 monthsnormally elapse between the time that the HumanResources Development Department is informed ofthe vacancy and the time that the post is actuallyfilled. In many cases, the most extensive delaysoccur at the stage of selection by line managers. While these delays may be accepted by internalcandidates as unavoidable bureaucratic occurrences,they are certainly discouraging to external candidates,especially young ones, and risk repelling the bestamong them. The Inspector recommends, therefore,that Human Resources or Personnel Departmentsimpose stricter deadlines on managers for theirreview of applications.

37. The Inspector also noted the significantprogress which WFP said it had achieved in reducingthe time needed for the recruitment process (from thedate the post was authorized for external recruitmentto the date that the selected person entered on duty),from an average of 7.5 to 9.5 months under its formersystem of vacancy announcements to a current 3.5 to5 months under the new roster system described inparagraph 33 above.

38. Young Professional programmes andcompetitive examinations, on the other hand, canhelp organizations reduce the age at recruitmentthrough the age limits imposed on applicants, asdiscussed in chapter II. They can also ensure thatentry-level positions are genuinely used for the intakeof young professionals rather than as an end-of-careerreward for General Service Staff, which is the case insome organizations. In addition, by being mostlyreserved for candidates from non-represented andunder-represented countries, they are very usefultools for achieving more equitable geographicaldistribution among professional staff.

10

39. Operating Young Professionals programmesmay also assist agencies, funds and programmesavoid an excessive reliance on JPOs and AssociateExperts as the main pool of candidates for posts atthe P2 and P3 levels. JPO, Associate Expert orAssociate Professional Officer (APO) programmesare normally intended to provide organizations withspecialized expertise financed by a limited number ofMember States wishing to contribute to technicalcooperation actions. Currently, at UNICEF, 45 percent of P2 posts are filled by JPOs, although theorganization notes that NPOs, mostly fromdeveloping countries, are also a “good source for therecruitment of international professionals”. UNHCRalso relies heavily on JPOs. In the past five years, ithas recruited 185 of them, as compared to 108 otherstaff recruited at the P1, P2 or P3 levels.

40. Although the programmes have functionedsatisfactorily for many years, ensuring an influx ofmuch-needed knowledge and skills into beneficiaryorganizations, and although it is natural for the latterto attempt to retain the best and most motivatedamong these young experts, the programmes werenever meant to act as an avenue of recruitment.However, there have, on occasions, been deviations,with Member States asking that their experts bestationed at headquarters and assigned core-typefunctions, thinking that they stood a better chance ofbeing ultimately recruited as staff members. Thus,40 per cent of the WHO APOs are posted atheadquarters, while 50 per cent of the UNESCOAssociate Experts stay in Paris. This could lead,potentially, to distortions in geographical distributionof professional staff, as well as imbalances inselection criteria and standards, as these experts areselected originally by their governments and not bythe receiving organizations. At present, however, theproportion of JPOs or Associate Experts who actuallystay on as staff after the completion of theirassignment is generally small.

41. Recruitment through a specific programmecan limit the tendency observed in a number oforganizations to use short-term or consultantcontracts, or special service agreements, to “try out”young staff before converting them to fixed-termcontracts, sometimes bypassing normal selectionprocesses and often maintaining such staff in veryprecarious professional situations. This trend is adeviation from the intended purpose of short-term

contracts or special service agreements, which arenormally used to make resources available forpunctual, non-recurrent and “non-core” functions.

42. At a time when a number of organizationsare trying to define the basic skills, attributes andbehaviours required to effectively discharge corefunctions, it may be easier to integrate a competency-based approach to recruitment through YoungProfessional programmes or yearly competitiveexaminations. This approach would ensure thatnewly recruited staff all possess or can acquire suchessential competencies. This does not mean that thesestaff would be overly homogenous nor that theyshould be composed mostly of “generalists”. Someagencies with rather technical mandates have arguedthat these “generic” recruitment systems would notbe suited to their activities. Young Professionalprogrammes can actually be tailored to recruitcandidates with specialized knowledge and technicalskills. They may also be able to build a sense ofloyalty, solidarity and belonging within a givengeneration of staff which may not exist otherwise. On the other hand, it has to be recognized that thedevelopment and implementation of targetedrecruitment and integration programmes for YoungProfessionals require significant investments fromthe secretariats.

