Chief Talent Acquisition

The OSCE Secretariat in Vienna assists the Chairpersonship in its activities, and provides operational and administrative support to the field operations, and, as appropriate, to other institutions. 

The Department of Human Resources (DHR) ensures that the OSCE has the human resources capacity necessary to successfully implement its mandates. DHR sets the policies and provides services in the areas of talent acquisition, administration of benefits and entitlements, payroll, performance management, talent development, and policy and employee relations across the Organization.

Talent Acquisition Unit is responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of recruitment and selection strategies, frameworks, standard operating procedures and guidelines, related outreach and branding; timely and accurate workforce and recruitment planning; administration of the recruitment and selection procedures for the OSCE Secretariat and for high-level international positions in other OSCE executive structures. It also facilitates exchange with and consultation by OSCE executive structures regarding appointment/assignment of other international fixed-term mission members.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Chief, Talent Acquisition is primarily responsible for developing, formulating and adapting recruitment-related strategies, frameworks, standard operating procedures and guidelines; managing a thorough and timely recruitment and selection of international and locally-contracted Secretariat staff, high-level international officials in OSCE field operations; overseeing rule-compliant recruitment and selection of temporary staff, consultants and junior-level professionals at the Secretariat; as well as overseeing the Organization’s job design and job classification system. In close collaboration with the Chief, HR Analytics, Systems, and Payroll, the incumbent is also responsible for development of the recruitment systems and tools.

As one of the senior staff of DHR, the incumbent assists and, as necessary, advises the Deputy Director for Human Resources (DD/DHR) and Director for Human Resources (D/DHR) in the discharge of his/her functions by providing advice and functional support in the development, implementation, maintenance, monitoring and co-ordination of talent acquisition strategies, frameworks, procedures, tools, reports, training and communication to the Department and Secretariat staff, OSCE Delegations, OSCE Institutions and Field Operations.

Chief, Talent Acquisition reports directly to the Deputy Director for Human Resources, while the Director for Human Resources serves as the second-level supervisor. In turn, Chief, Talent Acquisition supervises one Talent Acquisition Officer, one Associate Talent Acquisition Officer and one Junior Professional Officer, while acting as second-level supervisor to two Talent Acquisition Associates and a number of Talent Acquisition Assistants.

More specifically, the successful candidate will be tasked with the following duties:

• Co-ordinating workforce planning in close collaboration with clients and stakeholders, gaining insights into future hiring needs and proactively advising on strategies to meet organizational priorities, including achieving or maintaining gender parity and geographical diversity;
• Leading the team in thorough and timely recruitment and selection of international and locally-contracted staff members, temporary staff, consultants, junior-level professionals and interns at the Secretariat, as well as in supporting the recruitment of international contracted and seconded mission members in the Institutions and field operations, to the extent required;
• Leading the development and delivery of employer branding and outreach strategies and initiatives to facilitate reliable rosters and pipelines of highly qualified, diverse candidates from across all participating States; to that end, partnering with participating States and other stakeholders to conceptualize innovative measures in improving sourcing, branding and outreach and thus enhance the pool of qualified candidates and market OSCE employment opportunities;
• Ensuring ongoing capacity-building of the talent acquisition function regarding modern talent acquisition approaches; promoting best practices and modern recruiting methods across the Organization; conceptualizing strategies, frameworks, standard operating procedures and tools to ensure the Organization is able to recruit best available talent based on merit and in compliance with the Organization’s regulatory framework and best practices;
• Cultivating effective relationships within the Organization and the hiring community (appointing authorities, hiring managers, HR professionals), enhancing the recruiting process and selection decisions; driving efforts to recruit diverse talent; delivering innovative solutions to attract under-represented diverse candidates; in close collaboration with the HR Analytics team developing metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and related reporting to promote effective and efficient service delivery;
• Reviewing and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of recruitment and selection tools and procedures with the objective to achieve both solid and thorough candidate vetting as well as cost-control; participating in all stages of recruitment and selection procedures operations as required, in particular for higher-level posts;
• Within delegated authority, dealing with specific policy and decision-making issues as indicated by the supervisors or identified in the course of duty and actively contributing to the development of solutions; this includes, but is not limited to, overseeing the implementation of the Organization’s job design and job classification system;
• Fostering a positive workplace environment that promotes internal communication, teamwork and client orientation; ensuring that the work of the unit is integrated into coherent and impactful deliverables; providing leadership on all aspects of people management in the unit, including task distribution and performance management and development; ensuring optimal management of allocated resources;
• Performing other relevant duties as assigned.

Necessary Qualifications:

• A second-level university degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Management, or a related field, such as Law, Social and Political Sciences, Economics, Education and Psychology; a first-level university degree in the said fields in combination with two additional years of relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of the second-level university degree;
• A minimum of seven years (nine years with a relevant first-level university degree) of progressively responsible professional hands-on experience in talent acquisition, preferably within an international environment;
• Proven experience in managing the full recruitment process, from sourcing to interviewing, onboarding and retention strategies;
• Experience working across different industries or various business functions is desirable to demonstrate a broad understanding of recruitment needs;
• A thorough understanding of HR management principles and practices and organizational and general management concepts;
• Professional experience in other areas of HR management (talent development, performance management, people analytics, staff administration, HR policy) is highly desirable;
• Proven experience in supervising and leading teams with diverse functions and responsibilities;
• Proven experience in business process improvement and automation/digitalization is desirable;
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, innovate and manage change;
• Professional fluency in English with excellent communication (both oral and written) skills; knowledge of other OSCE official languages is considered an asset;
• Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, and an ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;
• Ability and willingness to work as a member of team, with people of different cultural, and religious backgrounds, different gender, and diverse political views, while maintaining impartiality and objectivity;
• Computer literacy with practical experience using Microsoft applications.

Source: https://vacancies.osce.org/jobs/chief-talent-acquisition-p4-3733