Recruitment and selection in public service

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Recruitment and selection in public service

• Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD
• Chair in Public Management
• University of Economics in Katowice

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Agenda

• Precursors to Successful Recruitment and
  Selection
• The civil service staffing process (recruitment
  and selection)
• Public service motivation
• Trends in recruitment and selection
• Best practices in improving recruitment selection
  process

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Definition

• Recruitment can be defined as
• all activities directed towards locating
  potential employees
• the attraction of applications from suitable
  applicants.
• The aim of recruitment is to get the best person
  suited to the job based on objective criteria for
  a particular job

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Why is recruitment and selection so important?

• Reversing the Erosion of the Public Service Ethic
• Personnel has long been perceived (and even
  defined) in terms of control, rather than service
  to the broader organization
• Civic Culture and Tradition
• Sound recruitment and selection practices also
  depend on complementary HRM systems

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Why is recruitment and selection so important?
Costs of mistakes engaging incompetent,
underqualified, unmotivated employees employing
another person requires repeating the process and
generates costs
Element of PR strategy
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Rules of recrutiment and selection

• Commonality
• Openess
• Competitiveness
• Legality
• Non-discrimination
• Constancy of criteria
• Neutrality
• Objectivism
• Transparency
• Personal data security
• Acting without delay

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The civil service staffing process
Planning and approval for staffing
Position announcement
Recruitment
Selection of recruitment strategies
Selection of tests
Screen, interview, and checks (reference and
other)
Selection
Final selection / Negotiate and hire
Postselection considerations
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Employer recruitment

• Elements influencing effectiveness of
  recruitment
• The breadth and quality of the process
• The size of the labour pool and the location of
  jobs
• Offered pay and benefits
• Job quality and requirements of the position
• Organizational image

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Applicants perspective

• Avoiding cold, unthoughtful and dilatory
  treatment
• Timing to minimize anxiety
• Feedback to optimize scarce job search resources
• Information that makes distinctions
• Enthusiastic, informative, and credible
  representatives

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Planning and approval

• Taking review of the need for the position to
  take into account the following
• strategic and operational plans for the
  organization
• funding
• current staffing structure
• targets for diverse staffing profiles across all
  levels
• current staffing and skill levels
• anticipations in terms of new positions,
  restructured positions, eliminated positions
• how the needs for the position might best be met

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Planning and approval

• Labour market survey
• trends in terms of availability, salaries,
  education levels

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Position announcement
Title and agency affiliation Salary
range Description of duties and
responsibilities Minimum qualifications Special
conditions Application procedures Equal
opportunity employment Classification Career
potential Special benefits Time and place of
applications
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Capabilities

• Technical skills knowledge and abilities
  connected with particular job position
• policy development and analysis,
• improved systems for monitoring and evaluation
  and systems to improve financial management
• planning,
• budgeting
• reporting.
• Other criteria
• Diversity and broad representation of minority
  and protected class
• PSM

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Manager Ministerial and Parliamentary Services
(516394)

• Applications Close Friday, 12 September 2008.
• Salary 76,007 per annum.
• Community and Health Services (Public Sector)
  Award, Administrative and Clerical Stream Level
  10.
• Permanent full-time day work.
• Location Hobart.
• Enquiries to Sharon Trueman, Department of Health
  and Human Services, phone [phone], email
  sharon.trueman_at_dhhs.tas.gov.au.
• You are encouraged to apply online (below) or
  forward your hard copy application quoting the
  vacancy number to Recruitment Services, Human
  Resources, Department of Health and Human
  Services, GPO Box 125, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001.

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• Duties
• Manage the operations of the Ministerial and
  Parliamentary Services function including
  provision of high level co-ordination,
  information and advice services to the Department
  and to the Minister including the timely
  preparation and provision of high quality
  correspondence, briefings, speeches and other
  documents for and on behalf of the Minister.

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• Desirable Requirements
• High level analytical, conceptual, strategic,
  research and creative skills and the ability to
  understand the political, social and
  organisational environment in the context of the
  health and human services sector
• identify relevant issues and priorities and make
  sound judgements
• high level interpersonal skills including written
  and oral communication skills, negotiation and
  conflict resolution skills
• the ability to develop, manage and maintain
  collaborative stakeholder and client networks
  and to work collaboratively with senior
  executives and peers to achieve common goals and
  objectives.

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Who should work in public service?
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Public service motivation

• attraction to policymaking
• commitment to the public interest
• social justice
• civic duty
• compassion
• self-sacrifice

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Analysis Candidates

• Who is the ideal candidate for the agency?
• What has attracted qualified candidates to the
  agency?
• How did those qualified candidates learn about
  openings?
• Why is the pool of qualified candidates
  shrinking?
• What is the value system of the new generation
  and how can the agency package itself to show
  potential candidates that the agency has what
  they desire?

