Recruitment and Selection (Chapter 5) Notes com (1)

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Recruitment and Selection

Chapter 4

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Introduction

� Human resource program must be able toidentify, recruit and acquire qualified people ableto develop new skills

� Success in acquiring and retaining needed HR inpublic sector depends on several factors

� Public sector personnel must develop

recruitment and selection techniques that ± Take management point of view

± Are in conformance with merit principle, etc

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Recruitment: Finding & Attracting

Qualified Candidates

� Three approached to overcoming governmentproblems in recruiting

± Taking advantage of governments potential to

compete for minorities and women

± Reducing public employers dependence onoutside sources

± Improving the image of public service

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Recruitment of Women & Minorities

� Public sector has led the way in breaking down

barriers

� Hudson Initiative recommended the

development of recruitment programs geared to

the changing demographics

� OPM work with federal agencies to identify job

opportunities and institutions that offer trainingto prepare Hispanics qualify for jobs



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Investment in Continuous Training

� Rapid social and technological change

� New and different skills from outside the

organization� Add internal recruitment

± Upgrading and changing the skill profile

�

Tuition reimbursement� OPM initiatives designed to strengthen HR

development efforts

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Recruiting College Graduates

� Demand for degrees will increase and will

outweigh supply.

� OPM regional centers had information available

on positions available within that region

� Career America Federal Job Opportunities Board

(computer)

� Computerized job information kiosks� World Wide Web nationwide opportunities

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Public Sector Problems

� It does not invest in campus recruitment. Often its

limited and sporadic to be effective

� Students did not get enough information on jobs

� Felt that jobs were unavailable and that agencies did

not value students as potential employees

� Placement offices had outdated information

� Believed that contacting government was frustratingand lengthy process



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Federal Recruitment One-Stop

Initiative� Job seekers applied for positions & completed

preliminary examinations on line

� Job seekers able to build web-based resumes and

store them

� Provides application tips and tools (Spanish)

� Agencies are authorized to develop & operate

their own website� Many agencies still require applicants to mail, fax

or email applications

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Campus Visits and Presentations

� Direct contact remains an important recruitment

strategy for certain positions

� Brochures, pre-recorded messages and recruiting

video not effective

� Recruiting fair not likely to draw top candidates

� College placement centers now have contact

person to call for information

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Student Hiring Programs

� Student Educational Employment Program

± Offers federal employment opportunities

± Two components: Student Temporary Employment

Program (STEP) & Student Career Experience Program

(SCEP)

� Presidential Management Fellowship Program

(I

nternships) ± Given challenging assignments: rotational

responsibilities, mentoring, and attendance in

development seminars

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Changing the Image of Public

Employment� Not a good image is held by applicants ± Many see government as an environment where its next to

impossible to get things done

± Unlikely to use their full talents

± Infested with specialists in red tape ± Dreary working conditions

� Public employers need to come up with strategies tochange such a view ±

Information and education programs ± Building direct contacts with public service through

internships and co-op programs

± Need to describe public service & its functions in positiveterms

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Administration of Recruitment

� Successful programs share certain characteristics

± Top level management must actively support & participatein planning, implementation and evaluation phases

± Recruitment activity should be decentralized so that line

managers are directly involved and have considerableauthority to carry out policy

± Line managers must be involved in design andimplementation of strategies

± Recruiters must have necessary resources and technical

support, be well trained and fully informed

± Appropriate media and technologies should be availablefor support



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Selection: Methods, Issues & Problems

� The hallmark of the first reform movement was its

focus on the methods used to select & determine

promotions

� Traditional merit systems emphasize politicalneutrality and objectivity in the selection process

� Civil service selection procedures stress measuring a

candidates ability to perform

� Tests may involve some combination of exams



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Test Validity

� A valid test measures only what is intended tomeasure

� Tests must be reliable and consistent

± Reliability means that a person who takes a testtwice will score about the same

� Validation methods

±

Criterion related validity ± Construct validity

± Content validity



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Criterion Related Validity

� Predictive test scores of those hired are

correlated with subsequent performance

measures

� Concurrent involves administering aproposed new test to an incumbent and

comparing the score to their performance



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Content Validity

� Established when the content of a test closely

matches the content of a job

± Ask about knowledge actually acquired

± Attractive to employers

± Most commonly used method



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Validity and EEO

� Selection tests should discriminate among job

applicants only on basis of relative ability to

perform the job

� In Griggs, the Supreme Court ruled that if a

selection test had an adverse impact as to a

protected area, and its validity has not been

established, its use is unlawful



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Uniform Guidelines

� Given great deference by the Courts

� The courts make final determinations abouttest validity requirements and whether or not

employer has met them

� While seen as unsound, unclear and requiringexcessive recordkeeping, efforts to change

them has met strong opposition� Meeting the full requirement of the guidelines

is a challenge to public employers



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Minimum Qualifications

� Purpose is to screen out not able to do job

� Key standard for minimum qualifications is that theyare actually essential to job performance and notarbitrarily to deny job

