Challenge 2- when working with/for a minister, sometimes we face contradictory opinion between him and UNDP and as project managers, we have to make a decision that is compliant with UNDP’s ethics while keeping a healthy relationship with the minister

^{1.      Countries with small populations with interconnected communities and with personal connections from shared backgrounds (e.g., schools, villages, neighbourhoods) can lead to perceptions of favouritism or bias.} These challenges can be addressed by:

• Continued application of objective criteria for recruitment, promotions, and performance assessments. By using documented and transparent evaluation frameworks, decisions are based on skills, competencies, and merit.

  
  

• Provide continuous professional development opportunities focused on unconscious bias and ethical leadership, ensuring managers and staff uphold UNDP’s values of neutrality and professionalism in decision-making​.

  
  

2.      Despite policies promoting a safe work environment, staff members may still fear reporting incidents of misconduct, such as bullying, due to concerns about retaliation in small offices.

• Strengthen the mechanisms for anonymous reporting, ensuring these systems are widely accessible and known to staff. These channels should be independent, secure, and aligned with UNDP’s commitment to confidentiality and protection for whistleblowers.

  
  

• Communicate UNDP’s zero-tolerance stance on retaliation. This policy must be reinforced through visible leadership support and strict enforcement to demonstrate that the organization protects those who raise concerns in good faith​.

  
  

• Provide staff with access to UNDP-trained counsellors, ensuring a trusted, confidential environment for reporting and advice. This support structure aligns with UNDP’s duty of care, promoting a workplace culture where employees feel empowered to speak out safely.

Balancing Compassion and Integrity in Decision-Making: In some cases, People Managers may face situations where employees act in ways that violate ethical norms, such as lying, but may have extenuating circumstances, such as personal or medical issues, that contribute to their behavior. The ethical challenge lies in balancing the need to maintain integrity— by enforcing consequences for unethical behavior —with the compassion required to understand and address the underlying causes of an employee's actions.

To handle this challenge, I would focus on understanding the full context behind the employee's behavior. In cases where personal or health-related issues contribute to misconduct, I would consider alternative responses, such as providing support to resolve the underlying issue before making a final decision on discipline. Setting clear performance and behavioral expectations moving forward, with a transparent and documented process, would help ensure fairness and accountability while allowing room for compassion.

Fairness vs. Organizational Interests: Another ethical challenge arises when the needs of the organization conflict with the interests of individual employees or the team. For example, when a project requires unpaid overtime or when pay discrepancies are discovered between employees, I would need to balance the ethical responsibility of fairness toward employees with the business’s need to achieve results.

To address this challenge, I would aim for transparency and open communication with my team. When organizational demands conflict with their personal needs or create inequities, I would engage in dialogue to explain the organization’s needs while actively seeking solutions that minimize the negative impact on employees. Where possible, I would negotiate reasonable compromises, such as adjusting timelines, offering compensatory time off, or ensuring a swift correction of inequities. Clear communication about decision-making processes and creating long-term, sustainable practices would be key to maintaining both fairness and trust.

These ethical challenges require thoughtful reflection and a balance between different values, but by considering the broader implications and fostering open communication, I can navigate these situations with integrity.

1.      Managing Remote Work Ethics

With the rise of remote work, challenges around accountability and trust can arise. Employees may feel pressure to be constantly available, leading to potential burnout or ethical concerns around work-life balance.

Resolution: I prioritize open discussions about work expectations and encourage employees to set boundaries that support their well-being. Regular check-ins help maintain engagement while emphasizing outcomes rather than hours logged. By fostering a culture that values trust and autonomy, I aim to create a healthy work environment where employees can thrive, regardless of their location.

2.      Balancing Transparency and Confidentiality

As a People Manager, I often have access to sensitive information about employees, including personal issues or performance concerns. Striking the right balance between transparency and confidentiality can be challenging, especially when team members seek information about each other.

Resolution: I prioritize clear communication about confidentiality policies and the importance of respecting privacy. I encourage team members to approach me with their concerns, assuring them that sensitive information will be handled appropriately. When sharing information, I focus on aggregate data and general trends to maintain transparency while protecting individual privacy.

1. Fairness in Performance Evaluations: Ensuring that performance reviews are unbiased and fair can be difficult, especially in diverse teams. It's essential to address any unconscious biases that might affect evaluations.

   Addressing the Challenge: To combat this, I would implement structured evaluation criteria and provide training on unconscious bias for all managers involved in the review process. Regular feedback loops can also help employees understand expectations and areas for improvement throughout the year, rather than just during the formal review period.

2. Balancing Employee Privacy with Organizational Needs: Maintaining confidentiality while addressing performance issues or personal matters can be tricky. Employees may feel vulnerable, and it's crucial to handle sensitive information responsibly.

   Addressing the Challenge: I would establish clear guidelines for data privacy and communication. This includes defining what information can be shared and with whom, as well as creating a culture of trust where employees feel safe discussing their concerns without fear of judgment.

Challenge 2: Gender parity vs. fieldwork restrictions for women in Afghanistan: UNDP’s goal of achieving gender parity in staffing is increasingly challenged by the restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities, which limit women's access to offices and their ability to engage in fieldwork. This creates a dilemma when hiring women, as their restricted working conditions can lead to increased workload for the existing, already overstretched team. In response, we are empowering female employees by offering flexible, remote work arrangements and leveraging technology to enable them to contribute effectively despite the restrictions. Assigning women to roles where they can work remotely—such as project management, analysis, or communications—ensures they can still provide valuable input.

1. Diversity and Inclusion

• Challenge: Ensuring that all employees, both internal and from external agencies, feel valued and included is essential but often challenging, particularly in a diverse environment like UNDP.

• Solution: I actively promote a culture of diversity by implementing inclusive hiring practices and organizing training programs that raise awareness about biases. Regular assessments of workplace culture through surveys and feedback mechanisms help identify areas for improvement, allowing me to take necessary actions across both my team and external partners.

  
  

2. Conflict of Interest

• Challenge: Navigating potential conflicts of interest among employees and external agency partners can lead to ethical dilemmas that affect decision-making.

• Solution: I enforce clear policies regarding conflicts of interest and require team members and external partners to disclose any potential conflicts. A transparent decision-making process, including oversight from management, ensures that all actions are ethically sound.

  
  

  
  

What are two ethics-related challenges you face as a People Manager?

Please share with the group how you would consider best addressing these challenges.

Two ethics related challenges that I faced as a People Manager are:

1.      Ethical Dilemmas that involve choosing between two conflicting moral principles, such situations may involve conflicts among values, duties, rights, and obligations.

The situation I faced was the following:

Background

We had a Project that was at the starting phase, and we had initiated a recruitment process for the project team. Many of the team members that were working on another project that was close to its end had applied to the new positions for the new project. John, one of our team members that have been with the company for many years and had a history of good performance was not short listed although he met all the requirements for the position he applied to. John contacted me asking for help as he couldn’t understand why all his colleagues were short listed while he was not selected. While I asked him to raise the question directly to HR as I was not directly involved in the recruitment process, I tried myself to inquire internally through my direct manager what the reason behind this decision was. While the HR confirmed to John that he was not short listed, they declined to give him any reason. On my side I was informed unofficially and in a confidential way that there was an ongoing investigation on a case in which John was involved and the company could not take the risk of re-hiring John before knowing the outcome of the investigation and being sure that John is clear. In this case the company decided to mitigate the risk of re-hiring John without being sure that he is clear by discarding him from the recruitment process. While this decision may have solved the company’s problem, it was unfair towards John as he was deprived from the opportunity of getting the new position without necessarily being guilty of anything. Moreover, he was not even told why he was not short listed although he qualified for the job, matter which affected him psychologically and demotivated him in the performance of his current job.

Dilemma

Many dilemmas arise from the above situation.

The first dilemma was that I personally don’t agree with the company’s decision as a person should be treated as innocent until proven guilty and not the contrary. John had a family to provide and was deeply affected by the situation on a personal level and on a professional level without being given any recourse.

The second dilemma was that, because I was bound by confidentiality, i could not be totally honest with John and share with him all the information I had on the subject.

While I could not change the company’s decision, I decided to treat John as innocent until proven guilty while taking some discreet measures to mitigate the risk by avoiding assigning to him tasks that might expose the company’s interests. I showed to John my sympathy and tried to motivate him by staying close to him, regularly communicating with him and assigning to him new tasks and new responsibilities as much as possible. I also discussed the situation with him on a personal level and while showing him that I understood his frustration, I asked him to stay focused on his current job and advised him to start looking for a job just in case the situation in the company is not resolved.

This approach was successful in gaining the trust of John as he felt that I understood his situation and was supporting him as a manager. His motivation on the ground and his performance returned to normal while waiting for the situation to hopefully resolve positively in the company.

