Managing Federal 

Recruitment: 

Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 

A Report to the President and the 

Congress of the United States by the 

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 


MANAGING FEDERAL


RECRUITMENT:


Issues, Insights, and Illustrations


A REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES BY THE 

U.S. MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD 

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board


Neil A. G. McPhie, Acting Chairman 

Susanne T. Marshall, Member 

Office of Policy and Evaluation 

Director 

Steve Nelson 

Deputy Director 

John Crum, Ph.D. 

Project Manager 

Laura Shugrue 

Project Analysts 

Jamie J. Carlyle, Ph.D. 

Karen K. Gard 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Why Is Recruitment So Important Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

The Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Governmentwide Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Nature of Recruitment Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Recruitment Roles and Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Recruitment Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Recruitment Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Diversity Outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Recruitment Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Financial Incentives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Measuring Recruitment Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Office of Personnel Management Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Governmentwide Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Length and Complexity of Hiring Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Image of Federal Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Competition Among Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Budget Constraints and Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Perceptions of Noncompetitive Salaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Labor Market Shortages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Obstacles to Entry-Level Hiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Human Resources Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Conclusions and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Agency Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Obtain Management Support and Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Plan for Recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Improve Marketing Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Use the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Build Relationships With Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Target Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Streamline the Hiring Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Use Available Flexibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Use Resources Strategically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Build a Recruitment Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Partner and Leverage Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Points of Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


Background


T he Federal Government’s human capital is its most important asset. 

Agencies cannot accomplish their missions without the right people 

with the right skills in the right jobs at the right time. Recruitment is 

critical to meeting this goal. This report explores the practices agencies use to 

recruit a highly qualified, diverse workforce; presents recommendations for 

agencies to consider in developing and improving recruitment programs; and 

provides illustrations of how some agencies have used these approaches to address 

their recruitment challenges. Our data indicate that it is possible for the Federal 

Government to successfully compete for talent; it just has to be proactive and 

creative in its approach to recruitment. 

When the Federal Government downsized its workforce during the 1990s, it 

curtailed most new hiring. As a result, many agencies also downsized their 

recruitment programs. In recent years, however, agencies have started to increase 

hiring and rebuild recruitment programs. They have done this for a variety of 

reasons, including preparing for increased retirements and replacing skills lost 

during downsizing. At the same time, greater emphasis is being placed on changing 

skill sets and staff size to meet evolving mission requirements, to increase diversity, 

and to target hard-to-fill occupations. 

However, there is growing concern about the Government’s ability to compete with 

the private sector and other public sectors. To remain competitive in an 

environment where private sector employers often offer higher salaries, the 

Government must employ innovative recruitment approaches that meet its mission 

needs and also address the needs of the workforce and market the Government’s 

strengths as an employer. The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) 

studied Federal recruiting practices and presents this report to further agencies’ 

efforts to meet these objectives. 

i A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Findings 

Federal agencies have made significant progress in improving recruitment practices 

over the past few years. Many agencies have garnered the management support and 

resources needed to build strong recruitment programs, established solid 

infrastructures to support recruitment activities, and used creative strategies to 

attract the right talent. The practices appear to support fair and open competition 

through posting vacancy announcements and other outreach efforts. Moreover, the 

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has established a number of helpful 

tools and flexibilities to support agencies’ targeted recruitment efforts. 

Nevertheless, based on the information MSPB gathered through agency 

interrogatories, focus groups, and interviews, there remain variations across and 

even within agencies regarding elements crucial to effective recruitment. These 

variations point to a number of potential areas for improvement. 

Roles in recruitment. Recruitment is often viewed as solely a human resources 

(HR) function. Because recruitment directly impacts workforce composition and 

competencies, it should be recognized as a management responsibility and managers 

should work with HR to plan, implement, and measure recruitment practices that 

best support the mission. 

Recruitment planning. While a majority of agency participants in this study 

indicated that they base recruitment decisions on workforce analysis, the extent of 

recruitment planning varies across organizations, with many doing little to project 

their long-term needs. 

Training Recruiters. While most agencies reported using collateral-duty or fulltime recruiters, many of these recruiters may not be properly prepared for their 

responsibilities. Only about half of the agencies participating in this study 

indicated that they train recruiters for these responsibilities. In addition, many who 

do so rely only on informal or brief training sessions. 

Evaluate success. Most of the responding agencies rely on rudimentary 

practices to measure recruitment success. Most commonly, this takes the form of 

feedback from managers, recruiters, and in some instances new hires. While this 

type of feedback is useful, it limits agencies’ abilities to determine if long-term 

organizational needs are being met, which strategies work well, which do not, and 

how to best tailor approaches to specific circumstances. 

Evaluate cost benefits. Many agencies are unable to estimate their recruitment 

costs. Over one-third of the agencies in our study could not identify how much 

money they spend on recruitment activities. At a time when budgets are declining 

and performance is being scrutinized, it is important to track overall recruitment 

costs and compare those costs to the benefits received. 

ii Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
Governmentwide challenges. Agencies cited a number of recruitment 

challenges that impact the Government as a whole, including: 

■ Length and complexity of the ■ Perceptions of noncompetitive 

hiring process salaries 

■ Poor image of the Federal Government ■ Regulatory obstacles to entryas an employer level hiring 

■ Competition among agencies ■ Labor market shortages 

■ Budget constraints and uncertainties ■ Diminishing HR capacity 

Many agencies attempt to tackle some of these challenges on an individual basis 

through legislation, OPM regulatory approvals, and budget requests, causing 

imbalances throughout Government. 

Recommendations 

This report includes MSPB’s recommendations for agency Chief Human Capital 

Officers (CHCO) and HR staffs to consider when developing, implementing, and 

evaluating their recruitment programs. Also included are recommendations for 

OPM on how it can address some of the issues that hamper Governmentwide 

recruitment efforts. While some recommendations address specific issues identified 

in the study findings, others are based on practices used in private and other public 

sector organizations. 

their leadership to: 

Agency Chief Human Capital Officers should work with 

Distinguish recruitment as a critical management function and 

involve all levels of the organization in recruitment planning and 

implementation. Considering that recruitment affects every facet of the 

organization, it should be viewed as a management function. Therefore, CHCOs 

should garner the support and involvement of agency leaders, managers, and even 

line employees for recruitment activities. 

Establish the needed infrastructure. Few organizations can maintain a 

viable recruitment program without an established infrastructure. CHCOs should 

carefully examine what type of infrastructure is right for the agency’s needs, 

including necessary funding mechanisms, tracking methods, and management 

processes as well as the size, selection, and training requirements for recruitment 

staff and recruiters. 

iii A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Plan for retention. It is not cost effective to recruit talent the organization can’t 

keep. Therefore, before embarking on a resource-intensive recruitment program, 

CHCOs should spur agency leadership to plan for retention by identifying and 

improving cultural and environmental factors that might otherwise drive away 

talented employees. While not directly related to agency recruitment activities, this 

type of action will help improve the long-term return on investment for agency 

recruitment efforts. 

The HR staff, in consultation with agency managers, should: 

Develop a recruitment plan that is aligned with the agency strategic 

and workforce plans. A recruitment plan that is aligned with the agency 

strategic and workforce plans will help map out what the agency wants to achieve 

through its recruitment program. It will help anticipate needs rather than react to 

individual vacancies. As a result, the agency will be better able to prioritize 

strategies, decrease duplication of effort, and pool resources across the organization. 

Employ a balanced set of recruitment strategies that effectively 

market the organization. Agencies have different recruitment needs and 

should tailor their recruitment strategies to meet those needs. MSPB has identified 

some important steps agencies should consider when developing recruitment 

strategies, such as: 

■ Use proactive strategies to seek out qualified applicants. 

■ Research the market from which the agency is recruiting to identify the best 

strategies to employ. 

■ Ensure that recruitment materials are clear, are of professional quality, and 

represent the organization well. 

■ Use automation to complement human interaction, not replace it. 

■ Build relationships that can be beneficial now and in the future. 

■ Use available HR flexibilities to be more responsive to applicants. 

■ Leverage existing low-cost and no-cost tools to support recruitment efforts. 

Evaluate success. With limited resources available, agencies must strategically 

manage costs and resources and be able to justify allocations. Therefore, 

evaluating the success of individual recruitment strategies and the overall program’s 

ability to attract qualified candidates should be an integral component to any 

recruitment program. 

Position the agency to make good selections. Recruitment is just one 

aspect of a comprehensive staffing program. Even the best recruitment strategies 

will not result in high-quality hires unless the agency has adequately defined job 

requirements, employed valid applicant assessment tools, and established a 

reasonable hiring process. 

iv Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
OPM should: 

Address Governmentwide challenges. OPM has played a valuable 

leadership role in helping agencies’ recruitment efforts through its many 

Governmentwide initiatives. We recommend OPM continue looking for new 

flexibilities and developing programs that can help agency recruitment efforts. In 

addition, we recommend that OPM evaluate the impact of imbalances caused by 

legislative flexibilities granted to individual agencies, examine agency barriers to 

using HR flexibilities and how to overcome them, and expand efforts to market the 

Government by improving its image as an employer. 

To demonstrate that the Federal Government can compete for talent if it is 

proactive and creative, this report also provides illustrations of how agencies have 

already implemented similar actions to those listed above to address their individual 

recruitment needs. 

v A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 

INTRODUCTION


Purpose


T he American public depends on the Federal Government to provide a 

vast array of products and services. The Government is responsible for 

protecting our borders, our food supply, our environment, and our 

health. It attempts to ensure equal access to education and affordable housing, 

promote the welfare of the labor force, and provide for transportation and energy 

systems fundamental to national interests. It manages and administers vital benefits 

programs to care for the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and veterans. It serves as 

steward of the U.S. economy and the nation’s natural resources and strives to 

protect the public’s safety and defend Americans at home and abroad. Ultimately, 

it is the Federal workforce that is responsible for the day-to-day administration of 

these tasks and more. 

Because of the diverse and often divergent nature of Federal agency missions, the 

Government needs to continuously attract large numbers of high-quality applicants 

who have a variety of knowledge and skills to serve the needs of the American 

public. This should not be a difficult task. After all, the Federal Government is the 

largest employer in the United States. The work it offers prospective applicants 

includes many distinguished and unique opportunities not found in the private 

sector. It also offers challenging work that impacts national and global policy, 

worldwide job opportunities, numerous prospects for career growth, generally stable 

employment, and appealing benefits. However, there is growing concern about the 

Federal Government’s ability to compete with the private sector and other public 

sectors for the talent that it needs. 

To help address this concern, MSPB conducted a study of Federal civilian 

recruitment methods. The purpose of the study is threefold: (1) identify current 

recruitment trends and challenges in the Federal Government, (2) provide 

recommendations about how to improve Federal recruitment, and (3) highlight 

examples of how individual agencies have implemented actions similar to those we 

recommend to address their recruitment challenges. This study is not intended to 

evaluate the outcomes of agency recruitment practices. Rather, the objective is to 

provide policymakers with information on current recruitment methods and 

challenges and to share useful practices and ideas with agency officials who are 

exploring ways to better compete in the labor market.1 

1 For the purpose of this study, recruitment is the process of attracting qualified applicants to apply for 

positions within the hiring organization. By this definition, recruitment does not include the processes to 

assess the applicant, choose the most qualified, or make a job offer. 

1 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Why Is Recruitment So Important Now? 

While many say recruitment is critical right now because of the impending “human 

capital crisis” in the U.S. labor force, we argue that recruitment should always be a 

critical component of an agency’s management agenda – not only during times of 

crisis. Recruitment is not just about filling jobs that are vacant right now or filling 

jobs that may become vacant soon; it is about making a continuous, long-term 

investment in attracting a high-quality workforce capable of accomplishing the 

organization’s mission now and in the future. In other words, it is about attracting 

the right person to the right job at the right time. Recruitment practices are also 

particularly critical elements in supporting Federal merit systems, as defined by the 

Merit System Principles. Appropriate practices should ensure that qualified 

individuals are recruited from all segments of society after fair and open 

competition.2 

Understanding how to effectively recruit is particularly important today because of 

the dramatic changes taking place in the nation’s workforce. 

■ U.S. labor force demographics show a more diverse, older workforce with 

increasing numbers of women, minorities, single parents, and dual-income 

families. As the composition of the labor force changes, so too must 

recruitment strategies. 

■ The nature of work has changed with manual work declining, knowledgebased work increasing, and technology redefining the work we do and how 

we do it. Recruitment practices must therefore focus on the new 

competencies and skill mixes needed now and in the future. 

■ The Federal Government is no longer seen as the secure, lifetime employer it 

once was and often cannot match private sector employers with respect to 

competitive salaries for many occupations, rapid job offers, and, sometimes, 

work benefits. To address these challenges, the Government needs to find 

ways to market its strengths as an employer. 

Finally, it is true that the Government, as well as the national labor force, may face 

a “human capital crisis” over the next several years due to a large portion of the 

workforce nearing retirement eligibility. While there is debate as to when these 

retirements will take place and what impact they will actually have on the labor 

force, the statistics show that the Federal workforce is indeed aging. For instance: 

■ The average age of the Federal employee increased from 42.3 years in 1990 to 

46.5 in 2001.3 

■ As of September 2003, 22 percent of the Federal workforce was already at or 

above the minimum retirement age of 55, but only 6 percent was below the 

age of 30 (based on data in Figure 1).4 

2 Merit Principle No. 1 (5 U.S.C. 2301). 

3 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, The Fact Book: Federal Civilian Workforce Statistics, 2001 and 2002 

Editions, respectively, Washington, DC, http://www.opm.gov/feddata. 