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Recruitment strategies

• Job posting
• Electronic posting
• Personal contact recruitment
• Recruitment by mail
• Head-hunting
• Noncompetive recruitment
• Develop a recruiting DVD

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Recruitment strategies Partnerships
University/college/high school communications,
art and computer science programs
Student Interns
Professional production companies and advertising
agencies
Other city departments or agencies to advertise
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Analysis recruitment strategies

• What has worked or not worked in terms of
  recruitment strategies and advertising in the
  past?
• Are signing bonuses or other incentives
  important?
• How can current employees be ambassadors for the
  agency and help recruit qualified candidates?
• What recruitment materials does the agency
  already have and how current are they?
• Does the agency have a recruitment website and
  how many hits is it generating?
• Has the agency used paid advertisement in the
  past and, if so, what value did it ad to the
  recruitment process?
• What strategies is the agency using to attract
  the interest of grade school up to high school
  students?

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Selection criteria

• Electoral popularity policy-making jobs
• Patronage designating officials or employees
  without a requirement for a formalized
  application process
• Merit based-system using processes that analyze
  job competencies and require open applicaton
  procedures
• Seniority internal candidates provides sense
  loyalty
• Representativeness minorities should get
  positions in areas of underrepresentation

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Selection criteria

• Selection criteria should be expressed in terms
  of
• Essential requirements that are critical to
  successful performance in the position without
  which a person could not be appointed and
• Desirable requirements that would enable the
  person to perform at a higher level in the
  position, but without which the person could
  still be appointed.
• The total number of essential and desirable
  criteria shall not exceed 10.

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Selection criteria

• Selection criteria shall
• be written in simple and clear language
• be specific and not overlapping or repetitive
• be based on the real requirements of the
  position
• not be excessive in number (i.e. not more than 10
  in total)
• not discriminate unlawfully either directly or
  indirectly against applicants
• not favour either internal or external
  applicants and
• be consistent with the classification standards
  of the position.

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Screening

• Retention Survey found that nationally small
  agencies took an average of 6.84 weeks to conduct
  the screening processes, while large agencies
  took an average of 11.51 weeks (U.S. Department
  of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Hiring
  and Keeping Police Officers)
• GOAL reduce this time so that valuable
  candidates are still available

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Screening
Discriminating among the qualified and the
unqualified
Identifying most highly qualified candidates
Screening particular candidates results in
offering position to the best candidate
Confirming the qualifications and ability of the
chosen candidate it may include the first period
of employment
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Principles of the screening

• A fair set of screening criteria
• The criteria must be in line with the job content
  and appointment as well as advertised
  requirements
• Applicants should be clear on the criteria that
  apply
• The criteria should apply to all applicants in a
  consistent manner
• Any waivers should be fully motivated and
  approved
• Declarations should be made of whether any
  candidate is related to or friends of an official
  in the component where the vacancy exists
• The various activities of the screening process
  should be documented and put on record

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Initial reviewing and testing

• Education and experience evaluations
• Letters of recommendation
• Self-assessment
• General aptitude and trait test
• Performance test for specific jobs

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Reducing the pool interview

• Plan how it should proceed persons, place, roles
• Prepare list of written questions asked of all
  candidates
• Use a work sample as part of the process
• Critique or evaluate sth
• Solve a problem
• Deliver oral presentation, etc
• Explain basic facts about the position
• Use the job description and advertisement guides
  to ensure that the focus is on essential job
  functions

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Reducing the pool interview

• Set up interviews in private job-settings where
  distractions are unlikely
• Concentrate on listening to applicants answers
  and take notes during the interview
• Be careful that no oral commitments or
  suggestions about employment prospects are made
• Complete your evaluation notes when impressions
  are fresh

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Reducing the pool interview

• Subjects to Avoid
• Marital status
• Children and other dependants
• Religion
• Politics
• Ethnic origins

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Final selection

• 1. Keep a list of all applicants considered for
  final selection.
• 2.Identify fair selection criteria for the final
  selection phase.
• 3.Ensure that the criteria are in line with the
  advertised requirements as well as the job
  content.
• 4. Ensure that each selection committee member is
  provided with all the relevant information
  pertaining to each short-listed applicant.

