Elements of HR MTP

Baseline (as at 1/1/2000)

Performance Indicators

Timeline
(as originally established)

Remarks

AFH will hold one annual meeting with each of the headquarters departments and offices and the regional offices to support them in analyzing and planning their human resources needs and in developing a human resources plan.

HR planning has been carried out primarily in the context of developing the staffing structure during the preparation of the PWB.

This activity is to be carried out throughout 2002 and 2003.

Consultations with departmental managers were initiated in April 2003 to establish a shared understanding of HR planning and to identify essential to HR planning.

HR planning is a workstream in the HRMS project and will be considered in collaboration with PBE. Subsequently, the HR planning tools developed for managers will be included in the implementation of the new system.

AFH will work with PBE and departmental managers to improve and link individual performance plans to the Organization’s programme plan and to strengthen the current performance management process.

Regular performance appraisals are carried out for professional and higher category staff, although not for the general service category.

In the new Performance Planning and Review System (PPRS) each staff member would have a work plan that would identify individual objectives and expected outputs linked to programme objectives, career development and training needs and managerial skill requirements.

The proposal was to be developed and consultation initiated by end-2002 with a view to submitting the proposal to Human Resources Committee (HRC) by early 2003. Briefing and training of staff at all levels on the final approved scheme was to be completed by end-2003 with full implementation planned for 2004.

A proposal has been developed building on the conclusions of the 1995 FAO working group and ICSC recommendations. Consultations with PBE have identified linkages between the work planning functions of PIRES and the new PPRS to avoid overlap between the systems. Consultations with managers and staff representatives will be initiated by June 2003. AFH envisages that it will submit the proposal to the HRC by the end of 2003 with training and implementation in the first quarter of 2004. The experience during this initial period will be monitored and evaluated to identify needed improvements.

The new PPRS will eventually need to be developed on the Oracle performance management module and integrated with the new HRMS system.

Strengthening the Recruitment Process - Professional Recruitment

The average time for a professional recruitment was 304 days (from the request for advertisement of the post to appointment decision).

The goal would be to reduce substantially the average time taken to fill professional vacancies.

The target is to reduce recruitment time to 175 days by 31/12/2002 and to 140 days by 31/12/2003.

At 31/12/2002, the average time taken had been reduced to 207 days.

a) Support to line managers - AFH will strengthen advisory and support services to line managers, monitor the filling of posts and provide guidelines and increased training of line managers.

Advisory services were provided, but not in a systematic way and all managers were not conversant with the steps in the recruitment process.

All managers would be fully conversant with the recruitment process, as reflected by:

·  buy-in to the goal by managers;
·  availability of guidelines; and
·  an effective support system.

Revised guidelines were to be issued and training of line managers was to commence by September 2002.

Guidelines were prepared by October 2002 and consultations with staff associations and managers have been taking place on them. The introduction of the guidelines is projected for 1/5/2003.

AFH is monitoring divisions to ensure that they routinely acknowledge the receipt of applications. As a result, there has been an improvement in the acknowledgement of applications.

b) Increased use of technology for issuance of vacancy announcements - The time taken for the approval and translation of vacancy announcements will be reduced.

b) Increased use of technology for issuance of vacancy announcements (cont’d)

The average time for issuance of vacancy announcements was 28 days.

80% of all vacancy announcements would be approved, translated and posted within an average time of 20 days.

An electronic document processing system to allow for easier access to translated job descriptions would be implemented.

These measures are to be introduced by 31/12/2003.

The average time taken to issue vacancy announcements has been reduced to 25 days.

Rather than develop a stand-alone system, the job description data bank will now be included as part of the HRMS (Oracle) implementation.

Moving from passive to active recruitment -
The composition of applicant fields should be improved through targeted advertising.

At present the Organization relies solely on candidates’ willingness to apply to vacancy announcements posted on the FAO website.

The percentage of qualified candidatures from under- and non-represented countries and from qualified women would be increased.

On-going

An analysis of applicant fields had identified the inability of the Organization to attract adequate numbers of qualified candidates from certain countries, especially under and non-represented ones, as well as from qualified women, thereby highlighting the need for the pro-active measures outlined below.

a) Age profile - Junior Professionals

The average age at the time of external professional recruitment was 43 years, in 2000.

The average age at the time of professional recruitment would be reduced.

As part of the HR planning process, departments were to set targets for increasing the number of young professionals commencing in early 2003.

The HRC has indicated support of the goal of recruiting more junior professionals, but decided not to establish a formal Junior Professionals Programme. Rather, the PWB process has been seen as the vehicle to begin this process. In the PWB 2004-2005 proposals there is a 10% increase in the number of JP posts from 365 to 403.

b) Equitable geographical representation

The breakdown by representation status was as follows:

·  equitably represented - 63;
·  under-represented - 7;
·  non-represented - 27; and
·  over-represented - 83.