4 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Employment Data Cubes,” full-time, permanent, nonseasonal, 

Washington, DC, Sep. 2003, http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/employment.htm. 

2 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
This “graying of the workforce” comes at a time when the labor force growth rate is 

not growing as quickly as in previous decades (as shown in Figure 2), potentially 

leaving fewer people to fill vacated jobs.5 The combination of aging workforce and 

slowing labor force growth rate will likely result in increased competition for 

qualified applicants across all sectors to fill gaps left by retirees. To remain a 

competitive employer, the Government must address the changes taking place in 

the workforce and work place through innovative recruitment practices. 

5 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Monthly Labor Review: The Editor’s Desk,” 

Washington, DC, June 25, 2001, http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2001/June/wk4/art01.htm. 

3 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
The Study 

This study was designed to identify and describe methods Federal agencies are 

using to recruit applicants. Governmentwide data collection efforts were completed 

in the spring of 2003 and agency-specific data was collected and verified through 

the summer of 2004. To obtain information related to these practices, we did 

the following: 

■ Sent interrogatories to 46 Federal departments and agencies. We received 

responses from the HR staffs of 124 organizations – individual departments, 

agencies, and/or agency subcomponents – and analyzed the responses to 

determine Governmentwide trends and innovative practices;6 

■ Conducted focus groups with agency managers and HR staff from 13 

departments and 9 agencies in Chicago, Denver, and Washington, DC, to 

determine participants’ views and experiences regarding their agencies’ 

recruitment practices; 

■ Conducted individual interviews with HR officials in over a dozen Federal 

organizations, including OPM, to explore innovative Federal recruiting 

practices; and 

■ Conducted an extensive literature review of private, public, and Federal sector 

recruitment practices. 

6 The terms “agency” and “organization” are used interchangeably throughout this report to describe the 124 

interrogatory respondents. These responses came from a total of 15 departments and 20 independent 

agencies which comprise approximately 80 percent of the non-Department of Defense (DOD) Executive 

Branch civil service, as defined by OPM’s FedScope. Because of the HR servicing structure in DOD, it is 

not possible to determine what percentage of the DOD workforce is represented by the responses. 

4 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
GOVERNMENTWIDE FINDINGS


T he Federal Government downsized its workforce by approximately 

400,000 employees during the 1990s and curtailed most new hiring.7 

As a result, many agencies with previously robust recruitment programs 

reported scaling them down or abandoning them altogether. In recent years, 

agencies have started to increase hiring and restore these programs. 

For example, Federal hiring increased from 65,000 accessions in 1998 to 133,000 

in 2002, an increase of over 100 percent.8 Even disregarding the approximately 

36,000 accessions in the recently created Transportation Security Administration, 

there was still a sizable 48 percent increase. In addition, over three-fourths of the 

agencies participating in our study reported that they actively recruit for positions 

within the organization. 

Agencies cited a number of reasons for establishing or re-establishing recruitment 

efforts, including preparing for the possibility of increased retirements over the next 

few years and replacing skills lost during downsizing. At the same time, they are 

placing greater emphasis on changing skill sets and staff size to meet evolving 

mission requirements, increase diversity, and target hard-to-fill occupations. 

Nature of Recruitment Programs 

Certain characteristics determine how a recruitment program will be implemented, 

including whether the program is centralized at the headquarters level or 

decentralized to the field offices as well as the types of positions and grade levels 

being targeted. These factors will drive how an agency coordinates and funds 

recruitment efforts and what types of recruitment strategies it uses. We have noted 

some interesting patterns regarding the nature of agency recruitment programs. 

Centralization 

Agencies were evenly split as to whether their recruitment programs are centralized 

to the agency or component level, decentralized to the local level, or implemented 

7 U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Office), Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: A Governmentwide Perspective, GAO-01-0241, Washington, DC, Jan. 2001, pp. 20-21. 

8 OPM defines accession as “a personnel action resulting in the addition of an employee to an agency’s staff.” 

Data are from U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Accession Data Cubes,” full-time, permanent, 

nonseasonal, Sep. 1998 and 2002, http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/accessions.htm. 

5 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
through a combination of both. Table 1 illustrates the general rationale for why 

agencies use certain approaches. 

Table 1. Centralization of Agency Recruitment Programs 

Agency Practice 	 Rationale 

Centralize programs for high-volume and mission- Provides economies of scale for hiring activities and 

critical positions, when developing corporate consistency in corporate marketing approaches. 

brands, marketing materials, and agencywide 

recruitment strategies, and for small agency 

programs with limited resources.9 

Decentralize strategies that address local needs. Provides flexibility in tailoring approaches to meet 

needs that may be different across localities. 

Centralize corporate activities but allow 	 Attains economies of scale for agencywide 

decentralized strategies at the local level. 	 activities while allowing for flexibility in tailoring 

approaches to meet local needs. Particularly 

prevalent for large agencies with many 

subcomponents. 

Targeted Occupations 

Because of the wide range of missions in the Federal Government, agencies recruit 

for a mix of occupations. Some recruitment programs are structured to meet a 

particular occupational need (e.g., a specific job series or intern program). 

Generally, these structured recruitment programs focus on technical (e.g., 

information technology, engineering, and science), mission-critical, hard-to-fill, 

and/or high-volume (e.g., entry-level, intern, and student) positions. Other agency 

recruitment programs are more informal and change according to the type of job 

openings the agency has. 

Targeted Grade Levels 

Agencies also recruit for a range of experiential levels. Structured recruitment 

programs tend to focus on entry-level positions (GS-5/7), occasionally expanding to 

the GS-9 equivalent when looking for candidates with higher levels of education or 

experience. In 2002, 40 percent of the Federal accessions were appointed in the 

GS-5/7 and related grade range and 50 percent in the GS-5/7/9 and related grade 

range.10 Hiring at the entry-level can attain economies of scale. Agencies can 

generally hire a larger number of employees at one time at this level and obtain a 

larger return on investment for recruitment, selection, and training expenses. 

9 “Mission-critical” denotes a position that the agency deems critical in carrying out its core mission functions. 

10 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Accession Data Cubes,” full-time, permanent, nonseasonal, 

General Schedule and Related Grade, Sep. 2002, http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/ accessions.htm. Accessions 

related to the recently created Transportation Security Administration were not included. 

6 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
Several agencies reported taking advantage of the Federal Career Intern Program 

(FCIP) to hire entry-level employees. This largely noncompetitive hiring authority 

allows agencies greater flexibility in targeting recruitment efforts at needed skills and 

competencies and underrepresented groups. 

Only a small number of agencies reported targeting higher-level positions using a 

structured recruitment program. These positions are generally recruited for on a 

case-by-case basis since most agencies do not hire in volume at that level. This may 

change with the recently announced overhaul of OPM’s Presidential Management 

Intern Program (now Presidential Management Fellows Program). The revised 

program will allow agencies to hire “senior fellows” at the mid-management level 

(GS 13-15) using an excepted appointing authority. OPM will continue to 

centrally announce openings, assess candidates, and determine the number of 

annual senior fellow appointments. 

Recruitment Roles and Responsibilities 

Recruitment ultimately determines the composition and capabilities of an 

organization’s workforce. Therefore, it is important to understand who is involved 

in recruitment activities and what role they play. Table 2 provides an overview of 

the roles and responsibilities each level of the organization generally has, according 

to our study respondents. 

Table 2. Typical Roles and Responsibilities in Federal Recruiting 

Roles 	Responsibilities 

HR Professionals 	 Primary responsibility for planning, implementing, and overseeing 

recruitment programs. Responsibility rests either with the main HR 

office or with a separate recruiting office in the HR office. 

Hiring Manager/Supervisor 	 Identifies job requirements, provides potential recruitment sources, and 

occasionally meets with candidates at job fairs, professional meetings, 

and campus events. Extent of involvement varies significantly by agency. 

Line Employees 	 Attend job fairs and college events, especially at alma maters. Talk 

with candidates about the job, their personal experiences, and the 

hiring process. Try to sell the job to candidates. About two-thirds of 

the agencies indicated using line employees in recruitment. 

It is interesting to note that HR professionals are viewed as having primary 

responsibility for the agency’s recruitment program and that involvement of the 

hiring manager or supervisor varies significantly from agency to agency. Given the 

direct impact that recruitment has on the organization’s ability to meet its 

requirements, it would make good business sense for hiring managers, as well as 

other agency leaders, to take a more active role in planning, implementing, and 

evaluating recruitment activities. For instance, they can work with the HR staff to 

7 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
identify recruitment needs in advance, draft vacancy announcements, obtain 

funding, design recruitment strategies, attend recruitment events, and assess both 

short- and long-term results. 

Recruiters 

In addition to the responsibilities listed above, most agencies indicated that they 

also assign members of the workforce specifically to be recruiters. Over half use 

collateral duty recruiters – HR professionals, supervisors, or line employees who 

carry out recruitment activities as an additional duty. About a quarter of the 

agencies reported assigning full-time recruiters or coordinators to ensure continuous 

attention to recruitment matters, particularly for mission-critical occupations. 

Recruiters are often the first agency representatives a potential job candidate meets. 

Therefore, it is critical for them to acquire the skills necessary to successfully carry 

out their responsibilities. However, we found that only half of the organizations 

reported providing recruiter training. In addition, many that do so rely only on 

informal or brief training sessions. These findings indicate that many recruiters 

may not be properly prepared to carry out their responsibilities. 

Recruiter Responsibilities 

■ Plans and attends college events, job fairs, and other networking 

opportunities. 

■ Conducts interviews. 

■ Communicates with applicants about available job opportunities and the 

hiring process. 

■ Builds relationships with schools and professional organizations. 

The training that is provided covers a range of topics, including interviewing 

techniques, hiring regulations, recruitment techniques and resources, how to answer 

candidate questions, mission responsibilities, and how to set up recruitment booths 

and materials. The extent of training varies by organization and can consist of any 

of the following: 

■ On-the-job training, 

■ Brief, informal discussions about recruiting, 

■ Internet-based training materials, 

■ Vendor/in-house workshops, 

■ Lengthy training sessions from professional vendors. 

8 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
Recruitment Planning 

Recruitment should not be performed in a vacuum but should be based on the 

organization’s needs as defined through its strategic and human capital plans. Once 

an organization has identified the type of workforce it needs to carry out its 

mission, it can then strategize how to obtain that workforce, including how to 

recruit for it. 

Almost three-fourths of the organizations reported that they align recruitment 

strategies with the organization’s strategic plan. Often, this takes the form of 

including a human capital goal, such as recruiting a high-quality workforce, in the 

strategic plan. Or agencies target recruitment strategies at occupations that most 

directly support programmatic strategic goals. Additionally, over half of the 

organizations indicated that they base recruitment decisions and strategies on some 

type of workforce analysis that attempts to project future staffing needs. However, 

the sophistication of these analyses varies greatly by organization. 

Many organizations rely only on input from managers to determine fiscal year 

recruitment needs and therefore do not consider longer term requirements. A 

number of agencies have gone a step further and are beginning to analyze historical 

trends in an attempt to project future staffing needs. Finally, a few agencies have 

identified competencies needed for mission-critical positions, as identified through 

the agency’s strategic goals, and have conducted needs assessments to determine the 

current and future competency gaps to help identify long-term workforce goals. 

On the other hand, over a quarter of the organizations reported that they do not 

base recruitment decisions on any workforce analyses. Many claimed that they are 

constrained by limited staff, limited funding for information systems, or continually 

changing priorities. Others asserted that their small size made it unnecessary to do 

formal planning. 

It is good news that so many organizations are trying to align their recruitment 

strategies with the organization’s mission and are attempting to analyze their 

workforce needs. However, the number of organizations reporting that they look 

only at short-term recruitment needs or that they do not do any workforce analyses 

indicates that proactive, long-term planning based on mission needs is still a work 

in progress. 

Recruitment Strategies 

Agencies use a wide variety of recruitment strategies to try to attract applicants. 

Generally, the location and type of position determines the most effective 

recruitment method and the amount of effort needed. However, there are general 

trends in what methods agencies use and which ones they find to be most 

productive. Not surprisingly, the strategies reported as the most common were also 

reported as the most effective; the top four are listed in Table 3. 

9 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Table 3. Recruitment Strategies Most Often Used by Federal Agencies 

Strategy 	Purpose 

Agency’s web site and/or USAJOBS 	 Convey an improved Federal Government image and educate 

applicants on benefits of working for the Government and 

how to apply. 

College visits and job fairs Expand agency exposure and rebuild relationships with 

colleges, universities, and the public. 

Paid advertising 	 Target specific trade and professional audiences. 

Professional networks Network with related professional organizations to identify 

potential applicants and recruitment sources. 

Agency Web Site/USAJOBS 

Nearly all agencies indicated that they recruit through the Internet, using their own 

agency web site, OPM’s USAJOBS.com site, or both. They also reported that the 

Internet is one of the most effective recruitment methods, confirming that 

automated recruitment is essential in today’s environment. Research indicates that 

91 percent of the world’s 500 largest companies use the Internet for recruitment 

purposes.11 About 20 million people participate on the recruitment site 

Monster.com (representing 15 percent of the U.S. workforce), and job seeking is 

the second most popular Internet activity.12 To take advantage of this trend, OPM 

and individual agencies have spent much time and money upgrading their Internet 

sites to convey an improved image to the public and educate potential applicants on 

the benefits of working for the Government and how to apply. 

