The UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN is expected to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In July 2014, the UN Women Executive Director launched the first ever Global Workforce Survey for all UN Women employees. The Global Workforce Survey provided all, regardless of duty station, discipline or contract type, with an important opportunity to express their opinion about the UN Women workplace. The answers from this anonymous and confidential survey led to identifying five priority areas for further strengthening, including Internal Communications.

Under the primary supervision of the Chief of Staff, with a matrixed secondary reporting line to the Directors of Human Resources and Communications/Advocacy, the Internal Communications Specialist is responsible for strengthening internal communications in UN Women, developing and maintaining a range of strategic communications tools and products for UN Women, and for online and offline internal audiences. The Internal Communications Specialist will collaborate closely with all relevant divisions and teams in Headquarters, as well as Regional, Multi-Country, Liaison and Country Offices (RO/MCO/LO/CO), and the Training Centre. This will include collaborating with the Executive Director’s office, the Knowledge Management Team, and the ICT team to ensure that UN Women’s mission and vision, communication strategy, organizational outreach and knowledge management are effectively communicated to UN Women’s workforce.

The position of the Internal Communications Specialist is located in the Executive Director’s office. The Office of the Executive Director, UN Women is responsible for managing and ensuring the provision of substantive support to intergovernmental processes on gender equality and the empowerment of women on a global level. The Office of the Executive Director is responsible for providing vision, strategic planning and establishing priorities, leading the senior management team, leading advocacy as a global voice for women, ensuring coordination in the UN Common System, providing overall management and oversight and ensuring accountability to governance bodies.

Key Functions:

• Lead and support the Organization in the development, dissemination, implementation and review of policies and guidance for internal communication;
• Ensure effective use of systems and tools to strengthen and optimize internal communications at all levels of the Organization from the field to HQ and from the EDO to HQ and the field, as well as between and within HQ, Regional Offices, Multi-Country Offices, Liaison offices, and Country Offices;
• Advise and support relevant parts of the Organization (e.g. HQs, ROs, MCOs, LOs, COs) - for the purpose of ensuring effective internal communications - in the development and maintenance of strategic products and materials for internal communications;
• Support organizational learning and advancement on identifying and sharing best practices and innovative solutions for internal communications, and knowledge management that have proven to facilitate and optimize work within UN Women.

Policy and Guidance:

• Lead on the development of an internal communications strategy building on feedback provided by staff including through the Global Workforce Survey, and support its implementation;
• Draft specific policies  - as needed - related to internal communication issues;
• Advise and provide guidance to relevant parts of UN Women on how to ensure that their work and functional responsibilities are communicated and used effectively across the Organization.

Systems and Tools:

• Collaborate with and provide guidance to relevant parts of the Organization (e.g. EDO, Communications & Advocacy, ICT, Knowledge Management, HR, UN Coordination among others) in the development, implementation, test-piloting and upgrades of tools and systems for the purpose of furthering internal communication;
• Review the existing UN Women intranet system and identify areas of improvement, increased functionality, technical performance and user-friendliness. Responsible for quality assurance of the UN Women Intranet and work with relevant sections of the Organization to ensure timely and regular updating of content;
• Assist and advice field level structures (ROs, MCOs, LOs, COs) on intranet related issues;
• Explore the possibility of developing and implementing additional offline or online tools (including social networking tools) to strengthen internal communications. Make recommendations as needed;

Review current internal information flows and processes and identify opportunities for improving their transparency and effectiveness, including with reference to:

• Communication between and within all sections and teams in HQs;
• Communication between and within HQs, Regional Offices, MCOs, LOs, and COs.

Products and Materials:

• Assist and advise – as needed - relevant teams and sections of UN Women in in the production of specific internal products and materials and liaise with external communications on branding;
• Ensure effective internal communication of new corporate initiatives, as well as assist and support relevant sections in the Organization in communicating to staff corporate messages and policy positions in areas related to UN Women mandate;
• Deliver regular, strategic and analytical news updates for UN Women staff, including by supporting, expanding and/or optimizing existing products (e.g. weekly HR Bulletin);
• Review, upgrade and update existing shared calendars, databases, flow charts, etc. to increase use by staff across the Organization;
• Support the EDO - as required - on internal communication issues (e.g. on messages to the UN Women workforce, Executive and Senior Management Team communications etc.);
• Support the Human Resource team – as required - on internal communication issues (e.g. on the Global Workforce Survey etc).

Organizational Learning:

• Identify, consolidate and disseminate best practices and innovative solutions in the area of internal communications, including drawing from existing experiences outside UN Women or the UN System;
• Work closely with the knowledge management and ICT teams to ensure effective organizational learning from the use of internal communication tools, systems, and products;
• Ensure linkages between organizational learning on internal communications, and the implementation of relevant guidance and strategies;
• Monitor the implementation of the internal communications strategy of UN Women and the extent to which it addresses internal communications challenges (as identified by UN Women staff, including through the Global Workforce Survey);
• Promote knowledge and understanding across UN Women’s workforce - including through training and capacity development - of internal communication tools and techniques, and how these can best be used within UN Women.

Core values / Guiding principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity / Valuing diversity:

• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

• Self-development, initiative-taking.

Working in Teams:

• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

• Managing conflict.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent communication skills;
• Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in internal communications;
• Strong initiative-taker;
• Very effective at multi-tasking;
• Focuses on impact and results for the client;
• Interacts effectively with all levels of the organization, including senior management;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates exceptional ability to remain calm, in control and good humored even under pressure and tight deadlines.

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in communications, journalism, public relations, social sciences, international relations, or a related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of experience in communications at international level;
• Outstanding oral and written communications and editing skills, with proven ability to meet tight deadlines;
• Experience in internal communications and human resources is considered an asset;
• Experience working in large development agency also pertinent;
• Good IT skills, including databases and office software packages;
• Familiarity with gender issues and the UN system is an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Working knowledge of another UN official language is a strong asset.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document.  Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.