� Minimum qualifications must be valid

� Trend is to remove requirements that cannot bevalidated and to add flexibility by allowingsubstitution up to a point, by adding or any

equivalent combination� Some requirements are a matter of law or social

policy



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Previous Training and Experience

� Maybe used in combination with written or oral

examination to generate a more complete evaluation

as to KSA

� Written tests may not exist or may be redundant asthey passed other tests

� Evaluation of training and experience, plus an oral

exam is a combination commonly found

� The evaluation is based on a thorough understanding

of KSA (Job Element Method)



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Written Tests

� Used extensively in public sector

� May be constructed or purchased

�Multiple choice tests are most common

� Written tests have problems associated with

validity and adverse impact

�

The MSPB found the OPM new written test tobe an efficient and inexpensive way to hire a

large number. However the GAO concluded

that was not the case



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GAOs Position on ACWA

� Applicants who lost interest in federal

employment failed to respond

�

Agencies were failing to meet AA goals� Most applicants found their experience with

the ACWA frustrating (85%)

�

50+ of respondents thought they had a goodchance of getting a job after getting their

score. The numbers show otherwise



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Alternatives to ACWA

� Candidates with 3.5+ GPA not required to take test

� Veterans able to be hired noncompetitively

� Temporary employees may be hired up to four years

without OPM approval� Positions may be filled through reassignment,

transfers, reinstatements and promotions into ACWApositions without taking or passing the ACWA

� OPM has decided to make the process and standingon register optional



Performance Tests

� Asks the applicant to perform essential tasks

related to job performance

� By comparison, they yield very direct measures of

how candidates performs on a series of jobelements

� High face validity, job related fair & objective

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Oral Examinations

� Interview refers to meeting a hiring authority

� Oral examination refers to a question and answer

to measure qualifications

�Weight and influence assigned to the results will varygiven the importance of the factors

� Used most extensively for higher level positions

� Must be well planned in terms of behaviors and

responses to be observed, standards to be applied

and procedure used

� Examiners should record their observations

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The Group Oral Performance

(Assessment) Test� Candidates are assembled in small groups and a topic

is assigned for discussion

� Candidates are evaluated as to their performance and

interaction with other members

� Advocates argue that it shows how well candidates

think on their feet

�Critics point out the oral is staged and the membersmay not behave normally

� Reliability & validity concerns

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Background Investigations

� Routine reference checks done by mail &

telephone or by visit

� Most intensive & comprehensive are done for

law enforcement

� Where sensitive or secrets are involved,

loyalty and security checks are done

� Limited resources & time may impact

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Probationary Period

� Last stage of the screening process

� Tests alone may not actually screen out those

lacking ability, motivation, or work habits needed

� Gives supervisors a chance to evaluate new

employees & to approve satisfactory employees

for permanent status

�

Probationary employee usually do not haveappeal rights

� Its not treated as part of selection process

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List of Eligibles and Related Issues

� Applicants are ranked in order of their

composite examination scores

� Names are certified from the list in order of

their score from the list

� Two kinds of procedures using the list

± Register hiring uses standing lists

± Case examining produces a list

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Rule of Three

� May protect merit system & provide somediscretion

� Advocates argue that more names would risk

bias and partisanship� Rule of three and merit based hiring

� Rule of three and veterans preference not in best

interest of managers or candidates� Recommended selection from an adequate

number

� Suggested use of category31



The Uneasy Relationship Between

Competitiveness, Validity and EEO

� The chronic complaint about merit systems is that

they are slow

� PACE test had adverse effect on minorities

� Carter entered into a consent decree

� OPM had gone to great lengths to establish its

validity

� Five constructs were too general

� Carter consent decree was modified by

Reagan32



Schedule B Authority

� Applies to positions where it is not practical to

hold competitive examination

� Agencies are allowed to hire people without

competitive exams if no qualified internalcandidates

� Reagan Administration ended PACE and returned

to Schedule B ± No alternative written tests

± Reductions in federal hiring rates

± Cost of developing validated examinations

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Schedule B

� Schedule B used to decentralize hiring

� Difficulty with protection, quality control of hiring

practices, and access by applicants

� OPM ordered to stop using Schedule B� OPM proposed the ACWA exams covering seven

occupational categories

� The test was less than satisfactory

� Supplanted by a variety of decentralized recruitment

& selection procedures

� OPM balanced flexibility and oversight/control

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Conclusion

� The move toward deregulated & management

centered HR approach responds to

± strong political pressures to reform

± public dissatisfaction with government

performance

± management role that stresses flexibility and

accountability for results� Decentralization may not have adequate

oversight

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Recruitment and Selection (Chapter 5) Notes com (1)