Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Specialist At Norwegian Refugee Council

Our ability to serve people affected by displacement and adversity according to NRC’s mission is dependent on a diverse and competent work force, that reflects the countries where we work and the people we serve. We are proud of our 16,000 NRC colleagues, who hail from 86 different nationalities, all working together to achieve our common mission.

NRC’s Human Resources policy aims to ensure equal opportunities and rights, and to prevent discrimination based on ethnic origin, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs. NRC expects leaders and staff members to actively seek the insights, skills and experiences of a diverse work force, recruit and develop diverse staff, and ensure that NRC is a safe and inclusive place to work for all.

We have made progress in some areas such as increasing the number of women in leadership positions, but we recognize that we need to do much more to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at all levels of our organization. This is a priority in our Global Strategy 2022-2025 and our Ambition 2030.

Role and Responsibilities

The NRC DEI Specialist will lead NRC’s work to become an even more inclusive and diverse organization and will be responsible for defining and implementing policies and measures to promote an organizational culture that embraces and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in NRC. This includes designing, creating and implementing plans to promote diversity, secure inclusion of all within the organization and to implement measures against discrimination.

A significant part of the role is to promote and include DEI in NRC training programs to ensure a common understanding amongst managers and employees about what diversity, equality and inclusion mean throughout NRC’s country and regional offices, representative offices and at the Head Office in Oslo.

In addition, the DEI Manager is tasked with ensuring that the organization follows appropriate legislation and employment law regulations around non-discrimination, equity and inclusion.

General Responsibilities

Your responsibilities as the DEI Specialist will include:

1. 1. Lead the development of an NRC DEI policy, and support the implementation of the policy
   2. Advise NRC’s senior management on diversity and inclusion issues and creating programs, training and values around this
   3. Develop standards and guidelines around inclusion of persons with disabilities and ensure these are incorporated into relevant policies and practices i.e., recruitment, L&D, Talent Management and People Development as well as Rewards
   4. Ensure that NRC’s training and leadership programs are developed to reflect DEI best practice and NRC’s values
   5. Identifying external trends and best practices that will increase diversity amongst the NRC’s workforce
   6. Lead on establishing good working practices/models that ensure all staff feel valued and supported including creating and supporting internal networks
   7. Maintaining relationships with diversity related businesses, with the intention of working together and improving NRC’s brand
   8. Compliance and adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures
   9. Being responsible for regularly monitoring and reporting on statistics within NRC’s workforce
   10. Act as go-to-person for help needed on DEI either directly or with support from pre-approved consultants which a CO or RO could for example use for trainings

Specific Responsibilities

1. Creating and running training sessions/campaigns throughout the organization on diversity and inclusion
2. Advise on diversity and inclusion issues and identify areas for improvement within this area for NRC
3. Review NRC Generic JDs to ensure DEI is reflected
4. Coordinate and facilitate the Employee Advisory Board and provide feedback to the relevant internal stakeholders on opportunities, areas of improvement and concerns
5. Ensure compliance with state or country regulations on diversity, equity and non-discrimination (especially Norway) – measure, forecast and report diversity metrics
6. Reviewing the organization’s workplace, policies and procedures, ensuring that these are inclusive
7. Facilitate the Nationalization project and ensure its implementation in the organization

Critical interfaces

By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position:

• Support to senior management at Global, Regional and Country levels
• Regular interfaces with all sections in Global HR to ensure coherence in regard to DEI in all work HR does
• Continuous interaction with country offices, regional offices and Rep offices
• (E)SMG to inform about the status of DEI in NRC and give input on the strategy work
• Regular reporting to authorities (especially Norway)

Professional competencies:

• Qualified to a Master degree in law, HR, human rights or associated field of expertise. Proven work experience and knowledge within related fields can compensate for lack of formal education
• Proven subject-matter expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion
• Experience in change management from a diversity & inclusion perspective.
• Experience with strategic planning, conducting assessments, innovation, monitoring & evaluation, and data collection/analysis
• Experience in learning & development, program design, and facilitation.
• A track-record of successfully coaching/partnering with senior leaders as agents of culture change, and building trusted and effective relationships across all stakeholders, including staff, and senior leadership.
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal, and advantage with Spanish, Arabic or French

Context related skills, knowledge and experience:

• Being an effective communicator, leader and having strong interpersonal skills
• Having an awareness of global and cultural issues
• Previous relationship management experience
• Experience from the humanitarian or international development sector is an advantage

For more information, here is the detailed Job Description

Additional Details:

Duty Station: Oslo, Norway.

Type of Contract: Permanent

Salary: Based upon the NRC grading Scale

Please note that fluency in Norwegian language is mandatory

Interested candidates must be eligible to live and work from Oslo, Norway as the duty station.