43. In fact, the different policies described abovecorrespond (or should correspond) to distinctapproaches to the very concepts of career andinternational civil service. Those organizationswhich opt for a high turnover and which no longerbelieve in the notion of a long-term career tend tofavour flexible recruitment arrangements whichmatch candidates with the specific requirements ofindividual posts. Those which still believe indeveloping a core of career civil servants, and inbuilding on institutional memory, prefer to recruityoung professionals through a specific programmeand to develop a cadre of leaders with recognizedcompetencies. The General Assembly, for its part,has underlined the importance of the concept ofcareer service for staff members performingcontinuing core functions.18 Neither approach needsto be mutually exclusive, and both can probably bereconciled, but the nature and number of postsrelated to these core functions need to be clearlyidentified and recruitment systems adaptedaccordingly.

11

IV. REDUCING THE EXPECTATION GAP

44. Once on board, young professionals shouldbe enticed to produce to the maximum of theirabilities, and the skills for which they have beenselected should be fully utilized. Most enter theUnited Nations system with great expectations as tothe nature of the work which they will be asked toaccomplish. Symptomatically, young professionalsat UNDP cite among their expectations thefollowing:- “The opportunity to explore and reach theirprofessional limits in an organization that fostersinitiative and diversity;”- “To play a meaningful role in managing the present,and creating the future, of UNDP.”19

45. These expectations are legitimate. A recentstudy of national public administrations has shownthat high-performing career public-sector executivescan usually obtain higher salaries by pursuing privatesector employment. For most of them, the principalreason they choose to join and stay with the publicsector is the social significance and challengingnature of the work performed by governmentalinstitutions. The study highlights, therefore, thatsince it is unlikely that the public sector will ever beable to fully compete with the private sector oncompensation alone, it is essential that it should makefull use of its major competitive advantage in thisarea - the very way it performs. The studyrecommends that administrations should “build onthe ethos of public service” and that in recruiting,developing, and nurturing future leaders, they shouldconsciously attempt to give promising staffopportunities to test and develop leadership skills byworking on the most complex and important publicsector problems.20

46. Interviews held during the course ofpreparation of this report, however, showed thatamong the most important factors leading tofrustration and demotivation, and eventually toseparations, were the perceived lack of opportunityoffered to young professionals in the system to makea significant contribution to the work of theirorganizations and a certain “devaluation” of the staffin general. This trend is a serious cause for concernand in order to reverse it, new human resourcesstrategies should be adopted and implemented thatrecognize that the skills, abilities and motivation ofstaff are integral to the delivery of the highest qualityproducts and services.21

A. Staff integration, induction and development

47. Efforts should first be undertaken to developsupport structures which will assist young recruits inthe very first stages of their integration. Theimportance of such structures should not beunderestimated, as their absence may have a negativeimpact on the perception which new staff membershave of their employer and of the professionalenvironment in which they are entering, as well as ontheir ability to perform rapidly.

48. Candidates recruited by the United Nationsthrough the NCRE, for instance, and assigned toHeadquarters in New York, are provided with veryscant information on practical issues linked to theirsettling in that city. They should receive a fullpackage of information on such issues, as well as onfirst administrative steps which they will have toundertake at the United Nations, even before leavingtheir home country or previous place of employment. OHRM has instituted a “buddy system” within itsown department, whereby each new recruit, at alllevels, is assigned a “buddy” who can help him/herwith such mundane tasks as opening a bank accountas well as navigating the complex bureaucracy.Relying on the goodwill of busy colleagues, however,may not be enough and the Inspector recommendsthat focal points should be very clearly identified,and adequate resources provided, for this purposeboth in the receiving departments as well as inpersonnel services at each duty station. These focalpoints would also be responsible for ensuring thatnew staff are provided with the tools necessary totheir work, be they desks, computers, telephones oraccess to electronic mail services. The Inspectornotes that the ILO Human Resources DevelopmentDepartment has recently identified such a focal pointto help young professionals in their integration andcareer development.

