UNESCO’s Bureau of Human Resources Management (HRM) is pleased to introduce a new web-based tool to improve medium- to long-term human resources planning. This tool will assist UNESCO in managing the turnover rates anticipated in the future and also provide opportunities for career development (for UNESCO staff members only).

Two work profiles in the field offices, Administrative Officer (P1/2) and Director (P-5/D-1), will be used for this succession planning pilot. Staff members with work experience in UNESCO or other organizations in the UN Common System will be considered.

After a pre-screening of applications (cover letter, answers to questions, CV or other work history, and recent performance appraisals), short-listed applications for each work profile will go to an inter-sectoral panel for a second and final review. Finalists would be expected to take skills tests and/or other assessments. The deadline for applying is Friday, 16 March 2007. The on-line application form and all instructions may be accessed at a new website (http://www.ahrmio.org/) which will be closed down after the deadline.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact a dedicated e-mail: succession@unesco.org.

A report, written by Alan Wild, is now available as a downloadable PDF file.

The latest issue of the Newsletter has just been released and is available as a download from this site, just click on the link below. A hardcopy has also been sent to all members.

This issue features:

* AHRMIO’s First Master Class

* Developing Change Management Capabilities

* Training Event * New AHRMIO Members

* Investing in the United Nations

* 2006 Annual Conference o The Palazzo Zorzi o Conference Programme

* Contacts with the International Public Management Association—IPMA

* News of AHRMIO Members

* Book review

* Member Organizations at 1 June 2006

* Spouse Employment (http://www.permitsfoundation.com/home.htm)

More Information:

* AHRMIONEWSLETTERcopyplus.pdf (doc name AHRMIONEWSLETTERcopyplus_170706.pdf)

The 2006 International Organisations' Conference on Recruitment and Human Resources Development, organised by EUROCONTROL, in collaboration with AHRMIO, took place on 16 June, 2006 in Brussels, Belgium.

More Information:

* Photo_DHRMeeting_160606.pdf (doc name Photo_DHRMeeting_160606)

All members please note that the Report of the General Assembly is available as a downloadable word file.

Only members can access this report. Just go HRM Exchange and then AHRMIO News

ORC Worldwide, in collaboration with AHRMIO, conducted in 2004 a survey of human resource professionals to investigate how they juggle the issues of work-life balance, and the degree to which employer policies and practices in respect of this issue provide assistance in managing the potential for conflict that can arise from competing work and family demands.

Some key findings from the survey:

"The data indicated that the HR profession appears to be one of long working hours."

"One third of North American respondents worked in excess of 50 hours a week, compared with 19 per cent of the European sample."

"HR professionals working in the public sector worked similar hours to those in the private sector."

"Some 60 prcent of the participants regularly or sometimes performed work while on holiday."

"Two thirds of participants reported that they had to undertake business travel on weekends or public holidays either regularly or occasionally, yet few (10 percent) received any compensatory time off."

"Over three-quarters of the participants sometimes or frequently spent time outside of normal working hours emailing colleagues or doing other work-related tasks."

More Information: * orc-irconcepts-summer-05.pdf (doc name orc-irconcepts-summer-05_251105.pdf)

This year’s conference was held in Barcelona, on the campus of ESADE, one of Europe’s leading business schools and a close and trusted collaborator of AHRMIO’s. The challenge with each year’s conference usually lies in trying to match or even exceed the quality of the last one, and once again we believe we have achieved this aim, thanks to the calibre and diversity of the speakers, the excellent facilities and organization, and of course the participants themselves, who this year numbered over 100.

Highlights of a densely packed, varied and provocative programme included the session on integrity in recruitment, on the second day, during which a panel of AHRMIO members led a discussion on this often thorny issue, generating a lot of impassioned debate. A fundamental outcome of this discussion was the notion that Human Resources managers need to lead the way when it comes to integrity within organizations – a position which can require uncommon courage, especially in the face of political pressures.

Excellent presentations were given by Khalid Aziz, of the Aziz Corporation, on communications strategies; by Andrew Pettigrew of Bath University on leadership; by Mike Johnson of Johnson & Associates on “making the best people better”; and by Professor Tamyko Ysa from ESADE on management in international organizations. Furthermore, responding to feedback from previous conferences requesting a greater presence of HR specialists within international organizations, there were two presentations - from Paolo Gallo of EBRD and Nora Godwin of UNICEF - on hands-on HRM issues.

