A Place of Merit in the UN System

United Nations Roster

A roster is a pool of pre-assessed and endorsed candidates that can be selected, immediately for a particular job opening or an associated job title without having to endure another rigorous application process. Ideally, employing staff through the roster system can save the organization time and money while ensuring hiring managers are still able to employ qualified staff.

Entry into the Inspira Roster

Applicants whose experience, skills, and education meet the requirements may be invited to take a knowledge-based written test or simulation exercise. Based on the results, a candidate is shortlisted and invited to participate in a rigorous competency-based interview and vetting process by an assessment panel. Next, the interview panel will provide a list of qualified candidates to be evaluated by a Central Review board, composed of staff and management representatives, to ensure that the applicable procedures abided by rigid expectations.

After the review body has endorsed the recommended candidates, the head of the department or principal administrator of the organization will select the top candidate.

All is not lost! If you were in the group of candidates, recommend for the job opening but not selected, you will be placed on the roster for that position and potentially be chosen for a job opening with similar functions at the level and category without having to undergo the rigorous application process again.

Notification of Entry into the Inspira Roster

CRB endorsed candidates will receive an automatic notification sent by Inspira that they have been rostered. A rostered applicant is pre-approved for a specific job code. A job code is defined by the job family, category/level, functional title and roster type.

Active Roster vs. Passive Roster

In 1999 after undergoing the rigorous selection process at UNHQ:NY, I was selected to work for the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I declined the offer. One week later, I was selected to work for the UN ICTR in Arusha. I accepted but was later informed I would be working in the Kigali field office. This process is what is considered an Active roster. When the organization actively places rostered candidates against vacant positions.

A Passive Roster means that an applicant must actively apply for positions while placed on a roster. For example, in some cases, the candidate is provided access to see vacant positions as an internal candidate. The rostered candidate should receive an email inviting them to apply for the same job profile or Associate Title, which has been identified as having similar functions and attributes through a classification review. It is crucial that rostered candidates sign up for alerts and actively look for openings to ensure they do not miss out on applying for a job opening.

Associated Titles

Your Roster Membership(s) may be grouped with Associated Titles (other job codes) with similar functions. When applying to a Job Opening (JO) with an Associated Title, you will be notified that you are considered as a roster applicant to that JO. Your status as a roster applicant when applying to an “Associated Title” is contingent on the confirmation message from the Inspira tool which is based on the publication date of the JO. Applications submitted to JOs published before an association will not result in a notification or a roster membership flag.

Associated Titles are not additional Roster Memberships, as they may be amended to respond to the changing needs of the Organization.

Associated Titles Source: https://careers.un.org/lbw/attachments/Inspira/At_a_Glance/RostersforApplicantsAtaGlance.pdf

It is important to remember; a roster membership is only applicable for a role within the UN organization that administered the assessment. Hmm

What if One UN – delivering as one established an HR liaison office to manage a system of UN agencies working across organizational borders, sharing qualified and vetted candidates for recruitment purposes? The ‘One UN’ in theory could equally be more efficient and cost-effective if transferrable profiles, such as human resources, supply chain, procurement, finance and budgeting, engineering, ITSS, security, and administration, could have shared rosters across organizational borders. Potentially increasing a rostered member’s prospects of being recruited – making roster members feel meritorious and not overlooked by the UN roster system.