49. Organizations should also ensure that youngprofessionals are offered orientation courses in thefirst months following their entry on duty. For manyyears, NCRE successful candidates at the UnitedNations were only offered cursory induction coursesat their duty stations, lasting one or two days at most.The Inspector, therefore, welcomes the orientationprogramme which was set up in 1997 for newprofessional staff. The objectives of the programme,which lasts five days, are to “ provide information,guidance and training in support of the careertransition to a Professional position in the UnitedNations”, and to “develop a network of junior

12

professional colleagues”. Topics covered during thesession include people management skills,collaborative negotiation skills, career managementand professional development, drafting reports aswell as United Nations human resources policies,benefits, and systems. Sessions for groups of 25NCRE successful candidates are held twice a year atHeadquarters in New York. New recruits, therefore,are normally invited to a session within a few monthsof their entry to the United Nations. In addition,ongoing contact by regular or electronic mail andthrough follow-up meetings is maintained with theYoung Professionals, who can also apply to followcourses offered to the staff at large (such as coursesin Supervisory Skills, Conflict Resolution or theUpgrading of Substantive Skills as well as summerworkshops run by the Academic Council on theUnited Nations System). While this representsimportant progress, especially considering the limitedoverall resources available for training in theOrganization, it still falls short of providing newprofessionals with a comprehensive training packagedelivered in an incremental and systematic fashionover the course of their first years.

50. In UNESCO, part of the success of theYoung Professionals programme can certainly beattributed to the fact that these young professionalsfollow an induction and training programme during24 Fridays of their first year. The trainingprogramme being developed by ILO within theframework of its new Young Professionalsprogramme will be even more exhaustive. Over thecourse of four years, young professionals willparticipate every six months in an intensive trainingprogramme organized in collaboration with the ILOInternational Training Centre in Turin. Thisprogramme will focus on enhancing managementskills and improving personal effectivenesstechniques. The Inspector would suggest that, shouldthis experience be assessed positively after a fewyears, other organizations should take advantage ofthe expertise which the International Training Centrewill have developed in the process. Commonsessions offered by the Centre or by the UnitedNations Staff College to young professionals fromvarious organizations could even be envisaged,allowing young professionals to build networksbeyond their own immediate offices and offeringeconomies of scale. This latter point is particularlyimportant, most organizations of the system beingallocated limited resources for their overall stafftraining development programmes, sometimesrepresenting as little as 0.13 per cent and rarely morethan 1 per cent of total payroll.

51. Several organizations offer the possibility totheir staff of taking study leave (sometimes referredto as “sabbatical leave”) in order to pursue studiesand research. This option, however, is rarely offeredto young staff members who have not served with theorganization for a given number of years.22 It waspointed out to the Inspector that young staff workingin rather technical or specialized fields tend to leavethe United Nations system rapidly for fear ofbecoming “de-skilled” and losing touch with state-of-the-art research and practices in their respectivefields. It is suggested, therefore, that guidelines forthe entitlement to such leave be reviewed to allowstaff to apply within shorter time- frames, whichwould ensure that the organizations keep abreast ofthe latest relevant developments in their fields andthat performing staff are encouraged to stay onthrough the acquisition of new skills and knowledge. Secretariats may also want to study the possibility ofaccommodating staff who wish to undertake studiesor research on topics of relevance to their work on apart-time basis.

52. In addition to formal training, agencies areincreasingly aware of the need for youngprofessionals to receive guidance and advice fromsenior colleagues or “mentors” who are not theirsupervisors. ILO, for instance, is piloting aMentoring Programme, whereby each youngprofessional will have the possibility of being pairedwith an older and more experienced ILO official whocan provide coaching, support and advice asnecessary. The Inspector recommends that thepractice be generalized in all organizations of theUnited Nations systems, while recognizing thatmentoring programmes may be difficult to institute invery decentralized organizations, such as UNHCR,where young professionals may be assigned to smallfield offices.

