This SOP clarifies the roles and responsibilities between SDL and the respective training owners of IOM mandatory courses in relation to the following: making a training mandatory, promoting the training, monitoring completion levels, reporting, and assessing impact of the training.


I. Making a training mandatory

The IOM unit raises a request to SDL ([email protected]) to make a training mandatory via the following form: Service Desk : IOM Human Resources Support Portal. The form will ask for a justification why the training should be mandatory, the target audience, the frequency, the deadline by which existing and new personnel should complete the training.


In IOM, a training activity can be deemed mandatory for (a) all IOM personnel or staff or (b) for a targeted group of IOM personnel or staff.


A training activity shall qualify as mandatory for all IOM personnel if:

  • The content of the activity meets a recognized knowledge, skills or accountability gap of vital importance to the Organization, i.e., IOM promotes this and so anyone who works for IOM must know it;
  • There is a strategic necessity for the Organization to ensure that all targeted staff acquire the knowledge/skills imparted in the particular course;
  • The content and methodology are appropriate and relevant to the priorities of the Organization;
  • IOM personnel can easily participate in the training, I.e., the unit/department who owns the training has made it available in a self-paced format or has the capacity to conduct the regular trainer-led training sessions, virtually or in person;
  • The content is available in at least two official IOM languages;
  • The course can be accessed at all IOM locations;
  • The course is accessible by those with visual, auditory or movement impairment.
  • The course is designed to be accessed from multiple devices: laptop, mobile or any handheld device, where the screen is responsive, i.e., images and buttons are automatically resized based on the resolution of the device;
  • The course complies with the SDL Learning Framework;
  • The course has an equivalent training among the mandatory courses of the UN Secretariat and other UN agencies.


Defining the target audience

It is the responsibility of the training owners to define the scope of IOM personnel for whom the training will be mandatory. If it is to be made mandatory to all IOM personnel, guidance and consideration on accessibility must be given by the training owners to the following personnel:

  • Personnel on hourly or daily contracts
  • Personnel with a contract duration of less than a month with IOM (e.g., consultants who will conduct a training, facilitate a workshop, etc)
  • Personnel who are not issued IOM laptops nor know how to use a laptop
  • Personnel who speak neither English, French nor Spanish.


To make the training accessible to such personnel, training owners could:

  • Train focals in the region who will have the responsibility of conducting regular training sessions specifically for these personnel. This has the added benefit of being able to train in a local language
  • The training owner themselves will conduct regular training sessions twice a year per region to these colleagues
  • Give guidance on accessing the training from eCampus (for auxiliary staff) via mobile device.


Training Advisory Committee (TAC) endorsement & Executive Office (EO) approval

Once the SDL assessment is done, SDL will table the request in the next TAC meeting (which takes place quarterly) where SDL will present the request and the justification and seek TAC endorsement. SDL, in liaison with the TAC, will then submit the TAC’s endorsement of a proposed mandatory training to the Executive Office (EO) where the Chief of Staff will take the final decision. SDL then communicates EO decision to the training owner.


A list of all current mandatory courses for IOM personnel - including information about its training owner, its format, duration and frequency - may be accessed from the HR Support Portal (https://hrm.iom.int/) or I-Learn Intranet portal page (https://intranetportal/en-us/pages/i-learn.aspx).



II. Promoting the training and monitoring completion levels

From the time a training has been approved as mandatory for IOM and throughout the life of the mandatory training, it is the shared responsibility of the training owners and SDL to (a) continuously promote the mandatory training, (b) monitor the completion rates, and (c) follow-up with IOM personnel who have not completed the training courses.


SDL offers the following to assist with the promotion and enforcement of compliance:

  • Develop a communication plan
  • Design and lay out promotion materials for Yammer posts, screensavers, flyers, IOM Intranet, etc
  • Make available an online monitoring dashboard so training owners can monitor completion levels independently
  • Share monthly completion statistics with RDs, RRMOs, RHROs, Department Directors and EO, including reports with names of IOM personnel who have yet to complete the mandatory courses
  • Work with training owners to promote the training even more in commemoration of special international days related to the mandatory training
  • Publish completion levels in SDL Yammer and the Intranet on a quarterly basis
  • Include completion of mandatory training as a criteria for participant selection processes of all SDL-funded/managed learning and development initiative, such as, the IOM Coaching Programme, IOM Mentoring Programme, IOM Language Programme, IOM Staff Exchange Programme, among others (see Annex A to view full list)
  • Include completion of mandatory training as a criteria for approving Study Leave requests


To complement above, training owners are expected to:

  • Provide SDL with the text that will be incorporated into promotion materials that SDL will produce
  • Develop FAQs that can be posted into the HR Support platform
  • Promote the training using their own communication platforms, including SDL Yammer. (we invite training owners to post on SDL Yammer as well so as to have a variety of senders, not just SDL)
  • Ensure that all their focals and staff working in their unit/Division have completed the mandatory training courses, particularly their own mandatory training
  • Regularly monitor compliance rates using SDL’s training dashboard



III. Reporting

It is the training owner’s responsibility to report on completion stats related to their own training in internal and questionnaires. SDL will only report on global completion rates. SDL will publish global compliance reports in the form of dashboards and will share these with regions and with the Executive Office.



IV. Assessing impact of the training

It is the training owner’s responsibility to define outcomes, outputs and indicators to know whether their mandatory training is reaching its intended results. Training owners are also responsible for regularly collecting and monitoring the data for these indicators, which can be done on an annual basis. Consequently, training owners are also encouraged to include such impact reporting in their annual reports.


Note: This SOP should be read in conjunction with the Mandatory Section in the SDL Policy. Below is an excerpt from the SDL Policy on the topic of mandatory training.


1.1. All new IOM personnel should complete all mandatory courses within 100 days from the start of their contract.


1.2. Existing personnel should complete new mandatory courses within three months of the course being made mandatory.


Consequences

1.3. IOM staff who do not complete all mandatory training courses within the prescribed timeframe:

  • will not be able to access any SDL-funded learning event, including the IOM Coaching Programme, IOM Mentoring Programme, IOM Language Programme
  • will not be granted Study Leave approval
  • will not be be able to participate in the IOM Pathway Pool Programme
  • will not be able to access the IOM Staff Exchange Programme
  • will not be considered for any vacancy position


Supervisors may exercise discretion and consider completion of mandatory training by personnel when:

  • authorizing Travel on Duty (TDY) or Short-Term Assignment (STA)
  • confirming participation in learning activities
  • assessing quarterly performance.