2.      Conflicts of Interest that may occur when an individual's personal interests – family, friendships, financial, or social factors could compromise his or her judgment, decisions, or actions in the workplace.

Background

Lea, one member of the team who has a critical position that required coordination and support to all the team members as well as close coordination with me as a manager was not performing well lately on several tasks although she had been usually a good performer.  I tried to identify the cases where she was underperforming and noted that these were all related to tasks that were assigned to one specific member of our team. Investigating further, I learned that she had a personal relationship with that team member and was not being objective in processing the tasks that related to him.

Dilemma

This was a situation of conflict of interest, and I had to do something about it. The challenge was not to step on the personal freedom of the team members while addressing the issue of underperformance. To address this issue, I decided to talk to Lea on her underperformance and asked her to share with me any issues she had and explain the situation. During the conversation, she gave me general reasons of work overload and stress at work without any reference to the problem I had identified. I felt that she was not comfortable sharing the fact that she has a relationship with one member of our team. To sort out this issue, I pointed out several examples of cases where she had not been objective in processing a task or had concealed information from me and noted discreetly that all of these cases related to the same team member. I pointed out that I appreciated her as a team member and relied on her good performance, asked her to be more vigilant in processing the cases, informed her that I expect full transparency & objectiveness in doing her job and that I am there in case she needed any support.

The above approach was effective in raising Lea’s awareness on the problem and pushing her to pull herself up without scratching her feelings or going into her discomfort zone. She understood that I am monitoring the situation and noticing any flaws in performance. She thereby gradually corrected her behavior and her performance returned to normal.

First challenge: Team member performance evaluation

Performance appraisals should provide an objective assessment of a team member's performance, with a view to either improving his or her performance or requesting separation. However, because we're used to working with colleagues, it's difficult for us to make an objective assessment of their performance. We want to continue working with the team members we already know well. The risk is that the team's overall performance will suffer because of this lack of objectivity.

Suggested improvement: Stick to the performance plan defined over a period to measure progress. Evaluation should be based on whether the objectives defined in the plan have been achieved. If objectives and targets are not defined, it is always difficult to provide a fair assessment of performance.

Second challenge: managing conflicts of interest

Whether it's a staff recruitment or an acquisition process, I always find it difficult to define the boundary between the existence or non-existence of potential conflicts of interest. When we come across the file of a bidder or candidate whose qualities we know, we are often confronted with the question of whether to express our appreciation of the person or company concerned. Often, we need to work with competent people or companies, but the fact of having worked with them can be interpreted as a conflict-of-interest challenge or not.

Suggested improvement: Depending on the situation, when I come across a conflict-of-interest situation, I declare it immediately and take no part in decision-making. However, if I'm asked to make a recommendation based on my experience, I feel obliged to give an opinion to avoid the panel making a bad decision. But the best thing is to tell the others beforehand if we've already dealt with the company or candidate concerned.

1.                          Managing team's personal situations with work commitments: At times, the team members ask for relaxations/ accommodations because of their personal situations which may not be the most appropriate arrangement to deliver results for the programme, however they need to be supported to the extent possible.

Example: There are certain roles in our programme which effectively work as secondment to the Government offices. We has hired a mid-career professional to serve as technical consultant to Ministry of Finance during India’s G20 Presidency. This required her to be working from Ministry’s office every day as they didn’t approve of any remote working arrangements.While she agreed for it at the time of hiring, within one month of her joining the job, she expressed that due to her health situation, she has been advised by the doctors to work from home for an extended period. This was not acceptable to the Ministry officials due to their policies and hence they requested us to arrange a replacement.

If we had gone strictly by policy, we could have pre-closed her contract as she was not abe to fulfill her contract requirements of being present in office. The fact that there was no other open position within the team where she could be absorbed was making it an even more challenging situation. We, however, modified her contract to work on a research based deliverable which could be managed remotely so that she could complete her contract duration and also manage her health situation. This meant arranging funds from other projects but it was important to keep our commitments to both the Government and the contract holder.

2.        Acceptance of offers for external assignments or associations: As we progress in our careers and strengthen our technical profile in the industry, we are approached with offers for mentorship, board membership, professional guidance, teaching, etc which may be appealing to accept for intellectual fulfillment. I have received multiple such offers which are structured as pro-bono, to be delivered outside of work hours and come across as not creating any conflict with any of my work responsibilities at the UN. Many of my senior team members have also been in similar situations where their friends from the industry bring such opportunities which are difficult to decline. However, it is important to always consult the Ethics Office before accepting any such opportunities and make a full disclosure to avoid any misconceptions of us getting undue benefits from such engagements.

1)      Transparency and Accountability in Supplier Selection, which can be challenging, especially when balancing cost, quality, and delivery time considerations. Supplier selection is a critical step in procurement, and it’s essential that the process is fair, unbiased, and transparent. Without a structured and transparent approach, the selection process can appear random or subject to favoritism, especially if criteria are applied inconsistently or decisions aren’t well-documented. This can lead to mistrust among stakeholders, suppliers, and even within the procurement team itself.

The solution is well reflected in the UN Procurement Rules and regulations and is a huge topic, but in short, we need to ensure the following: standardized supplier selection criteria, use a formal scoring and evaluation process, document and archive each stage of the selection process, promote transparency by involving stakeholders, leverage technology for process automation and tracking and, of course, ensure segregation of duties.

2)      Procurement Managers and Project staff work closely with various suppliers and stakeholders, which can sometimes lead to conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest occurs when personal relationships, financial interests, or external pressures interfere with objective decision-making. This can include situations where a UNDP staff or their family members have financial stakes in a supplier, or where friendships or business relationships could bias procurement or project decisions. This favoritism could stem from personal relationships, past positive experiences, or internal pressures from stakeholders who may have preferences for certain vendors. These practices can damage the integrity of the procurement process, and even lead to legal or reputational consequences.

The solution would be to develop a clear conflict of interest policy, rotate decision-makers for key purchases, create an independent oversight or review process, introduce ERP with built-in controls.

Challenge 1: Conflict between Truth vs Truth, e.g., one of my university friends is working under my supervision, and got complaint against him that he is ignoring the organizational policy (not using helmet while driving M/C for field work); following the organizational policy as manager, I have to show cause and take disciplinary action as it is mandatory practice (signed off during the job acceptance), which will impact his performance and possibilities to lost job.

Challenge 2: Conflict between Truth vs Wrong - One of my female colleagues is trapping other colleague showing “Gender Policy” is favoring her to enjoy 4-6 days period related absent and look after her children. This situation severely affect the manager and the team performance, as manager I have engaged one of the HR colleague to understand the situation as a result it was observed that female colleague is misinterpreting the policy and taking the opportunity without considering the workload and importance of deadline, which is distinguishable as right vs wrong situation.

The situation strongly handled following the managerial courage, where in the 1^st case the person does not get promotion for the next step, in the 2^nd case women colleague transferred to the desk job (lost opportunities). As manager I was though and analyze the situation and concluded that if I did the similar wrong activity, I must discuss with my manager to see the alternatives or flexibility within the policy, that ensure the team performance and uphold the policy as a professional.

1. One of the colleagues in the program section (hereafter referred to as Mr. AA for convenience), who holds a management position, informally began communicating with a colleague in the HR department to participate in personnel recruitment for projects. After the interview process, the panel selected the candidate deemed most suitable for the position. Following all formal procedures, the candidate received a job offer. At this point, Mr. AA contacted the candidate (either in person or by phone) and conveyed that the candidate had not performed well in the interview and was only recognized as suitable for the position due to Mr. AA’s patronage. He suggested that the candidate owed him and would be obliged to fulfill any future requests.

Once the candidate began working, Mr. AA assigned various tasks, including both work-related and personal requests.

2. The project received a request for information needed for an upcoming audit. This information was prepared by the head of project department and sent to CO colleagues for clearance. The accompanying email included a question for Mr. AA regarding whether the file would be sent directly by CO colleagues or if feedback from him was expected before the project staff sent the file themselves. After several days, Mr. AA organized an online meeting where, in the presence of several colleagues, he reprimanded the project department head for sending the email to him. He stated that project employees were "nobodies"—individuals not at his level—and therefore had no right to contact him verbally or in writing.

Given these situations and many others (including Mr. AA’s abuse of authority, misrepresentation of information, and unethical behaviour), project employees reached out to the staff committee to informally address these issues with office management. The chair of the staff committee, on behalf of the project, raised several concerns about Mr. AA's unethical behaviour towards project employees and expressed worries about the implementation of the programs outlined by the project.

Unfortunately, the situation has only worsened: some project employees are facing mobbing and sabotage of their work. Mr. AA has explicitly told the project manager that he will sabotage the work of the project team and that nothing will happen to him for this, as senior management trusts him. Observing these events, most project colleagues doubt that a request sent to the Ethics Office will resolve their issues, fearing it may exacerbate an already difficult situation.

