During the 20th Annual Career Development Roundtable (CDR) held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 23-26 October 2024, the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)/Human Resources Management Service (HRMS) won both prizes it was nominated for in the categories of Decade of Excellence and Employee Engagement in recognition of the EMERGE Programme and Career Tips Thursday, respectively.
The CDR is an event that brings together international organizations around the world to celebrate excellence, innovation, and achievements in HR. This year, four awards were given out in the categories of: Innovation in Recruitment, Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion, and this year’s special award: Decade of Excellence.
The Decade of Excellence award honours past nominees and winners on the long-lasting impact of their initiatives. In its inaugural year in 2017, the EMERGE Programme was recognized for Employee Engagement. The Employee Engagement award is given to organizations which demonstrate innovative approaches to improving employee engagement.
Winning these two awards at the CDR highlights UNOG/HRMS as a center of excellence and showcases the Service’s commitment towards staff and career development. More impressively is the fact that whilst these two initiatives have created local and global impact at the interagency level, they carry a low-cost impact to the Organization as they are organized internally and use existing resources!
Take a moment to learn more about the two award winning initiatives below:
Jointly developed by 11 UN agencies in 2017 (ILO, ITU, OCHA, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOG, UNSSC, WHO and WIPO), this initiative invests in women at the P3 level to accelerate their journey to leadership roles. As of today, there are now 17 UN agencies participating in the programme, and it is currently undergoing its 6th edition.
EMERGE is an ambitious programme that specifically aims to achieve gender parity at the leadership ranks within the UN system by providing high-potential, mid-level female staff to equip them with the necessary skills and confidence to take on greater professional responsibilities.
In a recent impact assessment survey completed by 75 previous participants in September 2024, 77% reported career advancements, with 79% of them earning promotions.
To learn more about EMERGE, visit the website here.
The Career Tips Thursday (CTT) initiative was initially developed at UNOG in response to the feedback received in the Staff Engagement Survey regarding career development satisfaction and was effectively launched in March 2021.
Today, CTT is a collaborative effort between seven UN organisations: UNOG in collaboration with OHR, UNV, UNDP, UNIDO, UNICEF, UN Women and IOM. Its main purpose is to empower staff to manage their own career trajectory in the UN System
The content of Career Tips Thursday sessions covers five core areas essential for career growth and transition: 1) career management, 2) PHP/CV writing, 3) interview techniques, 4) networking, 5) skills, competencies and strengths.
Learn more about Career Tips Thursday here.