CHAPTER 2
Recruiting and Selecting the Best People
Maria Spencer and Thomas Argondizza
Civil service careers have long been perceived as the gold standard of job security and employment benefits. Regardless of the nature of the work, the federal government has been able to attract a workforce valued for its stability, tenure, and loyalty. Like a well-oiled machine, the government has hired staff at entry-level positions, trained them en masse, and consistently promoted them within a pre-established grade system that emphasizes time served over merit.
These nearly-automatic, tenure-based promotions have produced a glut of middle management that has come to be known as “The Bulge.” Public scrutiny of the federal workforce system has prompted mild and sporadic policy reforms during the last three decades, though Gardner et al. (2001) noted that these “reforms” did not necessarily fix the tenure-based promotion system but merely recharacterized tens of thousands of managers as “management specialists” or “team leads.”
More aggressive efforts to reduce overall bloat included curtailed recruitment efforts in the form of hiring freezes, particularly under the first George W. Bush administration. Most recently, the Federal Workforce Reduction and Reform Act of 2011 was introduced in the Senate but died in committee; the bill would have extended the freeze through 2014 and limited the size of the federal workforce in 2022 to its then-current size in September 2011.1 However, these changes only contributed to a gradual graying of the federal workforce: More than one-quarter of all federal staff are at or above retirement age (65 years), and more than one-third of the entire workforce is between the ages of 50 and 59, according to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB; 2004).
In recent years, realization of the magnitude of the upcoming wave of retirements has prompted renewed attention to recruitment and hiring practices throughout the federal workforce. In 2001, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) cited human resource (HR) management as a governmentwide high-risk area, which has directed strategic priority toward developing leadership; planning for hiring, development, and retention; and cultivating a results-oriented culture (GAO, 2001:8). The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the central HR management and policy office for the federal government, has increasingly moved to implement talent management best practices throughout the federal government to promote workforce planning based on agency strategy and to help reinvent federal government’s employment brand to attract people who value both performance and career development. From recruitment through selection and hiring, OPM has decided to infuse merit-based principles into every stage of employment with the civil service.
EFFORTS TO DEVELOP BEST PRACTICES IN FEDERAL RECRUITING AND HIRING
MSPB addressed the topic of improving federal recruiting and hiring in a 2008 report to Congress that compiled core findings and recommendations to inform potential reform efforts. The study reported that the federal recruiting and onboarding process was lengthy, under-resourced, and overly complex, all of which detracted from the federal government’s ability to compete for the best applicants (presumed to have comparable opportunities with nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs).
As part of the same study, MSPB surveyed 1,863 randomly selected entry-level federal employees hired in 2005 and asked them to identify the top three obstacles they faced in their efforts to pursue federal job opportunities. The survey sample identified the following burdens experienced throughout the onboarding process:
1. Length of the application process
2. Complexity of the process
3. Difficulty identifying available job opportunities. (MSPB, 2008)
The report specified four key areas for improvement (Table 2.1).
| Area for Improvement | Reason for Improvement |
| Better Recruitment | Complex and lengthy hiring process detracts from the federal government’s ability to attract quality candidates. |
| Better Assessment | The government is using assessment tools that are not good predictors of performance. |
| Better Process Management | Increasing mission demands and lower resource levels make it difficult to manage the hiring process. Fragmented reform has given some agencies more resources than others. |
| Better Merit-Based Decisions | Alternative assessment practices impede fair and open competition. This can result in poor hiring decisions and can lower the quality of the hiring process. |
TABLE 2.1. Areas for Hiring Improvement
MSPB, 2008.
The report had very specific reform recommendations for departments and agencies (Table 2.2). As the federal government’s manager of personnel, OPM received its own recommendations (Table 2.3). MSPB also made recommendations to federal agencies concerning needed improvements to entry-level hiring (Table 2.4).
| Recommendation | Reasoning |
| Manage hiring as a critical business process. | Hiring needs, methods, and outcomes should be reflected in business planning. |
| Evaluate internal hiring processes, procedures, and policies. | Adding a continuous quality check will identify weaknesses and help create improvements. Many barriers may be self-imposed. |
| Employ rigorous assessment strategies that emphasize quality. | Assessing relevant skills can help predict future performance, thus reducing turnover and bad hiring decisions. |
| Improve efforts to manage the applicant pool while making the process easier for applicants. | A simpler hiring process will lead to greater pool of applicants, which gives staff a better chance to choose the best people. |
| Properly prepare HR staff and selecting officials for their hiring responsibilities. | A trained HR staff can conduct hiring practices more efficiently, with greater knowledge of the process, and can help applicants with the process if necessary. |
| Implement hiring-support tools after careful planning. | It is a tool’s ability to predict future performance that matters, not new technology. |
| Evaluate the success of the hiring process. | Evaluating the hiring process as part of regular practice will ensure it meets the organization’s needs. |
TABLE 2.2. Recommendations to Agencies to Reform and Improve Hiring
MSPB, 2008.
