Long term solutions and quick wins
26 September 2008

1 Introduction .................................................. Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
2 Key performance-related challenges at the country level and their implications ..... 5
3 Long-term solutions ............................................................................................... 8
4 Quick wins ........................................................................................................... 10
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Several performance-management issues have been observed at the country level. Longerterm and sustained interventions to address these issues will require a thorough processes and systems review and will require broad and coordinated action at the headquarters level. There are, however, some quick wins that UNCTs can adopt at the country level, within the existing processes and systems. These can help leverage the performance management system in support of UN Coherence.
Performance-management issue at the country level
Most agencies’ job
Longer-term solution Quick win descriptions do not reflect staff involvement with the interagency agenda and with
UN Coherence

Comprehensive job descriptions review by all agencies

Inclusion of UN Coherence results in the performance appraisal (also when job descriptions do not reflect
Performance management systems do not fully support the involvement in the interagency agenda and the UN
Coherence process

Clear identification of competencies needed in support of the inter-agency agenda and UN Coherence

Establishment of clear correlation between
UN Coherence activities)

Full UNCT participation in the RC/UNCT Appraisal
Framework: including the
180 competency assessment and development tool, and the planning, appraisal and development on UN
Coherence activities
RC/UNCT results framework. Furthermore, the use of the analysis of these tool in agency performance management systems;
 Inclusion of other agencies’ staff members among sources of feedback.

Provision of rewards for staff who have been successful
Employment terms and conditions are inconsistent across agencies

Harmonization of grade levels across agencies on UN Coherence

Strengthened development and coaching on UN
Coherence activities

Among the human resources interventions that have most impact on change management, are those related to performance management. Performance management involves individual goals setting, performance appraisal, and reward systems that align staff member behaviour with organizational strategy and goals.
Addressing human resources issues related to performance management, and developing a performance management system that fully supports UN Coherence is therefore key to ensure a successful change management process.
Many human-resource issues in general and performance-management issues more specifically have been observed in several country contexts and have been raised and discussed in different fora. Longer-term and sustained interventions to address these issues will require a thorough processes and systems review and will require broad and coordinated action at the headquarters level. There are, however, some quick wins that UNCTs can adopt at the country level, within the existing processes and systems. These can help leverage the performance management system in support of UN Coherence.

Three key performance-related change management challenges have been observed, among other human-resources issues, at the country level:
 Most agencies’ job descriptions do not reflect staff involvement with the interagency agenda and with UN Coherence
– Contributions to UN Reform and joint UNCT results need to be seen as an integrated component of daily workload of staff in all countries. Of all agencies, however, only a few have comprehensively revised the job descriptions of all staff to include commitment to and implementation of UN Reform, both at headquarters and at country level.

Performance management systems do not fully support the involvement in the interagency agenda and the UN Coherence process – As a consequence of job descriptions not reflecting staff involvement with UN Coherence, results achieved by staff on UN
Coherence activities are also not captured during the performance appraisal phase of nearly all UN agencies. As results to be achieved are defined in the planning phase of the performance management process based on job descriptions, very few agencies include results reflecting the involvement with UN Reform in general, and UN Coherence more specifically, are included and assessed at year-end.
Although an integrated and effecitve RC/UNCT performance appraisal framework exists and is used, the annual analysis of these approsas are rarely used as sources of feedback within the UNCT members’ performance appraisal systems.
Finally, in most cases, there aren’t clear linkages between planning, appraisal and development on UN Coherence and development and coaching are not sufficiently leveraged as an integral part of performance management.

Employment terms and conditions are inconsistent across agencies – Different agencies use different terms and conditions of employment – including grading and salary levels – for staff members with similar roles and responsibilities. Such differences create a perception of lack of equity, which affect morale and impact motivation. This type of situation becomes particularly apparent when staff members from different agencies work together as part of a formal team (i.e. UN Communication Team in Viet Nam).
These issues have implications and create obstacles to the success of the UN Coherence process, such as:

Unsustainable workload for staff members – due to significant amount of “invisible” work not captured in the job descriptions and due to weak links between planning and appraisal.


Low staff motivation on the UN Coherence process – due to insufficient recognition of results and inequitable treatment.

Limited incentives for staff members to perform well, achieve results and actually work towards common goals - due to the absence of formal feedback from other agencies’ staff.

Limited incentives for staff members to perform well, achieve results and actually work towards common goals - due to the absence of formal feedback from other agencies’ staff.

To date, limited opportunities for staff development on skills needed for UN Coherence
– due to lack of assessment of individual results on UN Coherence and to the weak link between appraisal and development, and the insufficient emphasis of development and coaching as an integral part of performance management needed to build UN
Coherence-related skills and interest/commitment around UN Coherence.

