Introduction

inclusion: Accommodating spouses/partners :
Introduction

Tips and Tools

Domestic Partner Agreements

IITA Community Resources
Center

IRRI Family Services Center

G&D initiatives to support
CGIAR spouses/partners

Direct appointments

Consultancies

Fellowships

Appointment to advertized vacancies

Couple appointments

A guide for spouses/partners: what to ask

This introductory section deals with the following issues:

overview
fundamentally re-thinking the traditional approach to spouses/partners
accommodating all categories of spouses/partners: expatriate, distant and local
recognizing the strategic significance of good practices for accommodating spouses/partners
the challenges faced by spouses/partners
issues for expatriate, distant and local spouses/partners
accommodating the diversity of spouses/partners: male/female, same-sex, cultures with multiple wives, defining a partner
what these guidelines provide (including sections on model policy, sample practices, and tips and tools for implementation.)

The Gender and Diversity Program (G&D) recognizes that existing practices for accommodating the spouses or partners of staff often do not cover the scope of issues that need to be dealt with in today's Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Thus, we have developed these guidelines to assist CGIAR Centers in refining their existing practices and in exploring innovative ways of adapting to the global trend of dual career couples.

These guidelines include a model policy ready to be adapted or adopted by the Centers as well as related sample practices, and tips and tools. All are linked to make it easy for you to tap into our best recommendations for accommodating spouses/partners.

Many Centers have shared their best practices to help G&D develop these guidelines, and some external organizations have served as models of good practice. This Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center is designed to serve as a platform for ongoing exchange and improvement.

OVERVIEW
1 Adopting good practice for accommodating spouses/partners is a strategic issue for CGIAR Centers because of its influence – both positive and negative – on the staff member. A staff member’s spouse/partner being overwhelmed by life far from home can have a major impact on the Center, particularly if this leads to the premature departure of the staff member.

2 Consequently, the ability to accommodate spouses/partners effectively should be seen as a core competency for CGIAR Centers. This is a competency to be developed, sustained and enhanced just as a Center sustains its other core competencies in research, technology, cross-cultural operations and the like.

Alert!
If a Center cannot accommodate spouses/partners, it effectively restricts itself to staff members who are unattached or whose spouses/partners need no assistance in pursuing their careers or education.

FUNDAMENTALLY RE-THINKING THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO SPOUSES/PARTNERS
3 In developing this section of the Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center, we gathered information about good practice within and outside the CGIAR and looked at some of the problems experienced by spouses/partners. Our knowledge was extended significantly when we sought comments from some Centers on our draft. However, we then found ourselves in a situation where:

we were excited by some of the initiatives already implemented in some Centers, and some of the ideas they are currently developing, but
we also could see a clear need for fundamentally rethinking some traditional approaches to accommodating spouses/partners.

4 Therefore, in this section we recommend initiatives that involve a whole new approach to spouses/partners, such as:

expanding from the traditional focus on expatriate spouses/partners to accommodate all spouses/partners;
abandoning the expectation that job candidates will accept job offers before all spouse/partner issues are fully resolved;
developing comprehensive approaches to overcome the problem of “trailing spouses” – spouses/partners who have had to put on-hold their own professional careers, maintenance of professional skills, and professional development and networking;
treating partnered appointees and their spouses/partners as a couple and developing mechanisms for couple appointments where necessary, rather than dealing with the two people separately;
re-thinking traditional approaches to working relationships that exclude family members from being in a supervisory relationship to each other;
improving host-country agreements to accommodate rather than obstruct the employment of spouses/partners;
ensuring that HR is both resourced and accountable for accommodating spouses/partners;
developing spouse/partner committees as a major resource contributing to Center effectiveness;
adopting a comprehensive structure for information provided to new appointees and their spouses/partners, ensuring it addresses family issues, occupation issues, community issues and recreation at their duty stations.

5 To achieve this will require substantial effort. However, these initiatives reflect not only the strategic and operational needs in this area, they also reflect some of the innovative success stories already emerging from Centers.

ACCOMMODATING ALL CATEGORIES OF SPOUSES/PARTNERS
Categories of Spouses/Partners

6 In this section of the Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center, we define three categories of spouses/partners based on the distance between their duty stations and the countries/towns from which they come:

expatriate spouses/partners – come to the duty station from another country;
distant spouses/partners – come from within the country where the duty station is located, but their original locale was a considerable distance from the duty station, and
local spouses/partners – were living at or near the duty station before their spouse/partner commenced work at the Center.

7 Many of the established practices across CGIAR Centers focus on expatriate spouses/partners of internationally recruited staff, particularly in facilitating employment opportunities. However, in this section of the Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center, we have tried to ensure that the diverse needs of all spouses/partners are recognized and accommodated by Centers. This is particularly significant as some locally recruited appointees and their spouses/partners may have relocated to the duty station from a considerable distance within their home country.

8 A common approach often can accommodate challenges that affect all three categories spouse/partner categories – expatriate, distant and local. However, for other challenges, the solution needs to be tailored to the individual circumstances of the spouse/partner category.

