Where a candidate fails the mandatory checks or is found not to meet the required academic or work experience requirements, as decided by the Head of Entity, they should not be offered the position or onboarded. Please refer to OneHR Reference Verification Guidelines for guidance on negative reference verifications.
A negative outcome for reference verification, for reasons other than negative mandatory checks, informs the requestors’ recruitment decisions, but does not bar UN organizations from employing the candidates. Particularly, incomplete record verifications or qualitative reference checks are not evidence of misrepresentation. However, hiring decisions must be made in line with paragraph 3, article 101, of the UN Charter, which stipulates that the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. Entities should be aware that the employment record verification and qualitative reference check may not yield comprehensive feedback on past performance. In the case of serving or former staff, hiring managers should consult applicants’ performance records through their relevant HR offices.
In the event that a candidate is offered a position or onboarded before completion of reference verification which subsequently is negative or where reference verification of a serving staff member is negative, entities should seek advice from HRSD via DOS-HR-Advice@un.org.
)footnote1