People People

Every 10 years, the Census Bureau performs a herculean task that, as the U.S. population grows and technology advances, becomes more complicated. While the bureau's mission is unique among federal departments, it faces the same challenges associated with hiring, pay and benefits, and workforce management. But the Census Bureau generally has much less time to devise an effective game plan to accomplish its goals -- making its experiences and strategies especially relevant to the rest of the federal government.

For instance, the Census Bureau next year plans to hire more than 1 million people throughout the 50 states to conduct the 2010 census. Those workers will be temporary full- and part-time employees, working an average of four to six weeks. While they do not receive the full benefits available to most government workers, in 2000 the bureau began analyzing local salaries to ensure competitive wages. Salaries now range from $10 to $25 per hour, depending on location. In preparation for conducting the census, the bureau already has hired about 150,000 canvassers to verify address information across the country is correct.

Census, however, needs to hire folks who know the local culture, languages and neighborhoods in which they're assigned -- job qualifications that intelligence agencies, as well as the Defense and State departments, find especially valuable. "The effort for recruiting is very local," said Marilia Matos, associate director of field operations for the Census Bureau. "It's very important that we hire people where they live, because it's very important that they are accepted by their community."

To meet this challenge, the bureau is taking a decentralized approach. It already has brought on hundreds of hiring managers to work in local offices -- managers who are from the area where they will be working and are familiar with it.

"We can't throw a wide net," said Wendy Button, the bureau's chief of decennial recruiting. "We hire people based on where they live." Button acknowledged that there are sparsely populated areas where it is difficult for the government to recruit, adding the bureau has "to be more surgical in how we go out and recruit."

Census uses a computer system to map the location of job applicants as soon as they apply, so it knows where to focus its recruiting efforts.

As for the hiring process itself, the bureau is taking a somewhat more streamlined approach than do other agencies. Census soon will launch a Web site that includes a video tutorial of the job, so applicants have a better sense of the position's responsibilities. Matos and Button said candidates who are not a good match for the position often will take themselves out of the running, which can save hiring managers a lot of work.

"In my experience, once you explain what the job is, people self-select themselves out," Matos said. "Once they have one day of practice, we can discern whether or not they will be successful."

The local hiring office will select final applicants from a pool of those who scored highly on the application exam. The bureau invites more applicants than necessary to a training session, assuming many will drop out voluntarily after learning more about the job requirements.

Bureau officials also are expecting technology to play an even larger role in the 2020 census, which is already in the preliminary planning stages. But Matos maintained that for an effort like the census -- which relies on person-to-person interaction and intimate knowledge of cities, towns and villages -- people are the key.

"I do feel very strongly, you need to use people to get people," she said.