B. Career management

53. The gap between the expectations of youngrecruits and the reality with which they areconfronted may be at its widest with regard to thenature of their assignments in their first years in theUnited Nations system. In a letter addressed to theSecretary-General in November 1998, a group ofsome 80 young professionals at the P2 and P3 levelswrote that most of the resignations observed at thejunior level were not due to a lack of enthusiasm ontheir part, willingness to serve or commitment to theOrganization, but rather to a certain degree offrustration and disillusionment with the inadequacyof career development opportunities and jobenrichment after the recruitment process. Although

13

young staff in other organizations of the system maynot be resigning in the same proportions, they voicesimilar frustrations. Organizations, therefore, need toattach greater attention to the nature, number andprogression of assignments given to youngprofessionals. The initial placement is crucial andconsiderable efforts must be made to better matchpeople’s skills with their posts.

54. Early mobility and exposure to differenttypes of functions and different environments arealso essential to the retention and development ofstaff. Organizations such as UNHCR, UNICEF andUNDP that have inbuilt rotational systems, believethat the latter assist them in motivating and retainingtheir staff. The Inspector shares this assessment andstresses the importance of exposing youngprofessionals to both headquarters and fieldexperience in their first years. Most youngprofessional programmes, be they at UNESCO andILO or in other organizations such as IMF or theWorld Bank, involve assignments in differentdepartments over the course of the first 12 to 24months. The new ILO Young Professional CareerEntrance Programme, for instance, will offer theopportunity of two rotational field assignments aswell as two headquarters assignments during thefive-year programme.

55. For the first twenty years that followed itsinception, however, the United Nations NCRE waslimited to the recruitment and initial placement ofstaff and did not concern itself with their subsequentcareers. As a result, many stayed in their originalpositions until their first promotions. Many of thesepromotions occurred within their departments. Young professionals assigned to regionalcommissions found it particularly difficult to obtaina transfer to other duty stations or Headquarters.

56. The Inspector, therefore, welcomes thelaunch of the Managed Reassignment Programme forJunior Professional Staff.23 The programme,launched in January 2000, is applicable to staffrecruited at the P-2 level through the NCRE and isintended to afford them the benefit of at least twoassignments under two different supervisors in theirfirst five years of service. After two or three years intheir first post, these staff members will participate inthe reassignment programme to move to a secondpost with a new supervisor. A compendium of P2-posts will be circulated twice a year in order to giveall eligible staff members a chance to apply. For thepurpose of the programme, however, “mobility” willnot necessarily be across duty stations nor eveninterdepartmental, and could be intradepartmental.

It would be useful, therefore, for OHRM toundertake, in due course, an assessment of the impactof this new Reassignment Programme to ensure, interalia, that it facilitates mobility not only betweendepartments but also between duty stations.

57. According to statistics provided by OHRM,two thirds of young professionals recruited ten yearsago through the NCRE have only been promotedonce, while a majority of those recruited in 1995have never been promoted. It is important, therefore,to ensure that the Managed ReassignmentProgramme is in line with present efforts to facilitateupward as well as lateral mobility. Youngprofessionals at UNDP also talk of their “limitedcareer prospects” and of the need to change theperformance evaluation systems. Although changeshave already been and continue to be brought tothese systems in many organizations, they oftenremain intrinsically incapable of recognizingoutstanding performance and rewarding it with rapidpromotion. The rigidity of promotion systems andseniority requirements, in particular, makes itdifficult for prior professional experience to be takeninto account, and young professionals may be barredfrom applying for posts for which external candidateswith less overall experience will eventually beselected.