OPM has hosted USAJOBS, a web site for Federal jobs seekers, since 1996 and 

continually updates and improves the site. Some of its main features include 

capabilities for applicants to create resumes, search Federal job announcements 

using a variety of criteria, apply for an assortment of jobs on-line, access 

employment information and forms, and register to receive notification of new 

job postings. 

The number and quality of agency recruitment sites are continually growing. 

Generally, these sites attempt to describe an agency’s mission and how employees 

contribute to it, market and explain appealing job benefits, and list or link to the 

agency’s current vacancy announcements. Some of the more enhanced sites list 

recruitment fair information, provide employee testimonials on the advantages of 

working for the agency, and list points of contact to talk to about agency careers. 

On the other hand, some of the less advanced sites do no more than list or link to 

vacancy listings, contain limited employment information, include broken links, or 

bury employment information under multiple links. 

11 Graeme Browning, “Embracing Online Recruiting,” Federal Computer Week, Apr. 8, 2002, http://www.fcw.com. 

12 Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, “Why Net Searches for Jobs Are So Popular,” Dec. 22, 

2001, http://www.CNET.com. 

10 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
College Visits and Job Fairs 

College visits and community job fairs are also popular recruitment strategies, with 

about three-fourths of the organizations we surveyed reporting using them. Because 

the Federal Government spent the 1990s downsizing and doing very little hiring, 

many agencies reported having lost touch with colleges and universities. As 

agencies rebuild their recruitment programs, many have found it necessary to also 

rebuild their relationships with these institutions. These relationships are 

particularly important when recruiting from outside the Government for entry-level 

positions or seeking candidates with advanced degrees. 

Agencies vary significantly in the reported number of college visits they make and 

job fairs they attend. Some choose to participate in a large volume of events to 

expand their exposure, whereas others prefer to focus on building strong 

relationships with a smaller number of organizations. It is apparent, though, that 

agencies are trying to increase their presence and name recognition. The majority 

of surveyed agencies participate in at least a few college visits and job fairs per year. 

Paid Advertising and Professional Networks 

The other top recruitment methods are paid advertisements and networking 

through professional organizations. Some agencies use print advertisements on a 

regular basis. Those that do have typically found them to be most effective when 

targeted to specific audiences or occupations. For instance, trade and professional 

journals tend to be more effective than general newspaper ads for jobs requiring 

specific skills or education levels. Networking with related professional 

organizations helps develop positive relationships with potential applicants and with 

professionals who are able to recommend high-quality candidates. 

Mid- and Senior-Level Strategies 

When recruiting for mid- to senior-level management positions, agencies tend to 

use vacancy announcements, print advertising, and private recruiting firms targeted 

at specific applicant pools. The limited number of reported strategies is not 

surprising considering that agencies recruit for these positions on a case-by-case 

basis and tend to select applicants from within Federal organizations. A recent 

Partnership for Public Service study found that only 13 percent of fiscal year 2000 

mid-career hires (GS 12-15) were filled by individuals from outside the 

Government.13 

Marketing Materials 

Marketing materials depicting an agency “brand” quite often complement all of 

these recruitment strategies and attempt to present a professional image and 

communicate employer strengths. Branding is the attempt to create a positive, 

familiar image of the agency in the minds of applicants so they associate the 

13 Partnership for Public Service, Mid-Career Hiring in the Federal Government: A Strategy for Change, 

Washington, DC, Feb. 22, 2002. 

11 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
agency’s reputation with a positive place to work. To establish the brand, agencies 

generally create an integrated package of marketing materials that are distributed to 

applicants or promising applicant pools, including displays, brochures, posters, 

print media, and recruitment web sites. 

Internal Versus External Recruitment 

It is interesting to note that the recruitment strategies agencies reported using most 

often focus on increasing outreach beyond the Federal sector. The most likely 

reason for this is that the Federal Government operates parallel internal and external 

hiring operations. Vacancies filled through internal hiring – i.e., merit promotion – 

are generally open to current or some former Federal employees who are already 

knowledgeable about how to find and apply for vacancies. Federal employees are 

also easily accessible through internal notification mechanisms, including hard copy 

job announcements, e-mail, USAJOBS, and Intranet web sites. Therefore, it 

appears that agencies are less likely to spend limited recruitment resources on 

outreach efforts to this applicant pool. In contrast, vacancies filled through 

competitive examining procedures are open to any qualified U.S. citizen and 

therefore may be viewed as requiring more outreach and steps to educate job seekers 

on how to apply. 

Diversity Outreach 

Achieving diversity is an increasingly important aspect of agency recruitment 

practices. The Government sees diversity as an important way to promote fairness 

and equity in the workplace, foster communication, creativity, innovation, and 

respect among members of the workforce, and thereby increase the Government’s 

ability to provide high-quality products and services to the American public. As 

Government addresses its human capital challenges and reshapes its workforce, it is 

presented with a valuable opportunity to increase the representation of minorities, 

women, veterans, and the disabled, especially in occupations and grades where they 

are currently underrepresented. 

Many agencies are working to integrate diversity into their recruitment strategies. 

They typically use the same strategies discussed above and target them at 

recruitment sources that expand minority, women, veteran, and disability applicant 

pools. The most common approach to diversity recruiting appears to be visiting 

and establishing relationships with colleges and universities that have large 

populations of targeted students, including Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions. Other common strategies include: 

■ Establishing intern programs targeted at minorities, such as the 

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education 

Internship Program and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and 

Universities Internship Program; 

■ Partnering and networking with professional associations and organizations 

whose members consist of persons who have been traditionally 

underrepresented in the labor force; 

12 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
■ Advertising in publications and on web sites whose focused readership include 

minorities, women, veterans, and the disabled; 

■ Visiting and partnering with military transition centers; 

■ Using targeted mailings and e-mailings; and 

■ Partnering with special emphasis event coordinators. 

Recruitment Funding 

Adequate funding for recruitment activities is pivotal to ensuring a successful 

recruitment program. The level of funding determines what kind of staff and 

resources can be established for the recruitment program and what strategies can be 

implemented, how often, and by whom. However, we found that it is difficult to 

isolate and track agency recruitment spending. 

First, agencies define “recruitment funds” differently. Some define the term 

narrowly, tracking only the costs of implementing recruitment activities, such as 

fees for job fairs, travel costs, and advertisements. Others take a broader view and 

track the overall cost of the program, including costs related to developing 

recruitment strategies, recruiter and HR specialist salaries, and financial incentives 

for desirable candidates accepting a job offer. 

The complexities of funding allocation also make it difficult to pinpoint overall 

recruitment costs. Recruitment funds come from a variety of sources, such as the 

HR office, the Equal Employment Opportunity office, the program office, 

centralized agency funds, or a mixture of these sources. Further, different levels 

within the organization (e.g., agency level, the subcomponent level, the field level, 

or a combination) dedicate funds to recruitment activities, making total funding 

even more difficult to determine. 

Considering these complexities, it is not surprising that over one-third of the 

responding organizations could not identify how much money they spend on 

recruitment activities. The rest of the organizations varied dramatically in reported 

costs, from no funding dedicated to recruitment to millions of dollars per year. Until 

agencies can better account for their recruitment costs, it will be difficult to determine 

the return on investment for these activities and to justify the expenditures. 

Financial Incentives 

Agencies have a wide variety of financial incentives available to them to help attract 

and recruit applicants. A vast majority of agencies reported using these incentives, 

though there is significant variation in the extent to which they are used. Some 

offer them on a regular basis, others on a case-by-case basis, and still others only 

rarely. The decision to use incentives appears to be based on mission needs, 

availability of high-quality candidates, and/or availability of funding. They tend to 

be used for hard-to-fill jobs, but are also used for exceptional candidates and certain 

entry- or senior-level positions. 

13 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
The most common financial incentives cited include: 

■ Signing or recruitment bonuses, 

■ Payment of expenses related to relocating or first duty travel, 

■ Higher entry-level salaries based on superior qualifications.14 

Many agencies reported noncompetitive salary rates as one of the chief 

constraints to Federal recruitment. Therefore, it is not surprising to note that 

the most frequently used incentives are those geared toward alleviating starting 

salary concerns. 

Another incentive that agencies have available to them is the Student Loan 

Repayment Program, which currently allows agencies to repay student loans up to 

$10,000 per employee per year and up to a lifetime limit of $60,000.15 Though 

this program got off to a slow start in 2001, with only one agency using it that first 

year, participation has increased significantly. In fiscal year 2003, 24 agencies 

provided more than $9.1 million in repayment benefits to 2,077 Federal 

employees.16 Because repaying student loans is a major concern for many recent 

graduates, repayment aid is a valuable recruitment incentive. However, several of 

our study participants indicated they do not utilize the program because they do 

not have adequate funding for it. 

Measuring Recruitment Success 

Measuring the success of individual recruitment strategies and the overall program’s 

ability to attract qualified candidates should be an integral component to any 

recruitment program. Measuring costs, benefits, and results allows an organization 

to determine which strategies attract the best candidates and, therefore, where 

recruitment funding and resources should be targeted. Further, such evaluation can 

help justify resource allocation to agency leadership. 

Although most agencies report that their recruitment initiatives have been successful 

in building a qualified workforce, little formal evaluation appears to occur. A few 

agencies report attempting to assess the more quantitative aspects of their program, 

such as the number and diversity of applicants, new hire performance, attainment 

of hiring goals, and number of hires from individual recruitment sources. Those 

that have done so have found the information useful in determining successful 

approaches and informing future activities. 

14 A superior qualifications appointment is defined by the Code of Federal Regulations as an appointment 

made at a rate above the minimum rate of the appropriate General Schedule grade because of the superior 

qualifications of the candidate or a special need of the agency for the candidate’s services. 

15 When the program was implemented in 2001, agencies could authorize $6,000 per year and $40,000 per 

lifetime. Public Law 108-123, signed November 11, 2003, increased the authority to its current levels. 

16 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Student Loan Repayment Program: Fiscal Year 2003 Report to 

the Congress, Washington, DC, May 2004. 

14 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
However, most agencies reported relying predominantly on managerial, recruiter, 

and occasionally new hire feedback to determine their satisfaction with the 

recruitment efforts. Few are implementing systematic, ongoing efforts to assess the 

long-term impacts of their recruitment strategies, such as the quality and retention 

of the workforce and whether they are meeting organizational needs. It is these 

types of efforts, however, that will help agencies best determine where to 

concentrate their resources for the best return on investment. 

A number of agencies are implementing automated hiring tools with data collection 

and analysis features that they expect will help them measure recruitment efforts. 

However, MSPB has found in its study of automated Federal hiring that few 

agencies are taking full advantage of these features.17 Many use the systems to 

capture basic applicant data and customer feedback but do not have the expertise to 

use the more advanced aspects of the applications, such as tracking the success of 

individual recruitment sources. In addition, many agencies do little advance 

planning to determine their data needs before identifying system requirements and 

are therefore left with automated capabilities more limited than need be. 

Office of Personnel Management Assistance 

As part of its mission, OPM is to assist agencies in building a high-quality and 

diverse workforce. OPM has recently taken a number of important steps to help 

agency recruitment efforts. It established new benefit programs agencies can use to 

attract applicants, regulated hiring flexibilities to assist targeted recruitment efforts, 

organized job fairs across the nation as well as a virtual information technology (IT) 

job fair, and is redesigning USAJOBS to expand its capabilities and userfriendliness. 

We asked agencies what type of recruitment support they receive from OPM. 

Although most agencies reported that they were not currently receiving assistance 

from OPM, those that did receive various types of assistance found the following 

areas to be most helpful: 

■ USAJOBS; 

■ Rating and ranking candidates for jobs; 

■ Job fairs, including the virtual IT job fair and the National Career 

Services Conference; 

■ Developing recruiting materials. 

We also asked agencies what challenges they face in the recruitment process. In 

response, many agencies cited a number of recruitment barriers that fall under 

OPM’s purview, including the complex and lengthy hiring process, differences in 

availability of HR flexibilities among different agencies, constraints on entry-level 

hiring, and the loss of HR expertise Governmentwide. These are discussed in more 

detail in the next section of this report. 

17 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Identifying Talent Through Technology: Automated Systems in Federal 

Agencies, Washington, DC, August 2004, pp.1. 

15 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 

GOVERNMENTWIDE CHALLENGES


A gencies are generally positive about the progress they have made in their 

recruitment efforts. Even so, some note that they still have individual 

challenges meeting diversity goals and recruiting for certain skills, 

occupations, and locations, and they are looking at ways to address these shortcomings. 

In addition, they identified a number of systemic obstacles to successful recruitment 

that cannot necessarily be addressed at the agency level. These are discussed below. 

Length and Complexity of Hiring Process 

The Federal hiring process is often a long process. The U.S. Government 

Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that it takes an average of 102 days to 

complete all of the steps in the competitive hiring procedure (from making the 

request to fill the position to making the appointment).18 However, a somewhat 

lengthy process is not necessarily a bad thing. It takes time to recruit, assess, and 

select the best candidate for a job, and quality should not be sacrificed for speed. 

