United NationsCore Competency
Client Orientation — UN competency
Seeing clients as those to whom services are provided, and building productive relationships with them.
What this competency means
Client orientation covers identifying clients' needs and matching them to appropriate solutions, monitoring developments inside and outside the clients' environment, keeping clients informed of progress or setbacks, and meeting timelines for delivery of products or services.
Based on the UN Competency Framework
Behavioural indicators
- Considers all those to whom services are provided to be 'clients' and seeks to see things from clients' point of view
- Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect
- Identifies clients' needs and matches them to appropriate solutions
- Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients' environment to keep informed and anticipate problems
- Keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects and meets timeline for delivery
Our interpretation for interview preparation
Behaviours that weaken an answer
- Delivers what was requested without testing the underlying need
- Goes quiet when a delivery is slipping
- Treats internal colleagues as less important than external counterparts
PanelPrep interview guidance
What a strong example might demonstrate
Candidates preparing for competency-based interviews can use this competency to think about a relationship with a counterpart that required active management. A strong behavioural example would demonstrate how the real need was identified, how expectations were managed, and how trust was maintained.
PanelPrep interview guidance
How to prepare for questions on this competency
Examples usually involve a demanding counterpart, an unrealistic request, or a service failure that had to be recovered.
STAR preparation
- Situation — set the context in two sentences: where, when, who was involved.
- Task — state precisely what you were responsible for, not what the team was responsible for.
- Action — spend most of the answer here, in the first person, showing the indicators above in practice.
- Result — quantify the outcome and add what you learned or changed afterwards.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common interview question patterns
Illustrative patterns written by PanelPrep to help you practise. They are not published or endorsed by UN.
- Describe a time you dealt with a difficult client or counterpart.
- Tell us about a request you could not fulfil as asked.
- Give an example of how you anticipated a client's need.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common mistakes
- Defining 'client' only as an external party
- Agreeing to everything and calling it service
- No evidence of the relationship after the incident
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The competency name, category and behavioural concepts on this page are based on United Nations, "UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide". Summaries, interview guidance, question patterns and preparation advice are original PanelPrep content.
Framework version: UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide. Source date: 2010-01-01. Last verified: 2026-08-09.
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