C. Changing the corporate culture

58. The study of national public administrationscited above stressed that “a critical step for increasingthe ability of public sector organizations to developand nurture more leaders is for top management torecognize that it must devote far more time andattention to leadership development than is now thecase”. The study went on to show that “best practicein the most successful private businesses is for seniorexecutives to develop a significant portion of theirtime (up to 25 per cent) to developing leaders”.24 Experience in organizations of the United Nationssystem shows, however, that many managers areeither unavailable, unwilling or incapable ofproviding such attention to their young professionalstaff and are rarely held accountable for theirperformance in this regard. At headquarters, inparticular, but less so in smaller field structures, astrong vertical hierarchy discourages direct contactsbetween P2s or P3s and officials at the level ofDirector and above. As a result, many seniorofficials know little about the skills and potential oftheir junior staff and expect them to assume functionswithout assistance.

14

59. Increasingly, staff are calling for “360�evaluation processes” or “reverse reviews” to beestablished, which allow them to provide feedbackon the managerial skills of their supervisors, althoughpractice has shown that such mechanisms can bedifficult to set up. Increased focus on “peoplemanagement” training for senior officials is welcome,but real changes in this field will only occur whenadequate supervision and staff development becomeinherent parts of managers’ responsibilities ratherthan an extra effort which only the most motivatedamong them are willing to provide.

60. As supervisors often fail to hear youngprofessionals’ concerns and to relay them to generalmanagement, young professionals may feel that thereis no channel of communication and consultations forthem to contribute to the rapid changes occurring inorganizations of the United Nations system. Established staff representative bodies tend torepresent mostly the interests of General Service staffor older professional staff, with whom youngprofessionals may not feel a strong commonality ofinterests. It is important, therefore, that participatingorganizations institute some kind of informal butpermanent channel of communications to ensure thata constructive dialogue involving youngprofessionals can take place.

15

V. CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

61. While job satisfaction is certainly the mostcompelling factor in keeping young staff motivatedand interested, conditions of service must also beadequate. As noted in chapter IV, a comparison ofsalaries and benefits offered to young professionalsby the United Nations with those offered by otherinternational organizations not part of the commonsystem, including IMF, the World Bank or the WorldTrade Organization, or by regional organizationssuch as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or the European Union (EU), notto mention the private sector, would certainly showthat the United Nations system is at somedisadvantage in terms of what it can offer to thebright young professionals it wants to attract andretain.

62. Some observers point out that unattractivebasic salaries could be complemented byperformance awards. Stressing the need to motivatestaff anew and recognize outstanding performance,the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC)has recommended on a number of occasions theintroduction of a system of performance awards orbonuses.25 The General Assembly also askedexecutive heads of all agencies to make operationalproposals to their respective governing bodies on thepossibility of introducing such a system.26 Discussions on the practical steps needed toimplement this recommendation, however, haveshown the difficulty of establishing a fair andefficient system of rewards, especially if noadditional resources are made available for thisspecific purpose, and have demonstrated that it couldonly occur within the context of a major reform ofhuman resources management and performancemanagement systems. Furthermore, as the Secretary-General has rightly observed, the development ofperformance awards or bonus systems cannot andshould not be a substitute for fair and adequatecompensation that ensures competitive conditions ofservice, nor should it be a replacement for promotionand career development opportunities.27 Even ifagreement was reached on policies and proceduresfor the granting of awards and bonuses, its impact onthe overall motivation of young professionals wouldnot, however, be sufficient.

63. It was also pointed out to the Inspector thatorganizations of the United Nations system offergreater job security than many other employers. Infact, most organizations have, over the last decade,

instituted moratoriums on permanent or careerservice appointments. Although the United NationsSecretariat still offers permanent appointments tostaff members who have passed the NCRE aftersuccessful completion of a two-year period ofprobationary service, recent proposals by OHRM callfor the abolition of such initial probationary andsubsequent permanent contracts for NCRE staff.28

