Arrangements for the Galaxy System

Review of Galaxy

They find Ford's semi cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox, the President of the Galaxy.

For example, the phone that I carry with me every single day is Galaxy Nexus.

Problems with the Galaxy system continue to plague the staff selection process.

Galaxy e Staffing has now become an established corporate tool.

In order to apply for vacancies, interested candidates could download a personal history form from Galaxy.

The Office of Human Resources Management initiated the advertising of vacancies in Galaxy in 2002.

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations commenced advertising field vacancies in Galaxy in 2004.

Similarly, although the new posts in the Executive Office had been announced, they had not appeared on Galaxy and his delegation had not received hard copies of the relevant vacancy announcements.

An addendum was issued covering arrangements for financial and technical support of the Galaxy system (A 59 265 Add.1).

The Galaxy e Staffing tool consists of three main sections vacancy announcement, selection process and a reporting facility.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services recognized that Galaxy was now established as one of the Organization's core application systems.

(gg) Report of the Secretary General on Information and Communications Technology Strategy arrangements for the Galaxy System (A 59 265 Add.1)

Given the well known problems with Galaxy, the Committee welcomes the intention of the Secretary General to evaluate alternative electronic staffing systems.

13. Requests the Secretary General to continue to take the steps necessary to ensure that Galaxy is available in both of the working languages of the Organization

The staffing module of Galaxy is the tool in support of the staffing system which integrates recruitment, placement, managed mobility and promotion of United Nations staff.

During April September 2004, the Office of Internal Oversight Services conducted an audit review of the Galaxy system.

Galaxy Releases 1 and 2 were named among the most notable projects and initiatives in the area of e Management since 2002.

The priority attached to the further development of Galaxy was reiterated in the progress report on the Information and Communications Technology Strategy contained in document A 59 265.

At present, the announcements of positions for field experts under the 200 series of the Staff Rules of the United Nations in the Secretariat are also available in Galaxy.

Those measures included the development of generic job profiles and the circulation of generic vacancy announcements, using the Galaxy system, to build rosters of pre vetted candidates to be made available to field missions.

9. Notes with concern the range of weaknesses related to the Galaxy support tool identified by the Office of Internal Oversight Services in its report See A 59 253.

The enhancements to the skills inventory will complement the personal history profile in Galaxy by focusing on acquired skill sets rather than a description of work experience.

Ms. McCreery (Assistant Secretary General for Human Resources Management) replied that vacancy announcements could be consulted in all duty stations with access to the Galaxy system.

Since the year 2002, 5,529 posts in total have been advertised in Galaxy for which 1,119,000 applications have been submitted by applicants from 189 countries.

For the purpose of such migration, a review will be undertaken to establish the most appropriate technological infrastructure for the Galaxy system, including the possible use of off the shelf packages to support some of its functions.

She trusted that the planned improvements to the Galaxy system would be made expeditiously.

The Advisory Committee also stated that experience so far in using the Galaxy system showed that there had been an inadequate analysis of tasks, scope and coverage of the system before the project was implemented (para.

In the meantime, to ensure that all these tasks are implemented in good order, the Office of Human Resources Management and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would continue the existing partnership in support and development of Galaxy.

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Office of Human Resources Management cooperated in the development of Galaxy e Staffing, to meet the emerging needs of both offices, primarily using the resources of peacekeeping missions.

Previously, the human resources case officer for each vacancy was obliged to manually search in the Galaxy electronic staffing system for relevant rostered candidates.

Despite the increasing number of vacancies being advertised through Galaxy and the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), many appointments, especially at senior levels, continued to be non competitive.

The representative of the Secretariat said that the practice of posting multiple related vacancy announcements on Galaxy prior to the occurrence of the actual vacancies had already begun, which would considerably speed up the filling of posts.

While the Galaxy system has been fully deployed for advertising Headquarters and mission posts, refinements are required to facilitate the electronic screening of almost 150,000 applications received this year.

The Advisory Committee further emphasized that, unless Galaxy was modified to cover other areas and its problems were resolved, its effectiveness would be compromised and the cost effectiveness of its future use would be called into question.

Decides that generic vacancy announcements posted in Galaxy should be accompanied by information on the location of current specific vacancies and that this would apply to all international vacancies in peacekeeping missions

In New York, 82.7 per cent of all posts had been filled. Vacancy announcements for 56 of the 83 vacant posts were currently on Galaxy and the remaining announcements were being prepared.

The Committee was informed, however, that the main hindrance to a more expeditious filling of vacancies was the Galaxy system, which made the process of filling a vacancy extremely cumbersome and protracted, averaging six to nine months.

Decides that generic vacancy announcements posted in Galaxy should be accompanied by information on the location of current specific vacancies and that this would apply to all international vacancies in peacekeeping missions

In this connection, the Advisory Committee reiterates its recommendation that lessons learned with regard to Galaxy should be fully documented and analysed and that the experiences of other large organizations that have installed similar systems should be reviewed (see A 59 736, para.

Having considered the report of the Secretary General on the functional requirements of field missions for communication and information technology and on information and communications technology strategy arrangements for the Galaxy system and the relevant section of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,

The system will be a suite of applications interlinked with Galaxy and the Integrated Management Information System through the human resources data warehouse and an enhancement to the Nucleus application, through which field managers can access vetted rosters of candidates.

Having considered the report of the Secretary General on the functional requirements of field missions for communication and information technology and on information and communications technology strategy arrangements for the Galaxy system, and the relevant section of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,

12. Further requests the Secretary General to continue to develop screening mechanisms that ensure that all applications submitted in the Galaxy system are treated fairly, that well qualified candidates are given due consideration and that keywords outside of the vacancy announcements are not used to exclude well qualified candidates