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Final selection

• 5. Ensure that the interviews are conducted in a
  fair and effective manner and that each candidate
  is weighed comprehensively against the
  requirements as advertised.
• 6. Ensure that a comprehensive motivation is
  compiled in respect of all the applicants
  interviewed.
• 7. Ensure that all applicants are informed about
  the outcome of the final selection phase.
• 8. Ensure that all relevant information is put on
  record.

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Closing selection

• Closing selection
• Phone call and further clarification
• Letter of intent
• Completing employment forms
• Protocols may be available for intetested
  individuals
• Number of candidates
• Names, surenames and adresses of 5 top candidates
• Recruitment and selection criteria
• Justification of the decision

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Trends in recruitment and selection

• Procedural Changes
• Eliminating arbitrary rules and regulations that
  restrict the choices of hiring managers and
  supervisors
• Adopting flexible and appealing hiring
  procedures.
• Screening applicants quickly
• Validating entry requirements and examinations.
• Instituting worker-friendly personnel policies,
• Creating more flexible job descriptions.

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Trends in recruitment and selection

• Improvements to the Recruitment and Selection
  Process
• The decentralization movement "New Public
  Management" is known in many quarters as
  devolution, often characterized by the
  decentralization of HR responsibility.
• Aggressive outreach efforts
• Current employees as recruiters

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Trends in recruitment and selection

• Use of Technology
• Many scholars believe that technology will be the
  most notable HRM trend of the next few decades
• Many large public organizations use computer
  bulletin boards and electronic mail to improve
  recruitment process
• Managers can have online access to applicants'
  test scores, qualifications and contact
  information
• Software programs to administer online
  examinations, track applicants, match resumes
  with skill sets, expedite background checks, and
  shepherd job candidates through a paperless
  staffing process

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Best practices

• National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Problem
• A review of the hiring practices found that job
  announcements were filled with jargon, lots of
  facts and information, and extensive list of job
  duties which made it difficult to identify major
  features and selling points of the job.
• Recruitment was passive NNSA waited for
  applicants to apply.

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• Makeover
• A new look to convey the importance and
  excitement of their positions, as well as why
  they were a great place to work
• Added photos to depict the unique work
  environment at NNSA.
• Implemented an internet-based targeted
  recruitment strategy to identify potential
  candidates from job boards and other locations
• They sent recruiters to fifteen universities in
  the South and West to recruit interns with an
  emphasis on diversity
• The results produced 28 qualified candidates, up
  from three unqualified candidates in the previous
  recruitment process 30 highly qualified
  interns

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Best practices

• U.S. Department of Education
• Problem
• The hiring process took too long and did not
  always deliver qualified candidates.
• Upon mapping out the hiring process, it was
  discovered that there were discrete steps with
  over 45 handoffs between different managers,
  administrative officers and HR specialists.
• Managers were disengaged from the hiring process.
  Job descriptions were problematic. When managers
  could not find good candidates they had a
  tendency to sit on the list, until ultimately it
  was re-posted.

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• Makeover
• The hiring process was streamlined by eliminating
  redundancies and unnecessary steps resulting in a
  reduction of more than half of the stepsdown to
  53.
• The automated process for assessing applicants
  has been overhauled and questions are more
  closely aligned with skills needed to be
  successful on the job.
• The process of change has not been easy and has
  taken a commitment of time and effort on the part
  of leaders, HR, managers and others involved in
  the hiring process.

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Best practices

• Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services
• Problem
• Federal law changed requiring the agency to add
  500 new positions. The length of time to complete
  the hiring process was long and the quality of
  candidates was lacking.
• The automated staffing system in place was
  believed to be inadequate to meet the demands of
  the hiring needs. The agency wanted top talent
  and a faster process.

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• Makeover
• The agency started with an end-to-end mapping
  of the hiring process and identified both short
  and long term fixes. They used focus groups to
  document the process, identify roles and
  responsibilities, and assess obstacles.
• Through the process the agency eventually reduced
  the number of steps in the hiring process by more
  than twenty percent.
• Other key things they did included better
  marketing positions using visually appealing,
  plain-English announcements, proactively
  targeting qualified candidates via internet,
  resume databases and built tools to effectively
  screen applicants to ensure they were a good fit
  for the position.
• They eventually assigned responsibility for the
  process to one person at the executive level.

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10 golden rules of recruitment and selection

• Develop a Recruitment Plan
• Conduct Research
• Personalize the Recruitment Process
• Select and Train the Right People as Recruiters
• Build Strong Partnerships
• Develop an Employee Referral Program
• Improve the Selection Process
• Develop an Advertising Plan
• Develop an Internet Presence
• Employ Effective Recruitment Strategies

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• Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD
• Chair in Public Management
• University of Economics in Katowice
• aausten_at_ekonom.ae.katowice.pl