1. Handling Underperformance While Maintaining Dignity

• Challenge: When a team member is consistently underperforming, it can be difficult to address the issue without negatively impacting their morale or the team's overall dynamic. There's a fine line between providing constructive feedback and making an employee feel singled out or embarrassed.

• Addressing It: Approach the situation with empathy and a focus on development. Have private, honest conversations that emphasize specific areas for improvement rather than general criticisms. Work together to create a performance improvement plan, setting achievable goals and providing the necessary support. Keeping these conversations discreet helps preserve the employee's dignity while addressing the issue head-on.

2. Navigating Conflicts of Interest

• Challenge: There are times when a manager may face a conflict of interest, such as having a personal relationship or shared history with a team member that could influence decisions. This can raise concerns about favoritism or unequal treatment.

• Addressing It: Be transparent about any potential conflicts with senior management or HR, and recuse yourself from decision-making in areas where the conflict exists. For example, if you have to evaluate the performance of a close friend, consider involving another manager in the review process. Documenting decisions and the reasoning behind them can also demonstrate a commitment to fairness and reduce the perception of bias.

Handling these challenges carefully ensures ethical standards are upheld while also maintaining trust and respect within the team.

Ethical-related Challenge - 1

Taking responsibility and honesty – I have experienced one newly recruited colleague in our team. She was expected to provide technical inputs for livelihood intervention of the project to women start-up business groups from vulnerable households from rural area. Instead of conducting field visits and facilitating with the communities, she keeps staying at the office and just doing office work and learning for her career development.

She behaved as a boss to field colleagues who are facilitating with the communities, and she just blamed those colleagues in case there are any issues of her thematic area.

When the supervisor measures her performance according to her KPI, there were some gaps to deliver during her assigned period. At that time, she kept blaming others.

In some cases, the information she mentioned in the small value grant proposal was not correct. In that case, she did not take accountability and just blamed others who are not responsible for that.

Suggested solutions for addressing the issue: The supervisor should have one by one discussion with her for improvement of her performance as well as her behavior.

The specific KPI should be set up in consultation with her and her specific role and responsibilities should be created. If there is no improvement, she should be reminded by one-by-one discussion and explain why performance plays a key role for her delivery and, in turn, her job security, contract extension.

If she is understanding and trying to improve her performance, the supervisor should encourage her by mentoring her thematic areas and letting her know the gaps to be filled. And the supervisor should build team spirit with her and other colleagues in the team by showing fair treatment to each other. Mutual understanding among the team members plays an important role in the best interest of the team and in achieving project interventions. As ownership sense is very important, she should be clearly delegated to her thematic area and hold accountable for her deliverables. In this way, she can become a more ethical team member.

Ethical-related Challenge - 2

 Social Media – One of team members is passionate about facebook and used to upload the project implementation and share with others on social media through his account. In our country, license to operate is shrinking and some people think that those who can work in the field is closely communicating with the military junta. Actually, the organization is delivering the assistance to the conflict and disaster affected communities in a low profile without direct communication with the de facto authority. If those project activities in the field were seen by some people through social media, it will affect their perception and there might be misunderstandings among some people. He is not a focal person to share communication materials in social media.

Suggested solutions for addressing the issue: The manager should discuss him the current context of doing business in the country and potential risk on reputation of organization although he shared those materials in good intention. On the other hand, the military junta will closely monitor the field activities and will take advantage for their political legitimacy. In this case, it will also affect not only the organization but also the beneficiary communities to get assistance. The manager should explain that his activities related to field implementation of project on social media will also put him at risk from military and some people.  In this way, the manager should explain and ask him not to share the project activities on social media due to potential risk to the organization, community and himself.

Sick leave: I found few colleagues have a tendency to use this as an opportunity rather necessity. The organization has a policy for uncertified sick leave. I found one colleague who uses this sick leave every Thursday or Sunday consistently. It seems she goes to meet her family every weekend and takes this matching day of sick leave.

Solutions: I have reminded her why the organization has given her these options and why consistently becoming sick on Thursday or Sunday is a miracle. This miracle should not happen all the time.

Second challenge: One colleague has been continuously sharing social media posts from others in which our impartiality is questioned. I have one to one discussions with him on this, and he understood his mistakes and promised not to do this again.

A situation that is quite interesting is office romance - a situation that is alleged is where a manager has a romantic relationship with the direct report. This situation is one of perceived favoritism, biased decision making and negative impact on the team morale.

The approach would be to have them Disclose the relationship to the RR and HR.  Since transparency is key to managing the potential COI.

Reassignment – to avoid the bias or perception or favoritism, it would be better to reassign of one the staff to a different Department and maintain professional boundaries to ensure all employees are treated fair.

Regular check in from HR to see that there is no further conflict in the work dynamics and also remind them on the company policies.

Ethical Challenge 2

Another ethical challenging situation is balancing the need to share information with the obligation to protect sensitive data. Handling employee’s personal health information with discretion while ensuring necessary parties are informed.

The approach is usually to have consent of the staff before the information is shared to the parties concerned and copy the staff in the email correspondence, follow the policies of the organization is handling sensitive information, Information shared will be on a need-to-know basis approach.

Those that receive the information should understand their responsibility and the need to maintain confidentiality.

1. Conflict of interest

2. Fairness, Equity and Inclusion

1. Conflict of Interest

As a National Professional, who is in the area of Procurement, I there several procurement related conflict of interest issues,i face and these include:

Family or personal relationships: I supervisee procurement experts who have family members and friends who have businesses in the area we source for the market. These family members include husbands and wives, and close relatives and friends of the officers.

This conflict of interest can be managed by ensuring that the officer responsible declares the conflict. Assess the risk related to the conflict and reassign the case to another officer ensuring that there will be no collision. The other suppliers or IC should also declare their conflict of interest as part of the bidding process; if not done, then a formal declaration process should be done . Through Training and following the clear policies of UNDP – we also implement and communicate the clear policies to staff regarding conflict of interest . All procurement officers should understand the importance of maintaining professional boundaries that will not be perceived as a conflict of interest. The repercussions of ignoring these should also be discussed with the officers. We also tell the offers to recuse themselves from any potential interest and monitor the implementation as part of the oversight.

Being friendly with suppliers: The staff who are working in UNDP may have worked with several suppliers and established some relationships and also may have worked with the suppliers and established relationships which include giving each other some gifts and donations.

If the staff has a close relationship with the suppliers, they should not be involved in the procurement process with this supplier. Just in case the officer is involved, consideration should be made that any meetings and discussions that happen between the supplier and the officer involve another person who should carefully document the meeting and work professionally. Disclosure and recusal can also be used to avoid this perceived conflict. The people manager should also Monitor and review the potential conflict of Interest. This can help identify issues early and ensure they are addressed promptly

2. Fairness, Equity and Inclusion

Promoting and delivering fairness, equity and inclusion in the workplace is an essential aspect of good people management. It’s about creating working environments and cultures where every individual can feel safe, experience a sense of belonging, and is empowered to achieve their full potential.

I face this ethical issue in the following areas.

In Hiring staff as a recruiter, oftentimes before interviewing, you would have a personal bias based on known or unknown facts : This result in some requirements for the Job description being focussed on a particular individual and particular skill set which may not be really needed. This has happened several times resulting in some people who really deserve to have the Job disqualified for no apparent reason.

It is important that organisations audit their hiring processes and make them more inclusive and avoid some conflict of interest which may result in unfairness and inequity. The Hiring pools should be expanded and any perceived bias in both Job criteria and selection should be nibbed before it happens.

The second challenge under this is male and female or gender bias on some particular activities which results in some activities not being allocated or assigned to a female officer or male officer

People Managers should foster an inclusive culture and communication. I should also build a psychologically safe workplace culture that values all people, open communication and collaboration by all. Providing regular training sessions can help raise awareness about unconscious bias, and microaggressions. It is the responsibility of organizations and leaders to equip their employees with the skills required to challenge and overcome biases in the workplace. Furthermore, Organizations should establish comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, paired with practices and processes that ensure fairness and equal opportunities for

The second case is a conflict of interest and how one must develop to avoid being part of a case of conflict in our daily work.

To face these challenges, the first aspect to address is to know the rules and guidelines of UNDP in depth to better understand each situation and address it in the best way. A second point is to always consult with colleagues and superiors to learn previous points of view and experiences.

People managers may encounter situations where there is a perceived or actual conflict of interest impacting impartial decision-making. For instance, being involved in hiring decisions for a candidate with whom they have personal connections can create an ethical dilemma. When this happens, managers should openly disclose any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from situations where their impartiality might be questioned. In line with the UNDP Code of Ethics, managers are expected to maintain transparency, fairness, and impartiality in all decisions, thereby fostering a culture of integrity and accountability.       