In what has become an AHRMIO tradition, the conference was closed on an artistic and inspirational note, this time by the actor Ben Walden of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, who spoke about leadership using the rousing language of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

In the words of one satisfied conference-goer, “The conference dazzled like a polished diamond.”

The Aziz Corporation is a management consultancy specialising in effective, executive communication and is the UK's leading specialist in the field. The company's founder, Khalid Aziz, spoke at this year's AHRMIO Conference in Barcelona.

For more information visit: http://www.azizcorp.com/index.html

PUBLIC is a creative forum for debate, training, and dissemination of ideas in the public management field at both local and international levels. An initiative supporting innovation in the public sector.

After only one and a half years of existence, the e-bulletin of ESADE's Institute of Public Management (IDGP) already reaches more than 10,000 professionals and academics around the world.

In its first six numbers, PUBLIC has enjoyed the collaboration of top local and international names: Francis Fukuyama (Johns Hopkins University), Henry Mintzberg (McGill University), Michael Barzelay (LSE), Sonia Ospina (Wagner NYU), Steve Kelman (KSG Harvard), Christopher Hood (Oxford University), Christopher Pollitt (Erasmus University), etc.

Visit (and free registration to) PUBLIC at:

http://www.esade.edu/public

The newsletter is available in three different languages: English, Spanish and Catalan.

AHRMIO Board Member Chris de Cooker has edited a book, entitled Accountability, Investigation and Due Process in International Organizations, which brings together a number of papers written by experts, mostly senior and active international civil servants, but also retired staff, analyzing the measures taken in international organizations in order to obtain greater accountability.

Two programmes taught at ESADE have been included in the first Financial Times ranking of second cycle university programmes in Business Management: the second cycle of the Combined Undergraduate Degree in Business Management ranked in sixth place, and the CEMS Programme, which ranked in third position. Among the top 10 rankings, in addition to ESADE, are prestigious universities such as London School of Economics (United Kingdom), HEC (France) and Universität zu Köln (Germany).

The Financial Times has drawn up this first ranking of the 25 best European centres offering Master in Business Management programmes, the equivalent in Spain to the second cycle of the present Combined Undergraduate Degree in Business Management and the precursor of the Bologna Master.

The Declaration of Bologna structures and unifies university education into three linked areas: degree, postgraduate/master and PhD. The full implementation of the Declaration of Bologna is scheduled for 2010 and will suppose a complete revision of the present model of higher education, given that it will mean that educational centres having to change their degree syllabus with the purpose of harmonising university level education throughout Europe.

Since 1958, the Degree in Business Management programme taught at ESADE has been pioneer in offering students a model similar to that proposed in the Declaration of Bologna, with university degrees being split into two clearly-differentiated parts; undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

The Combined Undergraduate Degree in Business Management programme at ESADE is the only programme taught at a Spanish university to be included in the Financial Times ranking, compared with seven centres in France and five in the United Kingdom. Among the series of variables taken into account in drawing up the ranking is the section that measures the percentage of students who found their first job with the help of the centre, known as the placement success ranking: a section in which ESADE holds the leading position in Europe. Similarly, another of ESADE’s strong points is its high degree of internationalisation.

The CEMS Programme and ESADE

ESADE, which is the only Spanish university to teach the CEMS Master Degree, has been positioned third place in the benchmark ranking. The Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) is a European institution made up of the best schools from among the 17 member countries, one school from each country, and more than fifty multinational companies. CEMS was set up in 1988 to respond to the need to train people capable of working and developing professionally in different cultural environments.

ESADE offers students studying the Combined Undergraduate Degree in Business Management the option of taking the CEMS Master in International Management (MIM) as part of their degree, a standardised qualification throughout the universities forming CEMS. This option is especially suited to students who intent to pursue an international-based professional career.

In October 2002, the CEMS Master Degree received the mention of European Master par Excellence by the European Commission, at the recommendation of the European University Association.

AHRMIO Sponsor ORC Worldwide is pleased to conduct a follow-up to the previous four surveys on Dual Careers and International Assignments. The last survey, which was conducted in 2002, attracted 300 participants from Europe, North America, and Asia.

As employers increasingly require a global talent pool and consequent mobility, the barriers to relocation need to be identified and solutions developed. Although many multinational organizations find that dual career issues are a major policy concern, their efforts to address these issues effectively are limited. Some organizations use alternative forms of working such as short-term or commuter assignments, while other employers offer different solutions--some financial but most related to employment assistance.

