International Rice Research Institute
Human Resources and Organizational Development
The drive to uphold above-industry standards
“In spite of the suddenness and protractedness of pandemic restrictions, we have maintained standards and risen to the challenges that ensure we and wider stakeholders within the institute continue to operate at and ideally above industry-level standards. To that end, we have introduced and adopted virtual recruiting technologies and approaches to mitigate the implication of 'face-to-face’ challenges.“
Olawale Fajobi
Director for Human Resources and Organizational Development
Chief of Staff
The well-being — both mentally and physically — of our staff and wider workforce continues to be paramount and sacrosanct. This is very important as they continue to deliver in their roles and responsibilities in a complex and challenging operating environment.
To that end the IRRI Human Resources and Organizational Development Team has introduced a number of tips, guidelines, initiatives, and more formal policies, to support, equip, and ultimately ameliorate staff’s experiences. Staff motivation and health-related concerns, anecdotally and formally fed back, were and remain an area of significant concern.
In the year to date, we have pivoted and adjusted several approaches and processes across the range of HR activity to ensure that client support and engagement remained connected, iteratively improved, and ultimately a vibrant experience.
The team continues to primarily work remotely from home with attendant communication and internet connection difficulties for most staff, primarily based in IRRI’s headquarters in the Philippines.
In spite of the suddenness and protractedness of pandemic restrictions, we have maintained standards and risen to the challenges that ensure we and wider stakeholders within the institute continue to operate at and ideally above industry-level standards. To that end, we have introduced and adopted virtual recruiting technologies and approaches to mitigate the implication of ‘face-to-face’ challenges.
We have also shifted our talent-attraction efforts to reach out to remote and highly sought-after world-class talent/potential candidates who may not necessarily be actively searching for new work. Alongside the above, and in tandem with our Learning and Development Framework launched in late 2020, we actively encourage and drive consideration of our highly talented internal staff pool for new/key positions as they arise.
Most importantly, we continue to explore new and novel ways to enable, equip and support the staff’s mental and physical wellbeing through our third-party healthcare partner and internally through new and smart ways of working and engagement.
