Officials responsible for two pilot programs aimed at improving the quality and speed of the federal hiring process said a key to improving competitive hiring could be as simple as conducting interviews earlier on.
Stephanie Grosser, a bureaucracy hacker at the U.S. Digital Service, said at a discussion hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration Tuesday that she developed and oversaw two six-month pilot programs hiring IT specialists at the Health and Human Services Department and the National Park Service. Those efforts culminated in last month’s hiring guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, which encouraged more input from subject matter experts and supplemental assessments to determine applicants’ core competencies.
The goal of the pilot programs was simple: improve the list of certified candidates handed over to hiring managers following a job announcement on USA Jobs. Currently, upwards of 50% of positions posted on the federal government’s job board are cancelled without agencies extending a job offer, and increasingly agencies are seeking to use hiring flexibilities that go outside of the competitive hiring process.
“Only 20% of jobs are now being hired through competitive public positions,” Grosser said. “People are finding alternate flexibilities that get around open and fair competition and veterans’ preference, because the basic process of competitive hiring isn’t working. But veterans’ preference matters, and fair and open competition matters because that’s the complete foundation of federal employment.”
When a candidate applies for a position through USA Jobs, he or she must go through two steps. The first is to submit a so-called “federal resume,” a document ranging anywhere from five to 60 pages listing career accomplishments. And the second is a questionnaire where the candidate self-reports on his o ..
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