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Chapter 4: Evaluation and assessment
71. After submitting the application, applicants may go through
various stages of evaluation and assessment.
Automatic and manual screening
72. Upon submission, applications go through an automatic screening
process in Inspira based on a set of pre-established rules on age, academic
qualifications, length of work experience, family relationships, criminal
record and others according to the United Nations Staff Regulations and
Rules, applicable policies and requirements of the job opening. In some
cases, the United Nations may conduct manual reviews requiring
applicants to respond in a timely manner.
Evaluation
73. The hiring managers evaluate the released applicants and create
a shortlist of applicants based on the criteria specified in the job opening.
Assessments
74. Shortlisted applicants may be invited to participate in assessments
such as written exercises, presentations, technical tests, knowledge-based
interview, competency-based interviews or other assessments.
75. Assessments are normally scheduled for a specific date and time
slot. Applicants who do not respond to invitations or cannot be reached by
e-mail or phone in a timely manner, or do not participate in assessments will
be disqualified.
76. Applicants should follow all instructions. Failing to do so including
missing the deadline for submitting the response may lead to
disqualification. Cheating will immediately disqualify the applicants from
further consideration.
Competency-based interviews
77. For job openings and generic job openings, the competency-
based interview is a preferred assessment methodology. Only a select
number of applicants are invited for this interview. The goal of this interview
is to gather objective evidence of the applicants’ competencies through
their past behaviour and performance.
78. Before the interview, applicants should familiarize themselves with
the indicators of each competency stipulated in the job opening and think
about the past examples where they demonstrated those indicators.
79. During the interview, the interview panel normally consisting of
three United Nations staff members including the hiring manager, will ask
for examples when they have demonstrated the competencies,
particularly how they handled or addressed a situation or task. Applicants
may be asked to give both positive and negative examples for some of the
competencies. These questions are called behavioural questions. Appraisal
and comparison questions may be used to obtain further insight on the
applicant’s behaviours. Several probing or follow-up questions may also be
asked until the interview panel has gathered sufficient evidence.
80. The below table shows some examples of different question types
which are asked during a competency-based interview:
Behavioral Give me an example of…
Please describe a situation when you had to… and
how did you go about it?
Appraisal What was the feedback you received from your team
members?
What feedback did you receive about your role in this
project?
Comparison
In relation to leadership specifically, what makes you
stand out as compared to others around you?
Which of your previous experiences working in a team
was the best as compared to others, and why?
Probing/
follow-up
What happened next?
What were your specific responsibilities in the team?
81. A competency-based interview typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes.
Depending on the location of the applicant and availability of
communication methodologies, a mix of in-person, video or phone
interviews may occur.