The recruitment process is one of the activities that can have a critical impact on an organization's performance. The purpose of effective recruiting is to attract strong applicants prepared to perform successfully on the job.
Recruitment is an on-going process requiring attention and resources, even at times when the agency is not "actively" seeking to fill jobs. Recruitment strategies should be directly informed by workforce planning in order to target anticipated talent requirements. Posting a job opportunity announcement is not a substitute for the more focused targeted recruiting that agencies need to undertake to fill positions with highly qualified applicants. It is essential that agencies use all of the tools available to ensure a sufficient pool of qualified and diverse applicants.
Passive recruitment strategies have proven ineffective in attracting the best qualified and most diverse pool of candidates. Agencies with a proactive recruitment model focused/targeted on building talent pipelines, cultivating and maintaining partnerships, monitoring recruiting activities and sharing accountability will be more successful in securing top talent.
Effective recruitment in high-performing organizations occurs when management owns the process and human capital efforts are tied to the agency's mission and program goals. The agency's recruiting and workforce planning efforts must be based on the understanding of the talent challenges, hiring needs, required skills and competencies and a comprehensive, well integrated strategic human capital plan. Hiring priorities and overall recruitment strategies must be carefully analyzed, outlined, well developed, and approved in the workforce planning process.
Recruitment budgets in most agencies have remained steady or decreased. Agencies must ensure their recruitment teams have the necessary training, tools and support to maintain or increase the quality of hires while working within the constraints of limited resources. Important to developing a solid, efficient recruiting plan after first identifying, validating, and prioritizing workforce requirements is to determine where the highest payoff can be realized and targeting those areas/institutions first. Developing employment branding and identifying strategic recruitment activities in the up-front phase of the workforce planning process will better position agencies to achieve greater results recruiting high quality hires.
To assess and improve the way the Federal Government attracts the right talent, agencies should solicit feedback from new hires with no prior civil service experience to assess the reasons why they chose to work for the agency and their job search and hiring experience.
Back to Top
Assumptions
To assess and improve the way the Federal Government attracts the right talent, agencies should solicit feedback from new hires with no prior civil service experience to assess the reasons why they chose to work for the agency and their job search and hiring experience.
- Based on merit principles;
- A critical management function; and
- An ongoing process requiring constant management and adjustments based on changes in the organization's mission or resources.
In addition to the above assumptions, recruiters also assume that the recruitment will be conducted in compliance with statutes and regulations, and accord with the "Pledge to Applicants."
Recruiters can also assume the recruitment will receive strong commitment and support from senior-level officials and managers in the recruiting process at all levels.
Finally, recruiters can assume that the:
- Agency's human capital initiatives include strategies to attract, recruit, develop, and retain a diverse workforce;
- Workforce Plan was developed and up-front planning activities were conducted;
- Agency promotes their mission and career opportunities to potential applicants at all times, not just when filling jobs; and
- Full-time Equivalent (FTE) allocations and recruitment initiatives are aligned with the agency's strategic priorities and performance budget, and are funded within existing budgetary guidelines.
Back to Top
Challenges
There are several challenges recruiters will face when undertaking the elements involved in recruitment. These will often include:
- Resource constraints for recruiting activities (e.g., staff);
- Talent shortages in the job market and increased competition across Federal agencies for highly-qualified talent;
- Shortages of highly-skilled human resource practitioners;
- Existing technology/automation not always being used effectively, especially for tracking and reporting; and
- Inattention to the recruiting process optimization due to lack of planning, staff, training, and resources.
Back to Top
Metrics
There are several metrics which can be used to measure the success of this component. The following measures are the essential metrics that agencies need to report on in order to meet the requirements of their annual Human Capital Management Report (HCMR). These include:
- The percent of applicants reporting hearing about the job from agency recruitment efforts (sources include the applicant survey (USAJOBS and/or agency survey)); and
- The percent of new employees reporting hearing about the job from agency recruitment efforts (source: agency’s New Hire Survey).
Back to Top