| Recommendation | Reasoning |
| Develop a governmentwide framework for federal hiring reform. | OPM can reach out to other agencies and collaborate on hiring reform efforts. |
| Streamline and consolidate appointing authorities. | Transparency and understanding can be achieved with fewer authorities that have more flexibility. |
| Assist agencies to develop and implement valid and practical assessment tools. | Can provide better hiring tools or access to those tools for agencies to improve their hiring process. |
| Develop competency-based qualification standards. | Competency is measurable using the proper tools. Job performance predictions help determine which applicants are a good fit for a particular position. |
| Use more-predictive applicant assessment tools. | Agencies tend to use tools that aren’t good predictors of future job performance. |
| Promote fair and open competition through a balanced set of recruitment strategies. | Agencies have mostly relied on networking to fill their ranks. They should implement new recruitment sources to reach all segments of the United States. |
| Market what is important. | Most applicants seek good benefits, job security, and the ability to make a difference in the workplace. Agencies should use the government’s strength in these areas to market their job openings. |
TABLE 2.4. Recommendations to Agencies for Improving Entry-Level Hiring
MSPB, 2008.
FEDERAL RECRUITING POLICY
Federal hiring freezes helped pave the way for private contractors and NGOs to take up some of the resulting workload in the form of contracts and grant-funded public programs (Light, 2000). Although greater efficiency can result from aligning with smaller organizations to deliver the multitude of services required of the federal government, OPM has had to adopt competitive talent management and compensation practices to compete with those contractors and NGOs for talented people and overcome persistent stereotypes that federal workforce policies are bureaucratic and tenure-based.
The dependency on contractors has created a workforce planning and development challenge for the federal government. Contractors now make up a significant portion of the government’s capacity, but the contracted workforce is not subject to federal government workforce policies, making development of that talent pool more difficult.
Additionally, this disconnect between contract workers and the federal government’s workforce planning and development efforts complicates OPM’s efforts to move younger workers up through the government to replace federal workers as they retire. This dependency on contractors may also lead to failures and gaps in knowledge transfer efforts, because the federal government lacks control over and access to a great deal of workforce training, reporting, and transition.
The federal government has additional recruiting challenges because its ranks are divided among career civil servant positions, political appointments, and contractors. OPM must work constantly to strike a balance between the first two, because career civil servants provide the long-term service stability the government needs, but political appointees are viewed as most loyal to the agenda of the current administration. However, it is difficult to attract the most talented and highly-qualified civil servants if the federal government’s senior leadership positions are all reserved for political appointees.
Recognizing these vulnerabilities in the federal government’s recruitment and development systems, OPM appointed a centralized chief human capital officer (CHCO) to lead “human capital strategy” across all federal agencies. The central coordination at the senior strategic level was designed to help OPM monitor the alignment of workforce planning activities across agencies and to give OPM access to agency workforce planning data so that it can continually aid agencies in their planning (Rubin, 2012).
Notably, the statutory language outlining the CHCO’s qualifications is not as specific as the language that outlines the roles of the chief financial officer and chief information officer, which occupy a similar seniority level in federal service. Where those position descriptions are very specific, the CHCO description lacks specific detail about characteristics and competencies and the CHCO’s role is articulated loosely as requiring “both technical and knowledge and leadership qualities” (MSPB, 2004). However, this role must be filled by a person who is also competent in budget management and possesses public policy expertise, because this role contributes to organizationwide strategy rather than day-to-day operations (MSPB, 2004). According to GAO, progress has been made in the areas of leadership, human capital planning, results-oriented culture, and talent management, but workforce planning remains a “risky area” due to the graying federal workforce and aforementioned training and development gaps.
In response to the need to replace retiring workers and to be better able to compete with private industry for the best talent, OPM has implemented programs to recruit qualified individuals from special populations within the workforce and has developed several prestigious professional development programs designed to attract and retain top civil servants. These programs provide top performers with a path to coveted leadership positions within the federal service and incorporate many recognitions designed to appeal to the most promising potential leaders, who also may be courted by contractors or other private organizations with clear career paths to executive positions.