A. The Work-Family Agenda

64. This trend may not affect youngprofessionals who are not overly concerned with thestability of their work environment. Many of them,on the other hand, do seek a constructive and flexibleprofessional environment, as recognized by ICSC aswell as the Administrative Committee onCoordination (ACC), which have stressed the need toincorporate contemporary approaches to balancingwork and family needs in compensation and benefitpackages. In 1995, the executive heads of all theagencies of the United Nations common system inACC adopted a policy to foster a supportive workenvironment in each organization aimed both atpromoting productivity and enabling staff membersto respond to the conflicting pressures of work andfamily life. They recognized the changingdemographics and societal changes which haveaffected the workplace, citing the following, amongothers: a larger proportion of the workplace isfemale; there are more and more working mothers;couples increasingly pursue dual careers; moreemployees deal with the problems of elderly parents;family situations and structures are even morediverse. They stressed that measures which allowedemployees to meet their family responsibilitiesalongside those arising out of their work are all themore important in an expatriate setting iforganizations are to maximize their utilization ofhuman resources, and that costs which may beassociated with such measures can be expected to beoutweighed by benefits in terms of lower absenteeismand improved motivation.29

65. Measures listed in the ACC “work-familyagenda” included:- Enhanced flexibility in the organization of workingtime and in the workplace, sometimes referred to as“flexitime” and “flexi-place” or “telecommuting”;- Leave arrangements which will allow staff to attendto personal emergencies and family obligations;

16

- Assistance with dependent care and other familysupport services, including spouse employment.

While these issues are not restricted to youngerprofessionals, the latter are particularly concernedwith them, as they include a larger proportion of women and tend to be more aware than their eldersof workplace arrangements promoted in otherorganizations or in private companies.

66. Five years after the adoption of thisambitious agenda, however, it appears that manyorganizations have done little progress in institutingand/or implementing work-life policies. Even thosewhich have taken important steps favouringflexibility in principle recognize that in practice, onlysupport staff benefit from them. Reluctance frommanagers, rigid job descriptions as well as complexbudgetary and personnel procedures make it difficultfor professional staff to take advantage of newmeasures.

67. Mention should be made, nevertheless, of efforts undertaken by some organizations in the areasof “flexitime” and “flexi-place”. The United NationsSecretariat, for instance, has established an internalWork/Life Committee which has initiated the FamilyLeave Policy, since endorsed by CCAQ and adoptedby all organizations of the common system. Anadoption leave policy and provisions for staggeredhours have also been promulgated by theorganization. Its Office at Geneva (UNOG), for itspart, has made it possible for Professional andGeneral Service staff to work 80 per cent time on thebasis of a regular four-day working week. Theoption is open to United Nations staff membersholding permanent appointments or who have beenemployed under fixed-term appointments for at leastthree consecutive years, and is conditional on theapproval of the direct supervisor based on theexigencies of the service concerned.30 If only for thesake of consistency, this option should be madeavailable to all staff in the rest of the United NationsSecretariat, where possibilities only exist for half-time employment, an alternative very rarely used byProfessional staff.

68. As for UNDP, it is, to the knowledge of theInspector, the only organization to have developedextensive “telecommuting guidelines”. Theguidelines describe the modalities under which a staffmember may be allowed to work, on a full or part-time basis, from an alternate worksite. They includea “Telecommuting Compact” whereby the staffmember agrees to provide all necessary hardware thatmay be required for his or her telecommuting and to

upgrade this equipment to meet organizationstandards as and when necessary. Under theCompact, the staff member is also responsible forestablishing and keeping specific telecommutingwork hours and making these known to his or hersupervisor and immediate colleagues.31

69. Organizations with large numbers of staffemployed in non-family duty stations, often dealingwith humanitarian emergencies, have also tried toreduce the time that these staff must spend awayfrom their families. UNICEF, for instance, haselaborated a Special Operational Approach (SOA)designed to keep families of staff members serving atnon-family duty stations within travelling/weekenddistance. Similarly, UNHCR offers a number ofoptions for the relocation of families when staff aretransferred to non-family duty stations.

