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Competencies for the Future
United Nations
“It is my hope that competencies will provide us with shared language for talking , in concrete terms, about high performance and managerial excellence. I believe that a shared view of the standards we are striving to achieve will assist us in our continuing efforts to prepare the Organization to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
Kofi Annan Secretary-General
Introduction to Competencies
In “Building the Future”, the Secretary-General has indicated that the Organization’s greatest strength—and the key to our success—is the quality of our staff and managers. He has stressed that, to capitalize on this strength, we need to create an organizational culture and environment that enables staff to contribute to their maximum potential. Experience in other organizations has shown that when seeking to create a new culture and build human resources capacity for the future, it is important to define organizational core competencies—the combination of skills, attributes and behaviours which are essential for all staff—as well as the additional managerial competencies required by all those who manage others. Once organizational competencies have been defined, they can be used as a base on which to build and strengthen other human resources systems such as recruitment, placement, development and performance appraisal.
Accordingly, a participatory process, involving staff and managers throughout the Secretariat, was undertaken to define core and managerial competencies for the United Nations Secretariat. This booklet has been prepared to inform staff of the United Nations competencies for the future, to describe how these competencies were arrived at, to provide examples of how the competencies look in action and to indicate how they will be applied in the Secretariat.
What are competencies?
The term “competency” refers to a combination of skills, attributes and behaviours that are directly related to
United Nations
“It is my hope that competencies will provide us with shared language for talking , in concrete terms, about high performance and managerial excellence. I believe that a shared view of the standards we are striving to achieve will assist us in our continuing efforts to prepare the Organization to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
Kofi Annan Secretary-General
Introduction to Competencies
In “Building the Future”, the Secretary-General has indicated that the Organization’s greatest strength—and the key to our success—is the quality of our staff and managers. He has stressed that, to capitalize on this strength, we need to create an organizational culture and environment that enables staff to contribute to their maximum potential. Experience in other organizations has shown that when seeking to create a new culture and build human resources capacity for the future, it is important to define organizational core competencies—the combination of skills, attributes and behaviours which are essential for all staff—as well as the additional managerial competencies required by all those who manage others. Once organizational competencies have been defined, they can be used as a base on which to build and strengthen other human resources systems such as recruitment, placement, development and performance appraisal.
Accordingly, a participatory process, involving staff and managers throughout the Secretariat, was undertaken to define core and managerial competencies for the United Nations Secretariat. This booklet has been prepared to inform staff of the United Nations competencies for the future, to describe how these competencies were arrived at, to provide examples of how the competencies look in action and to indicate how they will be applied in the Secretariat.
What are competencies?
The term “competency” refers to a combination of skills, attributes and behaviours that are directly related to