Working Life

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The IMF provides an extensive curriculum of internal training courses, seminars, and development programs, including in-house seminars, workshops, and short courses on economic topics.
Professional development offerings include an extensive curriculum of professional training, mentoring, and coaching to enhance interpersonal relations, written communications, technology, management, and leadership skills.
The IMF hosts visiting scholars, leading academics, and a broad spectrum of eminent thought leaders as part of its development agenda.
Language training programs are provided to help staff acquire, enhance, or maintain language skills necessary for performing work assignments in specific countries.
Staff may apply for study leave to complete graduate degrees or work on outside projects that advance the IMF's research agenda.

Mobility is encouraged throughout IMF careers to broaden professional experience, increase versatility, and support career growth and advancement.
The IMF maintains an active internal job market and offers programs to support mobility within the organization and externally to relevant jobs with other organizations.
Mobility is framed as enhancing organizational effectiveness by ensuring staff are versatile, quick-learning, and readily deployable, enabling the IMF to bring institutional knowledge to member country issues.

The IMF offers flexible work arrangements, including telework, adjusted starting times, compressed work schedules, part-time hours, and job sharing.
Several options exist for taking periods of leave without pay for personal reasons, to pursue further study, or to take on an external assignment with another organization.

The IMF is committed to inclusiveness so that its multicultural and highly diverse staff feel at ease and have opportunities to succeed.
The IMF recruits the most able and technically competent candidates while striving for balance in gender and nationality representation among staff; it is EDGE certified.
The IMF does not set country or gender quotas but aims to reflect membership in staff composition to better understand member country needs and encourage cross-fertilization of ideas.
The IMF has issued a Statement on Diversity.

Ethics and integrity are described as the foundation of IMF institutional culture, paralleling the IMF’s promotion of transparency and good governance to member countries.
IMF staff are expected to observe the highest standards of professional ethics and uphold core values of integrity, honesty, inclusion, respect, excellence, and impartiality.
Each employee is responsible for contributing to the good governance and reputation of the IMF.
Further information is available through IMF Staff Ethics, Financial Disclosure and Resolution of Staff Disputes, including codes of ethical conduct, financial disclosure rules for IMF staff and Executive Directors, and the Ethics Office Annual Report.

The IMF runs an annual Giving Together program to support employees giving back to the community, both locally and internationally.
In 2018, the program raised $2.6 million in donations and supported 1,130 non-profit organizations; it also facilitated staff volunteer events such as mentoring children from less-privileged backgrounds and preparing meals for the homeless.
The IMF has set objectives for environmental sustainability in the workplace, aiming to reduce net environmental impact.
Since 2017, the IMF has been carbon-neutral and continues efforts to reduce GHG emissions, focusing on energy usage, mobile emissions, and employee commuting.
In 2019, the IMF pledged to eliminate single-use plastics in all Headquarters buildings.