Office Associate

Food and Agriculture Organization

Rome, Italy

Skill Required: Media and Communication

Experience: 3 to 5 Years

Apply By: 01-12-2025

The incumbent maintains a wide range of contacts with managers, staff and counterparts both within and outside the Organization. Work relations may be on a high organizational level, requiring very good communication skills and experienced handling of issues.

  • •    Analyse, manage and monitor a large and diversified volume of complex correspondence and documentation, often of confidential and sensitive nature; ensure appropriate routing, reply, prioritization, accuracy, consistency, informal translation and timeliness; bring complex, sensitive or priority issues to the supervisor's attention.
  • •    Provide information and guidance to staff at all levels within the organizational unit; ensure understanding of intent and deadlines.
  • •    Arrange appointments and duty travels, maintain supervisor's calendar and receive visitors.
  • •    Organize high-level meetings, finalize agendas and invitations, ensure the production and distribution of documentation, take notes and prepare minutes, and follow up on required actions.
  • •    Organize and coordinate the work performed by other office support staff; coordinate activities across the division, including divisional issues, deadlines and other requests.
  • •    Establish internal procedures and tracking systems for correspondence and documents; verify that work is done in accordance with corporate standards; monitor work progress.
  • •    Respond to written inquiries and draft responses to non-routine questions, coordinate responses to sensitive enquiries on behalf of the supervisor.
  • •    Follow up on the preparation of reports, correspondence, briefing notes and other documents; review documents and make changes to their format or style in accordance with standard practices; conduct research and prepare briefing materials for the supervisor; provide informal translations into another official language.
  • •    Evaluate ongoing support requirements of the office, adapt service provision to meet changing needs and solve operational problems, as required.
  • •    Ensure the initiation of a variety of transactions in the Organization's computerized administrative systems.
  • •    Perform other duties as required.

Impact Of Work

  • The incumbent's work impacts directly on the smooth and efficient operations of the Office. He/she plays a lead role in the coordination and provision of the office support services for the successful achievement of the Division's mandate.

Minimum Requirements:

  • Education: Secondary School Education.
  • Experience: Five years of relevant experience in management and office support work.
  • Languages: Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
  • IT Skills: Very good knowledge of MS Office applications, Internet and office technology.
  • Residency: General Service Staff are recruited locally. To be eligible for this position, candidates must be nationals of the country of the duty station or possess an existing visa/work permit and reside within commuting distance of the duty station at the time of the application. "Commuting distance" means the distance within which staff members can travel daily between their place of work and their residence.

Technical Skills:

  • Thorough knowledge of communication and documentation standards.
  • Thorough knowledge of corporate computerized financial/travel/human resources systems.
  • Thorough knowledge of the organizational structure, administrative procedures and policies and matters of  protocol. 

Source: https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2502734