Managers at Army laboratories will be able to hire employees more quickly under an experiment announced by the Office of Personnel Management last week.
The experiment will take place under a 1994 law that allows OPM to carry out demonstration projects to test new personnel management concepts. Several of these experiments are being conducted at Army science and technology laboratories across the nation.
An OPM query of Army managers at test laboratories showed that, more than anything, managers wished they could speed up the hiring process and be allowed to hire candidates for scientific and technical positions more quickly.
"The Army laboratories require a process which will allow for the rapid filling of vacancies, is less labor intensive, and is responsive to their needs," OPM said.
As a result, Army managers will test new ways to hire job candidates. Under traditional OPM regulations, managers must use the "rule of three," which requires that the person hired be among the top three job candidates sent to the hiring manager. If none of the three are selected, then the entire hiring process must start over from the beginning.
But the demonstration project eliminates the "rule of three" in favor of sorting eligible candidates into quality groups ranked by a numerical score. Points are issued to candidates based on their qualifications. Those scoring above 70 are considered basically qualified. Those with scores 80 and above are highly qualified. Candidates scoring 90 and above are labeled superior.
Supervisors can select anyone in the superior group, and the group's size is determined only by the number of qualified applicants. If there are not enough candidates in the highest group, the next lowest group members will be referred, "until a selection is made or the qualified pool is exhausted," the OPM regulations state. Veterans' preferences remain intact under the revised system.
Another part of the experiment will speed up the hiring process for scientific and engineering positions at the Army labs. Candidate pools are often very small for such technical positions, so the new rule allows managers to skip through much of the hiring process if someone has the necessary professional or educational background and a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher. Such streamlining also allows Army managers to make job offers to students while on campus.
The Clinton administration's 1999 civil service reform discussion paper includes proposals for improving staffing flexibilities similar to those being tested by the Army lab demonstration projects.
OPM announced the Army plan in the Mar. 11 Federal Register.
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