The observed issues, and their implications, have been raised and discussed in several fora.
Sustained interventions to address them require a thorough processes and systems review as well as broad and coordinated action at the headquarters level through the UNDG Working
Group on Resident Coordinator System Issues. It is therefore expected that the implementation of such solutions will require time to produce results.
Possible longer-term solutions being proposed and discussed include:

A comprehensive job descriptions review by all agencies - to ensure that job descriptions reflect, among other things, staff involvement with UN Reform and the inter-agency agenda in general, and UN Coherence more specifically.

The harmonization of grade levels across agencies – to ensure unified terms and conditions for employment
– including grading and salary levels – for staff members with similar roles and responsibilities, which require comparable education and experience.
This would increase equity of treatment, with positive impact on staff motivation and commitment.

A review of performance management systems to create systems in support of the UN
Coherence process . More specifically such review should entail:
- clear identification of competencies needed to support the UN Coherence process;
- clear correlation between planning, appraisal and development on UN
Coherence results and activities;
- Continued strengthening and use of the performance appraisal systems that promote teambuilding and mutual accountability, such as the RC/HC/DO and
UNCT performance appraisal framework: the performance against agreed key planned results and the second generation of the 180-degree competency assessment and development tool (due for global roll-out in early 2009).
1
The adoption of these solutions is critical to establish performance management systems in support of UN Coherence in a sound and sustainable way. Given the time and UN system-wide investment that a structured and comprehensive approach as well as headquarters intervention
1 Detailed information on the RC/HC/DO and UNCT performance appraisal is available at www.undg.org
in the section Resident Coordinator System.

will require to clearly define the boundaries of such solutions and their modality of implementation, it is recommended that UNCTs start adopting quick-wins to help the UN
Coherence process move forward.

The quick wins UN agencies can adopt in the short term, within the existing performance systems and processes include:
Inclusion of UN Coherence results in the performance appraisal (also when job descriptions do not reflect UN Coherence activities).
All staff involved with UN Coherence should ensure that at least one result, out of the 3-5 required in the performance appraisal system, refers to UN Coherence. Definition of result(s) should be based on the foreseen UN Coherence activities that the staff member will be involved on, consistently with the agency’s contribution to UN Coherence.
UN Coherence result(s) should be in line with the agency’s mandate and vision, with the agencies’ positioning in the UNDAF and Business Operations Plan, and be SMART
Specific
– Results must use change language – they must describe a specific future condition
Measurable
– Results, whether quantitative or qualitative, must have measurable indicators, making it possible to assess whether they were achieved or not
Achievable
– Results must be within the capacity of the individual to achieve
Relevant – Results must make a contribution to the agencies’ involvement on UN
Coherence
Timebound – Results are not open-ended: they have an expected date of accomplishment
UN Coherence results should be discussed and assessed, as all other results, by reviewing accomplishment of expected outputs, and identifying strengths as well as areas for development.
Inclusion of UN Coherence results in the performance appraisal – Example
Situation
• Reform Harry works as programme manager for the Universal Postal Union (UPU).
• Harry works on the “postal worker labor rights programme”, which is part of Theme Group 1, outcome 12, output 4 of the UNDAF framework, and aims at supporting the Government in the development of a legal framework ensuring human and labor rights of postal workers are respected.
• The programme was developed jointly by UPU and ILO. ILO is not represented at the country level but provides technical support through their regional support structure. As Harry is based in the country, he represents the UN (UPU and ILO) for this programme.

• More specifically, UPU and ILO support the Ministry of Labor with the development of the final draft legal framework that will be submitted to the parliament at the end of the year. The government wants this to be a document that all stakeholders are comfortable with. At this point in time, the Ministry lacks the capacity and skills to develop this final draft legislation and asked
UPU and ILO to provide support.
Issue
How can UPU ensure that Harry’s performance supports UN Coherence?
A quick win
At the beginning of the year, in the planning phase on the performance appraisal, Harry and his supervisor identified UN Coherence-related results to be included in the performance appraisal. This results were linked to the result UPU had identified with reference to UN Coherence, and the postal worker labor rights programme more specifically.
UPU Result ( SMART )
“By 2012 ( time bound ), legal framework ( measurable ) protecting human and labor rights of postal workers is developed by UPU and signed by the parliament. ( specific ) ”
Harry’s results (derived from UPU result and SMART)
 “By the end of Q1 ( timebound ) – Working with the joint Theme Group, Harry ( accountable ) has contributed to the situation analysis ( measurable ) of the labor rights analysis of postal workers executed by the Ministry of Labor. ( specific ) ”
 “By the end of Q2 – Working with the joint Theme Group Harry has provided the Ministry of Labor with technical advisory services on the phrasing and content of the first draft legal framework.
”
 “By the end of Q3 – Harry has supported the he Ministry of Labor with coordination of the collection of donor and stakeholder feedback on first draft legislation .
”
 “By the end of Q4, Working with the joint Theme Group, Harry has supported the Ministry of
Labor in processing the feedback received on the draft bill and supported the Ministry with the drafting of the final legal bill for submission to the parliament ”.
(Note that the UPU result stretches over a 4 year period and Harry performance evaluation only reflects Harry’s contribution for this particular year to the overarching 4 year result. Also note that
Harry’s contributions to this UPU result are reflected in his annual performance evaluation and are a mix of process results and content results.)
At the end of the year, Harry’s performance was evaluated also against the identified UN Coherence results. Clear assessment of results achieved and activities performed on UN Coherence allowed
Harry and his supervisor to identify Harry’s strengths and development areas, targeting potential training and coaching needs. It also allowed Harry’s supervisor to better allocate workload among his team staff. Finally, ha ving formal recognition on results achieved, boosted Harry’s motivation to deliver on UN Coherence activities.

