HR Business Partner

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Department of Business Operations Services is responsible for providing efficient and effective support services to all programmes and activities of the organization in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in respect of human resources and talent management, administration, budget and finance, supplies, OSS and IT services.

The objective of the Human Resources and Talent Management Unit in EMRO is to ensure that a competent and motivated workforce is available to deliver programme activities in accordance with WHO’s global mission. This is achieved through the provision of sound advice to management, HR planning and succession planning, job design and classification, recruitment and selection, administration of contracts, staff onboarding, staff development and learning, performance management, career and mobility management, and management of staff relations.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

In constant cooperation and dialogue with the assigned clients in the Regional Office and EMR Country Offices, the incumbent is responsible for the following areas:

Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition

• Advocate for best HR practices in organizational planning and designs which are aligned with WHO’s Global Programme of Work.
• Provide expert advice and support to managers to develop the programme’s workforce plans, including succession planning, design of functions and posts description/terms of reference & defining candidate profiles and contractual modalities.
• Partner with the responsible managers to ensure effective implementation of the workforce plan of the client group and oversee the associated HR actions.
• Manage and coordinate recruitment plans for the assigned clients in consultation with the EMR Sourcing and Recruitment team, and ensure competitions are organized in a timely manner, taking the role of HR Representative on selection panels where needed.
• Support the assigned clients with the interpretation of workforce data and statistics against the HR strategies on diversity to meet WHO’s targets.

Strategic HR Partner and Career Management

• Coordinate and monitor all HR actions related to positions and staff based in the client group; onboarding, briefing of newcomers, reassignment/lateral moves, acting arrangements, temporary assignments, loans and secondments, waivers on specific policy requirements, contract extensions, special leaves, separations.
• Monitor the hiring of consultants and interns for the assigned clients, including review of requests for compliance, on-boarding and requests for waivers to HR policies.
• Provide managers with guidance and clarifications on HR policies, rules and regulations; recruitment and selection, contractual modalities, benefits and entitlements, performance management.
• Serve as first point-of-call for the workforce from the assigned clients on all HR related matters and provide counselling, briefing/induction to staff and management. Advise on performance management and evaluations, entitlements, grievances and other forms of conflict resolutions.

Performance and Change Management

• Support managers with implementation of organizational changes through effective change management practices, information sharing, problem-solving, innovation and transformation initiatives.
• Partner with and coach managers and staff through conflict situations to seek mutual understanding and resolution. Diagnose and identify triggers and make recommendations to senior management to mitigate the risk of recurrence.
• Advocate HR policies that support work-life balance and well-being initiatives.
• Ensure compliance of performance management cycles within client groups; promote active engagement of managers and the workforce to instill a culture of continuous performance management and improvement.
• Provide expertise and coaching to managers and staff in the area of performance management and evaluation, including the development of performance improvement plans.

Strategic HR Emergency function:

• Participate in and provide guidance on developing HR planning for events and emergencies; work with incident/hiring managers to develop and review HR plans and budgets and prioritize and forecast critical workforce needs.
• Supervise and coordinate all HR emergency operations linked to targeting pre-recruitment, recruitment, onboarding and end of assignment briefing/debriefing formalities and processes for staff and non-staff deployed for health emergencies. Coordinate with county offices and the Global Service Centre on all aspects of recruitment, contractual and staffing actions.
• Propose improvements to existing policies, processes, tools and reports and participate and/or take the lead in the shaping and developing the same.
• Support capacity building activities on human resources management in the region.

Any other duties

• Perform all other related duties as assigned and backstops and replaces other HR Business Partners when absent to ensure continued workflow of efficiency.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Essential: Master’s degree in human resources management, public or business administration, law, social sciences or another area relevant to the position
• Desirable: Training in other relevant fields would be an advantage

Experience

• Essential: A minimum of 7 years of broad professional HR experience in at least three specialist areas relevant to the position (workforce planning, succession planning, talent acquisition (recruitment and selections), entitlements and benefits, classification, performance and career progression issues, training and leadership development, management of contracts and workforce other than staff, mobility programmes) at increasing levels responsibility with international exposure.
• Proven experience providing advice and guidance to senior management teams.
• Desirable: A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in WHO or other UN system organization.

Use of Language Skills

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English.
• Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of Another WHO official language.

Source: https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=2400665