Q&A: How UNDP plans to become an 'employer of choice'

UNITED NATIONS — David Bearfield took on the job of human resources director at the U.N. Development Programme last June with a clear mission: transform dated hiring and workplace practices. The goal, Bearfield said, is to make UNDP a more appealing workplace, especially for young people who might be setting their sights on more agile and transparent organizations. “I hope we can position ourselves as an employer of choice. If we can build young talent it will work itself through. If you bring these people in, at least some of them will stay,” Bearfield said, who was also the former director at the European Personnel Selection Office. In May, UNDP adopted a new strategy, “People for 2030,” intended to reform the workplace culture and make the agency more fit for achieving the 2030 development agenda. Some changes, such as more maternity leave for staffers in hardship stations and a more flexible remote work policy for new parents, are already underway. Bearfield spoke with Devex at UNDP headquarters about some of the other key staffing and workplace plans he is overseeing at UNDP — and why they are necessary now, more than ever. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What led to the understanding that UNDP needs a revised workplace and HR strategy? People are our greatest asset, and we need to ensure we have a people strategy that is aligned with our strategic vision. We are living in a time of great change and we have a new millennial workforce that is coming in greater numbers. Technology is also changing the way people work. We need to keep moving and adjusting to that if we will be an organization that is offering a motivating and energizing place for people to want to come, especially for the new generation and next generation to come. Can you explain the particular workplace and cultural practices that need to be rethought? One of the big changes we are seeing is that the notion of a lifelong career with a single employer is becoming less common. Public service has been articulated around this idea that you stay for a long time, you get a slow and steady promotion, you do interesting and meaningful work, and get a good pension. What is becoming much more attractive, and I think that is good news for the U.N. and UNDP, is that people are attracted to purpose-driven organizations. OK, the public sector tends to be more bureaucratic and we tend to be slower at recognizing people. But the promotion system is not what gets people out of bed each day. It is the purpose. Has there been an issue at UNDP of retaining young staffers beyond a few years? Part of the issue is that we are not attracting enough young people. There is a fair bit of turnover that is happening across the U.N. system. One of the things we want to do is have a channel for attracting really talented young people into our organization and offering those who want a career pathway a career, and for others offer the opportunity to come in and do something and then move on and pick up the next challenge. Where are young people going, if not to UNDP or the U.N.? Generally, what I see is that there are just far more options than there used to be. That is really the issue. In a global economy, there are just exponentially more opportunities. The global economy needs people with new skills for new jobs and those people will be in very short supply. We are going to need some of those, like IT professionals. How are we going to compete to get these people? Obviously we are not going to pay what the financial institutions pay. We are going to have to go out and work for that. What steps are you taking to bring more young people on board at UNDP? What we are moving towards is setting up a young professionals program. We are looking at how we might set that up, how we might attract people, select people from that, and put in place a recruitment marketing strategy. By focusing on these things, it is possible for us to make UNDP an employer of choice for a lot of young talent. Part of it is we have great stories and we need to go out and tell them.