B. Spouse employment

70. Interviews conducted for the preparation ofthis report indicate that of all family support issues,spouse employment may be the most critical inretaining professional staff. As early as 1993, theGeneral Assembly stressed that “employmentpossibilities for spouses accompanying staff memberscontribute to attracting and retaining the mostqualified staff”. The General Assembly invited theSecretary-General to review with his colleagues inACC ways to improve coordination and reduceimpediments to the employment of qualified spousesaccompanying staff members of the United Nationscommon system organizations. 32

71. Despite the inclusion of this topic on theACC work-family agenda, little progress has beenachieved in recent years in this regard. The Inspectorwelcomes the Participating Agencies MobilitySystem (PAMS), developed through the joint effortsof the Consultative Committee on AdministrativeQuestions/Personnel and General AdministrativeQuestions and the Information Systems CoordinationCommittee (ISCC), as a positive step towardsincreased inter-agency cooperation in this field. Oneof the expressed goals of the PAMS is to facilitatespouse employment in the United Nations system. Individual staff members in participating agencies, ortheir spouses, can simply enter their résumé on-linefor transmission by e-mail to the agency or agenciesof their choice. Follow-up is supposed to beconducted between the parties when a suitablevacancy arises. While it is too early to assess the realimpact on spouse employment and staff motivation ofa system which was launched early in 2000, its mereexistence is a witness to a growing

17

awareness among United Nations agencies of theneed to take decisive steps in an area long neglected.

72. These agencies should also amend any staffregulation or rule that prevents or restricts therecruitment of spouses of staff members. FAO, forinstance, still forbids spouses to apply for vacantposts, while UNESCO only allows it in exceptionalcircumstances, although it is presently consideringdeleting references to prohibition on spouseemployment. While there cannot of course be anautomatic entitlement to a post, and while spousescannot be given preference by mere virtue of theirrelationship, they should at least be allowed tocompete fairly for posts for which they are qualified. Appropriate controls ensuring that related staffmembers are not assigned to serve in a post in thesame unit or do not participate in the taking of anadministrative decision affecting the employmentstatus or entitlements of the related staff member canthen be put in place, as they have been inorganizations which no longer apply a ban on spouseemployment.

73. Naturally, employment needs of spousesexceed by far the employment opportunities withinthe United Nations system, especially at a time whenmost organizations are downsizing. Consequently, itis necessary to expand the search for suchemployment opportunities beyond the scope of theUnited Nations system to encompass the whole locallabour market. The first step is for organizations toensure that spouses are legally authorized to worklocally. While this is the case in many countrieshosting the headquarters of United Nationsorganizations, there are still duty stations, includingsome with large numbers of staff, where spouses arenot allowed to seek employment.

74. The Inspector notes that the Office of LegalAffairs of the United Nations has stated that futurestandard agreements made between the Organizationand host countries should contain a provision onspouse employment opportunities, such as thegranting of work permits to these individuals. While

he urges all United Nations organizations to adoptthis practice, he believes that they should also seek arenegotiation of those agreements with host countriesthat do not provide for automatic or quasi-automaticentitlement of spouses to work permits and calls onhost Member States to grant such entitlement, asalready suggested by the General Assembly.33

75. Being authorized to work locally will notautomatically lead to spouses finding employment inlabour markets that may be very alien to them, andthey need special support in this respect. Particularlynoteworthy is the Family Career TransitionProgramme jointly operated in Washington by theWorld Bank and IMF.34 IMF states that theProgramme’s experienced career counsellors areready to offer advice and personal support to helpspouses of new recruits or staff recently transferred tothe organizations’ headquarters. They assist spousesto clarify their career goals; to assess their interests,skills and qualifications in relation to opportunitiesavailable on the local market; and to write résumésand prepare for interviews. Spouses are encouragedto contact the Programme’s counsellors even beforereaching Washington.

76. While sufficient resources may not beavailable at the moment for organizations of thecommon system to offer similar services to staff andtheir families separately, these organizations couldpool their resources in major duty stations whereseveral have their headquarters and operate jointprogrammes along the lines of the Family CareerTransition Programme. Such programmes wouldprovide a much wider range of services than thoseoffered at the moment, for instance, by the StaffCounsellor’s office of the United Nations in NewYork, which can only help spouses with the legalformalities leading to the obtention of the workpermit. They would build on the understandingalready reached between agencies with the recentintroduction of the Participating Agencies MobilitySystem.

