HR Senior Analyst (Corporate retainer pool coordinator) - maternity cover

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 peace and 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 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labour force — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage the recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

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

Background information - Portfolio Support

Portfolio Support (PS) is a business unit within the IPS function which aims at (a) supporting aspects of the organisational readiness of UNOPS, and (b) managing IPS operations.

Organisational Readiness

UNOPS Organizational readiness is focused primarily on its mandate in infrastructure, project management and procurement. It aims to cover the ad-hoc resource needs of the Regional Portfolios to implement the corporate strategy and address the needs of donors. The PS team supports the UNOPS Regional Portfolios by supplementing their existing resources on demand. This support includes administering the Corporate retainer pool and developing/co-managing other agreements and partnerships.

Support to IPS operations

PS provides timely support to IPS on operational aspects and takes a coordination function in the areas of human resources (HR), general administration, communication, finance and procurement by working in close relationship with other Headquarter (HQ) units, notably the Shared Services Center (SSC). PS also manages the Project of the Year Award (POTYA).

Under the overall supervision of the Portfolio Support Manager, the HR Senior Analyst’s focus is on the development and management of the retainer aspects of the organisational readiness (corporate retainer pool). 

More specifically, the HR Senior Analyst will contribute to the UNOPS organisational readiness by being responsible for (a) analyzing the regional portfolio needs and priorities in terms of retainers, primarily in Infrastructure, Project Management, Procurement and secondarily in Transactional Services, (b) maintaining, managing and keeping engaged the Corporate retainer pool, a pool of retainers to be used primarily by the field offices, in close collaboration with the retainers’ technical supervisors in the HQ practices units, (c) maintaining the systems associated with the corporate retainers and analyzing the data collected to improve the performance of the corporate retainer pool and (d) overseeing the hiring process of the corporate retainers on various assignments.

While the retainer profile search is managed in Google Sheets, the hiring of the retainers on specific assignments, the post-assignment performance management and the payment functions are embedded in the UNOPS ERP system. The HR Senior Analyst coordinates the maintenance of the tool. and his/her analytical work contributes to the continuous improvements of the tool features (including testing exercise before any update release). 

S/he is also part of the hiring process workflow, including receiving the hiring requests to advise on the most appropriate retainer profile for the assignment request received, ensuring timely review and acceptance of the request by all parties involved, and last, ensuring that the performance feedback is obtained after each assignment in parallel of, or prior to initiating the payment. 

Further to the analysis of the UNOPS country offices’ needs, the HR Senior Analyst initiates and coordinates the corporate pool replenishment under the leadership of the Portfolio Support Manager and in collaboration with the Integrated Practice Advice and Support (IPAS) HR team.

The role requires strong coordination and analytical skills, excellent stakeholder management skill, and a sound understanding and knowledge of UNOPS HR policy and processes. The successful candidate should be able to review and analyze profiles and technical experience to match the profile of the candidates/retainers to a specific assignment, as well as analyze and present the data collected through UNOPS systems and Google environment to support the management of the pool of retainers such as it is fit for purpose. Together with the technical supervisors, s/he is co-responsible for the onboarding and engagement of the corporate retainers.

Maintaining the highest degree of personal and professional ethics, the HR Senior Analyst promotes a collaborative, service-focused, quality and results-oriented approach in IPS. The HR Senior Analyst works in close collaboration with the HQ business units and IPAS HR colleagues to successfully maintain a retainer pool addressing the needs of the UNOPS Global Portfolio.


This role is a maternity replacement that can start as early as September, for a 5 to 6 month period (minimum 18 weeks), renewable based on performance and availability of funds.

The HR Senior Analyst will own various tasks as outlined and assigned in PS’s annual work plan, ensuring timely delivery of tasks and reporting on progress against the work plan. More specially, the functions will include inter alia:

1.Support to the UNOPS organisational readiness

• Survey the needs of the UNOPS Global Portfolio based on the regional business plans and priorities, notably using the UNOPS expert indicators, expertise area, and the engagement data.
• Analyze the gaps against various key indicators and identify the priority areas for the building / expansion of the retainer pool.
• Analyze the data from new engagements or engagements being developed and identify possible opportunities for retainer engagement.
• Contribute to the improvement of the processes related to the use of retainers, in close collaboration with the relevant HQ practice unit and field stakeholders.
• Generate, maintain and analyze data on trends, risks and opportunities in relation to the use of the retainers; notably taking into consideration gender, diversity and social inclusion aspects.
• Develop/maintain dashboards or other data visualization tools to facilitate the reporting to management.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the retainer management tool, in close collaboration with the various stakeholders, so it serves both the corporate reporting needs and field offices operational needs. 
• Contribute to assessing annually the impact of the retainer resources at the corporate level.
• Increase visibility of corporate retainers in all UNOPS regions and country offices following the communication strategy and plan developed in collaboration with the IPS Media and Communications Analyst.