RECRUITING PROGRAMS
OPM has developed multiple recruiting and professional development programs to attract and retain top talent. Some of these have focused on recruiting particular populations such as veterans and individuals with disabilities, while concurrent efforts have resulted in leadership development programs designed to attract and invest in talented individuals after they have joined the federal employment ranks. As will be detailed in later chapters, to compete for the most talented workers an employer must be able to offer a “value proposition” to potential employees. In other words, to attract talented workers, the federal government has had to develop recruiting practices that attract new employees based on the potential for career advancement and the value of merit over tenure.
Wounded Warrior Project
The U.S. House of Representatives began its Wounded Warrior Project in 2008 to focus on providing congressional job opportunities to wounded veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. The initial two-year fellowships are offered to veterans to provide them with experience with and exposure to the civilian workforce in an effort to capitalize on military training and experience and match personnel with civil service opportunities that make the most of their abilities. After completing the two-year Wounded Warrior fellowship program, participants are given the option of transition into full-time employment.
The program is designed to recruit specifically recently wounded veterans; applicants must have served since September 11, 2001, have a 30 percent or greater disability rating, and have served for fewer than 20 years (U.S. House of Representatives Chief Administrative Office, 2013). Many of the positions involve veterans affairs work with members of Congress.
Military Service Member Recruiting
One program aimed at capitalizing on the training investment made in military personnel is FedsHireVets.gov, a website dedicated to federal veteran employment opportunities (FedsHireVets, 2012). It provides information for veterans seeking work and for federal employers seeking to hire veterans. Educational materials are a unique feature of this website; the homepage provides information such as an events calendar of skill-building opportunities rather than just a page with a search field. A mock interview event, which involves a 30-minute videotaped interview with a professional playing the interviewer, is one example. The features on this site are designed to help applicants build skills taken for granted in civilian life but not in military life.
Workforce Recruitment Program
The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) is a recruitment and referral program that connects federal and private-sector employers across the nation to recent college graduates with disabilities. Managed jointly by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Defense, this program has successfully obtained the participation of many other federal agencies and sub-agencies.
In response to increasing federal employment of individuals with disabilities, OPM highlighted the WRP as a model strategy for recruitment and hiring. WRP recruiters from federal agencies are trained to conduct personal interviews with potential candidates at various university campuses. The information from these candidate interviews is compiled in a searchable database and serves as a pipeline into federal employment. It is the largest database of Schedule A candidates (“excepted service” appointment for persons with disabilities) available to federal HR specialists, equal employment opportunity specialists, and other hiring officials.2
Leadership Development Programs
In an effort to improve the federal government’s ability to compete for the best talent, OPM has developed programs that recognize merit over tenure in leadership training and promotion opportunities. These programs competitively award leadership development opportunities to successful civil service candidates according to criteria codeveloped by each agency and OPM (MSPB, 2004). Program qualifications were designed specifically to overcome the historical bias toward loyalty and tenure over performance and merit (OPM, 2001) and to provide a balance of power between agency and OPM (Clardy, 2008). Merit criteria and candidate recommendations are produced at the agency level, while OPM, which contributes a degree of merit-based objectivity as well as ensuring that hires fit the needs of the government as a whole, holds final hiring authority (OPM, 2010).
One of the most notable programs is the Senior Executive Service (SES), which was designed to provide merit-based training and development opportunities to high-potential civil service employees from multiple agencies across the federal government. It accepts candidates by nomination according to demonstrated accomplishments in five qualification areas:
• Ability to lead change
• Ability to lead people
• Results-driven performance
• Business acumen
• Ability to build coalitions. (OPM, 2010)
Following approval by an OPM-administered qualifications review board, candidates who complete the prescribed development program are eligible for noncompetitive appointments to any open SES opportunity. The development program, which includes a combination of formal and informational training, an individual training plan, and a pairing with an SES mentor, is administered over 18 to 24 months (OPM, 2010).
The federal government also supports a presidential management fellows program that competitively selects recent college graduates from a variety of academic disciplines to (1) serve either one federal agency or two agencies with a rotation option and (2) participate in a professional development program during a two-year appointment. Applicants from any discipline may apply, the process is competitive at every stage, and every candidate who successfully completes the program is offered a permanent position (OPM, 2010).
The merit-based qualifications for these two programs are outlined in Table 2.5.
| Merit-Based Professional Development Programs | Candidate Qualifications |
| Senior Executive Service |
|
| Presidential Management Fellows |
|
TABLE 2.5. Merit-Based Professional Development Programs
These programs have been implemented to address shortcomings in the federal government’s leadership development policies and practices, which were designed around tenure and technical skill rather than leadership capability and performance. It will take time to effectively replace these legacy values through leadership development programs. The federal government still hires entry-level workers en masse, training entire cohorts at a time in the interest of scale and efficiency in its training efforts (MSPB, 2004). As many as 70 percent of SES opportunities require at least five years of federal service from eligible candidates, meaning that incoming employees are not necessarily recognized for talent or cultivated according to their potential until they have satisfied tenure-based qualifications. However, under some circumstances (typically, cases of plant closure or “mission critical” roles), agencies are able to make quick hiring decisions and offer recruitment, relocation, and retention pay incentives (OPM, 2010).