Managers may be faced with the challenge of investigating misconduct allegations involving team members while balancing the need for confidentiality with transparency. Leaks or mishandling of information can damage the credibility of the process, affect morale, and lead to reputational harm for both individuals and UNDP. In line with the UNDP Code of Ethics, managers should follow established protocols for handling misconduct allegations. Only essential personnel should be informed, and all involved should appearance of bias or favoritism. be reminded of the strict need for discretion. Documentation and communication should be precise, focusing on facts, to avoid any appearance of bias or favoritism.

Potential Conflict of Interest and Fairness in Decision-Making:

The key challenge here is managing relationships with external stakeholders such as startups, investors, and funders that can create potential conflicts of interest. Team members may have personal ties with applicants or stakeholders, potentially influencing selection or funding decisions. 

The Ethical Implication lies in ensuring transparency, fairness, and impartiality in awarding funds or opportunities is essential to maintaining trust and credibility within the innovation ecosystem. 

 What we have done is setting up clear conflict of interest policies, open selection criteria, and involving multiple evaluators in decision-making processes can reduce risks. Transparency in communication also ensures that stakeholders trust the fairness of outcomes.

Balancing Employee Well-being with Organizational Performance

The nature of innovation programming involves high-pressure timelines and expectations to deliver results, which can strain employees. Managing the team's workload while maintaining their mental well-being presents an ongoing challenge. 

There’s a risk of prioritizing output over well-being, leading to burnout, decreased morale, and high turnover, compromising both the team and the programme’s long-term goals. 

Ethical leadership involves promoting a healthy work environment by encouraging reasonable work-life balance, promoting open dialogue about mental health, and recognizing and rewarding efforts. Delegating tasks effectively and empowering team members to manage responsibilities independently can also alleviate pressure while nurturing growth. 

Responding to supervisors’ requests of tailoring terms of reference to fit a specific consultant.

Responding to Supervisors' Requests to Tailor Terms of Reference. I have sometimes found myself dealing with a situation where my supervisor requests me to tailor terms of reference to fit a certain consultancy in favor of a certain consultant. This poses an ethical dilemma around fairness, transparency, and hiring integrity. Tailoring TORs to favor one consultant can undermine equal opportunity principles, discourage qualified candidates, and potentially violate organizational policies and legal standards. The challenge for People Managers is to balance managerial expectations with the ethical obligation to maintain a fair, open, and competitive recruitment process. Open communication with supervisors about these ethical considerations and promoting a merit-based hiring system is essential to manage this challenge effectively.

As a people manager myself, I have never put a supervisor in such an ethical dilemma and would never request any activity that might be perceived by my supervisee as an ethical challenge.

Identifying AI-Generated Work in Supervisee Assignments:

With the increasing use of AI applications in content creation, detecting AI involvement in work can be complex. Ensuring that assignments genuinely reflect a supervisee’s own skills and understanding is vital for personal development and accountability. Ethical challenges include verifying the originality of work and determining whether AI use aligns with organizational standards and expectations. Addressing this requires clear policies on AI usage and training on ethical standards regarding AI tools to help supervisees understand boundaries and the importance of personal contribution.

Even though the use of these kinds of modern tools is not strictly forbidden, i use them myself, I prefer my supervisees to use these tools as support or back up instead of relying on 100% to do a specific task. Relying on AI tools to complete assignments can blur the line between support and undue reliance, particularly if a supervisee fails to disclose its use.

As a supervisor, I need to be confident that work submitted genuinely represents the supervisee's knowledge and abilities, especially when it impacts performance reviews and career. Also, unchecked AI use may inhibit personal growth and skill development, especially if supervisees rely on AI tools to produce work instead of building their own expertise.

Recruitment with high number of internal candidates:

As a people manager working in HR, I am often involved in managing recruitment of local staff where there will always be a high number of internal local staff for positions in our office. The policy requiring that positions are now first and only advertised internally is great in terms of encouraging staff mobility and has a focus on staff retention, but it also poses an ethical challenge as we will often know many of the candidates already, and we need to ensure that we keep the recruitment process fully transparent and fair and cannot be seen as having “preferred candidates”. We already have the needed policies in place so here the key point is really to follow the policy AND demonstrate that we are doing so. That means that for each step of the recruitment process, we engage different colleagues, so the candidates are evaluated by different people at each step. We also ensure to include a written assessment so that candidates are evaluated anonymously, and we ensure that the interview panel is composed of HR, the supervisor and a panel member from outside the hiring unit who would now know the internal candidates. As a good courtesy, I would also recommend individual feedback to all internal candidates about their own performance so they know why they were not successful and what they can improve and thus feel that they are also learning from the process.

Working from home while sick:

With the introduction of teleworking, I have noticed an increasing tendency for staff members to work from home even if they are sick. While this is not a great concern if it is a matter of e.g. a cold, it is still important to be aware that it may create the expectation and thinking that taking sick leave is not welcomed but we should work from home instead. My concern with this is how this may lead to stress and burnout with staff members in the long-term. When we are sick, our bodies are telling us that they need rest, and we have an entitlement for sick leave just because of that. With such a matter, communication from team leaders and management is key and it is important that they walk the talk themselves, thus take sick leave when sick. Also ensure that coverage is made for staff members who do take sick leave so that there is not an extra burden of work waiting when returning to work. And lastly, managers can also check in with those who work from home when sick and encourage sick leave where there is a need for this.

One ethical challenge I faced was dealing with instances of dishonesty from one of my staff members. He often claimed to have received documents from stakeholders later than the actual date. This typically happened when he delayed processing these documents and subsequently missed deadlines. To avoid blame, he misrepresented the situation, making it seem like the missed deadlines were due to late submissions from stakeholders.

Solutions:

Open Communication:
I had a private conversation with the staff member to discuss my observations. It was important to create a safe space for dialogue where he could explain his perspective and any underlying issues he might have been facing. During our conversation, I clarified expectations and emphasized the importance of honesty in our work, highlighting how it impacts the team’s integrity and performance. I also discussed the implications of misrepresentation on our relationships with stakeholders.

To prevent future occurrences, I established a more transparent process for document handling. This included closely tracking receipt dates and processing timelines, creating a system of accountability that encouraged honesty and responsibility.

Challenge 2: Undisclosed Private Business

I discovered that one of the new staff members was running a private business without disclosing it to UNDP. This situation violated UNDP rules, which require staff to seek approval for any outside business activities. Transparency in this matter was essential to prevent potential conflicts of interest in the future.

Solutions:

Private Discussion:
I arranged a private meeting with the staff member to address the issue directly. During this conversation, I emphasized the importance of transparency and the reasons behind the policy. I encouraged him to share any concerns he might have had about disclosing his business and explained the potential implications of not adhering to UNDP regulations.

I also shared with this staff UNDP's policies regarding outside business activities.

Ethical Challenge 1

Abuse of Sick-Leave: I have experienced a colleague who has on a number of times requested for uncertified sick leave on Fridays and or on a day prior to their official requested leave days. It has become clear that colleague is abusing the system. Even though staff have the right to such uncertified sick leave, it is expected that staff exercise integrity and honour and request for such leaves appropriately to ensure that they are actually able to make use of the benefit when required so they have a good work-life balance.

Addressing Challenge 1: I have had a conversation with the officer in question and indicated to them the trend observed. I have then explained to them the essence of the uncertified sick leave and the integrity issues associated with abusing it. I have introduced the available flexible working arrangements that UNDP has and encouraged them to look into if any of those will be beneficial in their circumstances so they can improve their work ethic.

Ethical Challenge 2

Pressure on a few: Due to the fact that one or two members in the team under-perform in all spaces whether in projects/progammes or even in country office planning committees, there is always pressure on the few who are high achievers and performers. This means that for every general CO committee or panel composition, the same individuals are usually having to be nominated to support processes. This puts unnecessary burden on a few as their rotation in such committees therefore comes frequently than it should.

Addressing Ethical Challenge 2: I have actively had one-on-one discussions with colleagues that under-perform to be pro-active and also developed a system to determine the level of effort required and level of the committee operations. I have had to put forward the under-performers in committees that are not planning strategic level events to build their capacity and engagement in such committees with the plan that the engagement in smaller committees will build them up.

1.       Conflicts of interest

Conflict of interests arises when a person chooses personal gain over duties to their employer, or to an organization in which they are a stakeholder or exploits their position for a personal gain in some way.

We are running a project with ministry of health. The office was opened recently, and we have asked existing partners including provincial government to share the list of service providers at the provincial. Months later I have just noticed that the owner of one service provider is the human resource manager at provincial public health department.

