Human Resources Specialist - Surge Capacity

Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the UNOPS Integrated Practice Advice and Support (IPAS) serves all the regions and headquarters, primarily with advice and solutions to everyday implementation challenges. IPAS consists of a diverse team of subject matter experts in the six practice areas of HR, Administration, Legal, Finance, Procurement, Project Management and Infrastructure. IPAS has three main roles:

Support to operations in the field offices: IPAS provides timely advice and supports actively finding of solutions to everyday implementation challenges, based on policy and best practices. It also provides operational support in specific areas.

Business efficiency: IPAS recommends changes to policies, processes and operating standards based on the feedback and experience of the field offices. IPAS also ensures transparent and efficient project implementation, in line with policy and business needs. 

Body of knowledge: IPAS contributes to research and coordination within the policy groups and project practitioners. It provides structured knowledge and subject matter expertise which is used across practice areas to provide coherent and tailored advice to the requesting offices.

Faced with recurring demands for such services, IPAS has been given the responsibility to create a Surge Capacity team to meet the needs of UNOPS field offices. These needs include but are not limited to providing personnel for quick inception of new projects, supporting emergency responses, as well as covering gaps after unexpected departure of colleagues whose roles are critical to the operations of the office.

IPAS is now hiring committed colleagues to be part of this Surge Capacity team in the areas of HR, Procurement and Project Management / Infrastructure. We are looking for candidates from all around the world who are passionate about our mission and values, and looking forward to making a difference for people in need.

As a Human Resources Specialist - Surge Capacity, you will be providing HR support to UNOPS field offices globally. You will be assigned to surge missions with the objective to support offices that require rapid HR support,  e.g. at the inception of a project, or cover a gap between recruitments following the unexpected departure of an HR colleague. 

Frequent travel to field offices, including to hardship locations is expected. Remote support may also happen, depending on the nature of the assignment and clients’ preferences, as well as potential limitations to travel due to external factors/global context.

As the face of IPAS  in the field, you will be required to be a role model by leveraging a business partnering approach in every assignment. You will be responsible for providing advisory support on complex recruitment exercises, technical HR advice, operational support, and capacity building in field offices, always with the aim of increasing quality, professionalism and creating efficiencies. Your work will focus on identifying challenges and providing innovative solutions to ensure high quality of HR services across the organisation. This also involves the use of data analytics to enable business  decisions, for example by advising field offices in the development of monitoring/planning tools and dashboards for HR activities.  In the performance of your functions, you will benefit from expert technical advice from IPAS HR colleagues if/when needed. 

When not supporting a field office, the Human Resources Specialist will work with the IPAS Human Resources (HR) team based in Copenhagen. IPAS HR is a team of 11 colleagues (and 11 different nationalities) providing HR advice and support to UNOPS field offices and Headquarters.

You will report to the IPAS Manager, and have a secondary reporting line to the IPAS HR Advisor when not deployed to a field assignment. When deployed to a field assignment, your primary reporting line will be to the manager of the position you will fill.

The functions/responsibilities/key results of this job description are generic and may not always be applicable, nor be comprehensive, for all missions. The specific tasks and deliverables for each assignment may vary and will be detailed in the terms of reference developed for each assignment by the requesting office/unit. The findings will be addressed in a assignment report.  

Summary of Functions:

1. The main responsibility of the HR Specialist - Surge Capacity will be to provide HR surge support to Field offices - with travel and sometimes remotely. 

2. The HR Specialist will be contributing to knowledge building and knowledge sharing at field level.

3. During times of no field support requests, the HR Specialist will support the IPAS HR team with a focus on advisory support

1. Provides surge HR support to Field Offices, including but not limited to the following:

• Manages the local HR team, role modeling a business partnering approach and ensuring issues are addressed in a smooth and efficient manner

• Advisory support to HR processes (including support to complex recruitment exercises, restructuring exercises and other HR processes), with the objective that timely actions are taken to avoid delays in project implementation. 

• Advice on priorities and HR planning with clear definition of timelines, roles and responsibilities

• Build rapport with hiring managers, ensuring their staffing needs are forecasted and recruitment planning meetings are conducted

• Advice on outreach efforts, design of outreach plans and strategies

• Make recommendations for business process improvements and efficiency gains in HR management at office level

2. Leveraging the experience gained through the exposure in different assignments, contribute to the knowledge building and knowledge sharing  and business efficiency in field offices, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Contributes to knowledge management projects

• Provide suggestions for business processes and policy improvements

• Contribute to mainstreaming the use of Data Analytics to inform HR actions

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for personnel on HR-related topics

• Contribute to HR knowledge networks and communities of practice by providing collaborative synthesis of lessons learnt and dissemination of best practices in human resources management

• Collect feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and utilize these productively. 

• Actively interact with HR practitioners to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices.

3. When not on assignment, the incumbent will support the IPAS HR advisory team, e.g. provide advisory and operational support to the clients of IPAS HR under the supervision of IPAS HR Team leader. This will include 

• Provide consistent advisory support on the application, interpretation and adoption of corporate policies, methodologies, guidance and processes related to UNOPS HR; and how to embed best practices in HR with an emphasis on risk management;

• Review requests for exceptions from policy, provide sound recommendations to policy owners

• Review HR aspects of project agreements, with a focus on identifying HR risks and opportunities in close collaboration with other IPAS reviewers and the IPAS HR Team Lead

• Actively contribute to data analytics projects and initiatives of IPAS HR, with a focus on innovation and business efficiency. 

An advanced University degree preferably in Human Resources Management, International Relations, Psychology, Business Administration, Social/Behavioral Sciences or related field is required.

A Bachelor degree with an additional 2 years of experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree.

• A minimum of 5 years  of experience in an international environment is required, in functions related to HR advisory. 

• Within these 5 years:

a) a minimum of one year of experience managing HR operations is required. 

b) a minimum of one year of experience working with HR datasets. 

• Prior experience managing a restructuring exercise will be a distinct advantage.

• Prior experience in a UN Agency will be a strong asset, as the selected candidate will be expected to have a steep learning curve. 

• Prior experience working in a developing country would be a strong asset.

Perfect command of both written and spoken English is a strict requirement. Knowledge of another UN language such as French or Spanish would be a distinct asset.

Others: 

The person in this position will be required to frequently travel to different locations around the world, including hardship locations. Missions abroad may last for several weeks/up to a maximum of 3 months. Availability to travel is therefore a prerequisite for this position, even though some of the missions may be conducted remotely.

Contract type: IICA
Contract level: IICA 2
Contract duration: Ongoing/Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.