Team Assistant Roster

 The objective of the Division of Business Operations (BOS) is to support the work of WHO in the European Region through delivery of services within the areas of human resources, finance, contracting and procurement, legal advice, information & communications technology, printing, security, facilities management, fixed assets, conference support, travel and transport, safeguarding personnel and staff wellness and well-being. As an enabling function, the division enhances the productivity of the health technical programmes and country offices while at the same time overseeing accountability, transparency and compliance with WHO administrative rules and regulations. The BOS division strives to strengthen the capacity of WHO/Europe to react in an agile way to external and internal changes. The division projects are designed to increase productivity, ensure financial sustainability of the region’s structures, reinforce a client-oriented culture, strengthen country office capacities, and drive strategic initiatives to enhance staff motivation and well-being.

The incumbent works on the basis of general instructions, own experience and precedents, following WHO or Division-specific procedures and practices, rules and regulations, to ensure  smooth work flow in the assigned area of work. The incumbent is encouraged to seek guidance for unusual issues.

Most of the work is controlled for correctness and appropriateness by the incumbent.

Work is reviewed on an ad hoc basis by supervisors for meeting expectations and overall quality; correspondence is signed or cleared by originator. Specific assignments are checked by the originator and/or the Assistant to the Head/Director.

The incumbent is relied upon to brief colleagues on WHO and Division specific administrative procedures and practices.

Duties:

Within the delegated authority, the incumbent is assigned all or part of the following responsibilities:

General:

• Receive visitors and telephone calls   with tact and discretion and acts according to the nature and urgency of each, including redirecting as appropriate.
• Provide background information for appointments with official visitors and/or staff members.
• Monitor requests for goods and services, including receipt, payment and inventory requirements.
• Draft general or administrative correspondence on own initiative or on the basis of instructions; finalize correspondence/reports for signature/clearance.
• Verify that outgoing correspondence is presented in accordance with WHO and department styles and checking language, grammar and accuracy prior to submitting for signature and clearance.
• Analyze incoming correspondence and requests in the light of background material, instructions, policies and precedents, researching, obtaining and attaching background information in anticipation of the responsible officer’s needs, or redirecting them as appropriate; identify and highlight incoming documents and attach background information and identify areas requiring action by professional staff, drawing their attention to specific items.
• Ensure that technical reports and documents are in line with WHO standards, rules, practices and procedures, editing and correcting them as necessary prior to their submission for signature or clearance of relevant authority.
• Using appropriate tracking tools, follow-up on and ensure that target dates and deadlines are met, and that correspondence and queries are responded to in a timely manner.

Human Resources:

• Ensure the timely appointment/renewal of contracts, initiating requests for temporary and fixed-term staff in the HR Action Plan.

Procurement:

• Initiate, through Oracle/GSM procurement module, contracts for consultants, Agreements for Performance of Work (APW), and other contract modalities. Monitor and record receipt of deliverables and initiate and monitor payments as needed.
• Initiate, through Oracle/GSM procurement module, requisitions for goods procurement, and monitor and receipt of deliverables.

Budget & Finance:

• Assists in the monitoring and progress review of projects and tasks in the GSM/Oracle work plan.
• Provides team members with timely information on project and task budget ceilings, award budgets, expenditure, and funds available, as required.
• Monitors income and expenditures for planning purposes.
• Promptly follows-up on financial, budgetary and any outstanding issues concerning the team/department, including ensuring timely processing of committal documents.
• Assists in the preparation of financial and technical progress reports to donors.

Information Management:

• In close collaboration with other support staff, create and/or maintain filing systems; continual review of filing system to ensure information is up to date and effectively and efficiently used.
• Obtain documents and information from in-house and external sources as required; perform information searches (library, internet) as requested.

Meeting Administration:

• Arrange, coordinate and lead administrative preparation for meetings, seminars, workshops, including letters of invitation, costs calculation and travel requests; assisting with preparation of documents, dispatching of materials and liaising with participants and others involved.
• Prepare presentations using PowerPoint and other software packages on own initiative or on the basis of instructions.
• Schedule weekly team and ad hoc meetings, according to schedules and need; taking and preparation of minutes.
• Obtain briefing and background materials for meetings, seminars, workshops, etc. to be attended by the team’s professional staff, checking their availability and ensuring they have the appropriate briefing files and documents.

Travel:

• Using GSM/Oracle, prepare travel requests for official WHO travel. Make flight and hotel reservations, prepare travel files and deal with other related matters as requested or on own initiative.

Other Duties:

• Perform other related duties as required or instructed, including providing support to other areas of work

Functional Knowledge and Skills:

• Strong skills to work independently.
• Strong organization and office skills, as well as skills in note taking and minute writing.
• Sound knowledge and skills using a variety of office and computer packages.
• Sound knowledge of WHO and/or UN administrative rules and regulations, procedures and practices. The ability to multitask and work under pressure.
• The ability to exercise discretion at all times in judging the importance, urgency and confidential nature various issues and tact when dealing with staff and external partners.

Education Qualifications:

• Essential: Completion of secondary school education or equivalent.

Experience

Essential:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in secretarial or administrative positions.

Source: https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=2403828