UNICC

Milena Grecuccio is Chief of Staff and Chief of the Management and Strategy Division at the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC). The transformation of the division that she has led has been crucial in the organization’s huge leap forward. She shares with us how she works to create inclusive environments and structures that ensure diversity by default.<ul><li>What is your proudest achievement in UNICC thus far?</li></ul>As an organization we have made it through tough times, but during the past few years we have experienced incredible growth and we have changed the perception of UNICC within the UN family. We are now perceived as a trusted and proactive partner, not only because we expanded our service offering, but also thanks to the increase in transparency regarding our finance, risk management and decision-making.The Management and Strategy Division strongly contributed to this remarkable leap forward. There was already a solid administrative nucleus that was gradually complemented by missing professional capabilities. It has become a division with crucial and diverse functions that have allowed UNICC to coordinate growth.&nbsp;I am proud of the people that I have hired and everyone in my division, they are some of the best professionals I have worked with so far.&nbsp;I am certain that the UNICC leadership team is in full support of gender parity, and I am proud of the role I have played in achieving gender balance within UNICC’s Executive Committee, together with very competent and charismatic colleagues whom I admire every day.<ul><li>At UNICC, what mechanisms do you have in place to reduce unconscious bias during the recruitment process?</li></ul>We use blind recruitment techniques. For example, we run technical tests in written format. Hiring managers review the results of these tests without knowing the author, significantly reducing bias.&nbsp;<ul><li>How does UNICC structure its onboarding process to support new employees?</li></ul>Our aim is to make the remote onboarding experience as good as the in-person one. The UN bureaucratic context makes sure that hiring is transparent and fair, it however complicates the process and impacts the onboarding experience. We try to compensate for this by assigning a ‘buddy’ to every newcomer, someone who knows the organization and can help the new employee navigate systems and policies and feel included from day one.<ul><li>Does UNICC support learning and professional development?</li></ul>Each employee has a learning and development plan aligned with their career objectives and can take advantage of UNICC’s learning opportunities. We also hire professional coaching services to support a number of women who are in a path of career growth. Right now, we are looking into developing an internal coaching programme; we are studying how to do this without overburdening women, especially in management layers where we haven’t yet reached gender parity yet.&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>How do you build a sense of belonging in your teams?&nbsp;</li></ul>At UNICC people know they belong because they are seen and heard. We engage with staff, we run participative sessions; everyone can have a say in our open, interactive and honest all-personnel meetings. The positive side of working remotely is that thanks to the online activity UNICC is building a global organizational culture that complements the local office culture, which was predominant beforehand. To bring engagement to the next level, we could build communities around topics of interest using our corporate digital tools.<ul><li>What are the keys to inclusive leadership? Would you describe yourself as an inclusive leader?</li></ul>I know what it means to be discriminated, to feel you do not belong or are not part of the “norm”. I am sensitive to this issue and because of this awareness, I challenge myself constantly on my own “inclusiveness” to create an environment where everyone feels they belong and shares the values of the organization (respect, curiosity, pride, passion, flexibility, honesty and transparency).&nbsp;But of course I am always eager to learn more and become more inclusive, and fighting bias is the number one action to take. I have had training to deprogram my automatic biases and I try to always keep bias in check. I make sure to have my opinions challenged by including a diversity of perspectives.&nbsp;As a leader I want to build structures within the organization that ensure diversity and inclusion by default. This is the kind of work that never ends: structures, unlike the word may suggest, cannot be inflexible, they need to adapt in time and with societal changes.<ul><li>What does it mean to you to be a part of the 50inTech community?</li></ul>We are partnering with 50inTech to reach diverse talent and women from regions beyond UNICC’s current locations. We also want to contribute by bringing our experience and bridging the 50inTech community with the wider UN system tech community.&nbsp; We want to participate in the dialogue with women in technology about women in technology, exchanging experiences and supporting each other.&nbsp;From a personal perspective, I would like to meet more women working in technology and learn first-hand what they do and how they experience inclusion.&nbsp;<ul><li>What is your advice for the community?</li></ul>I would like to encourage women to find opportunities to be visible, but I am aware that it is not a fair ask. It involves burdening those who are not seen instead of those who are not opening their eyes enough. So, I will take the advice back and go for another one.&nbsp;One thing that us women have in our power is to not fight each other. Patriarchy has led us to believe there is limited space for women in a world of men, and instead of helping each other we tend to compete for that space. I am generalizing too much, I know, but it happens. By supporting each other we can change the rules of the game; we can make the cake bigger instead of arguing for just one piece.&nbsp;

“To be more inclusive we have to deprogram our unconscious biases”

Julien Londeix