To address this issue, we had a session with all public health senior team, and we have provided a session about UNDP procurement policy and procedures.

Internally we have also discussed with the procurement team to discuss the bidding process and encourage staff to do the financial disclosure.

2.       Abuse of teleworking

During COVID 19 pandemic people have been working remotely. But when the pandemic has stopped, we started working from office but there was time that staff have encouraged to work from 1 day per week. Many staff members abused it and were working from home for more than 2 days and without previous approval of their supervisors.

To avoid this misconduct. Working from home has been eliminated by RR and the permission to work remotely should be very well justified and discussed with the supervisor and with the approval of RR.

Challenge 1: Employee Monitoring (especially in an era where working from home has become a norm)

It is often challenging to provide guidance in an era of remote work and dealing with the implications surrounding privacy and work-life balance. Finding the right balance between ensuring supervisees know when and how they are monitored on the job and not undermining their autonomy or dignity can be challenging.

Mitigation:

Clearly communicate to supervisees the expectations and do’s and don’ts when working from home. Have daily targets for Team members when they are working from home and monitor performance through emails sent. Monitor if supervisees’ status is ‘online’ on Teams.

Challenge 2: Maintaining a positive working environment where all team members have an equal treatment

Oftentimes, because of travels, work from home and other activities we may be working more frequently with some team members without noticing it. Similarly, we may be tempted to only see the value and contributions of colleagues who make meaningful contributions, have a good attitude and communicate frequently. If we are not careful, we may leave some team members behind not knowing that they are facing challenges which are the cause for their behavior.

Mitigation:

Dedicate time for one to one with each team member in person at least once a month. Reach out to team members who contribute less and have attitude issues to understand their points of view, value them and encourage them to use constructive feedback. Organize out of office events/get togethers/team building to help team members build bonds. Effectively communicate to them members are everyone will be treated equally in line with policies and rules.

Privacy and Confidentiality:
As a manager, I have access to sensitive information about my team members, which requires discretion and adherence to strict confidentiality protocols. This can be challenging, especially when needing to make decisions based on this knowledge or when colleagues request any personal information. To address this, I focus on following organizational policies on data protection and limit any sharing strictly to necessary parties. When it comes to highly sensitive information, I occasionally employ a mental boundary to “compartmentalize” or selectively recall information only in contexts where it’s essential, which helps prevent accidental disclosures.

One ethical challenge I recently encountered involved managing resource allocation fairly and transparently within a country portfolio approach, in a context of limited resources. In this setting, I was responsible for allocating resources to team members based on project needs, but the distribution was not always aligned with the actual time staff spent on individual projects. As a result, team members were sometimes required to dedicate more time to projects where their compensation did not fully reflect the level of effort they contributed. This misalignment created challenges in morale and fairness, as some staff felt they were not being compensated equitably for their contributions.

To address this, I held discussions with the team to clarify the portfolio-based approach, emphasizing that our collective efforts contributed to the broader objectives of the country portfolio, rather than focusing solely on individual project outcomes. I communicated the importance of flexibility and adaptability to achieve our overall goals, while recognizing the contributions of each team member. Additionally, I sought input from staff on how to improve our allocation process, helping them feel more included and valued in the decision-making process. I am now exploring ways to adjust future allocations more accurately to reflect actual time contributions, thus enhancing transparency and fairness.

2. Managing a Staff Member with Dual Reporting Lines

Another significant challenge involved managing a staff member who, while primarily part of my team with a 60% contribution, also reported to a different team and supervisor. Due to administrative oversight, her formal supervisor in the system was not updated to reflect her contributions to my team, resulting in her continuing to formally report to her previous supervisor. This misalignment created conflicts in task prioritization, as she focused predominantly on assignments from her formal supervisor and felt less obligated to prioritize the tasks I assigned.

To resolve this, I initiated discussions with her formal supervisor to establish a clearer communication protocol between us. We began holding regular check-ins to synchronize on priorities and ensure we were both aware of her workload and assignments. Through these discussions, we recognized that the lack of clarity and communication was challenging not only for us as managers but also for the staff member, who felt uncertain about accountability and prioritization. We agreed to conduct her Performance Management and Development (PMD) reviews jointly, giving her clearer expectations and a stronger sense of accountability toward both roles. This collaborative approach significantly improved her performance, alignment on tasks, and communication between teams, ultimately leading to more timely and effective task completion.

Handling Salary Raise Requests in a Fair and Equitable Manner

• Challenge: I have been approached by a team member who had just recently joined on a IUNV contract requesting a salary raise, based on the fact that she believe to be very experienced and the salary she was earning made it difficult for her to bear the living expenses in the new duty station. This would have created a potential ethical challenge as granting the raise could have led to perceptions of favoritism and unfairness, especially if other, more experienced and senior employees haven’t received comparable adjustments.

• Approach to address the issue: My approach was to assess the request based on clear, objective criteria like performance, experience, and the scope of the employee's role compared to their peers. I made sure the process was transparent, explaining to the employee that raises are based on set criteria and timing that applies to everyone fairly. Since they had just joined the team and the performance until then did not justify a raise, I informed the employee that this would not be possible at this time, as other members of the team would not have the same opportunity, even when they would be more experienced and with better performance.

  
  

Ensuring Fairness in PMD process

• Challenge: I currently supervise 8 team members, each with very different backgrounds, experience and skill sets. Some are more fast paced than others, and manage to work more autonomously. Ensuring fairness in their performance evaluations can be difficult, especially when balancing organizational pressures and individual needs. I often see myself faced with potential bias, conscious or unconscious, which can influence my decision, leading to perceptions of favoritism or unfair treatment.

• Approach to address the issue: To tackle this, I try to be guided by structured, objective criteria for evaluations and decisions, e.g. the goals set under the annual work plan, combined with one-on-one discussion with the team member to calibrate my decision and provide checks and balances. Also, I always communicate my decisions openly and this helps build trust and minimize perceptions of bias.

What was personally challenging at times is dealing with individuals with limited professional experience, so besides working with them to meet office and project-specific deadlines, I had to also monitor with the assistance of the RR/DRR and HR their adherence to HR policies, for example, requiring them not to be significantly late in the morning, and pushing for them to be more proactive and responsive in addressing office and project-specific tasks. As my DRR put it, more ‘discipline’ needed to be created.

Although some complained against what they perceived to be a ‘strict’ work environment, we needed to keep pushing for more punctual reporting to the office in the morning (for example) because working 3-4 hours a day isn’t ok. We also kept reminding them that we are here to help them build their professional career, capacities, and skills.

One of my teammates was also pregnant this year and we needed to maintain the confidentiality of her situation until she went on maternity leave more recently.

On the one hand, the approvals of her frequent requests to work from home made her teammates a bit jealous and I just kept remining them that the main policy is for everyone to be at the office during the main working hours. I also assured them that their colleague is dealing with a personal situation that requires the support of the entire team, and although they again pushed back, they eventually became more supportive as well.

On the other hand, we then reached the time for the renewal of contracts. Would you renew the contract of someone knowing that their maternity leave is coming up, at a time when the office is lacking resources? In the end, the decision that we reached in consultation with the RR and the DRR is to renew the contract of this teammate. We agreed that her relationship management skills with government partners, proactivity and charisma are all assets for UNDP.

• Fairness in Decision-Making: I have to ensuring all collegaues are treated equitably in decisions related to hiring, promotions, and rewards and I find this very challenging, especially when unconscious biases or favoritism come into play. This requires us to consistently evaluate and mitigate biases, establish transparent criteria, and be mindful of each team member’s contributions and needs.

• Balancing Confidentiality and Transparency: I being a senior manager often have access to sensitive information about employees (such as performance, salary, health issues) and must maintain confidentiality while also promoting transparency where appropriate. For instance, sharing the reasoning behind certain team changes or decisions can be essential for team morale but must be balanced carefully to protect individual privacy and maintain trust.

• Requests to Accommodate work from home: This now a biggest challenge especially when we are back to work. We have to handle colleagues' requests on ad-hoc basis to avoid any perception of favouritism within the team

2.       Encouraging team members to prioritize professional relationship over the personal one: in this small country where everyone knows everyone, our team members routinely have long term personal friendships with our stakeholders.  When team members have to deliver bad news to the stakeholder or the project has to take a position contrary to the apparent desires of the stakeholders, there have been times when the personal relationship prevents the team member from completely being clear with the stakeholder.  Learning from those situation, now in the project, we have emphasized that there are ways to remain loyalty to UNDP values and maintain the personal relationship as well.  We talk openly about such potential conflicts of interest, laying out expectations from team members and encourage approaches that allow for documentation to reduce miscommunications. 