Families living apart
9 We also recognize that, despite a Center’s best efforts to accommodate spouses/partners, there will be circumstances where it simply will not be feasible for families to live together at the staff member’s duty station. Typically, this is because of the spouse/partner’s career commitments and/or caring responsibilities for family members. This is a growing problem for Centers – how can they best accommodate these situations? Consequently we have included a Sample Practice on “Families Living Apart” with suggestions for meeting these needs.

Recognizing the strategic significance of good practices for accommodating spouseS/partners
10 It is easy to overlook the critical influence spouses/partners have on an organization – particularly an international organization operating principally in the developing world. Many staff and their spouses may be from overseas or from a considerable distance away from their duty station. Irrespective of their origin, many are located at duty stations where they face a whole range of challenges – access to health services, family services, education, employment and supplies of food or household goods – that are taken for granted in developed countries.

“Being a father to my children and a husband to a wife whose career is equal in importance to mine is not included in my Center’s appreciation of what makes me an effective, healthy and hopefully creative employee.”

Comment from a male scientist, G&D Working Paper No. 37.

Unhappiness matters
Research shows that the principal reason for failure of an expatriate appointment is an unhappy spouse/partner.

There is a high incidence of marital break-ups among expatriate couples throughout the CGIAR.

11 Every loss of a staff member represents a significant cost to the Center, particularly in terms of lost productivity while her/his successor is recruited and trained. It doesn’t matter whether the staff member is a scientist or a technician, recruiting takes time and a considerable familiarization or training period is needed for staff members to become fully effective in their new positions. Meanwhile the Center has commitments to donors and partners and the deadlines for meeting those commitments do not allow for impaired productivity due to the loss and replacement of staff.

Happiness matters
Recognize the importance of spouse/partner “happiness” in a new environment. Centers need to treat spouses/partners as critical to the Center’s performance.

THE CHALLENGES FACED BY SPOUSES/PARTNERS
12 New staff members and their spouses/partners come to a Center with four types of needs: occupation, family, community and recreation (see model). Occupation needs are immediately taken care of for staff members because they have access to workplace networks and their supervisors and other colleagues from whom to seek advice. But the situation is very different for their spouses/partners.

13 As the model shows, a spouse/partner confronts four separate sets of needs. This has significant implications for the support systems and processes that Centers need to devise to assist the spouse/partner in becoming established in the new environment. Options for meeting these needs are presented in the Sample Practices and Tips and Tools sections.

14 There is a broad sequential order that can be followed in order to address all four aspects of the issues facing the spouse/partner:

provide the spouse/partner the opportunity to visit the prospective duty station during the candidate interview process;
provide assistance with settling in to the new station;
provide opportunities for networking and professional development;
facilitate the employment process.

ISSUES FOR EXPATRIATE, DISTANT AND LOCAL SPOUSES/PARTNERS
Expatriate spouses/partners
15 Expatriate appointees are most likely to have expatriate spouses/partners, with neither holding citizenship of the country where the duty station is located. However, the term “expatriate” spouse/partner also includes those who are citizens of that country, but who were not resident at the time of their partner’s appointment. That is, they have come to the duty station from another country, perhaps after a lengthy absence from their home country, and consequently do not possess detailed, up-to-date knowledge of life, family services, education facilities and employment opportunities at the duty station.

16 The successful accommodation of expatriate spouse/partner needs is an important, but often overlooked, factor in the success of expatriate appointments. It needs to be seen as a strategic issue. Centers consequently need to look at expatriate recruitment in the context of the appointee’s entire family and do everything they can to prevent the creation of trailing spouses.

17 CGIAR Centers remain critically dependent on expatriate appointments in their key leadership and science positions, almost all of which are filled by international competition. Expatriate appointments fall into the “high risk” category for Centers because of the costs, the risk of failure and the consequences of failure. For example:

the positions filled by expatriates have significant leadership roles and, consequently, the quality of their performance affects not only their personal technical achievement but also the potential achievement of their staff and relationships with partners and donors;
expatriates’ effectiveness is dependent on their ability (and their families’ ability) to adjust to their new duty station;
these appointees are relatively costly in terms of salaries and benefits,
if the appointment is a failure, and if the appointee leaves the Center within, say, a year of commencement, it represents a very significant financial and operational loss; and
there will be a long lead time in recruiting a successor.

18 Therefore, Centers need to take all possible steps to make these appointments successful. This requires the establishment of comprehensive and timely practices, and the ability both to comprehend and empathize with the problems faced by expatriates.

How effective are existing policies in practice?
19 While several Centers have some form of policy supporting expatriate spouses/partners, they may not seem effective to the people they are meant to accommodate.

Pay attention to spouse/partner perceptions
Spouses/partners located at two Centers attended a meeting where they voiced their feelings that:
• they have the perception that they (spouses/partners) must be totally self reliant and
• they have the perception that they must ask the Centers for everything they need
• and, thus, Centers need to support spouses/partners in a way that changes these perceptions.

Both of these Centers are in urban areas and have HR units. This raises the question that if spouses/partners are not being supported in these Centers, how well are they being supported in regional and country duty stations?

