Senior Executive Associate

The incumbent serves as the principal assistant to the Director to ensure the smooth, efficient and effective operations of the administrative functions of the Director’s office.

The incumbent will be deployed to emergency operations when required.

Job Description (Organizational context)

• The Director’s office provides the overall leadership and coherence of the programme across the Organization. It ensures harmonized strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation of its implementation, assures the quality and timeliness of the delivery on the objectives of the programme, builds relations across the three levels of the Organization and with other technical areas of WHO, and facilitates the work of the Director in managing his/her day-to-day obligations and ensuring the quality and timeliness of related preparations and products.
• Duties require ongoing contacts with a broad range of staff at all levels for administrative matters and arrangement of meetings.  Work also involves contacts with WHO regional and country offices to organize missions, meetings and follow-up on travel arrangements.  Contacts are also with senior government officials, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other counterparts to provide information and to organize meetings and teleconferences.
• The Senior Executive Associate reports to the Director and works under his/her supervision on the basis of general instructions, and his/her own experience and precedents.  The incumbent is responsible for ensuring compliance with WHO Staff Rules and Regulations, WHO eManual, WHO Secretaries handbook, IT manuals and standard operating procedure.
• Work is subject to heavy demands and frequently changing needs on an ongoing and unpredictable basis, often with tight deadlines, requiring adaptation of schedules and priorities accordingly while maintaining attention to details and protocol.  Work is performed independently and by taking initiative.  Work is reviewed on an ad hoc basis by supervisor for meeting expectations and overall quality.
• Duties require ongoing contacts with a broad range of staff at all levels for administrative matters and arrangement of meetings.  Work also involves contacts with WHO regional and country offices to organize missions, meetings and follow-up on travel arrangements.  Contacts are also with senior government officials, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other counterparts to provide information and to organize meetings and teleconferences.

Summary of Assigned Duties

Within the delegated authority, the incumbent will be responsible for the following duties:

Support to Division Director

Principal channel of correspondences:

• Screen all incoming correspondence, documents and reports.
• Identify important correspondence requiring urgent attention, ensures proper and prompt distribution and/or circulation to related units.
• Review all outgoing correspondence for accuracy of information, format, conformity with policies and quality standards.

Preparation of Director’s travels and meetings:

• Make travel arrangements for the supervisor, ensuring compliance with regulations and lead time.
• Collect background information and prepare briefing/meeting materials for the supervisor, including those for country visits, Regional Committee meetings, regional and country offices meetings, Executive Board (EB) and World Health Assembly (WHA).
• Working closely with the responsible officer and relevant technical focal points, coordinate appointments of the Director and organize programmes for visitors, organize periodic Division meetings, prepare agenda, documents for discussion and relevant presentations, take notes and prepare minutes and notes for the record.  Follow-up on action points decided upon during  core management meetings.  Arrange video and teleconferences.

Office Management

• Plan and organize administrative work within the Division, distribute assignments to other support staff in an equitable manner, ensure proper coverage during absences and peak periods in consultation with respective Coordinators.  Establish and maintain the system to monitor work progress and initiate follow-up actions with concerned staff to ensure meeting the deadlines.  Periodically review internal working procedures and record-keeping systems and recommend improvement as needed.
• Word process and check speeches, reports and other documents (often of confidential nature), researching background information and annotating documents/speeches, as instructed or on own initiative, and ensure that information is distributed to all parties concerned.  Verify and collate inputs from various programme areas and units for the preparation of documents and information.
• Provide guidance to secretaries and administrative assistants on WPRO guidelines and procedures and GSM processes and steps, coaching staff, as needed.  Conduct meetings with General Service (GS) staff to provide updates, share information, discuss problematic issues, and identify the best way to enhance communication and cooperation between the units.  Review the completed work of support staff and provide input into performance appraisals as requested.  Identify training needs of administrative support staff and communicate them to supervisors and Staff Development and Learning.
• Liaise with local and non-local authorities to obtain information on behalf of the Director on a variety of issues as they arise, and maintain electronic and paper files to ensure that Director has access to information at all times including confidential and sensitive data as well as contact data to access counterparts.
• Analyse conflict situations between GS-staff within the Division and act as a mediator, proposing conflict resolution interventions to the Director.
• Serve as Division’s focal point on Global Management System (GSM) administrative actions.
• Initiate or assist other staff with initiating administrative and/or programme-related actions in GSM.  Monitor actions submitted in GSM to ensure prompt action and ensure proper submissions before approval is granted.  Brief new staff, both professional and general service level, on the use of GSM self-service module and relevant administrative procedures.
• Maintain liaison with relevant technical and administrative units such as Administrative Services Unit (ASU) and Information Technology and Administration (ITA) and country offices on administrative/IT matters to facilitate implementation of programme activities, including recruitment, local cost requests, procurement of supplies, equipments and services, fellowships, study tours, meetings, workshops and the like.  Initiate relevant administrative formalities and correspondences.
• Serve as the Division’s Leave Administrator and ensure leave requests are properly filed, approved and confirmed in GSM including verification of leave balances of staff at the end of the calendar year, and certify correct leave data for separating employees.
• Monitor preparations for Governing Bodies meetings and ensure timely and accurate submission of specific documents tabled for EB and WHA discussions and Resolutions.  Liaise with Programme Areas/Teams, Governing Bodies and Permanent Missions, as requested.
• Monitor/allocate office space in consultation with supervisor and ASU, acting as a focal point for staff movement within the programme area.  Liaise with ITA on the matters related to installation and maintenance of computers, printers/scanners/faxes and telephone equipments.

Other Duties

• Upon request, provide support, backstopping and gap-filling for emergency activities at any level of the Organization or scale of emergency.
• Perform other related duties, as requested by supervisor, including provision of support to other areas of work and teams or programme areas within the Division, as required.

Qualifications

Education

• Essential: Completion of a secondary education or equivalent.
• Desirable: University degree or additional higher education an advantage. Training or certification in administrative systems, especially United Nations (UN)-related.

Experience

• Essential: A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible work experience relevant to the position (in one or more of the following programme support areas: programme management, finance, human resources, general administration).
• Desirable: Experience in administrative support positions within WHO or another United Nations agency, with at least three years supporting a large team. Experience in enterprise resource planning system.

Skills

• Mastery in the use of standard office computer software, note taking and operation of computerized systems and databases.
• Deep knowledge of procedures and practices, rules and regulations in an administrative support area in a United Nations or WHO country office.
• Knowledge and skills to train, brief and explain administrative procedures to other staff members.
• Demonstrated financial accounting skills.
• Ability to review, write/draft routine and non-routine correspondence and reports using proper grammar, punctuation and style.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective client relationships and proactivity in servicing clients

Use of Language Skills

• Essential: Expert knowledge of written and spoken English.

Source: https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=2406170