I'm also keenly aware of how my presence as an outsider could inadvertently exacerbate local divisions or mistrust. Some community members may perceive me as aligned with certain political or ethnic agendas, even if I strive for neutrality. This perception risks undermining the social fabric within already strained communities. It’s a delicate balance to strike because, while I aim to understand and document these critical issues, I know that even the act of asking questions can create discomfort or suspicion.

Another challenge I face is ensuring that participants genuinely understand what they're agreeing to when they provide information. With limited media access and prevalent misinformation, there’s a risk that people might not fully grasp how their words will be used or the potential consequences of sharing their experiences. This brings me to the difficult task of balancing my commitment to accurately portray the realities on the ground without sensationalizing or misrepresenting vulnerable groups—who are already subject to misunderstanding and stigma on the global stage.

The below two case scenarios I faced are examples of some other cases faced at the workplace:

1.      An Employee Absenteeism

Scenario:
A supervisee frequently calls in sick or provides excuses for being absent from work. The issue faced with the supervisee is complex as this behavior not only impacted the team productivity but also affected our unit strategic goals aligned in the AWB and would subsequently affect the team performance.

As people manager, there were couple of challenges faced through this situation and I would indicate them in the below two points:

• How to balance compassion for the employee's potential personal issues with the need to maintain team accountability and performance.

• How to make sure that policies are applied fairly without making the employee feel targeted.

To the best of my extent knowledge, I have tried to address the issue to the employee from different prospectives throughout the following:

• The first I thought about is to have a one-one meetings: this is to gain more understanding on the reasoning behind these recurrent requests, at the same time, to understand if there were confidential information or family issues that form the reason for being absent.

Depending on the conversation, I have explored some options and offered support through the stress counseling unit if needed to support the employee resolving the root of the issue.

Also, flexible working arrangements were offered to the employee during what I would just say is a transition period to provide more space in flexi working arrangements.

At the same time, I agreed with the employee and Set Clear Expectations: Reiterate attendance policies and the importance of team cohesion while expressing the willingness to support the employee. We collaboratively set goals for improving attendance, allowing the employee to contribute ideas for how to make this achievable.

2. Work-Life Balance

A high-performing employee, consistently works late and frequently checks emails during weekends. The performance is strong however the supervisee seemed to be increasingly stressed and burned out.

Recognizing that while the supervisee dedication is valuable, I recognized that this behavior may lead to long-term burnout and decreased productivity.

To make sure that work life balance is implemented in accordance to policies, and encouraging a culture of balance without penalizing employees who strive for excellence, I have made some efforts into balancing the employee work life balance in the below actions:

• Initiating a Conversation has been the first impression to dig deep on the case and by having a one-on-one discussion with the supervisee to acknowledge the hard work being done and express concern about the work-life balance. I have asked some open-ended questions to understand the perspective behind that such as, what motivates you to continue working on the same standard in this period.

As it’s an adverse case that would lead to unproductivity at some point of time, I promoted Healthy Boundaries: and encouraged the supervisee to set specific working hours and disconnect after hours for some time.

I have also suggested using tools or strategies to manage time effectively, like turning off notifications or designating “no work” zones during weekends if possible. I also encouraged the supervisee to log in to the learning platforms such as LinkedIn to obtain more courses that would be beneficial to balance between work and personal life.

Leading by example, I tried as a direct supervisor to demonstrate a healthy work-life balance and create a supportive culture around work-life balance.

Fostering a supportive work environment while maintaining accountability and productivity has been a challenge for all supervisors which we try our best to learn as we go.

Thanks for this programme initiative and organizers, it gives us the space to put our knowledge in writing.

Challenge N°1 - Conflict of interest: A colleague advertises a call for proposal to hire a local NGO to carry out some interventions of a program. Later on, during a field mission to monitor achievements so far, you found out that the selected NGO is owned by one of his close relatives and he did not disclose even though he was part of the panel selecting the NGO.

Challenge N°2 - Honesty and Integrity: For this very same case, after investigation, you come to realize that this local NGO has been put in place by the colleague with his relative as Owner/Executive secretary. The NGO has been selected twice to carry out activities of the project as low value grant (LVG) with quite huge amount of resources combined transferred so far. And the findings from the field reveal misuse of resources and fake reports.

How did I address :

After collecting all the information from fields, notably from beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders, I cease the management to seek the support and investigations from the Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI), and this resulted in dismissing the colleague from the organization and help keeping the reputation of the Office.

1. Impartiality in Decision-Making: It can be challenging to separate personal relationships from professional roles, especially when dealing with friends or long-time colleagues. This can introduce bias when making decisions or evaluating performance.

Addressing the Challenge:

Clearly communicate the criteria and processes used for making decisions. This helps build trust and ensures that everyone understands how decisions are made.

Apply the same standards and criteria to all employees. This reduces the risk of favoritism and ensures that decisions are based on objective.

Implement systems for employees to provide feedback on decisions. This can help identify any perceived biases and allow for adjustments to be made.

2. Accountability in Supplier Selection: Ensure that all Co staff understand that the teams involved in selecting a supplier or consultant are accountable for the process. Often, due to a lack of planning, units may prefer direct contracts to meet immediate needs when a competitive process would be more appropriate.

Addressing the Challenge:

Clear Communication and Training.

Structured Planning: Encourage and enforce advance planning for procurement needs.

To address this, I have initiated several one-on-one discussions with her and with her team. We’ve worked together to identify key tasks she should focus on, while delegating others to her teammates. We also broke down her deliverables to make them more manageable, emphasizing that the team is willing to support her, provided she communicates her needs in a timely manner—before it’s too late to step in. Despite ongoing conversations over the past few months, the issue persists. She remains resistant to delegation, preferring to work on her own despite acknowledging that it causes her anxiety. She maintains that working solo, though stressful, brings her peace of mind.

Given this continuing challenge, I have escalated the matter to senior management and HR for assistance. However, the guidance I’ve received largely reiterates the actions I have already taken, leaving the issue unresolved.

A second ethical dilemma I face involves balancing the demands of government partners with UNDP policies. In government-financed projects, requests from partners often conflict with UNDP’s policies. For example, government officials such as Secretaries, Undersecretaries, and their Chiefs-of-Staff sometimes request premium economy seating or reimbursement for plane tickets—requests that violate policy. Refusing these demands is often met with frustration and reminders that the project funding comes from the government. This puts project staff in a difficult position, where they sometimes decide to cover the additional costs out of their own pockets to "maintain the peace."

To address this, I raised the issue with senior management. In coordination with the Operations team, we decided to share UNDP’s travel policies, which align with the government’s own policies on staff travel. We also agreed that any exceptional requests should be escalated immediately to senior management to shield project staff from potential backlash. This allows senior leadership to reiterate the policies and take responsibility for refusing such requests.

1. A high performer, well-appreciated and committed colleague makes who steal something from the office.

After verifying and confirming the facts, I would inform my supervisor of the situation. I would then arrange a private meeting with the colleague to present the facts and give the opportunity to explain what prompted this unexpected behavior [maybe a personal issue?]

Following that, I would consult with HR and my supervisor to determine the appropriate disciplinary actions, taking into account the severity of the theft, the colleague's response [such as remorse, apology, offer to reimburse], the context and the organization policy.

I would also ensure strict confidentiality throughout the process.

2. An implementing partner threatens to boycott an activity, and blame UNDP for the failure, if the unreasonnable perdiem request is not accepted.

I would explain to the implementing partner the budgetary constraints we have for this activity, along with UNDP's obligation to adhere to the agreed per diem scale, ensuring fairness across all partners. If additional per diem days are necessary, they must be strongly justified programmatically so we can consider finding additional funding. I would address this in a face-to-face discussion and follow up in writing for documentation.

I would also emphasize the importance of our partnership and our shared goals.

There are two of my team members frequently taking sick leave or requesting ad hoc leave. They are less than 1 year in their respective roles however utilizing the full leave allowances especially uncertified sick leave. For example, 6 days of USL taken in 3 months until 31/03 and from 01/04 the balance of 7 days kicks in which gets used in the next 3 months. On average 5 working days are being taken as leave in a month.

This is affecting team performance as someone else must take additional load for the day in the ad hoc situation which is unfair.

We want staff to have work life balance, however few people playing truant doesn’t permit healthy teamwork as some of them taking advantage of the leave allowance and appear as being favored.

Addressing the challenge – Having conversation with the team on the leave pattern and the pressure it has put on the team to take additional responsibility. Have documented the conversation and placed in file for leave and performance monitoring.

With a team of 8, I have kept an excel leave tracker which becomes cumbersome few times but helps to ensure that leave, especially sick leave gets promptly entered in Quantum.

Additionally, a reporting protocol has been established for Team whereabouts, reporting to office and leave plans to deal with unconsented absenteeism and frequent tardiness.

Ethics-related challenge 2 – Monitoring employee output.