• In close collaboration with the IPAS HR team and the technical supervisors, coordinate the recruitment processes to replenish and/or expand the pool of retainers. Coordinate/support the drafting of terms of reference at the desired level.
• Ensure that the retainers’ profiles are regularly updated and shared within the organisation. 
• Act as a focal point for the retainer hiring process and overall management of the pool. 
• Review the hiring requests and ensure that the retainer profile selected matches with the requester needs; propose alternate profiles and other resource options as deemed necessary.
• Ensure that the hiring requests are completed and that the assignment may start within the agreed timeframe. Assist with travel arrangements, where applicable.
• Ensure that feedback is obtained after each assignment, from the requester and from the retainer; act upon negative feedback to help improve the retainer’s performance for his/her next assignment.
• Coordinate the engagement and performance management of the retainers, including contributing aspects such as on-boarding, completion of mandatory learning activities, sharing regular updates to the retainers on the organisation strategies, policies, guidance and tools, and fostering the relationship between the technical supervisors and the retainer personnel encouraging dialogue and two-way constructive feedback.
• Contribute to the regular review of the retainers’ terms of references to ensure they are fit for purpose.
• Coordinate and actively contribute to the promotion of the use of the retainers across the organisation.

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for personnel on areas of expertise.
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice by synthesizing lessons learnt and disseminating best practices in his/her area of work.
• Collect feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and put to use productively.
• Undertake research on a range of issues related to portfolio support and provide content for notes/reports including quarterly and year-end reports for monitoring, statistical and review purposes by management.

• Advanced University Degree (Master’s or equivalent) in Human Resources Management, Business Administration, social or behavioral sciences, or other relevant discipline related to data analytics.

• A first level University degree with a combination of 2 additional years of relevant past experience may be accepted in lieu of advanced university degree.

• A minimum of 2 years of experience in human resources management are required.

• A minimum of 1 year experience with data analysis is required (this may overlap with the human resources management experience).

• Previous experience in managing and maintaining a consultant pool or/and roster is desirable.

• Experience in business statistics, data management, visualization and modeling is desirable, ideally with a focus on one or more of the functional areas for UNOPS (e.g. infrastructure, procurement, project management, human resources, financial management, and other management services).

• Experience in the development sector or working with UN system organizations is desirable. 

• Knowledge of the infrastructure and/or project management and/or procurement sectors is desirable.

• Experience using google suite is a strong asset.

• Experience working on gender, diversity and social inclusion aspects is an asset.

• Experience in multicultural environments, including in developing countries is an advantage.

• Fluency in English is a requirement. 

• Working knowledge of French and/or Spanish and/or Arabic is an advantage.

Contract type: ICA
Contract level: IICA 1
Contract duration: maternity cover (18 weeks)

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

Work environment:

IPS offers a unique work environment in UNOPS headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, located in the UN City building, one of Copenhagen’s landmarks. UNOPS HQ offers a safe, family-friendly environment with multiple opportunities for networking and an active lifestyle in a city known for its excellent urban design and planning.

The IPS team is a diverse team in terms of age, nationalities and family situations.  The team is inclusive and values social and athletic activities like team breakfast, Friday evening networking or sports such as sailing, climbing, running and squash. IPS is very dynamic and welcomes agility, autonomy and self-drive. The work of IPS is oriented towards exciting opportunities which have a corporate, global impact and is in touch with the whole of UNOPS. UNOPS has a hosting agreement with the Government of Denmark under which both national and international candidates are eligible for HQ-based positions. UNOPS officials are exempt from Danish taxes on UN incomes. EU citizens in particular may opt to be registered with the Danish State Administration as an EU migrant worker, and keep the rights associated with that status, or register through UNOPS with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. EU citizens may apply for the free public Danish health insurance or special health card depending on their choice of registration. Non-EU citizens will be registered by UNOPS under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and must purchase their own private health insurance.