This survey focuses on the issues facing both employers and working spouses/partners. It will attempt to capture employers' current and likely future efforts to resolve them. The final report will analyze the progress made in the area of dual careers.

Your responses will be kept in the strictest confidence and all participants in the main survey will receive a free copy of the final results. Individual company responses will not be disclosed. Please click the link below to participate:

http://surveys.orcww.com/dynasurv/dualcareers2005/login.asp

The deadline for the survey is March 29th. Should you have any questions, please refer these to Samantha Blackhurst by email (Samantha.Blackhurst@orcww.com) or by phone at +1-212-852-0308.

More Information:

* 2005DualCareersFlyer.pdf (doc name 2005_dual_career_flyer_100305.pdf)

Our 2004 conference in Noordwijk was an excellent success, with many participants calling it the best yet. Our host this year was the European Space Agency, which provided us with excellent facilities at its Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) located on dunes facing the North Sea. The weather was wonderfully squally and - despite the occasional ruined umbrella, and damage done to the ozone layer by the extra hairspray many had to deploy – provided a dramatic backdrop to the conference.

We were fortunate to have a very interesting and high-calibre range of speakers that included an astronaut, an academic, accountants, a poet, an HR consultant and a number of private sector entrepreneurs. More details of the presentations will be provided in the forthcoming newsletter.

As always we welcome suggestions from participants and have given close attention to the feedback forms received. If you would like to make any further comments, please address them to Ben Hobson (ben.hobson@ahrmio.org).

In further pursuit of AHRMIO's research programme, and as part of our collaboration with our sponsors ORC (Organization Resources Counselors), we have developed a questionnaire on the subject of work/life balance, which can be accessed at http://209.208.245.103/dynasurv/ahrmio/login.asp.

The questionnaire is not limited to AHRMIO members, or indeed to those working in the not-for-profit sector, so please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested - it should take no more than 10 minutes.

As we would like to present the results at the AHRMIO annual conference in September, we'd be grateful if you could complete the questionnaire by August 30; naturally we will also distribute the results to those that couldn't attend the conference. Please direct any questions you might have to siobhan.cummins@orcworldwide.co.uk.

AHRMIO has published its second survey of HRM practices on behalf of its organizational membership, in collaboration with the Cranfield School of Management.

Background:

A first report was commissioned in 1999, by 19 United Nations organizations plus the World Bank and IMF, to investigate HR management practices. Each organization filled out a questionnaire, which was designed by academics at Cranfield School of Management in the UK, and the results were benchmarked against the results of an equivalent survey into practices at a number of national governmental organizations. This exercise was then repeated in 2003, with a larger survey group comprised of 30 international organizations, all of which are members of AHRMIO.

Overview:

Governmental and Non-Governmental International Organizations (IOs) are getting better at managing their people. This matters to governments and donors because labour costs are a huge element of the operating costs of nearly every IO. And it matters to those the IOs aim to help because it is through people that they provide their services. Recent research has highlighted the positive steps that have been made as well as the room for continued improvement. Chris Brewster, Professor of International Human Resource Management at Henley Management College in the UK, one of the authors of the research report and a founding AHRMIO board member, says: "this is gratifying, but hardly a surprise. These are complex organizations with missions that are much more complicated than 'making money', and HR managers in this field have to deal with a variety of cultural and political issues as well as being involved in the usual HR work. But there are many excellent HR managers in the international world working on a whole series of initiatives to improve the management of people in ways that create fairness, and improve cost-effectiveness."

Progress since 1999:

* The amount of training given per employee has increased, from two days to five days per annum among professional staff, and its effectiveness is now monitored much more than in 1999.

* More non-standard contracts are being used.

* There has been a large increase since the last survey (from 6% to 32%) in the number of international organizations reporting that over 10% of their staff were employed on a temporary basis. Areas for further improvement:

* Although international organizations now do more monitoring of recruitment and promotion for women and different geographical representations, they do not monitor the employment of disabled people. * The use of techniques such as planned job rotation for longer-term career development remains relatively under-utilized in international organizations.

* The work of HR departments is systematically evaluated in fewer than half of international organizations, though senior management appear to be taking more responsibility for doing so in relation to other staff. The full 38-page report is available, for a fee, for AHRMIO organizational members and is currently being distributed among the participating organizations. For details, please contact Ben Hobson (ben.hobson@ahrmio.org)