However, the longer the process takes, the more applicant attrition is likely to 

increase as potential candidates accept positions with other employers. This is 

particularly true for those top applicants who are simultaneously being recruited by 

companies with faster hiring processes. Furthermore, for positions that require 

background investigations or medical examinations, the process can take 

substantially longer and result in even higher applicant attrition. 

The Federal hiring process is also complicated. Many applicants claim they do not 

understand how to apply, and this deters them from doing so. According to a 

National Association of Colleges and Employers student survey, 37 percent of 

respondents interested in Federal careers did not understand the application process, 

and 49 percent thought the process was too lengthy and complicated.19 

Unfortunately, vacancy announcements that are intended to instruct applicants on 

how to apply are often badly written, confusing, and vague.20 Though we cannot 

calculate applicant attrition rates, agencies cited hiring regulations that make the 

18 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve Executive Agencies’ 

Hiring Processes, GAO-03-450, Washington, DC, May 2003, p. 11. 

19 Marilyn Mackes, “Keys to Finding Quality Entry-Level Employees,” National Association of Colleges and 

Employers, Presentation for the National Academy for Public Administration, Washington, DC, Apr. 2001. 

20 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Help Wanted: A Review of Federal Vacancy Announcements, 

Washington, DC, Apr. 2003. 

17 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
process lengthy and complex as the chief obstacle to successful recruitment. When 

applicants lose interest in or are deterred from even applying for jobs, agencies lose 

much of the return on investment for their recruiting efforts. 

Image of Federal Employment 

The Federal Government is currently at a distinct disadvantage in attracting and 

competing for applicants largely because of its image. Several recent surveys 

demonstrate that there is low interest in the Federal Government as an employer 

compared to private and non-profit sector organizations. College graduates and 

public policy graduate students tend to view entry-level Government jobs as less 

challenging, rewarding, and developmental than private and nonprofit sector jobs. 

They tend to believe the private sector offers better compensation, more challenging 

work, and better developmental opportunities, while the nonprofit sector offers more 

rewarding work.21 This comes at a time when the U.S. labor force growth rate is 

declining, resulting in increased competition for qualified applicants across all sectors. 

The Federal Government and its individual agencies will need to fully recognize the 

negative impact of these perceptions and commit the appropriate attention and 

funding needed to improve marketing efforts sufficiently to change these perceptions. 

Competition Among Agencies 

The Federal Government is competing not only with the private and public sectors 

but also, in a sense, with itself. Several of our study participants indicated that 

some of their toughest recruitment competition comes from other Federal agencies. 

In fact, one agency representative told us that part of its recruitment strategy is to 

target other agencies’ talent; after all, those employees have already been trained and 

prepared for Federal employment. Many agencies have a leg up in this competition 

due to leadership support, larger appropriations, or a more compelling mission. 

Still others have attained legislative authorizations that provide more funding, more 

flexibilities, and/or more enticing pay scales. 

One notable example of this intergovernmental competition for qualified candidates 

was the recent expansion of the Federal air marshal program. After September 11, 

2001, the Federal Aviation Administration and then the Transportation Security 

Administration began recruiting heavily for air marshal positions. Because of 

personnel flexibilities granted in the 1995 Department of Transportation 

Appropriations Act and the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, air 

marshal compensation exceeded that available to many other law enforcement 

21 Carol Chetkovich, Winning the Best and the Brightest: Increasing the Attraction of Public Service, Cambridge, 

Massachusetts: A Price Waterhouse Coopers Endowment for the Business of Government, July 2001; Hart 

Teeter Research on behalf of the Partnership for Public Service and the Council for Excellence in 

Government, The Unanswered Call to Public Service, Washington, DC, Oct. 2001; and Marilyn Mackes, 

“Keys to Finding Quality Entry-Level Employees,” National Association of Colleges and Employers, 

Presentation for the National Academy for Public Administration, Washington, DC, Apr. 2001. 

18 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
organizations. These flexibilities reportedly allowed the air marshal program to 

attract hundreds of law enforcement officers from other Federal agencies.22 

Budget Constraints and Uncertainties 

Shrinking budgets are nothing new in the Federal Government. However, lack of 

funding can have a significant impact on agencies’ ability to recruit, preventing 

them from visiting colleges, participating in job fairs, hiring recruitment staff, 

developing marketing materials, and offering recruitment incentives. Uncertainty 

about funding levels and delayed appropriations decisions can also negatively affect 

Federal recruitment efforts. For example, many agency college recruitment 

activities begin in the fall. Delayed appropriations decisions can prevent agencies 

from committing the funding to these events and thus cause recruitment schedules 

to lag. 

Perceptions of Noncompetitive Salaries 

As indicated above, there is a perception in the American public that Federal salaries 

are not competitive with private sector salaries. Sometimes, this is true. For 

instance, most agree that specialized physicians earn more in private practice than 

federally employed physicians do. However, many Federal occupations offer salaries 

that are quite competitive with those in the private sector. Additionally, salaries are 

only a part of the Federal compensation package. Other salary add-ons include 

retirement benefits, health insurance, leave accrual, and other numerous incentives 

that are available to attract candidates and bolster starting salaries. The Federal 

Government needs to better market its opportunities, salaries, and incentives to 

help educate the public on its total compensation packages. 

Labor Market Shortages 

Another challenge agencies face is the shortage of qualified applicants in certain 

labor markets. For example, many researchers are currently alarmed about an 

emerging nationwide nursing shortage because enrollment in U.S. nursing schools 

is declining while the need for nurses in the health care industry is increasing.23 

Labor market shortages can impact at a national or local level and can affect 

particular industries, occupations, and geographic areas. They can also occur within 

specific minority groups, so that a diverse labor pool is not available in many 

occupations and/or locales. Labor market shortages will result in further increasing 

competition across all sectors for particular candidates and skills, which means the 

Government must position itself to be a strong competitor. 

22 Brian Friel, “Cop Wars,” Government Executive Pay and Benefits Watch, June 20, 2002, 

http://www.govexec.com. 

23 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Nursing Workforce: Emerging Nurse Shortages Due to Multiple 

Factors, GAO-01-944, Washington, DC, July 2001. 

19 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Obstacles to Entry-Level Hiring 

Several agencies reported that provisions of the Luevano Consent Decree hamper 

their entry-level hiring (GS-5/7 equivalent), the level at which outside applicants are 

most commonly recruited for professional and administrative jobs. The decree 

requires agencies to use court-approved assessment procedures for over 100 entrylevel occupations. Generally, agencies are required to use the Administrative 

Careers with America (ACWA) self-rating schedule or the less-used ACWA written 

test for these occupations. Several agencies that depend on OPM to conduct these 

assessments found the process to be untimely and cumbersome. Moreover, the 

validity of the self-rating schedule as a predictor of future job performance is 

uncertain. Finally, some agencies reported that the requirement hinders their ability 

to use the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP). 

The FCIP is an excepted service, noncompetitive appointment authority that allows 

agencies to target their recruitment activities at particular skills, competencies, and/or 

underrepresented groups. However, agencies must administer ACWA for the Luevanocovered occupations and rate and rank candidates. Some agencies indicated that in 

using the self-rating assessment procedures of ACWA, they are oftentimes unable to 

reach the applicants they actively recruited – particularly when they receive large 

numbers of applications after publicly announcing positions (something not required 

by FCIP). The Luevano Consent Decree therefore negates the core recruitment 

advantages of the FCIP for those occupations. This has led some agencies to stop 

publicly announcing these vacancies and has caused others to hire for those occupations 

above the GS-5/7 level to avoid the requirement to use the ACWA assessment tools. 

Human Resources Capacity 

Finally, many organizations reported that they find it difficult to establish and 

maintain vigorous recruitment programs because they do not have the staff, resources, 

and expertise to devote to this function. Between 1991 and 1998, the number of 

Federal HR professionals was reduced by 20 percent.24 With this decline in capacity, 

HR offices often find it necessary to focus resources on reacting to crises, leaving 

fewer resources to devote to more proactive activities, such as well-planned 

recruitment programs. Further, recent MSPB research suggests that the downsizing 

and consolidation of HR staffs have led to the loss of Governmentwide HR 

expertise.25 For recruitment to be effective, it must be an agency-level priority and 

have adequate human, financial, and technological resources devoted to it. While 

individual agencies are responsible for ensuring the capacity of their HR staff, the 

overall decline in HR resources and expertise should be viewed as a Governmentwide 

issue in these times of intense and increasing competition for high-quality employees. 

24 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Human Resources Employment Trends: An Occupation in 

Transition: A Comprehensive Study of the Federal Human Resources Community, MSE-9-5, Washington, DC, 

Sep. 1999, p. 3. 

25 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Competing for Federal Jobs: Job Search Experiences of New Hires, 

Washington, DC, Feb. 2000; and Help Wanted: A Review of Federal Vacancy Announcements, Washington, DC, 

Apr. 2003. 

20 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
CONCLUSIONS AND


RECOMMENDATIONS


Conclusions 

Federal agencies have made significant progress in improving recruitment 

practices over the past few years, after a decade of little Federal hiring. 

While many agencies are still struggling with recruitment issues, others have 

garnered the management support and resources needed to build strong recruitment 

programs, have established solid infrastructures to support recruitment activities, 

and are using creative strategies to attract the right talent. The practices appear to 

support fair and open competition through appropriate job posting and outreach 

and are complemented by targeted recruitment strategies. Moreover, OPM has 

established a number of helpful tools and flexibilities to support agencies’ targeted 

recruitment efforts. 

Nevertheless, variations appear to remain across and even within agencies regarding 

elements crucial to effective recruitment. These variations create imbalances in 

Federal recruitment practices and point to a number of potential areas for 

improvement. 

Recruitment is generally viewed as an HR function. Agencies indicated 

that the HR office is primarily responsible for planning, implementing, and 

evaluating recruitment programs. Hiring managers are involved in a number of 

recruitment activities and often take the lead in some of these activities, such as 

identifying recruitment sources. However, their involvement varies dramatically by 

agency and even subcomponent. Because recruitment decisions affect the 

composition and competency of the entire workforce, recruitment should be 

recognized as a management function, not solely an HR function. Managers at all 

levels of the organization need to be involved in the process and accountable for the 

results. Moreover, recruitment should receive the priority attention and support of 

top agency leadership given its critical role in mission accomplishment. 

The extent of recruitment planning varies across organizations. 

Recruitment programs should be based on the organization’s long-term workforce 

needs, taking into consideration not only the skills they need now but also those 

they will need in the future. The good news is that a majority of the agencies 

reported that they base recruitment strategies on some type of workforce analysis. 

However, the scope of these analyses varies greatly by organization. 

21 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
Some agencies have gone so far as to identify needed workforce skills through 

competency assessments based on long-term strategic goals. Other agencies simply 

base recruitment decisions on annual input from managers and do not take into 

consideration future long-term needs. Further, over a quarter of the reporting 

organizations indicated that they do not base their recruitment strategies on 

workforce analysis. If agencies are to get the most out of their recruitment efforts, 

it is essential that they identify recruitment goals and plan recruitment strategies 

based on the organization’s long-term needs. 

Recruiters may not be properly prepared for their responsibilities. 

Recruiters are generally the first agency representatives a potential job candidate 

meets; yet only half of the organizations participating in this study indicated that 

they train recruiters for their responsibilities. In addition, many of these rely only 

on informal or brief training sessions. Given the importance of the recruiter role to 

agency recruitment efforts, agencies should ensure that recruiters are selected 

carefully, trained properly, and evaluated to ensure they have the skills necessary to 

perform their duties. 

Most organizations rely on rudimentary practices to measure 

recruitment success. Few organizations appear to be implementing systematic 

efforts to assess their recruitment practices. Most rely on feedback from managers, 

recruiters, and in some instances new hires. While this type of feedback is 

important in identifying perceptions of success, it does not allow agencies to 

determine if long-term organizational needs are being met, which strategies work 

well and which do not in comparison, and how to best tailor approaches to specific 

circumstances. 

In addition, the widespread inability to account for recruitment costs hinders 

evaluation efforts. Over one-third of the organizations in our study could not 

identify how much money they spend on recruitment activities. Many others 

narrowly define recruitment costs in terms of fees, travel costs, and advertisement 

costs. At a time when agency budgets are shrinking and agencies are being asked to 

demonstrate that expenditures show positive programmatic results, it is important 

for them to track the overall costs of recruitment activities, including salaries, 

development costs, and related expenditures, and to compare those costs to the 

benefits received. 

Agencies attempt to tackle Governmentwide recruitment challenges 

on an individual basis. Agencies cited a number of recruitment challenges 

that impact the Government as a whole. Some agencies have attempted to mitigate 

these challenges through use of agency-specific legislation, regulations, and budget 

requests. These individually tailored approaches have caused inconsistencies in 

human resources management throughout Government and fueled the ongoing 

debate as to whether the Federal Government is one employer or many. 

Working together, agencies could achieve economies of scale in improving the 

Government’s ability to market itself and recruit high-quality talent. This could 

even out the playing field for agencies with fewer resources but may counter or 

delay the efforts of others that have specialized needs or are ahead of the 

22 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
recruitment curve. Separately, agencies can tailor recruitment strategies to better 

meet their mission needs, but this gives an advantage to agencies with more 

compelling missions and encourages the use of separate application and hiring 

systems that confuse applicants. The Federal Government, under the leadership of 

OPM, needs to strike a balance between Government as a single employer and 

Government as many employers to bring about a systematic process that attends to 

the needs of the Government as a whole, individual agencies, and applicants. 

