ImpactpoolWhitePapers
Arewomenpayingahigher
priceforaUNcareer?
byHenrikRydenonJune15,2017
In late 2016 Impactpool sent a survey to 1672 former and current United Nations staff
members. All candidates had started their career at a junior staff position (P1 or P2) in the
past 25 years. With this survey, we wanted to find out what successful UN staff members
haveincommon,andwediscoveredthereisalot.
EXECUTIVESUMMARY
IMPACTPOOLWHITEPAPERS
ExecutiveSummary
In late 2016 Impactpool sent a survey to former and current United Nations staff members.
All candidates had started their career at a junior staff position (P1 or P2) in the past 25
years. With this survey, we wanted to find out what successful UN staff members have in
common,andwediscoveredthereisalot.
The survey was sent out 1672 respondents and had a high response rate 10.2% (172
responses received). As a result, it generated a large data set with high statistical
significance.Withaconfidencelevelof95%,thecalculatedmarginoferroris7.08%.
The survey consisted of 58.3% female and 41.7% male respondents. The respondent’s
originatedfrom21differentmemberstatesoftheUnitedNations.
The results of the questions confirmed many pre-existing ideas, but it also offered some
insights into an unfortunate discrepancy. The survey shows that women and men are
equally well prepared when entering the UN, but there was a drastic discrepancy in career
progression among men and women. In fact, it was found that women who left the UN
progressedfurtherintheircareerpathsthanthosewhostayed.
Our study also shows that the young talents recruited to the UN are highly prepared and
educated.
● TheaveragejuniorUNstaffmembershaveskillsinmorethan3languages;
● Asmanyas99%oftheUNstaffmembershaveaMaster’sDegreeorhigher;
● On average, successful female candidates had 2.3 relevant professional jobs before
taking on a junior position at the UN. Men had 2.5 relevant jobs before their first
assignment.
● 6 out of 10 staff worked in International Development or Humanitarian Aid before
applying;
● 1outof5hadsomeformofHardshipexperiencebeforestarting.
Although these talents probably are the best and brightest (at the commencement day), our
studyshowsdarkcloudsonthesky.Andunfortunately,thesecloudsaredarkerforwomen.
● Studying professionals aged 40 and over, only 45.7% of the women have children, in
contrastto84.3%ofthemen.
● ThedivorcerateamongwomenUNstaffismuchhighercomparedtomen;
● Also,morewomenareunmarried/singlesthanmen;
● And more women leave the UN of family reasons, but family reason is also a big
reasonwhymenleave:
Impactpool has profound experience in working with sourcing targeting women and we
have published several articles how you can improve the gender parity in your
organization. In this report, we provide new recommendations based on findings made in
thisstudy.
1. Take affirmative action to get women hired on non-staff roles (UNV, Service
Contracts, Consultancies). Our study shows a high significance between a UN
VolunteerassignmentandretentionofWomenonstaffcontracts.
2. Look for Hardship experience in the resumes and use affirmative actions to give
womenexposuretohardship.
3. Make it easy for your talents to contact Human Resource during the recruitment
process. Our study shows that women who have had the possibility to ask questions
to the Hiring Manager or to the Human Resources during the vacancy duration are
morelikelytoapplyandtendstoretainlongerintheorganization.
PART1
IMPACTPOOLREPORTS
ArewomenpayingahigherpriceforUNcareer?
In late 2016 Impactpool sent a survey to 1672 former and current United Nations staff
members. All candidates had started their career at a junior staff position (P1 or P2) in
the past 25 years. With this survey, we wanted to find out what successful UN staff
membershaveincommon,andwediscoveredthereisalot.
The survey was sent out 1672 respondents and had a high response rate. As a result, it
generated a large data set that we then analysed in detail. To begin with, 85% of the
respondentswereagedbetween35and55and58.3%werewomenand41.7%weremen.
The results of the questions confirmed many pre-existing ideas, but it also offered some
insights into an unfortunate discrepancy. The survey shows that women and men are
equally well prepared when entering the UN, but there was a drastic discrepancy in career
progression among men and women. In fact, it was found that women who left the UN
progressedfurtherupinthehierarchycomparedwiththosewhostayed.
Language:juniorUNstaffmembershaveskillsinmorethan3languages
Women who are successful in their applications to an International Organization have on
average 3.2 languages, including their native languages. When only official UN languages
are considered (that is, Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish), successful
womenhadanaverageof2.32languages.
Successful male candidates also had an average of 3.2 languages in total, but when it came
toUNlanguagesthemalecandidateshadaslightlyloweraverageof2.1languages.
Education:99%oftheUNstaffmembershaveaMaster’sDegreeorhigher
When comparing the education levels of female and male respondents, the numbers look
quite similar. The majority UN staff hold a Master’s Degree. This is in line with expectations,
asmostadvertisedpositionsfortheUNrequireaMaster’sDegreeorhigher.
Bachelor’s
Master’s
DualMaster’s
PhD
Postdoctoral
Female
1%
73%
17%
6%
2%
Male
1.3%
69.9%
17.8%
9.6%
1.3%
Getrelevantexperience:noonesucceedsfreshoutofuniversity
On average, successful female candidates had 2.3 relevant professional jobs before taking
onajuniorpositionattheUN.Menhad2.5relevantjobsbeforetheirfirstassignment.
Come prepared: 6 out of 10 staff worked in International Development or Humanitarian
Aidbeforeapplying
In a quantitative study, it is difficult to determine the quality of experience and this survey
covers diverse areas of expertise. Consequently, we focused on experience we know
International Organizations value when long- and short-listing candidates, such as field
experience,Hardshipexperience,Volunteerexperience,UNexperience,etc.
The question was posed in a multiple-choice format to allow the respondent to select
severalanswerscorrespondingtoher/hisbackgroundbeforetakinguparoleattheUN.
Both the female and male respondents were found to be well prepared before applying:
57.5% of men and 59% of women had experience of working in International Development
orHumanitarianAidbeforetakingonaroleattheUN.
Comeprepared:1outof5hadsomeformofHardshipexperience
The distribution of men and women who had previous Hardship experience was also even:
17% of men and 18% of women indicated they had experience of Crisis Contexts before
takingontheirfirstassignmentattheUN.
Hardship experience is valued among UN organizations. We investigated the retention rate
among women with Hardship experience, and found that women who had gained this
experience prior to their first assignment at the UN had a much higher retention rate than
those who did not. In fact, 72.3% of women with Hardship experience were still employed
by the UN, whereas the retention rate among women without previous Hardship
experiencewas54%.
For men with Hardship experience, 76% were still employed, but the same retention
percentage applied to the whole population of men. Men without previous Hardship
experiencealsohasaretentionrateof76%.
Our hypothesis is that women with Hardship experience have a better understanding of
what the work entails when starting their UN post. This hypothesis is confirmed by the
retention rates among female staff members who had UN experience before taking up their
first official post: among women who had been UN Volunteers the retention rate was as
highas83.3%.
One response to these figures is to focus on recruiting more women who have previously
been UN Volunteers or have Hardship experience. Another, likely more effective solution is
to work on your Employer Brand, and here Impactpool is your reliable partner - click here
tolearnmore.
Where our survey reveals some surprising results is in relation to the percentage of
respondents who worked abroad (but not in a crisis country) before taking on a role at the
UN: 83.5% of the male candidates indicated they had acquired this experience, but only
61%ofwomenhad.
Another interesting finding was the value of already knowing someone at the organization
for which they were applying. The survey showed that 8% of women knew someone in
advance, and, strikingly, of that group 80% were still working at the UN. The importance to
give talents the possibility to ask questions helping them to decide to apply is also
confirmed in a recently published report based on a survey of 203’000 individuals
conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). An article published by the Society for
HumanResourcesManagementbasedonthesurveyresultsconclude:
Women typically want details about what the international assignment will entail, according
to Katie Abouzahr, lead researcher for the May 3 BCG survey report, who noted that "women
are less willing to 'wing it.' They want to understand what the assignment looks like before
theyapply."
In most job advertisements the UN recruiters hide their name away from the talents to
avoid being “flooded” by questions and applications. A strange contradiction though is that
the same recruiters tend (or must) include their names when recruiting consultants. We
suggest you assign two recruiters four hours per week to do a live event in one of your
social media channels, or why not go together jointly several organizations to save costs,
Impactpoolcanhelpyouadministerandfacilitatesuchinitiatives.
Whatdidyoudobeforestartingyourjunior
assignmentattheUN?
Male
Female
Ihadexperienceworkingintheprivatesector
40%
34%
Ihadexperienceworkinginthepublicsector
87%
41%
IhadexperienceworkinginInternational
Development/HumanitarianAid
57.5%
59%
Ihadexperienceworkinginacrisiscountry
23%
18%
Ihadexperienceworkingabroad(butnotina
crisiscountry)
83.5%
61%
IhadexperienceworkingasaUNVolunteer
11%
12%
IhadexperienceworkingasaVolunteer(outside
UNV)atthePeaceCorpsorsimilarorganization
7%
12%
IhadexperienceworkingattheUNasa
consultant
16.5%
14%
IhadexperienceworkingattheUNasstaff
member(locallyrecruited)
5.4%
6%
IhadexperienceworkingattheUNasastaff
member(internationallyrecruited)
5.4%
4%
IhadamentorbeforetakingontheroleattheUN
4.1%
2%
IknewsomeoneintheorganizationIappliedfor
5.4%
8%
Myparentsworkedinthedevelopmentsector
duringmychildhood
5.4%
2%
PART2
IMPACTPOOLWHITEPAPERS
Combiningfamilyandcareer
A principal difference between successful female and male talent is revealed when
looking at the category we call “Family and career.” Our survey shows that only 45.5% of
female respondents had children, compared with 68.5% of their male colleagues. Looking
specifically at professionals aged 40 and over, this disparity rises to 45.7% of women
havingchildren,incontrastto84.3%ofmen.
This gender divide is also apparent when studying marital status. The number of single
women is close to 100% higher than the number of single men. The same applies to divorce
rates. Close to 50% more of the male respondents were married. When looking at
professionals at and aged 40 and over, we can see that 54.2% of the women are married,
comparedwith81.5%oftheirmalecolleagues.
Children
Married
Single
Divorced
Female
45.5%
54%
38%
8%
Male
68.5%
74%
20%
4%
The challenges for women pursuing a career is further confirmed by questions in the
survey exploring why staff members left the organisation. This showed that 62.5% of
women who left cited family as a reason. Family was also the most common response given
by women who only selected one single reason for leaving. But that was the same for men,
Familywasalsothemostcommonresponsegivenbymenwhoonlyselectedonereason.
Confidenceintherecruitmentprocess
Our survey found that men are more positive when it comes to trusting the UN
recruitment process to be fair: 37% of successful male candidates had faith in the UN
recruitment process to be fair, objective and transparent; however only 29% of successful
femalecandidatesheldthesameview.
Are you a man? You’re better off staying! Are you a woman? Leave if you want your
careertoprogress!
When studying the quantitative data regarding qualifications and experience, there was no
marked difference between men and women. UN junior professionals are consistently a
group of highly educated, skilled and motivated men and women. All developed their
resumes over several years with the clear objective of making their profiles competitive for
acareerinthissector.
Given the homogeneity at the time of commencement, it is interesting to follow their
career progression. Although the candidate's previous experience and education were very
similar, what happens after they enter their UN positions differs significantly. From our
analysis it appears that, as a woman, you are better off leaving the UN if you want your
career to progress. In exit interviews, we also find that 25% of women leave to accelerate
their careers, a figure that corresponds quite well with the number of women that have
made careers outside the UN. If you are a man, however, our survey found that you are 6
times more likely to become a D1. You also have a 50% better chance of becoming a P5 than
yourfemalecolleagues.
WomenremainingattheUN
P2
P3
P4
P5
D1
D2andabove
6.25%
22.25%
10%
12.5%
1.25%
0%
MenremainingattheUN
P2
P3
P4
P5
D1
D2andabove
11.8%
25.5%
11.8%
19.6%
7.8%
0%
WomenwholefttheUN
Junior
Mid
Senior
SeniorExecutive(D2
andabove)
0%
26.25%
17.5%
2.5%
MenwholefttheUN
Junior
Mid
Senior
SeniorExecutive(D2
andabove)
2%
21.5%
0%
0%
CONCLUSIONS
IMPACTPOOLWHITEPAPER
Conclusions
Three changes in the recruitment and screening process that will increase the retention of
women
1. Take affirmative action to get women hired on non-staff roles (UNV, Service
Contracts, Consultancies). Our study shows a high significance between a UN
VolunteerassignmentandretentionofWomenonstaffcontracts.
2. Look for Hardship experience in the resumes and use affirmative actions to give
womenexposuretohardship.
3. Build networks and abilities for women to ask questions about the job, living
conditions, the relocation, the duty station and everything else that ease the
decisiontosubmitanapplication.
Are you more interested in how you can improve the gender parity in your organization?
Readthisarticle.
Ourstudyshowsthat:
● Women and men recruited to staff positions at the UN are extremely well educated
andprofessionallyprepared;
● Given that a such high percentage either had previous sector experience and public
administration experience, our study also shows that most of the young
professionals probably had seen the UN or an International Organizations as a
careergoal;
Ourstudyalsoshowsthechallengesofwomenandcareer:
● Our study shows that women have a much higher chance of advancing their careers
at another International Organisation, whereas men were found to have a greater
chanceofprogressionbyremainingattheUN.
● Also on the family side, the statistics for women were much sadder than compared
to their male colleagues. The divorce rate among women UN staff is much higher
comparedtomen;
● Also,morewomenareunmarried/singlesthanmen;
● Fewerwomenthanmenhavechildren;
● And more women leave the UN of family reasons, but family reason is also a reason
whymenleave:
METHODOLOGY
IMPACTPOOLWHITEPAPER
METHODOLOGY
In late 2016 Impactpool sent a survey to former and current United Nations staff members.
All candidates had started their career at a junior staff position (P1 or P2) in the past 25
years. With this survey, we wanted to find out what successful UN staff members have in
common,andwediscoveredthereisalot.
The survey was sent out 1672 respondents and had a high response rate 10.2% (172
responses received). As a result, it generated a large data set that we then analysed in
detail. With a confidence level of 95%, the calculated margin of error is 7.08%. The survey
consisted of 58.3% were women and 41.7% were men. The respondent’s origin from 21
differentmemberstatesoftheUnitedNations.
SURVEYWEAKNESSES
Much of the respondent’s origin from a donor country. Future studies would preferably
include nationals of all countries of the world. This study included 21 different member
states.
We are happy to partner up with organizations who are interested to work with us on the
2017survey.
FUTURERESEARCH
Someoftheresultswouldbenefitfromaqualitativestudytodivedeeperintosomeofthe
quantitativeresultsidentified,especiallythesectionfocusingonCombiningfamilyand
career.WearehappytoworkandcollaboratewithInternationalorganizationswhowould
beinterestedtofurtherdiveintothisresearchfield.
Pleasesendmeane-mailat[email protected].
AllphotosusedinthiswhitepaperarecollectedfromiStockunderourbilaterallicense
agreement.
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11156Stockholm
Sweden
