WIPO HR Report Shows Effort At Geographical Diversity, Gender Balance

The World Intellectual Property Organization has fewer staff overall but more senior staff, according to an annual report on human resources at the United Nations agency. In addition, while efforts at WIPO are continuing to expand geographical diversity among staff, the number of countries represented fell last year. Western Europe provides half of all staff. Meanwhile, women make up about a quarter of senior posts.

In its annual report on human resources to the Program and Budget Committee, WIPO described the efforts put into place to ensure greater geographical diversity and gender balance. At the same time, the WIPO external auditor today underlined the need for the organisation to stick to its staff rules, raising several instances where it was not the case.

The 24^th session of the WIPO Program and Budget Committee (PBC) is taking place this week.

During the PBC, the secretariat presented its annual report [pdf] on human resources. It showed a total WIPO workforce of 1,247 people in 2015, a slight decrease from 1,281 in 2014. This includes staff in post (1,035 in 2015), temporary staff and non-staff such as interns and fellows. “Staff in post” refers to directors and above, professional and general service staff.

Staff in post rose from 952 in 2011 to 1,035 in 2015. This included an increase of some 15 percent for directors and above (from 57 to 66), some 6 percent for professional (from 422 to 448), and some 10 percent for general services (from 473 to 521). Meanwhile, temporary staff went down from 2014 to 2015 from 164 to 137.

Looking at the top three work areas in the organisation, a third of the workforce (36.8 percent) works for the patents and technology sector; 19.9 percent for the administration and management sector; and 12.4 percent for the brands and designs sector.

A WIPO official told the PBC meeting that the organisation has “no plans to create new posts for now.” But a question was raised about whether despite staff numbers not rising, the staff costs are rising.

Western Europe Almost Half of Staff

On geographical representation, which has been a recurrent request from member states, the report said that WIPO staff came from 114 member states as of June 2015, a decrease.

“While the number of represented Member States has decreased to 114 in June 2015 from 118 in 2013,” the report said, “two Member States (Lithuania and Armenia)” are newly represented.

“Efforts to improve geographical distribution continue,” the report underlined. It said that a number of initiatives have been undertaken to that effect, which have resulted in a higher number of applications from nationals of unrepresented member states and “in a further decrease in the proportion of staff from an overrepresented region.”

Upcoming retirements should be an opportunity to increase geographical diversity as “nearly half of staff who are due to take mandatory retirement between 2015 and 2020 in the Professional and higher categories come from Western Europe.”

Western Europe accounts for almost half of the member states represented on WIPO staff.

The top ten represented countries in the professional and higher categories as at June 2015 were: France (101), United Kingdom (41), United States (31), Germany (27), Switzerland (19), Italy (15), Spain (14), Canada (14), China (14), and Japan (12).

For all categories of staff, France remains in the lead with 353 staff, followed by the United Kingdom (70), Switzerland (63), and the United States (43).

Among the 74 countries not represented at WIPO are: Albania, Bahrain, Botswana, Congo, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Luxembourg, Mozambique, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Zambia.

Looking ahead for the next biennium, the report said that “achieving broader geographic diversity of WIPO’s workforce in the Professional and higher categories requires sustained efforts at multiple levels.” It added: “Advertising strategies, providing direct support to applicants from unrepresented countries, establishing a focal point system in IP offices and/or universities, and conducting further outreach in Member States are some measures which will permit WIPO to recruit candidates based on merit and from as wide a geographical basis as possible.”

Gender Balance among WIPO Professionals: Not There Yet

According to the report, the overall percentage of women among staff on regular posts remained stable at 53.6 percent “while modest improvements have been observed at senior levels,” which is at 26.3 percent.

At the director level 2, as of June 2015, 2 women were in post, compared with 7 men, and at director level 1, 13 women were in post, versus 34 men. Meanwhile, at the general staff level, the trend is reversed with over 60 percent of post held by women.

“Multiple strategies are necessary to advance towards the targets set at senior levels, particularly from grade P5 and upwards,” the report said. “These strategies range from outreach to qualified potential applicants, advertising in relevant fora, engaging with gender initiatives of Member States and the UN system, to professional development and coaching of potential internal candidates.”

Staff Complaints: Harassment Leading Cause

Between July 2014 and June 2015, some 82 cases were filed, 15 of which concerned harassment, discrimination and conflicts in the workplace, according to the report. Some 9 concerned disciplinary matters, 8 performance management, 8 promotion/selection, and 7 non-renewal.

Spain Asks More Budgetary Details in Report

During the opening day of the PBC, delegates underlined the importance of geographical and gender balance, and group B developed countries also added that recruitment should be based on merit.

Spain asked that the annual report on human resources include more budgetary details on staff expenditure, such as the budget implication of the rise in management posts, and to be able to look at the evolution of such expenditures. The delegate remarked that he has been requesting such information for the last three years.

According to the draft programme and budget for the biennium 2016/2017, a total of CHF 420,411,000 (about US$ 431,458,000) is budgeted for posts for the biennium 2016/2017, representing a 5 percent increase from the current biennium.

External Auditor Recalls Staff Rules

The report of the External Auditor [pdf] was positive overall and noted numerous areas of progress. The report includes responses from the WIPO secretariat. WIPO External Auditor Shashi Kant Sharma is the comptroller and auditor general of India.

It did note some instances where WIPO did not follow its Staff Regulations and Rules. In particular, the report found that WIPO subsidised the premium of insurance related to non-service incurred accidents.

“While we appreciate that it is a staff welfare measure, we are of the view that these payments were not supported by explicit provision in the Regulations,” the report said. The external auditor said WIPO may stop subsidising the premium of insurance for non-service incurred accidents.

The report said WIPO agreed to stop subsidising the premium of the insurance for non-service incurred accidents with effect from 1 January 2016.

The report also questioned some of the calculation of dependency allowance for dependents of WIPO staff. According to the report, staff members are entitled to receive salary at the dependency rate if they have a dependent spouse or at least one dependent child. “WIPO issues office instructions every year determining the limit of gross occupational earnings to be considered for spouse dependency and an amount not exceeding the equivalent of CHF 69,067 has been specified for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014,” it said.

The external auditor noticed that in a randomly selected ten cases, the determination in two cases, where the spouses were working outside Geneva, were made based on salary scale applicable in Geneva irrespective of the spouse’s place of work.

The external auditor recommended that “the practice of determining the limit of gross occupational earnings to be considered for spouse dependency allowance needs to be reviewed to be made compliant with the Staff Regulations and Rules.” This recommendation was accepted by WIPO, which said that effective 1 January 2016, “WIPO will discontinue its current long-standing practice. Determination of eligibility for spouse dependency benefits will be made on the basis of the spouse’s place of work, and not on the basis of the duty station of the staff member, in accordance with the Staff Regulations.”

The external auditor also recommended that in cases “where temporary appointments are being extended without competitive process to allow a fixed-term competition to be finalized, process for filling up of the posts through competitive selection process may be completed early and due attention be given to the alignment of the job description in order to avoid delays.”

WIPO in reply said it would discontinue the practice of extending temporary appointments for long periods as soon as the transition phase is over and they would have temporary staff members under the two-year limit as of 31 December 2017, according to the report.