Spouses/partners impact expatriate recruitment
A 2003 HR survey of international organizations found:
• 74% of expatriates were married
• 81% of marriages are now dual-career.

Assuming that data for CGIAR Centers would be comparable, attempts to recruit expatriates without planning for their spouse/partners will face obvious obstacles and will affect a Center’s ability to recruit and also to retain expatriate staff.

survey by ORC Worldwide, specialist global HR consulting service

Distant spouses/partners
20 Distant spouses/partners often face the same challenges as expatriate spouses/partners. Although they have been recruited from within the same country as the duty station, they may have relocated several hundred and possibly more than a thousand kilometers from their former homes.

21 These spouses/partners also have left behind their support networks of relatives, professional colleagues and friends. They often have little or no knowledge of accommodations, schooling, medical and other family services at the duty station.

22 Distant spouses/partners usually are citizens of the country in which the duty station is located. Although they do not face the same barriers to employment as foreigners, they still may be unfamiliar with employment opportunities in the vicinity of the duty station.

23 Therefore, there are persuasive reasons for ensuring distant spouses/partners are not overlooked when developing policies and practices for accommodating spouses/partners.

Local Spouses/partners
24 Local spouses/partners do not face the obstacles to employment encountered by expatriate spouses/partners and, unlike distant spouses/partners, do not leave their support networks behind. However, they face various challenges in their home locations, especially if there is high unemployment or under-employment of skilled people. These are instances where Centers can offer support and thus enhance the overall sense of community.

ACCOMMODATING THE DIVERSITY OF SPOUSES/PARTNERS
Male and female spouses/partners
25 It is important at the outset to recognize the need to accommodate both male and female spouses/partners. Thus far, men make up the majority of CGIAR international appointments and their spouses/partners are women, many of whom are also professionals. However, in a number of cases, the appointees taking up an overseas appointment are women accompanied by their male spouses/partners.

26 Perhaps more significantly, CGIAR Centers recognize the need to increase the number of women in senior management significantly. However, women with the competencies and record of achievement required for appointments at this level are highly likely to have spouses/partners who are also senior professionals. If a Center lacks the ability to accommodate spouses/partners, this has a parallel implication for its potential to appoint women to senior management roles.

Same-sex spouses and partners
27 Same-sex partnerships are not uncommon, and some countries have legalized same-sex marriages. As a general principle, the practices recommended in this section apply equally to opposite-sex and same-sex partners.

28 However, same-sex relationships may be illegal in some countries where CGIAR Centers conduct their operations. This restricts the applicability of some of the options proposed in this section and requires that job candidates with same-sex spouses/partners receive special advice from the Center during the recruitment phase.

Cultures with multiple wives
29 Polygamy is practiced in several countries where CGIAR Centers conduct their operations. The various suggestions and recommended practices in this section may need to be adjusted to accommodate multiple wives.

Defining partners
30 Defining “partner”, not only for the purpose of this section of the Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center but also for eligibility for certain benefits, is complex. We have provided some guidance and examples of different Centers’ practices in the Sample Practices section, “Defining a Partner”, and in the Tips and Tools section, “Domestic Partner Agreements”.

WHAT DO THESE GUIDELINES PROVIDE?
Model policy
31 The Model Policy suggests a broad policy statement together with a list of supporting practices that can be included in the Center’s Personnel Policy Manual (PPM). These practices are options – the list is neither the minimum acceptable nor the maximum possible. Centers should list practices that can be applied effectively, either as a Center-wide ongoing policy or as a trial, either across the entire Center or in specific geographic locations. Centers also can identify other practices that can enhance their ability to accommodate spouses and partners.

Sample Practices
32 The sample practices provided in this section include:

Tips and Tools
33 The tips and tools provided in this section include:

Acknowledgements
To help us develop these guidelines several CGIAR Centers shared with us their existing policies and practices for accommodating spouses/partners. They also provided valuable comments on earlier drafts which helped us refine the material presented in this section of the Inclusive Workplace e-Resource Center. We particularly thank:

CIFOR, whose overall spouse/partner policy framework provided a model for much of this section;
CIP, which suggested extensive additions that have been incorporated in the pre-appointment initiatives sample practice;
IFPRI, for material dealing with the formal status of partners;
IITA, for information about its Community Resources Center; and
IRRI, for information about its Family Services Center.

Pertinent input also came from G&D Working Paper No. 37 “Female and Male CGIAR Scientists in Comparative Perspective” (Rathgeber, 2002). We also drew on research concerning expatriate couples from the HR consulting firm, ORC Worldwide (2003).

Nancy Allen and Fabiola Amariles made significant contributions during the consultation phase following the initial draft.

This project could never have been realized without G&D’s creative teamwork, bringing together the talents of Bob Moore and Antonia Okono along with myself for content, and Nancy Hart, Joanne Morgante and Roberto Magini for editing, design and programming. I sincerely thank each for their artistry and sincere dedication to inclusion.

Vicki Wilde
Leader
CGIAR Gender & Diversity Program