STU/66th Council/15/031
18 September 2015

Career Development in UNESCO:
Results of STU Survey

We are pleased to share with you the results of the survey launched this summer by STU on Career Development.

Nearly 500 colleagues have expressed their opinion and expectations on the subject.

The most important findings of the survey are as follows:

• 99% of the colleagues wish to have more opportunities for career advancement at UNESCO
• 52% of colleagues do not expect their career to develop in the short/medium term
• 30% of colleagues seem confident about their future career at UNESCO and retain the tools proposed by HRM useful
• 18% of colleagues are confident about their future career at UNESCO but feel that this is only possible through their own initiatives, their supervisors support or their personal network to achieve their goals
• 21% of colleagues have been in the same grade for more than 11 years.

The comments from the survey indicate that the majority of colleagues do not believe that HRM’s current career development initiatives respond to their real needs. This could be explained by the fact that these initiatives place the main responsibility of career development on staff members, with no further strategy or planning expected from management (Career Guide for UNESCO Staff Members). Tasks such as writing a CV or preparing for an interview become minor issues when facing major institutional barriers to career development, such as lack of human resources development strategies, external recruitment processes, political appointments, frequent opacity of internal recruitment, absence of a transparent mobility mechanism, etc.

The survey plus the comments also indicate that career development opportunities are perceived to be quite different for each staff category. Professional staff would have more opportunities for mobility and promotion, whereas General Service staff would suffer the most from the constant cuts and downgrading of posts available. Most GS colleagues find themselves “stuck” in the same job for many years. This concern has been amplified since the introduction of generic job descriptions for GS staff, which very seldom reflect the actual work carried out.

Following the survey, the STU takes this opportunity to urge the Director- General to develop a real career development policy for UNESCO , with clear goals and mechanisms, in which all levels of hierarchy become accountable for their responsibilities in human resources management, including knowledge and skills development, career development planning, training and overall merit recognition.

Within this context, the STU regrets that ZERO USD is foreseen for training in the 518 million USD expenditure plan scenario for the next biennium (2 million in the 653 million scenario). If this expenditure plan is approved as it is, this will be the third consecutive biennium without any training budget.

Therefore the STU pleads with the Director-General to raise this issue with the Member States so as to comply with the Auditor’s recommendations (196 EX/23, Part III), by allocating financial resources to training as a fundamental component of an overall career development policy.