RECRUITING RESOURCES
MSPB has likewise been working to develop and expand qualified recruiting resources to aid in merit-based hires. The aforementioned 2008 report to Congress revealed the findings from a new-hire survey regarding how new-hires learned of their opportunity. When asked how they first learned about their federal job, about 31 percent of respondents revealed that a friend or relative had recruited them. This figure is representative of the role that networking has played in federal recruiting. More formal recruiting methods, like USAJOBS, the official online source of information related to federal career opportunities, came in second with 20 percent of responses (MSPB, 2008). This understanding of the social nature of federal recruiting has been very important to OPM’s efforts to develop best practices that result in the best possible hires.
Social Media Networks and Federal Hiring
The federal government now uses social media to expand its recruiting reach in hopes of deepening its pool of applicants for job opportunities. Social media provide a variety of ways for users to be involved with different organizations (Waters et al., 2009), which helps bridge connection gaps if job seekers have no friends or family in government positions. This innovative approach brings to recruiting the tools people use in their daily lives, such as Facebook and Twitter. Before social media, potential candidates had to log into a federal job posting website and actively search job postings. If, and only if, the candidate managed to locate a posting, he or she could then apply online. A social media presence helps to leverage the existing referral network while making it easier for those without close ties within the government to become aware of opportunities as they become available.
Facebook is one of the world’s most popular social networking tools, with more than 82 million users. What was once a tool for friends to keep in touch with one another has evolved into a platform on which organizations can communicate with stakeholders, customers, and potential talent. Facebook fan pages allow conversations with current and potential clients about services, products, and upcoming events.
The federal government also uses fan pages to recruit potential employees. Two examples are FedsHireVets and USAJOBS. Fan pages offer recruiters the ability to reach candidates quickly and on a mass scale. Rather than depending solely on a website, which may require some initiative from a potential candidate to visit and search, fan pages promote active communication and allow the federal government to notify a large pool of potential candidates of opportunities quickly and easily. FedsHireVets’ fan page3 has more than 10,000 “likes,” representing people who are following the discussions and postings, and gives veterans a place to network and to share experiences with other veterans seeking federal employment. When potential applicants “like” a fan page, they receive updates to their “walls” or daily feeds, letting the information come to them rather than requiring a continual search for information. USAJOBS’ fan page,4 with over 35,000 “likes,” is dedicated to sharing information on finding employment with the federal government.
Social media tools also help the federal government share media such as webinars and webcasts on topics such as finding and applying for federal jobs. Webcasts and related resources offer jobseekers opportunities to sharpen their search skills; fan pages help jobseekers learn about these opportunities.
Federal recruiters also use Twitter. USAJOBS has a Twitter account with more than 8,500 followers. This account follows 15 different agencies, including programs focused on recruiting such as Combined Federal Campaign, Hiring Reform, IRS Recruitment, and FedsHireVets. This gives the account’s followers the ability to get information on jobs from these agencies, similar to Facebook fan pages, when an agency sends a tweet about a position or job-seeking skill. Thus, Twitter gives followers of USAJOBS the ability to receive information from other agencies, not just from USAJOBS.
The federal government has taken steps to alleviate the bulge in middle management mentioned in this chapter. Many workers who have held their positions for a lengthy time are set to retire, prompting new efforts in hiring thinking and practices. The many reports on improving hiring practices published in the past decade show the federal government is serious about evaluating its hiring practices.
Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts are new hiring-support tools that allow agencies to reach out to potential recruits, giving those without contacts in government employment much greater exposure to information about new positions, skills improvement, networking, and even local events. Networking and access to a broad array of information are very advantageous to those seeking employment with the federal government and help the government reach more individuals, thus increasing the chances of recruiting the best people. Social media also help manage applicants, since each fan page provides a link to its respective website. Such resources give applicants easy access to job postings, to information about federal agencies, to job qualification information, and to a community of others interested in civil service, as well as to a platform for asking important questions, sharing their interests, and learning from other applicants’ experiences.
1 The bill is available at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s1476#summary/libraryofcongress.
2 The WRP is available at https://wrp.gov.
3 The FedsHireVets fan page is available at www.facebook.com/pages/Feds-Hire-Vets/262183904582.
4 The USAJOBS fan page is available at www.facebook.com/USAJOBS.