Recommendations 

In conducting this study, MSPB relied on a number of sources for information: 

agency interrogatories, focus groups, individual interviews, and literature reviews. 

Based on the study’s findings, the Merit Systems Protection Board makes the 

recommendations discussed below for agencies to consider when establishing or 

evaluating their recruitment programs. Some of these recommendations address 

specific issues or challenges identified in the study findings, while others simply 

point to good practices we found used in private and public sector organizations. 

In addition, the next section of this report (Agency Illustrations) includes examples 

of how some agencies have already been implementing many of these 

recommendations. 

The recommendations are targeted at specific audiences. The first set of 

recommendations pertains to agencywide recruitment efforts that Chief Human 

Capital Officers (CHCO) should lead given their statutory responsibility to advise 

and assist agency heads and other officials in strategically managing the workforce 

in accordance with the Merit System Principles.26 The second set are steps that 

agency HR staff should take, in consultation with agency managers, to plan, 

develop, implement, and oversee recruitment activities. These steps require that the 

CHCO first ensure that the HR staff has the resources, capacity, and expertise 

needed to carry out such responsibilities. The final recommendations are intended 

for OPM and focus on how that agency can further address some of the issues that 

hamper Governmentwide recruitment efforts. 

CHCOs should work with agency leadership to: 

Distinguish recruitment as a critical management function and 

involve all levels of the organization. Leadership support is critical to 

establishing a successful, sustainable recruitment program. Recruitment is about 

making a continuous, long-term investment in attracting a high-quality workforce 

capable of accomplishing the organization’s mission. It affects every facet of the 

organization and therefore should not continue to be viewed solely as an HR 

function. Each level of the organization has a role in recruitment, and CHCOs can 

help gain the necessary understanding and commitment to this principle. The 

various roles include the following: 

26 “The Homeland Security Act of 2002,” Public Law 107-296, Title VIII, subtitle A, 107th Congress, 

Nov. 25, 2002. 

23 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
■ Agency senior leadership should show their commitment to recruitment by 

making it an agency priority, acquiring and allocating the needed resources, 

obtaining the commitment of the agency’s subcomponents, and holding midlevel managers accountable for recruitment activities and decisions pertaining 

to their operating organizations. 

■ Mid-level managers and first-level supervisors are ultimately responsible for 

ensuring that their immediate staff has the skills necessary to carry out the 

day-to-day activities of the agency. They should therefore have the lead role 

in identifying the type of workforce and skills necessary to accomplish 

program priorities and work with the HR staff to plan, implement, and 

evaluate recruitment activities. For example, they can work with the HR staff 

to identify recruitment needs in advance, draft vacancy announcements, 

obtain funding, design recruitment strategies, attend recruitment events, and 

assess both short- and long-term results. 

■ HR staff serve as technical experts for all levels of the agency’s management 

(from first-level supervisors through senior leadership). HR should work with 

managers to identify how recruitment can support mission accomplishment 

at all levels of the organization and consult with managers to identify current 

and future workforce needs. HR should also work with managers to plan, 

develop, execute, and measure the success of targeted recruitment strategies. 

■ Line employees can be an organization’s best recruiters. They know the work 

and can probably sell it better than almost anyone else. Their supervisors and 

the HR staff should encourage them to network, talk about agency career 

opportunities, and become involved in recruitment fairs and college visits. 

Establish the needed infrastructure. Few organizations can maintain a 

viable recruitment program without an established infrastructure. CHCOs should 

carefully examine what type of infrastructure is right for the agency’s needs. Below 

are some recommendations on the types of issues that should be examined. 

■ Funding mechanisms. Because funding is so critical to recruitment, we 

contend that a good recruitment program needs a designated budget, making 

it possible to adequately staff, plan, and coordinate recruitment efforts. 

CHCOs should promote this step to agency leadership and also work to 

garner agency support in devising and using consistent cost accounting 

methods to track recruitment funding and expenditures throughout the 

organization to help measure recruitment results. 

■ Management process. Each agency must decide if it needs centralized and/or 

decentralized recruitment processes to determine the necessary programmatic 

structure, staff, and resource allocation. The agency should consider factors 

such as its organizational culture, how it typically divides and coordinates 

work, and its long-term operational needs when making this decision. 

CHCO leadership will be essential in this agencywide effort. 

■ Recruitment Staff. For agencies with active recruitment programs, we 

recommend assigning dedicated HR staff to develop, implement, and evaluate 

recruitment activities. Collateral-duty staff often finds that time for these 

activities is limited because of other mission priorities. In contrast, dedicated 

staff can focus attention on recruitment needs, fostering consistency, 

24 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
collaboration, and economies across the organization. Staff size will vary 

based on organizational needs, but the staff should be properly trained in 

areas such as planning and evaluation, recruitment, marketing, and staffing. 

■ Recruiters. While we recommend assigning dedicated staff to manage the 

recruitment program, we saw no evidence that using collateral-duty recruiters 

to attend actual events hinders recruitment efforts. In fact, if agencies use a 

core group of line employees who are selected carefully, trained properly, and 

given the time to fulfill their duties, recruitment can be very successful. We 

recommend that the recruitment staff develop criteria-based selection 

processes to identify a core set of recruiters with the right skill sets, obtain 

supervisory commitment for the collateral duty assignments, and train 

recruiters on the principles of marketing, recruitment, selection, and meritbased hiring. If recruiters are assigned on an ad-hoc basis without proper 

preparation, it could cause inconsistency in the information and message 

delivered to potential applicants. 

Plan for retention. Recruitment is important, but employee retention is 

critical. High turnover is expensive, disruptive, and keeps agencies from 

establishing the institutional knowledge and expertise needed to accomplish their 

missions. Because it is not cost-effective to recruit talent the organization can’t 

keep, agencies should first examine their retention record and plan for good 

retention rates before embarking on a resource-intensive recruitment program. This 

will entail examining the work environment, supervisors’ skills, the organizational 

culture, and the developmental opportunities the agency offers, and then improve 

what might otherwise drive away talented employees. Because this type of 

organizational change effort will especially require top agency support, it will be 

essential for the CHCO to garner the support of agency leadership and oversee 

this initiative. 

HR staff, in consultation with agency managers, should: 

Develop a recruitment plan that is aligned with the agency’s 

strategic and workforce plans. Yogi Berra once said, “You’ve got to be 

careful if you don’t know where you’re going ‘cause you might not get there.” His 

words capture why recruitment planning is so important. If an agency doesn’t 

know what it wants to achieve through its recruitment program, it will not know 

where to invest resources or how to measure success. 

Most agencies are required through the Government Performance and Results Act 

and the President’s Management Agenda to develop 5-year strategic and workforce 

plans. Developing a 3-5 year recruitment plan that is aligned with the agency 

strategic and workforce plans will help map out what the agency wants to achieve 

through its recruitment program, how it will achieve those goals, and how it will 

know when those goals are met. Recruitment plans should specify recruitment 

goals, the targeted applicant pool(s), the strategies necessary to attract those 

candidates, and the performance indicators needed to determine if the goals are 

25 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
met. Such planning will help the agency, as a whole, anticipate needs rather than 

just react to individual vacancies. As a result, the agency will be better able to 

prioritize recruitment strategies, decrease duplication of effort, and pool resources 

across the organization. 

HR staff should develop the plan with input from all stakeholders, including the 

CHCO, senior leadership, managers at all levels, and external stakeholders as 

appropriate. The plan should be flexible enough to allow for adjustments when 

priorities or budgets change. Finally, the plan should be widely communicated and 

publicized throughout the agency so that all those involved in implementation 

understand their roles and responsibilities. 

Employ a balanced set of recruitment strategies that effectively 

market the organization. All recruitment strategies are not created equal – 

nor should they be. Some agencies have no trouble recruiting the people they need. 

Other agencies have little difficulty recruiting in general, but need strategies that 

target particular skills or underrepresented groups. Still others have a hard time 

recruiting for any and all positions. There are various reasons for these differences. 

For instance, some agencies are much more visible to the public or have more 

compelling missions. Some have a need for greater technical skills that are not 

readily available. Some have geographical locations that either draw interest from 

applicants or deter applicant interest. 

Therefore, agencies should employ a balanced set of recruitment strategies that meet 

their various needs. It is entirely possible for the Federal Government to recruit 

successfully – even when competing against the private sector. It just needs to be 

proactive and creative. When identifying what recruitment strategies to use, HR 

staff should work with hiring managers to: 

■ Tailor recruitment strategies to the market (e.g., demographic, geographic, 

and occupational specialties) from which the agency is recruiting; that means 

doing the homework necessary to get to know that market. 

■ Make sure recruitment materials, especially vacancy announcements, are clear, 

professional, and represent the organization well. 

■ Get beyond posting. Posting vacancy announcements to an agency web site 

is, at best, a passive recruitment strategy. Rather than making applicants 

search for the agency, the agency must identify the type of applicants it needs 

and actively search for them. 

■ Use automation to support, not replace, human contact. Interaction between 

an applicant and the agency’s recruiters helps build and keep the applicant’s 

interest. 

■ Build relationships with colleges, universities, and professional organizations 

and maintain those relationships even when not hiring. Because these 

relationships provide such a constant, rich recruitment source, HR staff 

should continually encourage hiring managers and line employees to also 

build them. 

■ Build relationships with applicants. Did the organization have more qualified 

applicants than it could hire this time? Then make them want to keep 

applying. HR staff (and hiring managers when appropriate) should actively 

26 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
communicate with all applicants and make the process a positive experience 

for them even if they do not get hired this time. 

■ Use available flexibilities. If recruitment bonuses or student loan repayments 

are not affordable for the agency or hiring manager, HR should encourage the 

use of smaller referral bonuses or build a marketing strategy that highlights 

the agency’s strong points, such as work life programs or developmental 

opportunities. Further, HR staff should explore how new hiring flexibilities, 

such as direct hire and the FCIP, can complement recruitment efforts. 

■ Leverage existing low-cost or no-cost tools to support recruitment efforts. 

This is particularly important for agencies with limited resources or that only 

have occasional hiring needs. There are a number of examples of these types 

of resources in the next section of this report, including OPM’s USAJOBS 

and its Featured Job, Featured Employer, and Jobs in Demand sections and 

the Partnership for Public Service’s Call to Serve network. 

Evaluate success. It cannot be said enough – measurement is critical to an 

effectively managed enterprise. With limited resources available, agencies must 

strategically manage their costs and resources and be able to justify allocations. 

Therefore, HR should ensure that evaluating the success of individual recruitment 

strategies and the overall program’s ability to attract qualified candidates becomes an 

integral component of the recruitment program. 

Working with hiring managers, HR staff should be able to identify which 

recruitment strategies work well, which do not, and when to use specific approaches 

– tailored to the specific circumstances – to earn the biggest return on investment. 

HR staff and managers should be able to demonstrate that the recruitment efforts 

the organization employed resulted in more diverse, more qualified applicant pools. 

Finally, they should be able to track the quality and retention of new hires to 

determine the long-term impact of the recruitment strategies on the organization. 

HR should collaborate with hiring managers to use the information derived from 

these evaluations to improve recruitment efforts and direct resources where they 

have the highest return on investment. Automation can help measure the results of 

recruiting activities, but this capability must be planned for in advance. HR staff 

should not assume that the new system will automatically include needed data 

tracking capabilities specific to the agency’s requirements. 

Position the agency to make good selections. The ultimate goal of 

recruitment is to ensure that the Government has a diverse, highly skilled workforce 

that can provide high-quality services to the American public. However, 

recruitment alone cannot achieve this goal. It is but one aspect of a comprehensive 

staffing program. Even the best recruitment strategies will not result in a highquality hire with the needed talent unless the agency has adequately defined the 

job’s requirements, employed valid instruments to assess applicant qualifications, 

and established a reasonable hiring process. The HR staff should take the lead on 

this effort to ensure these practices are in place. 

27 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
OPM should: 

Address Governmentwide challenges. OPM has played a valuable 

leadership role in recent years to help the Government retool its recruitment efforts 

after nearly a decade of little hiring. We encourage OPM to continue looking for 

new flexibilities and developing programs that can help agency recruitment efforts 

in this time of ever-increasing competition for high-quality employees. In addition, 

we recommend that OPM consider the following actions: 

■ Examine the impact of legislated personnel flexibilities granted to individual 

agencies to determine if they create imbalances in recruitment and retention. 

In recent years, numerous agencies have been granted legislative relief from 

portions of Title 5 of the U.S. Code, which contains the laws governing the 

civil service merit system. Some of the flexibilities have provided these 

agencies a competitive edge in recruitment. Compensation reform that allows 

some agencies to offer higher salaries is a prime example. OPM should 

evaluate the results of these flexibilities to determine if they should be 

extended Governmentwide and then seek to grant regulatory or statutory 

authority for all agencies where appropriate. 

■ Evaluate how to overcome barriers in using HR flexibilities. For instance, 

recent OPM and GAO reports indicate that direct hire and category rating 

flexibilities are not being used by agencies to the extent expected and agencies 

cite a number of barriers. These are two flexibilities that could shorten the 

hiring process, possibly making Government jobs more attractive to 

applicants. The reported obstacle to entry-level hiring caused by the 

Luevano Consent Decree and the related ACWA assessment tools could 

also be a topic of study. 

