Recent hires give federal job process thumbs-up

Newly hired federal employees give the government's job application process generally positive reviews, but there's plenty of room for improvement in the way agencies treat job seekers, according to a new report from the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Office of Personnel Management delegated hiring authority to agencies in 1996. Since then, agencies have been responsible for reviewing the qualifications of outside job applicants. MSPB reviewed the new process in an August 1999 report. As a follow-up, the agency recently surveyed new white-collar competitive service hires on their impressions of their experiences with the federal hiring system.

Overall, the 750 respondents thought getting hired in the civil service was a relatively simple process. Most were referred to their jobs by friends and family, indicating that they likely had help with their applications. Complaints about the process largely focused on customer service issues, such as timeliness and staff friendliness.

MSPB did not interview applicants who were not selected for jobs.

"Where … flaws in the hiring process exist, they can severely and negatively affect the government's ability to attract and select the highly qualified and motivated workers that it needs," the report said.

Respondents reported frustration from inadequate feedback regarding the status of their applications and unexplained delays in scheduling interviews and beginning new jobs. They also complained about unhelpful office staff who were unable to answer basic questions about benefits.

Agencies need to address these problems if they want to remain an attractive potential employer, the report said. Simple things such as establishing an e-mail address for application status questions or creating an automated tracking system to provide status updates would go a long way towards improving recruitment, the report said.

While most of the new hires had access to the Internet, only 53 percent knew that they could find federal job vacancies online. Even if applicants find the job postings, often they cannot understand them, the report said. Government lingo needs to be defined so that users unfamiliar with jargon such as "term appointment" aren't put off, MSPB said.

"In short, government's Internet job sites should be geared towards applicants who are not well versed in the federal hiring process," the report said.