IFAD’s Strategic Workforce Plan
The SWP in IFAD’s planning and
performance management system
• The SWP is IFAD’s first exercise in planning human
resources from an overall corporate perspective
• It is the missing element of a comprehensive
results planning and performance management
system comprised of:
–
–
–
–
The results measurement framework
The strategic framework
The medium term plan
The results-based/zero-based budget
The objective of the SWP
• To align human resources (numbers, skills and
location) with the achievement of the results
articulated in the RMF:
– Greater development results
– Greater institutional efficiency
The approach
• Define the current situation of alignment with
development objectives and efficiency, taking
into account evolving operational
requirements
• Specify the workforce profile that we need to
have to achieve objectives
• Lay out the path from where we are to where
we want to be
The current situation – operational
area
• IFAD has:
– Increased the total workforce in programmes (to
about 63 per cent of the total workforce)
– Increased the segment of the operational
workforce based in IFAD country offices (about 80
staff today)
– Increased functional training and skill
development for operational staff
PMD and Non-PMD Workforce FTEs
(staff, temporary staff and consultants)
Strategic issues in the operational
workforce
• Key strategic and medium-term requirements are
for:
– Further growth in professional staffing in operations
(particularly to support the growing programme of
work, as well as implementation support and
supervision roles)
– Greater percentage of professional operational staff to
be based in ICOs
– Reduced dependence on consultants and temporary
staff
– More structured careers oriented to learning and skill
development
PMD professional staff: HQ and ICO
(October 2010)
Priority objectives for the operational
workforce
• Growth in professional staff in the ICOs
(including greater out-posting of country
programme managers in ICOs)
• Integration of some functions performed by
consultants and temporary staff into the
regular professional staff cadre
• Focus on capacity development capitalizing on
rotation among regions and between HQ and
ICOs
The non-operational workforce: trends
• Size has remained static while operational
workforce has increased quickly
• The level of support activities provided by this
workforce has risen dramatically
• IFAD is approaching the RMF target of a
maximum of 35 per cent of the workforce in
non-operational roles
• In many areas the workload is approaching
unsustainable levels
Strategic issues for the nonoperational workforce
• In spite of high workload, the level of this
segment may need to be reduced –
– To contain costs
– To shift more resources into the operational area
• There is an emerging gap between the existing
skill mix and the professional requirements of
important areas of activity
Issues cutting across both areas
• High ratio between general service and
professional staff (approximately 1:1)
– (but less if the large professional consultant
workforce is taken into account – and if the
phenomenon of mis-classification is recognized)
• High cost of staff in certain segments –
relative to comparators
Priority objectives in non-operational
areas
• Reduce the ratio between non-operational
and operational workforce
• Reduce the ratio between general service and
professional staff
• Improve the skills mix in key functional areas
– Financial administration
– Human resource management
• Contain costs to allow resource shifts to the
operational area
Immediate actions in relation to nonoperational workforce and crosscutting issues
• Accelerate rotation to better fit skills to
corporate requirements (including from nonoperational to operational areas)
• Freeze recruitment against general service
positions from outside IFAD
• Freeze automatic pay increases
Strategic actions in non-operational
areas
• Reduce the requirement for labour:
– Process streamlining
– Systematic business process automation
• Reduce the unit cost of labour:
– Take advantage of decentralization and
outsourcing
– Better align unit labour costs with comparators
• Raise the professional component through
rotation, recruitment and re-training
Towards a changed workforce profile
Next steps
• Align staffing budgets with general thrusts of strategy
• Finalize and approve departmental and divisional level
plans (supported by job audits) for:
–
–
–
–
Necessary staffing level (with qualifications and location)
Rotation
Training
Recruitment
• Ensure compliance of all human resource management
actions with approved plans
• Implement the Action Plans described in tables 9, 10, and
11
• Use the new human resource management tools to achieve
change