■ Expand efforts to market the Federal Government. OPM has done an 

impressive job through USAJOBS, the virtual IT job fair, and the nationwide 

recruitment fairs to market Governmentwide opportunities and to simplify 

the application process. We encourage OPM to continue these efforts and 

possibly expand them to include working with agencies on developing a 

nationwide marketing campaign to improve the Government’s public image 

as an employer, rather than trying to accomplish this agency by agency. 

28 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
AGENCY ILLUSTRATIONS


A s the Government finds itself competing for talent with the private sector, 

other nonprofit sectors, and even with itself, it needs to be better 

prepared to recruit a diverse, high quality workforce. In the previous 

section of this report, MSPB provided a number of recommendations to assist 

agency efforts in this regard. In this section, we illustrate how agencies have already 

implemented some of these same recommendations to address their individual 

recruitment challenges. 

The practices described below are meant to provide a sample of the many creative 

recruitment activities occurring in Government. They by no means catalogue all of 

the strategies being employed. Rather, we have provided examples from a diverse 

selection of organizations that vary by mission, size, occupation, and recruitment 

approach, hoping to address a wide set of reader needs and interests. We do not 

attempt to evaluate the outcomes of the cited recruitment practices. Rather, the 

examples should be used to stimulate discussion and further investigation into the 

types of recruitment approaches available to meet particular organizational needs. 

Obtain Management Support and Participation 

MSPB interviewed a number of HR officials at agencies with prominent 

recruitment programs, and they all indicated that leadership support is one of the 

most important factors in establishing a successful recruitment program; it drives all 

recruitment activities. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

NASA’s Administrator, Sean O’Keefe, has served as the impetus behind many of 

the agency’s human capital initiatives. When he became the Administrator in 

December 2001, he brought with him a commitment to sustaining a high 

quality workforce and a vision for a “One NASA” approach to achieving the 

agency’s mission. This leadership commitment has enabled the agency to move 

forward on a number of innovative approaches to managing its human capital, 

particularly in regard to recruitment. 

At NASA, human capital strategies are integrated and linked to the agency’s 

mission, vision, core values, goals and objectives through a Strategic Human 

Capital Plan and companion Strategic Human Capital Implementation Plan. 

29 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
These two documents provide a roadmap for specific actions and initiatives 

to ensure that NASA has the right workforce, at the right time, with the 

right skills. 

On February 24, 2004, after House and Senate approval, President George W. 

Bush signed into law the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004. This law provides 

NASA with new human capital flexibilities that have been crafted to enhance 

its ability to recruit and sustain a world-class workforce. Additionally, NASA 

has developed a Competency Management System (CMS) that reportedly 

enables managers to compare future competency demands with the current 

knowledge base. When projected skills gaps are identified, the CMS ties that 

information into a variety of human capital initiatives including training, 

diversity, and education. 

NASA’s corporate recruitment strategy is an element of the agency’s integrated 

human capital management strategy. It is a deliberate, focused initiative 

structured to help ensure a flexible, agile, and diverse workforce not just for the 

short-term but also for the future. It supports the human capital objective of 

the NASA 2003 Strategic Plan to “attract and maintain a workforce that is 

representative of the nation’s diversity and includes the competencies that 

NASA needs to deliver sustained levels of high performance that the agency’s 

challenging mission requires.” 

Using workforce planning tools and the competency management system, 

NASA identified 10 agency at-risk competencies (i.e., those that if left 

unaddressed could become future competency gaps). These at-risk 

competencies became the focus of the fall 2003 corporate recruitment activity 

in which all the NASA Centers and Headquarters participated. Staff from the 

Offices of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity Programs and their 

Center counterparts supported the corporate recruitment effort. The 

Enterprises and Center leadership and Center hiring managers also participated. 

The program developed targeted recruitment strategies and more efficient 

hiring processes to attract and obtain entry-level talent. Officials have reported 

that the agency has been able to make over 100 offers of employment to highly 

qualified, diverse candidates either during on-campus events or shortly 

thereafter. Additionally, the corporate recruitment strategy has resulted in 

enhanced collaboration among the Centers’ recruitment efforts and increased 

the effectiveness of outreach and recruitment activities to academic institutions 

and professional associations. 

In addition to obtaining leadership support, a number of agencies indicated that 

involving top management in recruitment activities is an important way to further 

recruitment efforts. It not only serves to impress candidates and increase their 

interest in the organization, but it also gets managers invested in the process. They 

learn the importance of these activities and see that recruitment is a management 

function, not solely an HR function. 

30 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) 

DFAS markets itself as the world’s largest finance and accounting organization, 

with approximately 15,000 civilian employees who provide financial and 

accounting services for the Department of Defense. In keeping with this 

image, DFAS initiated an extensive recruitment program to develop the 

expertise and professionalism of its accountant workforce. A key recruitment 

strategy is to acquire name recognition among accounting students and 

professionals through building relationships with colleges and universities. 

Thomas Bloom, DFAS’s Director from May 1999 to December 2003, was a 

strong advocate for the recruitment program, recognized its importance to the 

delivery of the service’s mission, and became actively involved in recruitment 

activities. He vigorously recruited at his alma mater by attending college fairs, 

meeting with and interviewing potential applicants, establishing relationships 

with accounting and management professors, and accepting speaking 

engagements at the university. Officials reported that his one-on-one recruiting 

was a big hit with candidates and played a major role in getting them interested 

in and excited about the organization. They were impressed that such a highlevel official would spend his time attending these events and felt it 

demonstrated the organization’s commitment to its workforce. Furthermore, it 

set an example for other executives within the service, increasing field director 

participation in recruitment activities. 

Plan for Recruitment 

A number of agencies indicated that recruitment planning is crucial to a successful 

program. Once the agency determines through strategic and workforce planning 

that there is a need to recruit talent, it can then identify specific recruitment goals, 

define the targeted applicant pool, and determine the strategies necessary to attract 

those candidates. A written recruitment plan helps communicate and coordinate 

priorities, strategies, and responsibilities across the agency. 

Social Security Administration (SSA) 

In the late 1990s, SSA conducted an advanced analysis of its workforce, using 

historical attrition and retirement data broken down by occupation, location, 

and diversity. It discovered that a large percentage of its mission-critical 

workforce would be leaving through retirement or attrition at a time when its 

workload would be increasing because of aging baby boomers. The retirement 

wave report projected a reasonably accurate level of annual attrition. 

The workforce analysis served as a stimulus for agency management to make 

human resources a priority. As a result, SSA identified human capital 

management as one of its four strategic goals, developed a workforce transition 

plan that supports its strategic objective to “recruit, develop, and retain a highperforming workforce,” and crafted a national recruitment plan. The 

31 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
recruitment plan was developed through discussions with SSA executives and 

human resource directors, obtaining commitment from other agency 

stakeholders, and benchmarking against leading Federal agencies and private 

sector companies. The plan guides the national recruitment and marketing 

effort started in 2001. 

As part of recruitment planning, some agencies conduct market research to find out 

how to best attract the targeted applicant pool by analyzing economic conditions, 

employment trends, the potential applicant pool, and demographic factors. 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 

The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 drove a comprehensive 

reorganization and modernization within the agency. To support the 

restructuring, IRS conducted workforce analysis and competency modeling that 

was later used in formulating a recruitment strategy. 

As part of its recruitment analysis, IRS conducted market research to identify 

how to appeal to the targeted applicant pool. The agency worked with a 

contractor to conduct focus groups, demographic research, and market analyses 

to identify marketing needs. The results indicated that most college students, a 

targeted demographic, knew very little about the agency and what it does and 

view Government employment as mundane and bureaucratic. In addition, 

many of the agency’s own employees indicated they would not recommend 

working for IRS to a friend. 

As a result of IRS’s workforce planning efforts and market research, the agency 

designed a multimedia marketing strategy and a 3-year recruitment and 

marketing plan. The plan prioritizes needs and strategies, thereby allowing for 

flexibility in response to shifting budget allocations and agency priorities. 

Through these efforts, HR officials reported having met the agency’s hiring 

goals for 2001-2003 and having increased the quality and diversity of 

candidates to carry out the agency’s mission. 

Improve Marketing Efforts 

The way an agency presents itself to the public is important to its ability to 

recruit a qualified, diverse workforce. Appearing disorganized or unprofessional 

gives the impression that the agency is bureaucratic and nonresponsive and 

discourages applicants from applying. Furthermore, having no name recognition 

undermines an agency’s ability to compete with known private sector companies. 

In response, agencies try to develop recruitment and marketing materials that are 

clear and professional and present a unified, memorable message that appeals to 

targeted applicants. 

32 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
Integrated Marketing Package 

Social Security Administration’s 

The Social Security Administration started a national recruitment and 

marketing campaign in 2001. The goal of this campaign is to represent the 

agency to applicants as well as, if not better than, the private sector does. SSA 

faces particular recruitment challenges because of its size, geographic dispersion, 

and workforce needs. It employs almost 65,000 employees in 1,300 offices 

nationwide, and its employees deal with people from all walks of life on a daily 

basis. Therefore, recruiting for diversity and foreign language skills is 

particularly important. 

First, SSA developed a tagline that would appeal to applicants’ altruistic nature 

and demonstrate that SSA’s mission touches the lives of all Americans: “Make a 

difference in people’s lives and your own.” The agency then developed an 

integrated package of general and occupation-specific marketing materials built 

around that tagline. The materials use photographs and testimonies of actual 

SSA employees and discuss the advantages of working for SSA and the Federal 

Government, including the innovative jobs, career advancement, health 

benefits, and retirement benefits. The different materials are used at 

conferences, diversity fairs, and community events all over the country. The 

marketing package includes: 

■ A recruitment web site ■ Bookmarks and other giveaways 

■ Brochures and posters ■ A CD-ROM 

■ Displays, banners, and other signage ■ Print and radio advertisements 

SSA’s nationwide offices have access to all of the recruitment materials and are 

encouraged to use them so as to establish a consistent corporate image. The 

recruitment web site serves as the key information point for applicants, and 

other recruitment materials are designed to drive potential applicants to the 

web site where they can learn more about career opportunities. 

Finally, SSA attempts to target media to the intended audience. For instance, it 

produces bilingual recruitment materials and advertises in bilingual magazines 

and newspapers to target diversity. A Latina magazine has even featured an 

article about three SSA executives and how they became leaders. Originally, the 

national marketing campaign addressed three core SSA occupations: claims 

representatives, teleservice representatives, and IT specialists. It is continually 

expanding to include other key occupations within the agency. 

A particular marketing effort that needs improvement is the Federal job 

announcement. The job announcement is currently one of the most visible, yet weak, 

Federal recruitment tools. MSPB recently recommended that agencies improve 

announcements by reducing their length, reducing the use of negative and confusing 

language, using clear descriptions to explain and sell jobs, and clearly describing how 

to apply for positions.27 Some agencies have started to show progress in this area. 

27 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Help Wanted: A Review of Federal Vacancy Announcements, 

Washington, DC, Apr. 2003. 

33 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
IRS’s Model Vacancy Announcement 

OPM, in its redesign of USAJOBS, is attempting to revamp the job 

announcement template to make it more streamlined and user-friendly. The 

template is a tool to help organize announcements, but agencies must still put 

forth the effort to improve the actual content. Using the new template, OPM 

recently worked with IRS to write an announcement for the criminal 

investigator position. This particular announcement uses a new tabbed display 

format that allows applicants to access necessary information in a quick and 

organized manner. In addition, the announcement does a fairly good job of 

clearly describing job responsibilities, necessary qualifications, and how to 

apply. IRS’s announcement can serve as a model for other agencies’ attempts to 

improve job announcements. 

Use the Internet 

The Internet can serve several recruitment purposes: 

■ Improve the organization’s image through branding, 

■ Educate applicants about the organization and its career opportunities, 

■ Announce jobs, 

■ Allow applicants to post or update resumes and contact information on-line, 

■ Allow applicants to apply on-line, 

■ Communicate with the applicant. 

Agencies have begun to use the Internet to address all of these objectives. Below are 

examples of how agencies have used web sites, on-line applications, virtual career 

fairs, and chat rooms to broaden their recruitment approaches. 

Web Sites 

Agencies increasingly use web sites to provide guidance and tools to educate 

applicants about the Federal hiring process, how to find jobs, how to apply for jobs, 

and what to expect during the process. 

Department of Defense (DOD) 

DOD’s recently launched civilian occupation recruitment site (go-defense.com) 

not only does an impressive job of marketing the Department’s mission and 

benefits in an eye-catching, professional manner, but also purports to offer real 

time applicant assistance through its Defense Applicant Assistance Office 

(DAAO). According to the web site, applicants can communicate with DAAO 

staff advisors through e-mail or a toll-free telephone number as they research 

career opportunities, search vacancy announcements, and build resumes. The 

staff can provide assistance in completing required documentation and forms 

and offer guidance on responding to vacancy announcements. Finding ways to 

be responsive to applicants in real time should help decrease applicant attrition 

34 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
and improve applicants’ perceptions of the agency and the Federal 

hiring process. 

The downside to recruitment web sites is that they can actually discourage potential 

applicants if the sites are disorganized, unprofessional, or contain negative messages. 

Redesigning web sites can be the first step in improving recruitment programs. 

