Standardization of forms

(1)     A special meeting of CCAQ in September 1969 (CO-ORDINATION/R.762, paras. 20-26) agreed that an expert on forms design should be employed for an initial period of one to two months to assess the possibilities of standardizing forms used for:

     (a)     Fellowship applications

     (b)     Personal history

     (c)     Government requests for technical assistance

     (d)     Travel authorizations and travel claims.

(2)     At its 36th session (September 1972: CO-ORDINATION/R.960, paras. 39-42) CCAQ was informed that pressure of other work had prevented progress on the subject, but that WHO had now offered to deal with the personal history form and IAEA the application form for fellowships. FAO offered to study the possibility of common forms for travel authorization and claims. CCAQ decided not to pursue the standardization of the form for technical assistance requests.

(3)     At its 41st session (March 1975: CO-ORDINATION/R.1087, paras. 115-117), CCAQ approved a standard text of the application form for candidates to Professional category posts as proposed by WHO after lengthy consultation with the organizations. It was agreed that each organization would print its own stock of forms with its own identification in the heading.

(4) At its seventeenth session (CEB/2009/HLCM/HR/27, para.4), the HR Network agreed that it was more effective to provide all the data required by ICSC from organizations in one consolidated questionnaire and requested that this practice be continued.  The Network also noted that another consolidated questionnaire would be forwarded by the ICSC Secretariat in October 2009 with a deadline of one month.

(5) At its seventeenth session (CEB/2009/HLCM/HR/27, para.9), the HR Network thanked the ICSC Secretariat for the document (ICSC/68/R.7) and the CEB Secretariat for the draft of the standard exit questionnaire (CEB/2009/HLCM/HR/7); Expressed once again its concern about the slow of progress in achieving gender balance in organizations across the UN system especially at the senior level; Recalled that the Secretary General as Chairman of the CEB had requested organizations to develop an exit questionnaire that would assist in finding out the reasons why women leave the common system and help organizations to put in place better retention policies; Requested organizations and staff representative bodies to provide the CEB Secretariat with any comments regarding the exit questionnaire by mid-March.

The Commission decided to:
    (a)    Request its secretariat to work closely with the CEB Secretariat and staff representatives to finalize and pilot a standard exit interview questionnaire for use across the United Nations common system, and to identify the mechanism for central data reporting;     
    (b)     Request the ICSC secretariat to report on the issue at its seventy-first session.

  • Human Resources Network (HRN)