INTERN WORKSITE LOCATION: Washington DC or US Remote
DATES OF INTERNSHIP: June – August 2023
HOURS PER WEEK: 25-35 hours/week
INTERNS SUPERVISOR & CONTACT INFORMATION: Director – Program Leadership Continuity & Success
FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR THE INTERNSHIP: $2600/month
Mercy Corps responsibilities
For the duration of this internship assignment the intern will receive:
- Training and supervisory support
- Access to Mercy Corps online tools
- All other tools, materials and communication requirements for this project
Intern
Intern will remain responsible for all costs associated with:
- Laptop for working remotely
- Accommodation, travel and living expenses
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
The Program Performance and Quality, (PAQ) team supports effective, efficient and equitable program performance through a culture of quality management to achieve greater results for those that matter most – our program participants. The Strategic Leadership Team, part of PAQ supports country teams, Complex Programs, and agency-wide initiatives in times of change to achieve and maintain high program performance and quality. Our team is organized around two key priorities: Supporting leadership continuity and success to minimize adverse impacts of transitions on programs and teams and supporting Complex Programs to ensure quality implementation.
The project is to review existing country leadership support tools specifically the new country leadership onboarding experience, and the Peer Guide program and identify areas for improvement. The lessons from this evaluation will also be used to create a template for new technical onboarding resources in the broader Program Performance and Quality team.
The Country Leadership Onboarding Experience was launched in 2023 with an aim to provide structured but flexible tools and support new country leaders as they move into their new roles. This includes an intranet site, check lists, and monthly peer webinars. To date 20+ leaders have been exposed to this new process. The Peer Guide program introduced in 2020 during COVID includes onboarding and mentorship tools where new leaders can sign up to be matched with a Peer for a three-month period to share best practices, broaden connections, and answer questions for new leaders. To date over 50+ leaders have been successfully matched. In the coming fiscal year, the PAQ team has identified onboarding as a priority effort to support new team members in their relevant technical areas. Lastly this project will involve coordinating with the People team (HR) focal point on onboarding to ensure these efforts support and are coordinated with broader onboarding resources and efforts.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The intern will gain skills in evaluation and learning, exposure onboarding and mentoring initiatives, internal communications as well as project management. They will gain exposure to a global non-profit organization and working with a culturally diverse team and stakeholders. They will have a solid understanding of key elements of onboarding programs as well as contributing factors to successful implementation. Through the evaluation reports they will also have exposure to different reporting and communication tools. Finally, the intern may complete informational interviews with other Mercy Corps staff members working in his/her area(s) of interest, in order to increase his/her knowledge of Mercy Corps’ work in these areas.
DELIVERABLES:
- Complete an assessment using primary data collection internally and also include desk review of other successful onboarding efforts for leaders or functional areas
- Complete a final report with detailed recommendations for improvement to support country leaders
- Based on assessment and report draft template that can be used for future onboarding for technical areas such as MEL, Engineering, etc
- Create presentations with key report findings for different stakeholder groups
- Support possible webinar events on important program successes and best practices
- Support the creation of country leadership page on the Onboarding SharePoint site
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE:
- Bachelor required and master’s degree in progress or recently completed (within 1 year) in relevant discipline.
- Experience in evaluation including work with survey, interview, focus group discussion.
- Experience in presentation and report development.
- Interest in global relief and development sector.
Mercy Corps interns represent the agency both during and outside of work hours and are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
