Operations Associate, Unified Volunteer Platform

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The Volunteer Solutions Section (VSS) ensures the provision of robust and innovative volunteer service offering by UNV, including up-to-date volunteer modalities, systems, and policies, digital solutions, special initiatives, and management tools, as well as guidelines for volunteer management. VSS works in close collaboration with all UNV units (Headquarters, the Regional Offices, and Country Coordinators) to provide a wide range of specialized products and tools to support onsite and online volunteer mobilization, engagement, and management.

UNV is undergoing digital transformation to better serve its UN partners and effectively support the delivery of the 2030 Agenda by deploying UN Volunteers worldwide faster and at a reduced cost of operations. The UNV Digital Transformation will lead to new organizational capabilities with new systems supported by frontier technologies.  One of the main digital solutions being introduced is the Unified Volunteer Platform (UVP) that will facilitate volunteer mobilization by establishing an intuitive single-entry point for candidates to offer their services, and for organizations to request services of volunteers.

Reporting to the Programme Specialist, Volunteer Systems, the Operations Associate, contributes to the successful launch of, and transition to, Unified Volunteer Platform. Specifically, the Operations Associate supports handling business operations, which are specific to the transition and post-transition processes.

Support transition to Unified Volunteer Platform

• Proactively collect, in collaboration with all UNV business units, evidence of missing, partially-transferred or damaged-in-transition business operation data, categorize and propose rectifying solutions;
• Participate in brainstorming of solutions aimed at resolving all missing/incorrect data issues, create action-plans and act as a primary responsible user for resolving them;
• Participate in various meetings to build a holistic understanding of business processes and system functionalities as well as gaps, which give rise to operational data issues (‘poisoned data’, ‘orphaned data’, inconsistencies in data, missing data, instances of data duplication, etc.);
• Work actively with Information and Communication Technologies Unit (ICTU) team to find technical solutions to resolve data issues in bulk operations, running queries to identify root causes, gather statistics on data quality;
• Propose systems and non-systems solutions to prevent further data inconsistencies;
• Systematically check various volunteer recruitment and assignment management key performance indicators and data quality reports in the Business Intelligence platform and elsewhere, to proactively identify data discrepancy issues;
• Monitor corporate Service Desk for incoming Level 1 cases related to issues on the operational data and serve as primary focal point on resolution of these cases;
• Support Volunteer Services Centre, other organizational units at UNV as well as UN host entities on various transitional transactions, including UVP and UNDP Enterprise Resource Platform (Atlas);
• Perform host entity account screening, and other account management operations as required;
• Guide UNV personnel on procedures and actions to be performed in UNV systems related to operational matters, liaising closely with the Programme Associate Volunteer Systems, UNV Digital Transformation project team and ICTU team.

Facilitation of knowledge building and management

• Prepare step-by-step guides and other documentation aimed at guiding users on various operational issues on data management;
• Conduct demonstration and other knowledge-transfer tasks to ensure UNV personnel is able to resolve operation data issues;
• Assist the Service Desk team to formulate knowledge base articles and AI Chatbot intents to facilitate issue resolution at the self-service level (Level 0: Chatbot, Community Pages);
• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to policy development and review;
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice including corporate communications repositories;
• Provide technical inputs and administrative support to the conduct of training and workshops on volunteer management policies and related products.

Core competencies

Innovation

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Leadership

• Ability to persuade others to follow

People Management

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Communication

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Delivery

• Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Technical/functional competencies

IT Customer Support

• Ability to support internal customers with IT assistance

Applications Management

• Ability to develop, support, and maintain applications

Information Systems and Technology

• Knowledge of IST innovations and concepts and ability to apply them to strategic and/or practical situations

Quality Assurance

• Ability to perform administrative and procedural activities to ensure that quality requirements and goals are fulfilled

Operational Efficiency

• Ability to identify and execute opportunities to improve operational efficiency

Relationship Management

• Ability to engage and foster strategic partnerships with other parties, inter-agency coordination and forge productive working relationships

Knowledge Management

• Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge

Education

• Secondary education;
• Supplementary training in the following areas is an asset:
  • operations management;
  • human resources management;
  • editing/writing/publishing;
  • business systems and processes testing;
  • knowledge sharing and learning provision;
• University degree in information technology, computer science, adult learning, or communications is desirable, but is not a requirement.

Experience

• 6 years of relevant experience supporting business operations;
• Experience in human resources and payroll systems.

Language requirements

• Fluency in English;
• Proficiency in French and/or Spanish is an asset.

Other

• Experience in Oracle ERP is an asset;
• Experience with policies and standard operating procedures is an asset;
• Experience in drafting, writing and editing in English language