By Clare Bishop-Sambrook, Lead Technical Adviser (Gender and Social Inclusion)
Younger women? Older men? General service staff or professionals? As is often the case, it depends on the question you are asking.
A recent analysis conducted by the PTA gender team provides
some interesting insights.
Our
happiness is stable
Each year, IFAD conducts the staff engagement index survey
which picks up on six areas of our work environment. The overall index has
remained pretty constant at around 75% over the last four years, with little
variation at the corporate level between women and men.
Collectively we are most comfortable with understanding
the results we are expected to deliver and being held accountable for them (both
rated over 90%). We are reasonably content with the level of initiative shown
by our colleagues (72%) and our freedom of action without needing to go to our
supervisors (68%). But we are least happy with people accepting responsibility
for problems that arise in their work (57%) and directors seeking the opinions
of people working in their division (63%).
Who
are we?
Before digging deeper into the data, let us see who we
are – or at least those 485 people who responded to the survey. Of the respondents,
31% were women general staff, a further 30% were international professional
men, 28% were international professional women and the balance were male
general service (7%) and national professional men and women (4%).
Over 40% of the staff are aged between 46-55 years and
another 10% or so are over 55 years. Among the younger age groups, there are
more women aged between 25-35 years and more men under 25 years. Professional
men (international and national) and general service women tend to be in the
older cohort, whereas general service men tend to be younger.
Digging
deeper into the data
Men over 55 were consistently more positive across all
six indicators. The same holds true for women over 45, but their positivity is much
less pronounced than for men. One of the most interesting differences was the
fact that as men’s age increased they rated the consultations by their director
more positively, whereas the reverse was true for women. Young men and women
were both concerned about colleagues accepting responsibility for work-related
problems.
Among men, national professional officers have the
greatest clarity about what they are expected to deliver (100%) and their
accountability to deliver (95%). However, they have the lowest freedom to act
without consulting their supervisors (55%).
Male general service staff were least enthusiastic about
their colleagues’ ability to accept responsibility for problems that arise in
their work (49%) and about the level of initiative shown in their division (60%).
There were fewer differences in the results between women
professionals and women general service staff. The most notable ones were that general
service women felt there was less initiative shown in their division (66%)
whereas professional women were more concerned about people taking responsibilities
for work-related problems (53%).
What
more needs to be done to improve our worklife in IFAD?
Although
overall staff engagement has remained relatively constant in recent years, breaking
down the data like this highlights significant differences within the staff
population. If we want to improve the index, we need to speak to those who are
least happy. That means we need to find out more from male general service
staff, younger staff, and women in all categories.
For insights from the 2014 Global Staff Survey, contact gender@ifad.org