Frequently Asked Questions

Where the UN provides free transportation from the duty station approved for rest and recuperation purposes to the designated rest and recuperation destination and the staff member decides to travel to an alternative destination, there will be no payment expenses by the Organization.

Where UN transportation does not exist and the staff member chooses to travel to a location other than the official R&R destination, the staff member may still receive the air ticket to the designated destination.

The Organization will pay for travel on R & R by the least expensive and most direct route from the duty station to the designated place of rest and recuperation. The Organization may purchase a ticket or provide a lump sum equivalent to the air ticket price. Where a staff member chooses to go to a destination different to the designated location for R & R, the financial liability of the Organization will be equal to the cost of the air ticket to the designated location.

• There are now more staff in the field serving in family duty stations. In some duty stations, there was the discrepancy whereby, in some locations, staff serving with UN agencies, funds and programmes or other UN offices could bring their families but staff serving with field missions in the same location could not. Before 1 July 2011, only about 10 % of the posts in peacekeeping and special political missions (about 680) were in family duty stations. As of 1 July 2011 this increased to approximately 30 % of the posts (over 2,000) in missions. Staff who have eligible dependents (i.e.

A new administrative instruction on “Rental subsidies and deductions” (ST/AI/2013/2), is now available which introduces a more streamlined process in addition to more specific eligibility requirements.

Various key changes have been established in advance of the increasingly automated procedures that Umoja is starting to bring as the new system is gradually implemented throughout the UN Secretariat.

What are some key changes to the policy?

Application process

For each screening question the Hiring Manager determines one answer as satisfactory – this may not be the “yes” or “true” option. Applicants are expected to provide accurate answers and may be asked for clarification or justification during later stages of the application process.

For those applying to a standard job opening, the following terms are currently in use:
Status shown to applicant What it means
Draft An application is being worked on by an applicant but has not been submitted. It is visible only to the applicant at this stage
Applied An application form has been submitted via inspira, but the pre-screening process (which checks candidates’ eligibility for a post) has not yet begun.

The substantive part of an inspira application, including the Cover Letter and work experience and education details, cannot be edited after an application is submitted. However, you may change the contact information in your profile at any time, including your e-mail address or phone number, even after submitting an application. To do this, log-in to inspira, click on the relevant section of ‘View/ Change Personal Information’, edit and save. Recruiters and Hiring Managers will see up-to-date profile information when they view applicants.

Inspira is the new IT system that was introduced in March 2010 to support Talent Management. Inspira is built on an Oracle PeopleSoft software platform but has been adapted by developers to meet the Organization’s special needs.
Inspira will integrate processes that have so far been supported by different and separate systems into one platform. E.g. Galaxy, Nucleus and e-PAS will all be replaced by Inspira. It will also provide a strong linkage to IMIS and to the new ERP system “Umoja” that is being developed.

The name Inspira is unique to the United Nations. It was suggested by our colleague Saiful Ridwan, from the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris, and was selected through the world-wide contest conducted through iSeek.
Inspira comes from the Latin root ‘inspiro’ and means ‘animated, or imbued with the spirit to do something, by or as if by supernatural influence’, which captures the essence of the vision for Talent Management: the Organization’s mandates can only be achieved through the efforts and inspiration of our current and future staff.

If you cannot log in to inspira, or if you have a question on how to use inspira, please contact the Inspira Support Centre:
Use the Contact us link on the inspira home page or Contact us on the Careers Portal (careers.un.org): http://careers.un.org/support.aspx . Please include your index number in the request.