A. Austen II Recruitment and selection popr

Recruitment and selection in public service Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD Chair in Public Management... • Public service motivation• Trends in recruitment and selection • Best practices in imp

Recruitment and selection

in public service

Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD

Chair in Public Management

• Public service motivation

• Trends in recruitment and selection

• Best practices in improving recruitment selection process

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

 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

Why is recruitment and selection so important?

person requires repeating

the process and

Element of PR

strategy

 Personal data security

 Acting without delay

The civil service staffing

process

Planning and approval for staffing

Position announcementSelection of recruitment strategies

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

Applicant’s 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

Planning and approval

1 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

Planning and approval

availability, salaries,

education levels

 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;

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.

 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

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

Who should work in public

service?

Public service motives

Rational  Participation in the process of policy

convinction about its social importance

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?

Other city

departments or

agencies to

advertise

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?

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

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

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

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

Confirming the qualifications and ability

Screening particular candidates;

results in offering position to the best candidate

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

Initial reviewing and testing

 Education and experience

Reducing the pool: interview

1 Plan how it should proceed: persons, place,

 Deliver oral presentation, etc

4 Explain basic facts about the position

5 Use the job description and advertisement

guides to ensure that the focus is on essential job functions

Reducing the pool: interview

6 Set up interviews in private

job-settings where distractions

are unlikely

7 Concentrate on listening to

applicant’s answers and take

notes during the interview

8 Be careful that no oral commitments or

suggestions about employment prospects are

made

9 Complete your evaluation notes when

impressions are fresh

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

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.

Closing selection Closing selection

1 Phone call and further clarification

2 Letter of intent

3 Completing employment forms

4 Protocols may be available for intetested individuals

5 Number of candidates

6 Names, surenames and adresses of 5 top candidates

7 Recruitment and selection criteria

8 Justification of the decision

 Adopting flexible and appealing hiring procedures.

 Screening applicants quickly

 Validating entry requirements and examinations

 Instituting worker-friendly personnel policies,

 Creating more flexible job descriptions

Trends in recruitment and

decentralization of HR responsibility

 Aggressive outreach efforts

 Current employees as recruiters

 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

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

• 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

• 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,

Makeover:

• The hiring process was streamlined by eliminating

redundancies and unnecessary steps resulting in a

• 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.

• The automated staffing system in place was believed

to be inadequate to meet the demands of the hiring

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.

10 golden rules of recruitment

and selection

1.Develop a Recruitment Plan

2.Conduct Research

3.Personalize the Recruitment Process

4.Select and Train the Right People as

Recruiters

5.Build Strong Partnerships

6.Develop an Employee Referral Program

7.Improve the Selection Process

8.Develop an Advertising Plan

9.Develop an Internet Presence

Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD

Chair in Public Management

University of Economics in Katowice

aausten@ekonom.ae.katowice.pl