18

ANNEX

Countries participating in the 2001 National Competitive Recruitment Examination programme(countries confirmed as of August 2000)

1. Andorra 2. Antigua and Barbuda 3. Argentina 4. Austria 5. Bahrain 6. Bosnia and Herzegovina 7. Brunei Darussalam 8. Cambodia 9. China10. Germany11. Grenada12. Honduras13. Iceland14. Italy15. Japan16. Kazakhstan17. Kiribati18. Kyrgyztan Republic19. Liechtenstein20. Malta21. Marshall Islands22. Federated States of Micronesia23. Republic of Moldova24. Monaco25. Norway26. Oman27. Palau28. Samoa29. Sao Tome and Principe30. Saudi Arabia31. Solomon Islands32. Sweden33. Tajikistan34. Tonga35. United Arab Emirates36. United States of America37. Uzbekistan38. Vanuatu

19

NOTES

1. The age limit is 32 for candidates for P2 posts.

2. Secretary-General’s address to the staff on the occasion of Staff Day, 18 September 1998, pressrelease SG/SM/6705.

3. Human Resources Management, General Assembly resolution A/RES/53/221 of 23 April 1999.

4. The organizations reviewed for the report are the following: United Nations, UNDP, UNICEF,UNHCR, WFP, FAO, ILO, UNESCO and WHO.

5. Report of the ICSC Working Group on the Framework for Human Resources Management,ICSC/51/R.9, 14 February 2000.

6. “Composition of the Secretariat”, Report by the Secretary-General, A/53/375, 11 September1998.

7. “Structure of the civil service employment in seven OECD countries”, OECD PublicManagement Service, 1999.

8. See http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin.

9. “Composition of the Secretariat”, Report of the Secretary-General, A/54/279, 26 August 1999.

10. “Capturing Young and New Energies”, Recommendations from Young and New Professionalsto Improve Recruitment and Staffing Practices in UNDP, Input to Transition Team, 30/08/99.

11. “Inspection of the Application of United Nations Recruitment, Placement and PromotionPolicies”, JIU/REP/95/1 (Part I), and “Report on Competitive Examinations in the UnitedNations”, JIU/REP/84/11.

12. See, in particular, A/RES/53/221 of 23 April 1999.

13. “Composition of the Secretariat”, Report of the Secretary-General, A/54/279, 26 August 1999.

14. See A/RES/53/221 of 23 April 1999.

15. ST/AI/294 of 16 August 1982.

16. “Report on Competitive Examinations in the United Nations”, JIU/REP/84/11.

17. ILO Human Resources Strategy, GB.277/PFA/10, March 2000.

18. A/RES/51/226 of 25 April 1997.

19. “Capturing Young and New Energies, op. cit.

20. “Beyond Training: Developing and Nurturing Leaders for the Public Sector”, OECD PublicManagement Service, PUMA/SGF (99)9, 12 August 1999.

21. “Work and well-being : Work and family responsibilities in the ILO”, GB.277/PFA/11, March2000.

22. At the United Nations, for instance, ST/AI/2000/4 sets the eligibility criteria at five years ofservice with the Organization.

23. OHRM Highlights No. 10, February 2000.

24. “Beyond Training: Developing and Nurturing Leaders for the Public Sector”, op. cit.

25. Report of the International Civil Service Commission, A/49/30, 1 January 1994.

26. See A/RES/51/216 of 18 December 1996 and A/RES/52/219 of 3 February 1998.

20

27. Performance Management, Report by the Secretary-General, A/53/266 of 14 August 1998.

28. “Managing people, not posts--the next stage of human resources management reform”, UnitedNations, May 2000.

29. “Work/family agenda”, CCAQ (PER), 1995. (see http://accsubs.unsystem.org/ccaqper/publications).

30. Part-time employment (80%), IC/Geneva/4455, 11 November 1998.

31. UNDP Work Life Policy, UNDP/OHR/BPRM/1999.

32. A/RES/47/226 of 30 April 1993.

33. Ibid.

34. See “Work and Environment” on the recruitment page of the http://www.imf.int Web site.