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 

Between 1993 and 2000, VA downsized its workforce by about 15 percent and 

did very little hiring. Now, the Department is trying to revamp its recruitment 

program and started with its recruitment web site. As late as July 2001, 

applicants who accessed the site found the following greeting: 

Even though the Department of Veterans Affairs is consolidating facilities 

and reducing administrative functions, some positions are difficult to fill 

and vacancies exist. 

Obviously, this is not a strong way to market an agency. Further, the site had 

broken and disorganized links and offered little information regarding the 

agency, what it does, and why applicants would want to work there. 

Using in-house expertise, the Department completely overhauled the site in 

November 2002 (VA.gov/jobs), creating a site that conveys a positive and 

progressive image. It has an array of photographs depicting VA’s multiple 

missions and diverse workforce; working links to VA job announcements; a 

clear, concise summary of Federal benefits and other employment information; 

a “15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About VA” link that highlights VA’s 

mission accomplishments; and more. Traffic to the web site has increased 

dramatically from 50,000 to approximately 120,000 average monthly visitors. 

The Department plans to continually improve the site. The next step is to 

incorporate a newly developed marketing theme designed around VA’s tagline, 

“The career you want, the future you deserve.” 

On-Line Applications 

The slow, nonresponsive Federal hiring process can deter applicants from applying 

for jobs and creates a negative impression of the Government. To try to address this 

issue, agencies have begun to implement automated application and selection tools 

designed to speed the hiring process and be more responsive to applicants. 

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

In February 2000, the USGS was one of the first civilian agencies to implement 

a comprehensive automated staffing system. The HR staff can use its Online 

Automated Recruitment System (OARS) to develop vacancy announcements 

and criteria for rating and ranking. A vacancy notification service sends e-mail 

notifications to interested applicants and other targeted recruitment sources. 

Applicants register and apply for vacancies on-line. The system immediately 

rates, ranks, and scores applications, taking into account Federal hiring 

35 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
regulations. The list of best qualified candidates is manually verified and 

provided to the hiring manager within 7 days of the vacancy closing – in 

contrast to the 30 to 60 days that was typical before automation. USGS 

reports that OARS has dramatically reduced the time it takes to fill merit 

promotion and competitive examining vacancies with high-quality hires, 

increased the number of applicants per vacancy, and given applicants a quick 

and easy way to apply for jobs. 

A key drawback to current automation practices is that agencies are developing 

individual systems that do not communicate with one another. Therefore, an 

applicant who is searching for a Government job must complete a separate 

application for each individual agency to which he or she applies. This makes the 

process even more complicated and cumbersome than before. As shown below, 

OPM is working to address this concern. 

OPM’s Recruitment One-Stop 

The Office of Personnel Management is in the process of implementing 

Recruitment One-Stop (ROS), an e-Government initiative associated with the 

USAJOBS web site. ROS is intended to provide all potential applicants with a 

single location where they can find out about Federal employment and 

vacancies, create a single application that can be used for jobs across the 

Government, and submit the application electronically for each vacancy. OPM 

is coordinating with agencies to ensure that application data can be securely 

exchanged between ROS and agency automated systems while maintaining 

agencies’ autonomy in tailoring marketing messages and implementing staffing 

solutions, such as tailored application information, to meet their needs. This is 

a step in the right direction. The easier and faster Government can make the 

hiring process, the more encouraged applicants will be to apply. 

Virtual Career Fairs 

Traditional career fairs continue to be an important part of agencies’ recruitment 

programs, but the emergence of new Internet technology allows agencies to reach a 

broader, worldwide audience without having to travel to individual fairs. 

Marketing virtual career fairs should be planned carefully, however. Audiences 

should be properly targeted to ensure the agency is not overwhelmed by 

applications from unqualified candidates. 

Virtual Information Technology Job Fair 

In April 2002, the Federal Chief Information Officer Council and OPM 

teamed up to conduct a first-ever Governmentwide virtual information 

technology job fair. They widely marketed the fair through web sites, Internet 

banners, and other targeted advertisements. Applicants logged onto OPM’s 

web site and completed an application, a screening questionnaire, a technology 

aptitude test, and an interactive IT skills inventory. OPM used automated 

selection tools to rate and rank applicants and forwarded qualified candidates to 

the participating agencies. 

36 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
In all, 23 agencies participated in the job fair, 270 job openings were posted, 

and about 20,000 applications were submitted. OPM issued on-line selection 

certificates 15 days after the first day of the job fair, and 103 job offers were 

made (as of July 31, 2002). Though some applicants noted a few problems 

with slow servers and data-entry mechanisms, this first-time effort proved to be 

an innovation in Federal recruitment and selection. 

Chat Rooms 

Communicating with applicants is extremely important in keeping them interested, 

informed, and positive about the application experience. Chat room technology is 

a new way to communicate with applicants, answer their questions, and prepare 

them for the possibility of Federal employment. 

Foreign Service Officer Chat Rooms 

The Department of State has used Internet chat rooms to demystify the 

examination process for Foreign Service Officer applicants. The Department 

hired a contractor to set up the site and process for the chats. Five to ten days 

before the events, State sent e-mail invitations to targeted groups and posted a 

notice on the Department’s web site. They set up 2-hour sessions in five rooms 

that were staffed by Foreign Service Officers. In two of the rooms, applicants 

could ask questions about the test: what it is like, how they can prepare, how it 

is scored, and so forth. In the other rooms, applicants could find out about the 

job itself as well as what life is like in the Foreign Service: what the living 

conditions are like and how they can prepare their families, for example. 

Transcripts of sessions were later posted on the Department’s web site. 

Although State has not measured the impact of the chat rooms on exam 

registration or performance, they have received positive feedback from 

the participants. 

Build Relationships With Schools 

Because the Federal Government has been downsizing and doing very little hiring, 

agencies reported having lost touch with a rich recruitment source – colleges and 

universities. Now that agencies are rebuilding their recruitment programs, they 

have found it necessary to also rebuild their relationships with these institutions. 

Many of the agencies we interviewed believe they receive a larger return on 

investment when they target a limited number of schools and build strong 

relationships with them. They recommend several steps to build these relationships: 

■ Identify schools that best meet recruitment needs. Building relationships 

with schools that do not have the academic programs being targeted or a 

diverse student body will probably not provide the candidates an agency 

needs. Identify selection criteria and choose schools based on those criteria. 

■ Get involved on campus. Participating in occasional campus recruitment 

events may not be enough to establish a good working relationship. Agencies 

should take the time to become involved with the school. Establish recruiters 

37 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
on campus, make presentations to classes or student organizations, serve as 

guest faculty, or talk regularly with the school’s career services staff or faculty. 

Using alumni in these activities is especially effective. 

■ Get students involved with the agency. There is no better way to build name 

recognition than involving students in agency projects. Two ways this can be 

done is through hiring interns or asking classes to conduct projects for 

the agency. 

■ Hire from the targeted schools. When school faculty or career services staff 

spend time nurturing relationships with agencies, they want to see a return on 

that investment of time – meaning they want to see their students hired. 

■ Keep in touch even when not hiring. Too often, agencies only take part in 

campus activities when they are recruiting for an open vacancy. Relationships 

grow stale this way. If agencies maintain even a minimal presence on campus, 

they will create name recognition with the students and career counselors. 

This will help sustain a rich recruitment source for when they are hiring. 

Below are a few examples of what some agencies are doing to build relationships 

with targeted colleges and universities. 

IRS’s School Selection Process 

The IRS has devised a fairly rigorous program for choosing schools. Each year 

or so, the Talent and Technology Management staff identifies or updates school 

selection criteria, such as the diversity of the student body, academic programs 

offered, and locations. Then it conducts a search of schools that meet the 

criteria. To further narrow the field, the staff measures those schools against a 

secondary set of selection criteria, such as the number of students that graduate 

from the targeted academic programs and the number of students IRS 

previously hired from the school. The staff then categorizes the schools into 

three tiers: Tier A schools are the core schools where Internet and recruiter 

activity should be targeted; Tier B schools are those that provide unique 

opportunities and should be targeted if there are time and resources; Tier C 

schools are the remaining schools that IRS can reach through general 

recruitment media. 

Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) 

Targeted College Outreach 

GAO has a vigorous and highly acclaimed recruitment program that has been 

spearheaded by its Comptroller General and Governmentwide human capital 

advocate, David Walker. The program is centrally administered by a small staff 

in the Human Capital office and is carried out by collateral duty staff. It relies 

heavily on its workforce to be constant recruiters for the organization. GAO 

has identified approximately 50 national colleges and universities with which it 

seeks to establish long-term relationships, increase on-campus visibility, and 

highlight minority outreach. 

38 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
For most of these “focus universities,” GAO has assigned an agency senior 

executive as the Campus Executive. Among the executive’s other duties, he or 

she has primary responsibility for establishing collegial relationships with that 

university. The Executive is supported by a Campus Manager who handles the 

operational aspects of campus recruitment and a team of recruiters. Together, 

they implement the agency’s recruitment strategy at the school. They establish 

relationships with professors, deans, and the career placement director and work 

with them to identify the most effective recruitment strategies and how GAO 

can best establish a presence at the school. They attend recruitment events, 

distribute recruitment materials, conduct interviews on campus, make 

presentations to student organizations, serve on advisory boards, and act as 

guest speakers for classes. They use these relationship-building efforts to recruit 

up to 200 entry-level analysts and approximately 140 summer interns per year. 

Recruitment Schemes 

Two Agencies’ Success in Getting Students Involved in 

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of 

Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement involve 

college students in developing agency recruitment and marketing schemes. 

Agency recruiters establish relationships with marketing professors at targeted 

colleges and universities, particularly those with a diverse student body. As class 

projects, marketing students design and implement fun, creative recruitment 

strategies on their campus that are based on agency objectives. 

The program benefits both students and the agencies. Students gain first-hand 

experience in designing and implementing a marketing program, learn about 

Federal career opportunities, and gain college credit. The agency can establish 

partnerships with targeted schools, increase awareness of the agency on campus, 

improve student perceptions of the agency, generate imaginative recruitment 

strategies and marketing ideas, and, ultimately, increase recruitment 

opportunities on the campus. 

Target Diversity 

As the Government addresses its human capital challenges and reshapes its 

workforce, it is presented with a valuable opportunity to increase the representation 

of minorities, women, veterans, and the disabled, especially in occupations and 

grades in which those groups are underrepresented. To take full advantage of this 

opportunity, many Government agencies are developing targeted recruitment 

strategies to increase diversity in the applicant pool and address existing inequities. 

Federal Bureau of Investigation 

The FBI has established an aggressive nationwide recruitment program to 

attract applicants, especially minorities and women, for Special Agent and 

support positions. The FBI does not have a problem recruiting highly skilled 

39 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
candidates, but recruiting for a diverse workforce is more of a challenge. 

Therefore, approximately 80 percent of the FBI’s recruitment resources are used 

to develop and implement a variety of recruitment strategies to expand the 

diversity of the applicant pool. 

Over 90 percent of the career fairs and conferences attended by FBI recruiters 

target persons, particularly minorities and women, possessing critical skills. 

National advertising strategies also aggressively target these job seekers. Specific 

strategies use industry trade publications; multi-media materials distributed to 

colleges, the military, and other targeted groups; classified ads and banner ads; 

and a host of other targeted media sources. Further, the FBI is actively 

partnering with the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher 

Education Internship Program, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Community Leaders, 

and the Faith-Based Community Council on Law Enforcement and 

Intelligence to recruit and hire minorities possessing vital skills, such as fluency 

in critical foreign languages. The FBI reports that its program has improved 

the public image of the agency and increased the number and diversity of wellqualified applicants. 

Streamline the Hiring Process 

As mentioned, applicants often perceive the Federal hiring process to be long and 

arduous. If applicants continue to be discouraged from applying for Federal jobs 

because of the complexity of the process, applicant attrition rates may rise as they 

accept other job offers. Rather than wait for Governmentwide reforms, many 

agencies are exploring how internal regulations or practices contribute to the length 

of the process and are identifying strategies to overcome these internal barriers. 

Department of State 

Historically, the Department of State’s hiring process for Foreign Service 

Officers took up to 2 years from start to finish. Potential applicants would 

register for the annual Foreign Service Written Examination, take the exam at 

the appointed time, and wait to hear the results. Successful candidates would 

go on to take the oral assessment. Once notified that they had passed the oral 

exam, they would then proceed for the medical and background checks. All of 

the individual processes were compartmentalized and administered sequentially. 

In 2001, the Department undertook the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative 

(DRI), with the goal of hiring about 1,000 employees (over attrition or 

additional employees) within 3 years to ensure global diplomatic readiness. 

Human resources and personnel security professionals examined the existing 

hiring process and determined that it could be streamlined to support this goal, 

largely by reducing wait times and de-compartmentalizing the different 

processes. First, they made it possible for potential applicants to register for the 

written exam on-line and offered the exam twice in 2002, making it more 

accessible to a wider, more diverse audience. 

40 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
They then reduced wait times and aligned some of the processes. Once 

applicants successfully complete the written exam, they call and schedule an 

individual oral examination with a contractor. Applicants bring to the oral 

assessment the information they need for the background investigation and 

medical clearance. If they pass the assessment, they immediately begin the 

medical clearance process and background investigation, with the initial 

personal interview being conducted on-site. The background investigations 

and medical clearances are prioritized, and “clear cases” are fast-tracked with 

final adjudication often occurring within weeks. 