The number of under- and non-represented countries would be reduced.

On-going

A number of different approaches are being taken:

·  Posting of FAO VAs on other websites visited by applicants, e.g. Monster.com;
·  Attendance at professional gathereings and distribution of material on FAO; and
·  Direct approaches to certain institutions/governments.

It is noted that the Conference decision to request the Council to the review of the geographic distribution methodology may impact on how results in this area are to be measured.

c) Improving gender balance

The percentage of professional women at all locations was 24% of total professional staff.

The percentage of female professional staff would be increased to 35%.

On-going - it was expected to achieve 30% by 31/12/2003 and 35% by 31/12/2005.

As at 31/12/02 the percentage had increased to 27% overall with 31% at HQ and 17% in decentralized offices. The major area for improvement is the increase in the proportion of women in decentralized offices

The Gender Action Plan will be discussed by the HRC in June 2003 and subsequently submitted to the Director-General.

General Service Staffing

Review of general service work - The review will modernize job roles, administrative support structures and improve career development opportunities for staff.

Many job descriptions were out-of-date, both in terms of content, as well as in terms of technological developments.

Rationalized occupational structures, updated job profiles and clear career paths would be developed reflecting current work requirements and the impact of technology and providing competencies and skills requirements.

An interim proposal was to be submitted to the HRC in 2002 with a final proposal to be submitted by 31/12/2003.

AFH commenced the review of general service work in January 2001. The HRC endorsed the proposals arising out of the general service review on 24 July 2002. Since then AFH has been engaged in extensive discussions with the staff representatives in order to reach agreement. It is now expected that AFH will submit the proposal to the HRC in June 2003.

Supportive Working Environment

In order to be able to attract and retain staff of the highest standard of efficiency and technical competence, FAO must maintain a work environment that recognizes work/family issues as a priority for employees.

The Organization’s policies are outdated or non-existent in many areas that are of considerable importance to individuals in the current global labour market.

a) Teleworking - A teleworking policy that contributes to creating a more flexible workplace has been introduced at headquarters for a trial period of one year.

Individual supervisors handled requests to use information and communications technology to work off-premises on an ad hoc basis.

A formal teleworking policy would be finalized and introduced.

At the end of the trial period, in the beginning of 2003, the experience was to be reviewed to assess whether the current policy should be modified and extended to offices outside headquarters.

The review will identify performance issues, assess (with AFI) any additional communication costs and review impact on staff morale and productivity. In order to complete this review, the trial period has been extended by three months.

In the meantime, AFH continues to monitor the number of teleworking arrangements.

b) Spouse employment - AFH has developed a draft policy for review by senior management prior to consultations with the staff representatives.

The existing policy prohibits the employment of the spouse of a staff member, although the Plan of Action for Women in Development (C 95/14-Sup 1-Rev 1, para. 135) highlights the need for a change.

Staff Rule 302.409 would be amended as may be deemed appropriate.

The initiation of consultations has been delayed to the second quarter 2003 pending completion of an updated review of the practices of other UN organizations that have introduced policies to permit spouse employment under specific conditions.

c) Family-related matters – AFH is conducting a review of the policies in member states and other international organizations on maternity, paternity and parental leave and on the treatment of non-traditional marriages/ domestic partnerships.

FAO’s policies have not kept pace with developments (including ICSC recommendations) in these areas.

AFH would identify areas where it would be feasible for the Organization to introduce new/updated policies.

Action in this area has been postponed as the International Civil Service Commission has indicated its intention to study several of these issues. It was originally foreseen that this ICSC review would take place in 2002, however, due to the press of other work, it has been delayed until 2003.

The increasing devolution of responsibility for the day-to-day management of staff to line managers requires the simplification and streamlining of rules and procedures applicable to staff.

The current rules governing the terms and conditions of service at FAO are numerous, minute and overly prescriptive. With time, they have come to be disseminated from different sources in various documents, which too often renders them difficult to access and understand.

The structure of the Administrative Manual would be modified. Procedures, guidelines, checklists and forms that are subject to frequent changes would be removed. Statement of responsibilities and accountabilities for each Manual Section would be included. An Intranet version of the Manual would be available.

AFH was to complete the review of the Manual sections on human resources by the end of 2002. The remainder of the FAO Manual was be reviewed by the end of 2003.

A detailed review of Manual Chapters III and IV, which deal with human resources, has been undertaken and recommendations for updating, streamlining and simplifying them with a view to making them more user-friendly have been accepted. Work on the revision of the various texts has been initiated.