Mid- to senior-level jobs with the World Food Program

The World Food Program has taken a new approach to addressing global hunger, moving away from food aid to food assistance. But how has this new strategy affected WFP’s recruitment process? Established in 1963, this U.N. program currently employs about 10,200, 90 percent of whom are based in the field. Logistics and food assistance programming remain central to the organization’s work — and thus do experts in finance, logistics, IT, human resources and international law. But in the past few years, WFP has also scaled up innovative initiatives such as cash-and-vouchers, and bought food locally through its Purchase for Progress program. The shift in strategy also means a shift in WFP’s job candidate profile and sourcing. Devex spoke with Ruth Grove, deputy head of human resources at WFP’s headquarters in Rome, about hiring trends and career paths for mid- to senior-level professionals, as well as a variety of other issues – from mobility to the hiring of generalists vs. specialists. Here’s Grove… On hiring trends and how WFP’s ongoing “skills audit” may affect them: Maybe we’ll have to go through a process of retraining some of our staff, but it is very likely — [and we’re already doing it now] — that we need to bring in some external expertise. So, … we are looking for people with a strong nutrition background — it’s a key skill set that we are looking for. In broad terms, I think, [we are looking for] people who have a very creative and innovative approach because many times, in our line of work, you have to look for the solutions — hunger solutions tools — which may be out of the normal way of doing things in the past. On WFP’s need for temporary consultants: I suspect that for the time being we are looking for temporary resources, temporary meaning less than a year, because until we are clear on the actual numbers of staff we’ll need … we are trying to minimize our recruitment of longer-term staff. … We certainly are interested in people who are willing to work with us for a year or less or in short-term assignments, obviously with the possibility of becoming a longer-term relationship, as we get clear and clear on what are the very specific numbers. We’re clear in terms of the areas we are strengthening, in terms of procurement and purchasing, in terms of nutrition and hunger tools. On long-term assignments for international professionals: For that we issue our vacancy announcements on our external webpage. People can apply that way by providing their information on an online curriculum vitae and then we go through a competitive process with CV screening, interviews. [This process] is for all levels. Our international staff, which makes up about 10 percent of our total population — they are expected to be mobile around the world. Our headquarters is in Rome, but the majority of our international staff [is] actually located in our field locations. We are able to assign people, to have people where they’re needed, when they’re needed through a very robust mobility policy. Very similar to a foreign service, our international staff rotates around the world and … whenever we do have a vacancy available, we first advertise it internally … and select someone amongst our existing staff. But there are times when we do need new skill sets or when there isn’t enough staff in responding to an emergency, we do open up the recruitment. On applications received per vacancy: We can get several hundreds applications to an individual vacancy. When our rosters [which are similar to shortlists that we compile in anticipation of upcoming hiring needs] are open, we can receive several thousand CVs some months. That’s why we are tying to be more focused and targeted, just having the ones that we are really looking for. On the hiring of specialists vs. generalists: That’s a little bit of a hard one. It’s easier, many times, to see somebody with a very specific field, especially when we are looking in finance, IT or some of these roles that require very specific, technical capacity. But on the other hand, within WFP, because of our mobility policy, we do look for people with the flexibility to take on different roles — we call that functional mobility. … That is something that’s very valued with WFP: flexibility to take on new and different roles. I think someone who has a type of background to the extent he can make it easier for us to see how he would fit in with that first entry-level role in WFP; he would be a valid candidate. On the recruitment process: For the international longer-term professional recruitment it’s a very structured process, which starts with a shortlisting. Candidates can expect to either be called back for an interview — most likely starting with a phone interview — and then, if they’re successful with that, a personal interview. When there is a specific vacancy, that process will be relatively quick in terms of going through the steps and the manager making a final decision through a panel interview. However, when we are looking for short-term [professionals], because of the nature of our work and that we are looking for people relatively quickly, that is a more straightforward … recruitment process. So, managers can identify candidates meeting their requirements and the process is a little more flexible in terms of the vetting process. They need to meet the requirements and the terms of reference, but the hiring managers themselves have the authority to offer them the position. On acing a job interview: A key competency, I think, WFP is looking for is action management. … I would suggest candidates be prepared with examples where they have shown their ability to act quickly, to get things done, to show accomplishments and results. The other key competence, which is very important for our line of work, is stress resistance. The extent to which candidates have either been in [a] stressful situation and remained resilient or have had the opportunity to work in different cultures, with different people, different countries and remained resilient through that type of cultural shift. On WFP compensation and benefits: Different types of contracts carry different types of benefits. There is a website that anyone can go to — in fact we have a link on our website: It’s the International Civil Service Commission, who sets, for the entire U.N. system, the entitlements and the benefits of the international staff and the general service, too. If you are a consultant … you might get a per-diem rate. If you are in the international professional level — you are offered a fixed-term contract or longer — you would have your honorarium [and] similar type of [benefits] that in most organizations would be provided: pension, insurance, medical/life insurance possibilities, annual leave, sick leave. You would also have … every other year the opportunity to return, to reconnect wherever your homeland is; we call them home leaves. … When you are appointed, we assist you in your appointment travel and when you leave WFP, we assist you in your repatriation travel and return. On career paths within WFP: The internationals are recruited from a worldwide basis and in that category, we have the longer term and the shorter term, which could be in the form of a consultancy. Those contracts don’t necessarily lead to another one. They all have their own recruitment process. If someone from a consultancy would like to be considered for an international professional [position], they have to compete for that. There’s not necessarily a stepping from one type of contract to the other. In the international professional [fixed-term] contract itself, … every year we have a promotion exercise and staff [members] compete essentially amongst themselves … for promotion to the next grade based on a recommendation from their manager. … People are placed not as a competitive process per se, but the promotions within that — you go from the professional level 2 to a professional level 3 and on up — it’s through an annual exercise where people are considered from a panel of colleagues internally and our executive director makes the final decision. On mobility and the hiring of women: Certainly we do have an objective to reach 50 percent parity of women and men in all of categories. It is difficult at the local level for a number of reasons. … But WFP has been innovative in trying to ensure that we are able to hire women into very nontraditional jobs for some of the places where we work. It’s difficult because … women are expected to move around every couple of years with their families, just like men with their families. Some of those assignments are in nonfamily duty stations — we have people in Southern Sudan, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan. They have R&R, rest and recuperation, periodically, where they can see their family. [But] that puts so [much] stress on women. … We have quite a proportion of women to men at the entry levels. But … at the midlevel, we do notice that we are not necessarily always able to retain them when they get into their 30s and early 40s. And so we try to provide a number of policies — we have flexible work polices, we have maternity and paternity leave policies. Right at the moment we are also trying through succession planning and management development to ensure that we are able to have an equal balance of women and men at the senior-leadership positions. Find WFP jobs on the WFP website, by emailing wfprecruitment@wfp.org or browsing the Devex jobs board, the most comprehensive one in international development. Read more: - Ending Global Hunger: Preparing for a Career in Food Security - Food Security Academic Programs: A Primer - Development Aid Careers in the United Nations System: What You Need to Know - Competencies Sought in a World Food Program Job Candidate Read more international development career advice.