Inclusion of the RC/ UNCT performance appraisal framework in the staff members appraisal and Inclusion of other agencies’ staff members among sources of feedback
Ensuring full UNCT participation in the RC/UNCT Appraisal Framework: including the 180 competency assessment and development tool, and the RC/UNCT results framework will further improve cohesion and accoutnabilty of results. Including the analsis and feedback of these tools in agency performance management systems will allow a more informed performance management system.;
Moreover, as performance management systems allow for the inclusion of several sources of feedback, it should be made mandatory for staff members who are involved in UN Coherence activities to include one colleague from another agency as second reviewer to provide feedback.
So, while the first reviewer would remain the supervisor in the agency where the staff member works, the second source of feedback would be, for example, the cluster leader of the interagency cluster of which the staff member is a member.
If a result on UN Coherence has been included in the performance management system, feedback by colleagues from other agencies can be provided on results and activities.
If a result on UN Coherence has not been included in the performance management system, feedback by colleagues from other agencies can be provided on competencies.
Inclusion of feedback from oth er agencies’ staff should strengthen staff incentives to perform well in inter-agency settings and to actually work towards common goals.
Provision of rewards for staff who have been successful on UN Coherence.
Heads of Agencies and supervisors should ensure that rewards are foreseen for those staff members who have been successful and have given sound contributions to the UN Coherence process and activities. This would, in fact, not only motivate staff members who have performed well to perform even better, but would also set a role model for other staff members, with positive impact on the number and variety of staff members who feel committed and motivated to UN Coherence.
Public acknowledgement by Senior Management of individuals or group of individuals who have achieved successful results on UN Coherence is one way to reward staff. Picking from time to time specific staff members or identifiable groups can be much more powerful than acknowledging indistinctly everybody who has been working on UN Coherence.
Another way would be to feature success UN Coherence stories in Newsletters (at agencyand/or country level) and clearly indicate who has contributed to the success story.

A further option is for the RC to write letters to each of the UNCT members agency heads, thanking them for the work of the staff member each year, and stating the key achievements made with the team work of the staff member.
Finally, an option is allowing staff members who have contributed successfully to UN
Coherence to participate in trainings, learning modules and workshops on UN Reform (in the country, in the regional offices or at headquarters) or on other topics of interest to the staff member. This is not only a way for the agency to invest in individuals who have the potential to contribute to the UN Coherence progress, but also to keep their motivation high by reassuring them that the agency cares about their development and growth.
Strengthened development and coaching on UN Coherence activities.
Development and coaching are an integral part of performance management.
Performance management systems would support much more effective UN Coherence if more emphasis was placed on development and coaching with reference to UN Coherence activities and competencies. This is something which is being built into the second generation of the 180 degree assessment and development tool (due for global implementation in early 2009). A comprehensive appraisal system would allow managers to identify staff developmental needs on UN Coherence-related competencies. While at the individual level, most Coherence tasks and activities are very similar to regular work activities, a solid understanding of the overall
Coherence framework and additional emphasis on coherence skills (i.e. teamwork) would allow to fill knowledge and experience gaps creating a sound base for performance on UN Coherence activities. At the same time, developing, training and coaching staff on UN Coherence would increase motivation.
Ways to strengthen performance management systems with specific reference to development and coaching in support of UN Coherence include:
• Promote staff participation in trainings for the development of UN Coherence – related competencies and skills
• Organize “learning afternoons” on UN Coherence
• Use newsletters on a regular basis to inform staff about UN Coherence progress and achievements
• Use agencies’ websites and/or UN country website to provide continuous information about UN Coherence progress and achievements
• Ensure that stories on UN Coherence are shared and lessons learnt explained
• Encourage staff to ask questions on UN Coherence