The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

implementing a policy to make a sig- nificant number of additional posi- tions available for EFMs, to be filled through USAID selection at post to include review by the Post Employ- ment Committee. … USAID direc- tors are expected to make locally established positions available to EFMs. … Directors of missions with up to five U.S. direct-hire positions must, at a minimum, identify one local position for primary staffing by an EFM.” The message gives special emphasis to identifying “professional- level positions.” USAID has often been the source of professional-type jobs for family members, who have in the past been hired primarily under PSC authority. The new initiative calls for USAID to hire under State’s FMA when the employee desires. Several EFMs who commented on FMA hiring noted concern that if USAID posi- tions are put under the FMA umbrel- la, the positions might be downgrad- ed. One noted that the conversion to FMA for the higher-salaried USAID jobs might actually bring down the salaries to more typical FMA levels. A brief mention of employment options outside missions must be made, for it is in this realm that a number of exciting programs are under way. The Global Employment Strategy has recently been launched by State. GES, according to the FLO, which runs the program, “seeks to increase spousal employment opportunities by establishing a global network of potential employers from multinational organizations and NGOs.” Another new program, E-Entre- preneurs, has come online to train family members to run their own portable businesses. The first pilot training was offered in May. The Strategic Networking Assistance Program, known as SNAP, has moved out of the pilot phase, and is being covered by ICASS funding. SNAP aims to help connect family members with opportunities for local employ- ment outside the mission, and to help with career development and plan- ning, résumé writing and honing interview skills. New posts will be added to the SNAP program as a regional expansion of the program is implemented in Central America and Africa. Walking the Walk Family member employment has long been an issue fairly low on the list of management priorities, when it’s been on the list at all. State man- agement now seems to recognize that family member employment oppor- tunities are a key element in efforts to recruit and retain the best employ- ees. Embassy jobs will never be able to satisfy all the employment interests of family members. These jobs are just one piece of an expanding net- work of options. Still, members of the Foreign Service community must understand that the foreign affairs agencies will probably never be able to ensure that all family members who want good jobs can get them at every post. “Heretical as it may sound and as much as I wish it were not so,” long- time family-member advocate Mette Beecroft says, “there are couples whose joint career aspirations simply will not flourish in the Foreign Service. Especially in cases where an employee has had longtime aspira- tions to join the Foreign Service, it can be difficult to admit that the Foreign Service might just not be right for them.” To be blunt, the most exciting innovations and opportunities emerg- ing for family members are from the world outside the embassy. The Internet — which vastly expands the options for continuity of contact with all types of employers and clients — will probably prove to be the single most valuable asset to a Foreign Service family member seeking some semblance of a career. Realistically, family members should not expect to have a traditional professional career path working in mission jobs. But they should be able to expect good- faith assistance from post manage- ment in their efforts to find the best employment possible. One element of the five-point strategy put forward by Director General Pearson in 2004 is improved options for family-member employ- ment. The five-point strategy — “nurture our own talents” (under which the concept of support for family members falls), provide better training, cooperate more directly with national and international play- ers, respond more quickly with more expertise and build that expertise for the future — defines personnel goals for the State Department. The director general has gone on record asking chiefs of mission at all posts to make family member employ- ment a priority, and he has laid out specific ways that they can do this. Obviously, this will only succeed if post management around the world takes it on as a priority. We have seen that management can talk the talk. Let’s see if management will give it teeth and require posts to walk the walk.  76 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 Realistically, family members should not expect to have a traditional professional career path working in mission jobs.