I have quite diverse pool of staff and functions in my team under Operations. The functions which did not fall under the Procurement, HR and Finance have all been pooled in the Administration Team managed by me which includes ICT, Travel, Visa & Protocol, Premises, Assets, Reception, Registry and Driving.

It becomes difficult to monitor employee output as some responsibilities can be quantified whilst some can’t. For example, the numbers of transaction processed by the travel assistant can be recorded but the premises issues and follow ups are normally “work in progress”.

In the age of working from home and allowing flexibility, monitoring employee output for a team with functions which are office based has been challenging. Employees may appear “online” without output. The absenteeism (challenge 1) creates more imbalance as every member has distinctive responsibilities without any clear backstopping.

Addressing the challenge

I have introduced a template for the team to capture a normal weekly work schedule to help to assess the workload.

Also, another efficiency analysis template has been developed, where I have included the key responsibilities extracted from the job descriptions and requested team to put comments, projects they are working on etc., and rate their efficiency (0-100%) against the responsibilities. This has been reviewed and recommendations provided in terms of performance and talent management.

While we are promoting healthy work balance and flexibility, some functions are not suited for working from home. This has been communicated to the team and filed with HR. WFH will be approved on exceptional basis - 1) first seek approval, and 2) provide a list of deliverables that will be completed. By the following day, please confirm completion of these deliverables.

1. Motivational blindness: I am always confronted with the reality of recognizing the form of behavior that constitutes unethical behavior but slow to act due to the unpredictable outcomes of the action.

   
   

   It is important for leaders to regularly support staff in doing refresher courses on ethics and understanding the UNDP POPPs. The fear of retaliation is real in dealing with ethical issues and more support needs to be provided to human resources to function better.

   
   

2. Embracing diversity and inclusion in a context compounded by the general misunderstanding and lack of consensus of what is right relative to right presents a dilemma. Some work colleagues may have limited exposure of understanding how to deal with others.

   
   

   Staff need to be provided regular opportunities for exposure to other contexts and dynamics through detailed assignments, exchange programmes and additional course to acquaint their learning of minimal standard behavior at the workplace. Managers and leaders should be provided with sufficient information, tools and support to their functionality.

   
   

How to address the challenges:

A long recruitment process at my CO was launched for a very specific position in my team, but embedded in the national institutions, supposed to be the "focal point" for external partners and funds for support on a very specific topic, with two sensitive counterparts closely involved in this topic. The person winning the position ended up being the technical director of one of these institutions, and they had gone through the recruitment process brilliantly. Nevertheless, when offered the estimated salary corresponding to the position, the high level recruitee was offended, and took as reference the salary of the previous "focal point", which was higher as that person had not been contracted by UNDP. This escalated quickly to the Minister of the counterpart the recruitee was the former director of, resulting in a formal communication complaining about the recruitement process. This was a high programmatic risk, as the relationship was the counterpart was already at stake, but there were also both the risks of 1.distorting the process (honesty) and 2.not offering a salary aligned with similar positions' salaries (maintain integrity).

Finally, with subtle and diplomatic communications, and using the range of salaries existing for the position level, there could be an accepted salary for this position, without having to enter in a negotiation with the recruitee nor with the counterpart.

Ethics-related Challenge #2: Procurement, Team, Small world

In a small country, where the pool of experts, specialists is highly limited, there are often discussions and questions on the candidates for consultancies or recruitements. They often come from the same counterparts that UNDP works with, and are sometimes even involved in the same projects repeatedly where consultancies are needed. Although there is clarity on the necessity to step down from an institution or a project if applying to a UNDP Individual Contract or Position, if not managed well there could sometimes be suspicions of "insider trading" when positions are published, and of profiles being eternally changed from one institution to another.

The main solution in this case, on top of respecting the POPP by the book, is to have transparent and open discussions both with the counterparts and within the team, to establish clear boundaries, that sometimes will need to be evaluated case by case, and to always lead by example for evaluations and recruitment processes.

 Remain aware of ethical concerns and know how to avoid them.

Plan thoroughly: Ensure comprehensive procurement planning, including risk assessment.

Maintain transparency: Publicly share procurement schedules, plans, solicitations, and contract awards.

Oversee diligently: Regularly review procurement transactions, vendor details, and supplier backgrounds.

Report fraud promptly: Report any fraud or corruption accurately and without delay.

Prevent conflicts of interest: Disclose any relationships and avoid participating in decisions where you have a personal interest.

Decline gifts: Generally, refuse gifts, honors, awards, meals, entertainment, or other favors.

Know public procurement principles: Understand the role of public procurement principles in ensuring a fair and ethical process.

Proactively manage risks: Continuously monitor and address risks associated with procurement.

Follow FDP requirements: Adhere to Financial Disclosure Programme (FDP) requirements, including submitting a Financial Disclosure statement and participating in verification processes.

What are two ethics-related challenges you face as a People Manager? Please share with the group how you would consider best addressing these challenges.

There are several situations that create ethical dilemmas in a day-to-day life. To me,

1.             Fair treatment: Fair Treatment is a most frequenting ethical challenge. As a people manager, I am responsible for ensuring fairness in promotions, workload distribution, and sharing opportunities, among others. I often face pressure to prioritize organizational demands, and assign more works to some colleagues due to their competencies. In such situations some junior staff seem to be doing a better quality of work compared to the senior ones. This creates a difficulty for me because I have to get the things done in a prompt and quality manner but the responsible ones cannot deliver in this spirit. As a result, I have to ask the junior officers which creates a perception among them that the senior responsibles don’t have proper workload and responsibility. This imbalance of workload seems to lead a wrong perception or perhaps a sense of favoritism or unjust treatment. It's not easy to raise a fundamental question of quality of work about a staff once he or she is on board.

My approach to handle such situation: 1. I contribute to lay out concepts and request the Junior colleagues to work along. 2. I call for a group work and assign the work in parts including to the senior ones as per their capabilities. 3. I ask the senior colleagues or other less competent colleagues to produce a draft or initiate the work and get this reviewed by others who bring in better ideas. 4. I have developed a system of reporting of the Weekly Plan on Mondays to inform myself of the workload of those colleagues who may be potentially under pressure. I try to avoid engaging them in generic works which are likely to be done by others. 5. For gratification and recognition of the colleagues with more work pressure, I have developed a system of sharing one's bi-weekly engagement/progress in a staff meeting. This at least gives them satisfaction to let others know that they are doing such critical works.

2.          Conflict of interest:  The other challenging ethical issue is about handling conflict of interest case.

As a People Manager, I sometimes find myself in situations where personal relationships complicate professional decisions and sometimes there are situations where I must abstain from engaging. To me, it appears natural to form closer relationships with some team members over others, sometimes due to shared interests, similar work styles, or due to similar belief system, or associational links from past successful projects. However, at the same time, I feel if this will be misunderstood by others and whether it will lead to challenges in performance evaluations. For instance, if a manager has worked closely with a particular employee on key projects, they might unintentionally favor them in performance reviews or advancement opportunities, even if others are equally qualified. A similar situation comes into play in procurements where I find the bidders from my own friends or relative's circle.

My approach to handle such situation: To avoid such biases, I have documented metrics of performances and opportunities to allow me to show that my decisions are based on facts. This has helped me to evaluate more objectively.

Besides this, to prevent the same individuals from repeatedly being selected for high-visibility projects, I consider rotating key responsibilities and learning opportunities among team members. This ensures everyone has the chance to grow, gain visibility, and be considered for advancement. Also, I have ensured an informal feedback loop from peers to help me be objective. I keep telling the team that decisions are based on clear criteria and that everyone has an equal chance to succeed. For avoiding the procurement related conflict of interest cases, I choose to go for open calls most often and sometimes I keep away from the evaluation panels.

While as a manager we should not interfere in our supervisee’s personal relationship, it happens sometimes that this latter impacts the business and therefore a difficult conversation should take place.

In a previous role, one of my supervisees had a relationship with his colleague. This was perceived ‘’normal’’ until the relationship ended, and the other colleague started to be absent from office and refused to take on tasks that necessitate collaboration with the other team member with whom she had a relationship. There were delays in delivering required work from both, inconsistent reporting hours and fluctuating performance with large variability from one week to another.

It took me sometime to plan and prepare for 1-2-1 conversation that solved the performance issues and here below what helped me reach the intended results:

1- focus on the situation: when conducting difficult conversation, focus on the situation particularly the impact that the relationship had on the business, not on the people involved.

2- Stick to the facts: focus on how the relationship affected the team performance and delivery.

3- Manage emotions: make sure you are fair, consistent, and empathetic, and explain that while they had a right to privacy, you as manager have the right to intervene if the relationship is having a negative impact in the workplace. Buidling trust is key in this process.

