Magazine

Don't Get Burned

August 1, 2001

ith 60,000 federal employees retiring every year this decade, many federal agencies will be doing far more recruiting and hiring than they did during the downsizing years of the 1990s. Here are lessons fire managers learned as they tried to hire more than 6,000 firefighters in eight months:

Coordinate. The Forest Service reduced confusion by centralizing its hiring efforts, but with five agencies hiring simultaneously and separately from the same pool of qualified candidates, managers still wound up duplicating effort.
Automate. Hiring thousands of people in a short period requires automated systems, but be prepared: Technology generally doesn't work perfectly the first time it's used.
Staff up. Big hiring efforts require a sufficient human resources staff to process new hires. Depleted HR offices made it tough for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to meet hiring goals.
Communicate. Some firefighters complained that they didn't know the status of their applications for months. They lined up other jobs in the meantime.
Evaluate. Clear away barriers to assessing the effectiveness of hiring efforts. Poor tracking systems prevent the Forest Service and Interior Department from accurately counting their firefighters in order to measure the success of their recruitment campaigns.

NEXT STORY: Government Executive July 2001 Vol.33, No.9