Do you want a gym in the renovated Palais? | Voulez-vous un centre de remise en forme au Palais ?

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Published on Friday, 17 May 2019 14:29

As you may be aware, the Palais renovations (SHP) will lead to a change in the availability and type of activity spaces available for staff. Among those created would be a sports activity space, equipped with showers and changing rooms, on the ground floor of the E-building. This space would largely meet the needs of the current staff fitness and wellness clubs operating in the Palais.

However, a proposal has also been made to use much of this space to install a gym consisting of cardio, weights and group class areas. In line with standard practice, a private company would have a concession to supply and maintain the equipment, operate the facility and provide classes in return for collecting a monthly/annual fee. As the space would be managed by the concessionaire, the bulk of the space would no longer be available to staff clubs for their activities.

In order to help the Council reach a decision on this we would be grateful if you could please fill in our brief survey on the topic. Please note that this survey is completely anonymous and the deadline for completing the survey is 24 May.

Click here to access the survey

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Equitable geographical representation? | Représentation géographique équitable ?

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Published on Wednesday, 15 May 2019 13:59

We can all agree that the diversity of the United Nations is critical to its credibility, functioning and effectiveness in addressing human rights issues, peace and security, and meeting the Sustainable Developments Goals in the 21^st century.

While the UN Charter emphasizes that equitable geographical representation is an important aspect of human resources management for the organization, this continues to remain a challenge, particularly with respect to developing countries.

Despite efforts, progress in improving the equal representation of geographical regions in the staff of the Secretariat has been slow. It is being increasingly acknowledged that greater efforts need to be made to enhance the diversity of the organization. The Secretary-General’s 2017 report on Management Reform addressed the importance of geographical representation, stating that: “Human resources management policies must proactively contribute to greater geographical and regional diversity of the workforce.” Further to this in March of this year, letters were sent to all the heads of departments in the Secretariat informing that the 2019 Senior Managers’ Compacts include a performance measure objective “commitment to diversity” containing the objective of achieving a geographically diverse workforce.

In view of this and following inquiries/requests from many of you about making the UN more representative, we raised this issue during the meeting held with the Director General of UNOG last month. We agreed to work together to see how progress can be made in achieving equitable geographical representation at UNOG.

For more information about this issue, you can refer to the April issue of the UN Special devoted to the subject as well as the article “We are also part of the 51%” about implementing the UN’s Gender Parity Strategy while ensuring improved geographical representation and diversity, which was recently published on iSeek.

We will keep you informed of any developments in this regard and feel free to share your ideas with us.

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Improvements to the flexible working arrangements policy that will help your work-life balance | Améliorations de la politique sur le travail souple pour un meilleur équilibre vie professionnelle/privée

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Published on Wednesday, 08 May 2019 17:47

As you may know, we have long been encouraging the greater use of flexible working arrangements, particularly in order to support you work-life balance and help the Secretary-General implement his gender parity policy.

Among the changes we have been calling for, based on your feedback to us, are greater use of telecommuting and the ability to work from a different location when there are compelling personal circumstances.

Last year we highlighted these concerns to the Staff-Management Committee.

We are pleased to inform you that the new policy is now out and can be read here.

Improvements include:

·      Up to three days a week of telecommuting within the duty station. The previous ceiling was two days a week.

·      Up to six months of telecommuting may be considered outside the duty station, when there are compelling personal circumstances.

·      Compressed working schedule of five working days in four and a half, in addition to the previous option of ten working days in nine.

The policy on staggered working hours and scheduled break for external learning continues as before.

We are aware that management discretion remains a requirement in order to avail of this policy. Should obtaining this be a challenge for you, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

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Summer camps for your children! | Camps d’été spécialement organisés pour vos enfants ! 2019

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Published on Tuesday, 07 May 2019 15:05

With the school summer holidays fast approaching, we are pleased to inform you that we were able to create a special summer camp for the children of UN staff in partnership with Mouvement de la Jeunesse Suisse Romande (MJSR). We have also been able to obtain discounts with other holiday camp organisers in Geneva and Vaud. We hope that you and your children will make the most of these this summer.

Kindly note that the Staff Coordinating Council does not assume responsibility for any relations between camp organizers and staff members.

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