4- Emphasize professionalism: engage them equally to identify some measures that can be put in place to address the issues and review things at an agreed time. Highlight the importance of maintaining professionalism and accountability in the workplace.

5- Establish/ Know corporate policies regarding personal relationships in the workplace: setting and adhering to corporate policies will help maintain a harmonious workplace and minimize potential risks.

1)     Suboptimal performance

2)     Interpersonal conflicts

1)     Suboptimal performance

Suboptimal performance is when an employee isn't meeting the expected standard of work.

How do I go about addressing underperformance in the workplace?

Often suboptimal performance is related to some of the factors below:

• Lack of training or onboarding

• no personal or professional growth opportunities

• lack of interest in the work

• no opportunity to learn new skills

• poor interpersonal communication

• unclear expectations

• lack of resources

• insufficient pay

• mental and physical health-related issues

• job or role dissatisfaction.

• stressful work environment or expectations

• lack of job security

• personal life changes or issues

I would have one-on-one sessions with the employee and try to identify the issues behind suboptimal performance collectively. Based on the findings, we would develop a performance improvement plan with clear benchmarks and deliverables. I would also consult HR and my supervisors, so that this decision is a collective effort and transparent.

2)     Conflicts in the workplace between colleagues

Interpersonal conflicts related to several factors

I try to address it by doing the following:

·        Address it early: I create a conducive environment that enables potential sources of conflict to be addressed as soon as possible to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue. 

·        Communicate effectively: Miscommunication is often the root of conflicts in the workplace. 

·        Listen to all sides: I listen to all sides without takin a position. 

·        Find common ground: Encourage an open discussion between the employees involved. 

·        Brainstorm solutions: Come up with ideas for how to resolve the conflict. 

·        Agree on a plan: Ask the parties to commit to a plan of action and establish a timetable for taking action. 

·         Follow up: Ensure that the issues have been resolved properly. 

• Challenge: UNDP often collaborates with government bodies, NGOs, and private sector entities, which may introduce potential conflicts of interest. As a People Manager, I often face pressure to favor certain partnerships or allocate resources in a way that benefits specific stakeholders, which can compromise the integrity of UNDP’s mission.

• Solution: Implement clear, structured criteria for decision-making related to partnerships and funding allocations, emphasizing transparency and objectivity. Disclose any potential conflicts of interest to your supervisor or UNDP’s Ethics Office, and encourage team members to do the same. Regularly conduct ethics training that covers conflict-of-interest scenarios, and establish a culture where employees feel comfortable reporting any potential biases they observe.

Ensuring Responsible Use of Resources and Avoiding Mismanagement

• Challenge: UNDP operates with funding from various international donors and stakeholders, making the responsible and transparent use of resources crucial. As a People Manager, I may face pressure to allocate funds quickly to meet program goals, which could lead to shortcuts, oversights, or even mismanagement of resources if not carefully managed.

• Solution: Emphasize the importance of accountability and transparency in all resource-related decisions. Implement robust budget monitoring and approval processes within your team, encouraging a culture of financial diligence. Regularly review spending, ensuring it aligns with both UNDP’s ethical standards and donor expectations. Promote ongoing training in financial and resource management for team members, and establish a clear protocol for reporting and addressing any misuse of resources. This approach helps uphold UNDP’s commitment to integrity and builds donor trust.

One challenge I faced involved suspecting that a staff member was engaged in a consultancy contract with another UN agency, which could constitute a conflict of interest and a breach of organizational ethics policies. This created a significant ethical dilemma as I needed to balance the responsibility to protect organizational integrity with ensuring due process for the individual. Upon consulting HR, I was advised not to investigate directly but to allow the Office of Audit and Investigations (OAI) to conduct their work. However, this process has been slow, leaving the situation unresolved.

To address this challenge, I adhered strictly to organizational procedures by escalating the matter to the OAI to ensure impartiality and compliance with ethical guidelines. I believe it is crucial to advocate for timely updates from investigative bodies like the OAI to maintain transparency and minimize prolonged uncertainty for all parties involved. Additionally, preventive measures, such as conducting regular training sessions on policies related to secondary employment and conflict of interest, can help preempt similar issues in the future. Finally, fostering an open communication culture where employees feel comfortable disclosing potential conflicts can reduce the likelihood of such situations arising and help build trust within the team.

Challenge 2: Conflict of Interest in Board Membership
Another challenge occurred when a colleague was elected to the board of a partner organization that had recently received project funding. Although the colleague disclosed this conflict to the ethics committee, they were advised to decline the board position and resign their membership from the organization. This situation required navigating both the ethical implications and the individual's professional aspirations.

To address this type of challenge, I aim to cultivate a proactive culture where staff are encouraged to disclose any affiliations with external organizations early, fostering accountability and trust. Regular training on ethics and conflict-of-interest policies ensures that all team members understand the implications of their external engagements on the organization’s integrity. When such situations arise, maintaining transparent and respectful communication with the affected individual is essential to support them through the resolution process and uphold morale. Collaborating with the ethics committee to establish clear and consistent guidelines for handling conflicts of interest can also provide clarity and fairness, preventing ambiguity in decision-making. This approach not only resolves current challenges but also strengthens ethical practices across the organization.

Similar to other colleagues, another ethics-related challenge I encounter relates to the responsible use of AI-generated content within the workplace. With the growing adoption of AI to support tasks and improve productivity, there is a risk that team members may rely too heavily on AI-generated work without appropriately reviewing or adding their own expertise, challenging the principles of accountability and ownership in delivering quality work in line with UNDP’s position and policies. To address this, I have been advocating for the responsible use of AI as a support tool rather than a substitute for original thought and effort. I have also shared training sessions on how to best use AI tools effectively and ethically and encouraged team members to take advantage of learning opportunities to this end, coupled with guidance on where personal accountability lies. I feel this could help ensure that team members to use AI to enhance their work while maintaining the integrity and standards expected from them.

I discovered that one of the ICT officers owned an IT company and was frequently disappearing from work to do side jobs and as a result his performance at work was compromised.

Solution: I sat them down and highlighted the performance concerns and the unaccounted-for time spent away from the office. Fortunately, it was not a difficult conversation as they acknowledged the performance gaps and time away. We structured a performance improvement plan but he later resigned to pursue hi business interest.

2.       Work-life balance & Communication

One of the team members would be hardly visible when they were working from home; never responded to e-mails or calls. Each time this is raised they cite one reason or the other.

Solution: A discussion was held with the staff member and they were made aware of the responsibility they have when working from home. Further, it was highlighted that the work-from -home arrangement was not an entitlement but at the discretion of the office; could be revoked at any time if work was suffering. Post this, there has been improvement.

• The project partner approached me to complain on the project manager. While the complain facts included some evident faults of the manager in performing his duties, the project partner was insisting on dismissal of the manager from the project also complaining about their interpersonal conflict. To resolve this situation, I spoke to the manager on the subject of the results of their partnership activity and found out his story about the project partner. And surprisingly the story did not have any accusations or bad remarks, so I decided to arrange their conversation. During that meeting, the project manager presented to the partner all achievement they had together and highlighted the importance of continued collaboration. At the same time, the project partner mentioned some ideas and recommendations to improve their joint work that was discussed and adopted by the project. In the end the dissatisfaction was removed, and I advised both to have regular meetings to update each other and listen to the ideas.

i) Proper estimation of the budget to avoid unnecessary spending:

I usually have several sitting with my team with clearly outlined purpose of the budget and the expected outcome. To Distinguish between essential and non-essential items to focus resources on critical needs. For example not adding a rent-a-car cost for an event budget before procurement, since my team already have a UNDP vehicle

ii) Not using office resources for personal benefit:

Once of my colleagues was asking to join a week-long out of office training as an observer, simply she was going through some hard times in personal life. I asked her to take leave and even advised to avail mental-health resources from office but to not take the official mission as a pleasure-trip.

Many of my decisions made me non-popular several times, but these steps I had to take to keep my head straight.

The second challenge came with another employee who eagerly applied for every travel opportunity. She was very engaged in events, but it was clear that engagement was kind of "paying the tax" for traveling abroad. It was obvious that motivations were not always aligned with organizational priorities. Almost every trip included an annual leave request to extend the stay at the destination, and as the number of their trips grew, other team members began to voice concerns about fairness.

In this case, I tried to motivate other employees and even suggested those who don't travel or avoid traveling (usually for personal reasons) take a trip in front of senior management. At the same time, organizational needs were prioritized, trips were allocated based on expertise and alignment with project goals. Another rule, every business trip abroad has to result in a brown bag learning session in the office. It didn't only serve the need to share knowledge and learn but also brought to the surface full transparency on each employee event participation.

I would address it with centralized recruitment processes.

Challenge 2 - Lack of effective accountability mechanisms

I would adress it through strengthening accountability mechanisms within organisation.