In addition to streamlining the hiring process, State also evaluated what 

resources would be necessary to meet its 3-year hiring goal. As a result, the HR 

office hired additional staff to assist with applicant follow-up and the final 

review process. The Diplomatic Security staff hired or contracted with 

additional background investigators to speed up that process. State was able to 

reengineer what had been a 2-year process and reduce it, in many cases, to 

10 months. 

We recognize that the State Department has a unique hiring system, and its 

streamlining solutions may not work for other agencies. Furthermore, the 

Department received additional funding for the DRI that allowed it to hire more 

staff. But the concept is the same for all agencies – identify what parts of the 

agency’s hiring system slow the process and find agency-specific strategies to deal 

with those barriers. 

Use Available Flexibilities 

Federal agencies have many human resource flexibilities available to them to recruit 

and hire a high-quality workforce, and the number increases every year. In recent 

years, agencies have been given the ability to offer student loan repayments to help 

attract candidates, hire through the Federal Career Intern Program to better target 

recruitment and cultivate tomorrow’s leaders, and use category rating to assess 

applicants’ qualifications in order to streamline the hiring process. These are just a 

few of the many flexibilities available through Title 5, and some agencies have made 

great strides in capitalizing on these flexibilities. 

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) MBA Fellows Program 

In June 2002, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Secretary Chao launched the 

MBA Fellows Program to attract and hire candidates with business expertise 

and prepare them for future leadership positions through developmental 

assignments and rotations. The Human Resources Center then set out to create 

a program that could serve as a model across DOL agencies in terms of using 

available human resource flexibilities. Examples of how the Center integrates 

HR flexibilities into the program include: 

■ Using the FCIP as the vehicle to hire MBA Fellows because the program’s 

excepted service appointing authority allows for targeted recruitment and 

requires developmental opportunities that align with DOL’s hiring goals. 

41 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
■ Advertising positions at the GS-9 level to attract a higher level of talent. The 

Center is targeting candidates with advanced degrees, particularly Masters of 

Business Administration, and these candidates are more difficult to recruit at 

the GS-5/7 entry-level. 

■ Using recruitment bonuses and superior qualifications authority to make 

competitive job offers. DOL advertises bonus availability on its recruitment 

web page, and almost 80 percent of the Fellows received recruitment bonuses. 

■ Using a streamlined vacancy announcement that aptly describes the type of 

skills DOL is seeking, what the program entails, and how to apply. 

■ Automating the process to make it more streamlined and efficient. 

■ Using category rating to assess applicants, a step that helps the program reach 

candidates targeted in recruitment efforts and accelerates the hiring process. 

The MBA Fellows Program is an excellent example of how to use HR 

flexibilities to meet agency-specific recruitment challenges. By coupling these 

flexibilities with outreach to 350 accredited business schools, consortiums, and 

alumni, professional, and special-emphasis organizations, DOL was able to hire 

three classes totaling 45 highly qualified, competent, and diverse Fellows, all of 

whom DOL anticipates converting to permanent positions at the end of 

their rotations. 

Use Resources Strategically 

In today’s environment, resources are limited and need to be strategically managed 

to ensure they achieve intended objectives and generate a strong return on 

investment. This means measuring the success of recruitment strategies and using 

that information to determine where recruitment funding and personnel should 

be targeted. 

IRS Return on Investment Tracking 

IRS has begun to track the return on investment of its individual recruitment 

efforts, making possible informed decision-making on recruitment resource 

allocation. IRS staff members use cost models to track the money spent on 

individual strategies. They then use various feedback mechanisms (such as 

applicant surveys, web site tracking, and new hire surveys) to identify which 

recruitment strategies have the biggest impact. The agency has found that 60 

percent of applicants are brought in through the Internet and 30 percent 

through its full-time recruiter staff. IRS has also found that the use of print 

media does not increase the applicant pool, but can serve to increase name 

recognition and knowledge about the type of work IRS does. 

Determining the most productive recruitment methods has helped IRS modify 

its recruitment program. After seeing the effectiveness of the Internet, the 

agency is exploring ways to leverage technology to supplement recruiter 

activities, which are also effective but labor and cost intensive. For instance, 

42 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
IRS is expanding its web site to include an automated application system, 

anticipating that this will further increase the use and usefulness of the web site. 

Build a Recruitment Pool 

During our research, several agencies noted that it is hard to recruit qualified 

applicants in certain occupations and from certain underrepresented groups because 

of labor market shortages. Some may consider this an issue beyond the control of 

Federal agencies. However, a number of agencies are trying to address it through 

long-term capacity building programs that can help increase interest in academic 

disciplines as well as agency programs, and thus make it easier to recruit a qualified 

applicant pool later. 

NASA’s Summer High School Apprenticeship 

Research Program 

Numerous studies have shown that the pipeline of scientists and engineers is 

shrinking in the United States and competition for these skills is increasing. To 

increase its bench strength in these disciplines, the NASA Summer High School 

Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) offers approximately 400 junior 

and senior high school students the opportunity to participate in an 8-week 

intensive science and engineering apprenticeship program every summer. 

Approximately 200 attend a commuter component in which they commute 

regularly to a NASA field installation, and 200 attend the residential 

component in which they reside at select NASA space grant funded universities. 

The students are selected competitively based on their aptitude for and interest 

in science, technology, and engineering careers. SHARP’s goal is to increase the 

participation and success rates of students in these academic disciplines while 

also building interest in future career opportunities with NASA. 

NASA markets the program through traditional recruitment sources, such as 

local high schools, local, regional, and national educational conferences, the 

agency’s educational portal, brochures, and magazine advertisements. 

Additionally, it targets non-profit and social organizations whose memberships 

include minorities and other underrepresented groups to enhance the diversity 

of the applicant pool. It continues to mail hard copies of the recruitment 

materials to ensure that candidates without access to computers are also aware 

of the program. The agency continues to build relationships with a cadre of 

science and math teachers who have provided student applicant 

recommendations. NASA has found that word of mouth is the key method 

through which applicants hear about the program, and SHARP alumni are 

some of the strongest ambassadors for the program. While NASA is still 

measuring the long-term impact of SHARP on future recruitment efforts, 

participants report having positive experiences in the program. 

43 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
U.S. Forest Service 

For over 10 years, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has managed a national 

recruitment program that is based on developing partnerships with targeted 

universities that offer degree programs related to USFS’s mission and have 

diverse student populations. In addition to using traditional types of campus 

recruitment activities, the Forest Service dedicates part of its recruitment budget 

to working with universities to develop and increase their capacity to provide 

natural resource management academic programs. Not only can this 

development work help increase the number of diverse, qualified applicants in 

the overall labor force, but it also can be an excellent recruitment source 

for USFS. 

A particular success story is USFS’s 10-year partnership with Alabama A&M 

University (AAMU), a historically black university that trains more African 

American foresters than all other institutions combined, according the USFS. 

Although African-American foresters are still underrepresented in the agency’s 

workforce, foresters trained at AAMU represent the largest source of 

recruitment of African Americans into the Forest Service. USFS has one of its 

largest student recruitment programs at AAMU, hires a number of its forestry 

students as summer and permanent employees, provides financial support to 

students for training in forestry and natural resource fields, and conducts 

research with faculty members. In addition, USFS uses capacity enhancement 

funds to support faculty positions in AAMU’s forestry program and to add 

forestry resources to the university library. Over the past ten years, USFS 

reports that this partnership has enabled the university’s forestry program to 

grow and flourish. As a direct result of this partnership, in June 2002, AAMU 

became the first historically black university to receive professional accreditation 

from the Society of American Foresters. 

Partner and Leverage Resources 

Robust recruiting programs are not cheap. They cost money, use employee time, 

and need leadership commitment. But some agencies do not have money, 

resources, and/or commitment at the top – particularly smaller agencies and those 

that do not often have vacancies. What can they do? According to the agencies we 

interviewed, quite a bit. 

They suggested leveraging free or inexpensive recruitment strategies and offer 

agencies the following tips. Take advantage of word of mouth as a recruitment tool 

by offering referral bonuses to employees who recruit successful hires. Advertise in 

military magazines or at military transition centers to target veterans. Encourage 

managers and employees to visit alma maters and become involved in activities with 

college classes, student organizations, and career placement centers. Target 

university consortiums to obtain broader outreach. Network with professional 

organizations. Use in-house talent to design and produce recruitment materials. 

Use available technology to its greatest potential. Be creative, and the possibilities 

44 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
are endless. Below are some examples of additional free resources available 

to agencies. 

OPM’s Nationwide Recruitment Fairs 

In September 2003, OPM launched the first of 11 nationwide recruitment fairs 

as part of its Working for America initiative. OPM recognized that many 

agencies have critical staffing needs but strained resources. Therefore, it set out 

to create an initiative that would benefit all agency recruitment efforts, help 

applicants find jobs, and ultimately result in a set of high-quality, diverse hires 

in the Government. 

OPM not only arranged the logistics for each of the fairs, but also paid for 

agencies’ participation. This was a great motivator for many agencies that 

cannot afford to attend such events on their own. To identify fair sites, OPM 

analyzed nationwide demographics and chose sites that would facilitate 

reaching out to large, diverse populations. OPM conducted advance outreach 

to obtain agency participation, prepare agencies for the events, and market the 

fairs to the host communities. Further, OPM operated a booth at each fair to 

answer questions about Federal employment, review applicant resumes and 

narrative statements, provide training in using USAJOBS, and conduct 

workshops on various employment topics. 

At the time of this writing, it is too early to measure the actual impact of these 

recruitment fairs on agencies’ ability to recruit. However, the preliminary 

feedback from agencies has been positive, and OPM has exceeded its goals for 

agency and job seeker participation. OPM hopes to ultimately track the 

number, quality, and diversity of hires made as a result of these job fairs. 

This is a good example of an initiative that attempts to promote a unified 

recruitment approach to applicants, build recognition of Government job 

opportunities, improve the public’s perception of the Government as a 

desirable employer, and achieve economies of scale in recruitment activities, 

especially for financially strapped agencies. We encourage agencies to seek 

out, and create, other opportunities to partner with OPM on Governmentwide 

recruitment efforts. 

USAJOBS Features 

OPM’s USAJOBS web site is considered the Federal Government’s official 

source for jobs and employment information and is being enhanced under 

Recruitment One-Stop to become a one-stop source for Federal job applicants 

to search and apply for jobs. In addition to hosting vacancy announcements, 

the site offers agencies many free tools to help increase their name recognition 

and exposure. The home page displays three agency highlight areas: Featured 

Job, Featured Employer, and Jobs in Demand. Each of these features gives 

individual agencies a way to publicize what they do and markets the diverse 

opportunities in the Federal Government. If agencies are interested in being 

featured, they simply provide the feature’s content in a required format, and 

OPM will run it in 3-day rotations for as long as the agency requests. 

45 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
The agencies that we interviewed also recommend leveraging existing information 

to find out what other agencies are doing, learn from their successes and mistakes, 

and build on their experiences. Even the agencies that have strong, established 

recruitment programs seek to learn what others are doing, and many cited the Call 

to Serve initiative, discussed below, as an example of a great opportunity to learn 

and share information across the Government. 

Call to Serve 

In April 2002, the Partnership for Public Service, a non-profit organization 

dedicated to revitalizing Federal public service through a campaign of 

educational efforts, policy research, public-private partnerships, and legislative 

advocacy, partnered with OPM to launch Call to Serve: Leaders in Education 

Allied for Public Service. This is a national effort designed to educate students 

about the importance of public service and the dynamic career opportunities 

available to them. It also seeks to rebuild partnerships between the Federal 

Government and college campuses. Since 2002, Call to Serve has grown to a 

network of over 500 colleges and universities, 60 Federal agencies, and 10 

partner organizations. Call to Serve provides numerous benefits and resources 

to agencies, including access to the national college and university network, 

best practice information exchanges, and updates on campus trends and 

career fairs.28 

28 For more information, see the Partnership for Public Service’s Call to Serve web site at www.ourpublicservice.org 

46 Managing Federal Recruitment: Issues, Insights, and Illustrations 
POINTS OF CONTACT


The following resources can help you research additional information regarding 

some of the recruitment practices cited in this report. The contact information was 

verified in August 2004 and is subject to change. 

Defense Finance and Accounting Service Government Accountability Office 

www.dfas.mil/careers/ www.gao.gov/jobopp.htm 

Department of Defense Geological Survey 

www.go-defense.com/ www.usgs.gov/ohr/ 

Jo Ann Dack 

Department of Labor jdack@usgs.gov 

www.dol.gov/oasam/doljobs/ 

Sharon Ratliff-Gross Internal Revenue Service 

Ratliff-Gross.Sharon@dol.gov www.jobs.irs.gov/ 

Department of State National Aeronautics and Space 

www.careers.state.gov Administration 

Diane Castiglione www.nasajobs.nasa.gov/recruit 

castiglionedl@state.gov 

Office of Personnel Management 

Department of Veterans Affairs www.usajobs.com 

www.va.gov/jobs 

Partnership for Public Service 

Federal Bureau of Investigation www.ourpublicservice.org 

www.fbijobs.com/ Caroline Chang 

Cchang@ourpublicservice.org 

Forest Service 

www.fs.fed.us/fsjobs/ Social Security Administration 

John Kusano www.ssa.gov/careers 

Johnkusano@fs.fed.us Fred Glueckstein 

fred.glueckstein@ssa.gov 

47 A Report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 
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