Office Assistant

  • Added Date: Thursday, 09 March 2023
  • Deadline Date: Friday, 24 March 2023
7 Steps to get a job in the United Nations

Organizational Settingย 


The Office of the Legal Counsel ensures that the Organization's activities are carried out in accordance with its Constitution and the other Basic Texts of the Organization, in a manner consistent with its status as an inter-governmental organization of the United Nations system, and that its relationships with governments, organizations and individuals are on a sound legal basis.
This position is located in the front office of the Legal Counsel at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The Office Assistant coordinates the front office of the Legal Counsel.ย 

ย 

Main Purposeย 

The Office Assistant coordinates and performs the full range of office support, management support and administrative tasks, providing for the smooth and efficient running of the Office. He/she ensures quality and consistency of the flow of office work and information in the work unit.

ย 

Supervision Received/Exercisedย 

The Office Assistant reports to the Legal Counsel, the Deputy Legal Counsel and, in their absence, the officer in charge of the Legal Office. ย The incumbent operates independently and takes decisions on work priorities and exercises initiative for dealing with cases without precedents. Supervision received is focused on the quality of work outputs. He/she provides guidance and advice to other front office support staff.

ย 

Working Relationshipsย 

The Office Assistant works closely with a wide range of colleagues in the Legal Office, with all FAO units and external clients, performing and coordinating office and management support services, and providing procedural guidance and information.

ย 

Key Functions/Resultsย 

โ€ขย ย  ย Screen requests for appointments with supervisor; maintain supervisorโ€™s calendar; confirm mutually convenient schedules and arrange appointments; receive visitors; place and screen telephone calls; respond to queries and correspondence, often of a sensitive, confidential or technical nature;
โ€ขย ย  ย Coordinate office support services for meetings, trainings, seminars, committees, and special projects and events; attend meetings, prepare minutes, monitor follow-up activities; make arrangements for formal editing, translation, etc., of documents and publications;
โ€ขย ย  ย Review, record, distribute and process incoming mail and correspondence; follow-up on pending actions; prepare draft responses to a wide range of correspondence and other communications, often requiring knowledge of technical terminologies and/or detailed office procedures; carry out quality control functions for outgoing documents; proofread ย texts for adherence to format, grammar, punctuation and style;
โ€ขย ย  ย Perform a variety of administrative duties, e.g. contract extensions and requests for temporary staff, leave and attendance recording, budget preparation and follow-up; coordinate with other units to ensure smooth running and expedition of work within the unit;
โ€ขย ย  ย Research, compile, and organize background information and reference materials from various sources for reports, briefs and speeches; generate a variety of statistical and other reports from various databases;
โ€ขย ย  ย Coordinate the work of other front office support staff, establish priorities and ensure equitable distribution of work; train new staff to relevant administrative procedures and practices and provide general assistance as required;
โ€ขย ย  ย Review the efficiency of office procedures and make recommendations for improvements;ย 
โ€ขย ย  ย In coordination with the Records Management Assistant, create and maintain the Officeโ€™s filing and reference systems, and update intranet and websites;
โ€ขย ย  ย Perform other duties as required.

๐Ÿ“š ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฏ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ! ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿค ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ช ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—š๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—จ๐—ก๐—›๐—–๐—ฅ, ๐—ช๐—™๐—ฃ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—œ๐—–๐—˜๐—™, ๐—จ๐—ก๐——๐—ฆ๐—ฆ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—™๐—ฃ๐—”, ๐—œ๐—ข๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€! ๐ŸŒ

โš ๏ธ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐“๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฃ๐จ๐› ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐Ž๐–!

Impact of workย 

The incumbentโ€™s work impacts directly on the smooth and efficient running of the Office. He/she plays a lead role in the provision of office support services for successful achievement of the Legal Officeโ€™s mandate.ย 


MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS - candidates will be assessed against the following
ย 

Education: Secondary School Education
Experience: Four years of relevant experience in office/management support work
Languages: Working knowledge (proficient - level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate - level B) of one of the other official FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).ย ย  ย ย ย  ย 
IT Skills: Very good knowledge of the MS Office applications, Internet and office technology equipment, including tools to update intranet and internet pages

Residency: General Service Staff are recruited locally. To be eligible for this position, candidates must be nationals of the country of the duty station or possess an existing visa/work permit, and reside within commuting distance of the duty station at the time of the application. \"Commuting distance\" means the distance within which staff members can travel daily between their place of work and their residence.

ย 

Competencies

โ€ขย ย  ย Results Focus
โ€ขย ย  ย Teamwork
โ€ขย ย  ย Communication
โ€ขย ย  ย Building Effective Relationships
โ€ขย ย  ย Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

ย 

Technical Skills

โ€ขย ย  ย Very good knowledge of communication and documentation standards.ย 
โ€ขย ย  ย Very good knowledge of corporate computerized financial/travel/Human Resources systems and administrative procedures and policies.
โ€ขย ย  ย Very good knowledge of the organizational structure.
โ€ขย ย  ย Extensive proven capacity to handle sensitive and/or highly confidential information in an appropriate manner.
โ€ขย ย  ย Very good experience in multitasking against tight deadlines and coordinating the work of others supporting delivery against tight deadlines.

ย 

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLSย 

โ€ขย ย  ย Working knowledge (proficient - level C) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese French, Russian or Spanish).
โ€ขย ย  ย Experience in processing, drafting, editing, proofreading and finalizing for signature/approval a variety of specialized legal documentation, reports, correspondence and other communications.
โ€ขย ย  ย Experience in a diplomatic mission, the legal office in an international setting, or in a front office that typically handles sensitive and/or confidential information, and involves engagement with the offices of internal and external senior officials, including diplomatic staff, other UN system organizations and/or tribunals.
โ€ขย ย  ย Experience in coordinating and guiding a team of support staff for successful achievement of the work unitโ€™s mandate.
โ€ขย ย  ย Experience in assistance to Governing Bodies, including assisting in the preparation of pre-, in- and post-session documents, in coordination with relevant units.
โ€ขย ย  ย Interest in learning and applying new IT skills, and identifying solutions to enhance efficiency.
โ€ขย ย  ย Experience in handling a variety of verbal and written inquiries from internal and external parties, including providing information on processes and procedures related to specific legal activities, meetings, publications, documents, etc.

This vacancy is archived.

Recommended for you