Background

UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has corporate responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogue initiatives, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response.  BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to provide high quality, technical support to UNDP Country offices for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programme support activities.

In liaison with the Bureau of Management (BoM), the Resources and Operations Management (ROM) Unit enables the effective and efficient delivery of policy advisory and support functions by BPPS.  It ensures internal control, HR and ICT coordination, and the delivery of high quality, compliant, in-house and outsourced operational functions for BPPS.  ROM manages delegation of authority within BPPS, assigns ATLAS rights and follows up on implementation of audit recommendations.  ROM provides Global Programmes Implementation Support, Funds and budget management, Administration and Operations support and Business Applications support.

Within the overall framework of corporate HR policy, the HR Specialist (HRS), will work directly with the ROM team, and in close collaboration with BOM/OHR, support achievement of corporate business and staff performance objectives.

Through an intimate knowledge of the HQ and country offices settings, matrix collaboration, and best practices of benchmarked organizations, the HRS will support the BPPS in analyzing and identifying the talent needs of the Bureau, providing substantive inputs in the recruitment processes, and implement corporate human resources programmes to attract, develop, motivate, and retain the most suitable talent in the Bureau.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for the following outputs and related activities:

Definition and mapping of Bureau/office talent needs – jointly with OHR Business Partners

  • Definition of technical expertise and competencies required to deliver on Bureau workplan;
  • Talent mapping and identification of talent gaps;
  • Substantive input into recruitment/selection processes (IP and HQs GS) – process execution by OHR;
  • Management and substantive input in Recruitment and Staffing exercises;
  • Formulation of job descriptions;
  • Short-listing of candidates;
  • Formulation of questions/tasks for technical assessments; review and scoring of technical assessments;
  • Participation in interview panels;
  • Review and approval of interview reports.

Regular staff-related decisions (all personnel):

  • Support decisions on recruitment/selection of staff following due process;
  • Support in appointment extensions;
  • Support in appointment termination, including providing relevant justification, as needed;
  • Support to staff nominations for career progression, development opportunities, etc.;
  • Provision of necessary background and justification for exceptional/non-standard cases escalated for corporate decision.

Personnel data management and reconciliation of reports:

  • Maintaining accurate information of all BPPS personnel, secondees, consultants, interns, etc. by regularly updating the workforce analysis database;
  • Preparation of various personnel reports for management decisions, including issuance of long serving awards, gender and geographical diversity mapping, financial disclosure etc;
  • Support in establishment of positions.

Performance management and related staff development for all Bureau/office personnel:

  • Monitoring and follow up with all staff and managers on performance and management development (PMD) and organization of TMRG;
  • Follow up to decisions related to career and personnel development, as part of performance management process;
  • Career development support;
  • Contribution to informal conflict resolution and formal grievance processes.

Local and Bureau/office-specific staff support solutions/initiatives for all personnel:

  • Design (with OHR support, as needed) and implementation of Bureau/office-specific initiatives/programmes related to staff engagement, staff well-being, diversity and inclusiveness and other staff support.

Institutional Arrangement:

  • The consultant will report to the Chief of Resources and Operations Management, BPPS.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

  • Possesses knowledge of HR management issues and principles and is able to apply them to strategic and/or practical situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • University degree in Social Sciences: Human Resources Management, Public Administration, Organization Psychology, or Organization Development or equivalent disciplines.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years relevant experience in human resources management, or must have held similar positions in other international organizations, or has significant international human resources experience at a similar level;
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate complex issues in a concise and clear manner;
  • Highly organized with strong analytical and research skills;
  • Familiarity with the UN System, in particular UNDP.

Language:

  • Proficiency in written and spoken English;
  • Good working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Application and Presentation of Offer

The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:

Step 1:

Interested individual consultants shall submit their application through UNDP job shop and include:

Step 2:

Submission of Financial Proposal:

  • Only applicants meeting all minimum requirements and obtaining a minimum of 70% on technical evaluation will be approached for submission of financial proposals and considered for the Financial Evaluation;
  • Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of a daily fee in USD;
  • Payment will be made upon monthly submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

  • Only those candidates who meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation;
  • The technical evaluation will include a desk review and may also include interviews with shortlisted candidates.

The following evaluation criteria will be used for the desk reviews:

  • General experience relevant to the position - 20 points;
  • Experience in managing human resources in complex, diverse, multi-cultural environments – 15 points;
  • Familiarity with UNDP and UN system - 15 points;
  • In case if interviews are also conducted, evaluation criteria will be based on the competencies and qualifications requirements in this Terms of Reference;
  • Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on technical evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation;
  • The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based on a Combined Scoring method – where the technical evaluation (desk review and interview) will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%.

Financial evaluation: 30 points (30% of total obtainable scores)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposals:

p = y (µ/z),

where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated