Human Resources Challenges on a Global ScalePublished: October 03, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton The 57 members of AHRMIO, the Association for HumanResources Management in International Organizations, rangefrom the UN, UNICEF and OECD to the World HealthOrganization, the World Trade Organization, the World Bankand the International Labour Organization. AHRMIO's goal isto improve the professionalism of those who work in humanresources management in international not-for-profitorganizations. Mary Jane Peters, executive director, and RogerEggleston, president emeritus, were at Wharton recently for thegroup's 7th annual conference. They talked withKnowledge@Wharton about their successes -- such as theintroduction of paternity leave, a policy regarding sexual harassment, competency based assessment andflexible work practices -- as well as their major challenges, starting with the lack of qualified youngpeople around the world to carry out the missions of AHRMIO's member organizations. Knowledge@Wharton: Could we talk about AHRMIO [the Association for Human ResourcesManagement in International Organizations]? What exactly is AHRMIO and how do you work withinternational organizations? Eggleston: Let's talk a little bit about the history of AHRMIO. It was in 1996 when Mary Jane and Iwere running a conference of human resources specialists in mainly the United Nations group oforganizations. We had this retreat and series of interactions with all of these people, and we said that thisis the time when we should create some sort of learning institute. It would be where people who areworking in human resources management, in international, not-for-profit organizations, could cometogether because they have some unique elements in their jobs which are not common outside theinternational organization arena. Just to name one: We are not subject to national legislation. So we arenot impacted by matters that take place in any one country. We said there are enough reasons to have what we called an "association" -- we dropped the name"institute." In 2000, we set up AHRMIO and it really took off, very well indeed. We have 57 memberorganizations now -- organizations that are members of AHRMIO. And we have over 200 individualmembers because we have both individual members and organizational members. We have an annual conference, and that's why we're here at Wharton. It's our 7th Annual Conference.We have lots of developmental activities. The role of the association, in a nutshell, is to improve theprofessionalism of those who work in human resources management in international not-for-profitorganizations. Knowledge@Wharton: Can you give us some examples of the 57 member organizations? Peters: Well, you have all of the United Nations family there; so you have the UN, UNICEF, UNDP,UNFPA, The World Health Organization, The International Labor Organization, The Food andAgricultural Organization -- the whole UN family, and that's about 29 entities. In addition to that you have, I would say, all of the other leading international not-for-profitorganizations. For example, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which hasits headquarters in Paris, The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO is even there.This is a single/personal use copy ofKnowledge@Wharton. For multiple copies,custom reprints, e-prints, posters or plaques,please contact PARS International:[email protected] P. (212) 221-9595 x407. All materials copyright of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Page 1 of 6 Human Resources Challenges on a Global Scale: Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1820)We have the GAVI Alliance which carries out immunization programs throughout the world, the WorldTrade Organization, the World Bank... Knowledge@Wharton: In other words, all of the big names. Eggleston: If there is a lacuna, it's the NGOs, what we would call the non-governmental sector, but thereare a few and we're hoping to get more. At this conference, we have the leaders of the Red Cross and theRed Crescent Societies, but we need a few more NGOs.Knowledge@Wharton: It seems like quite an incredible group of organizations that you work with. Inworking with these groups, what have you found to be the biggest leadership and HR challenges thatinternational organizations face? Peters: Well, it's difficult to generalize across all 57 organizations. I can certainly address what I knowbest, given my past career, in terms of the United Nations family. From an historical perspective, manypeople who joined the organizations will soon be retiring. In some organizations, more than 50% of theirprofessional staff will be leaving in the next three to five years. Yet I know that very few of them aredoing any kind of serious succession planning.So, this is a chance for all of your MBA students, because there will be a tremendous need to find talent.But then on the other side of that, of course, is keeping our institutional memory. For the missions ofthese organizations, that is vital. We cannot police the world; we do not police the world. We giveknowledge to the world. And so, with all of the people marching out of the door, going to retire soon -- Ithink this is the biggest challenge for the leadership of the organizations. I suspect that for many of the international organizations, that will be equally true, perhaps less so withsome of the newer ones, such as the UN program on HIV Aids or the GAVI Alliance. These are veryyoung institutions, and so the average age of their work forces tends to be much lower.Eggleston: One of the challenges facing these organizations is that I don't think they have reallyappreciated that there is going to be a war for talent among the knowledge workers of the world. The UNfamily, and probably most of the international organizations that we are talking about, have had it easy,basically. They had good brands, a really good brand image. People just applied to them for jobs. It was not toodifficult to find good people, basically all around the world. But it will be much more difficult, and I'mnot sure that they have professionalized their area of recruitment well enough to really know how totarget and how to get the best people. It's still very much, I won't say hit or miss, but they're very much... just waiting for people to apply andcome on board. But
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