Evening star., 1953-06-15
Screening U. S. Job Seekers

41tC SCACkd1 puU41C JOA11 fAoe
sistant Secretary of Commerce James
c. Worthy in being utterly appalled,"
but for different reasons. Mr.. Worthy's
address to the Society for Personnel
Administration on the subject I'm
proving Productivity in Government"
could hardly be considered worthy If
it was supposed to be based on fac
tual presentation of actual operations.
It was indeed worthy" illustration of
the popular trend of oversimplihc
of ideas and programs.
He stated that the Civil Service Com
mission puts heavy emphasis on writ
ten examinations in its selection of
new workers, whereas only about 2 per
cent of the thousands of Government
positions are covered by written exami-
nations. These include positions requir-
ing mechanical performance such as
stenographers and typists, and posi-
tionS requiring no specific experience
and an incomplete amount Of educa-
ton, such as student aid trainee. Some
few other positions. such as messenger
and clerk, use written examinations be-
cause Of the common denominator
present and the need to provide some
r
with the competitive system.
For practically all other positions ap-
plicants are judged on the basis Of the
education and experience which the
operating officials who will employ
these people require them to have for
the performance of the duties Of the
position. A study of the application
forms used in private industry, such as
North American Aviation, Boeing Air
craft, Westinghouse, Bell Aircraft and
even Mr.. Worthy's Sears Roebuck will
show that they ask for the same en-
ployment information. Why does pri-
vate industry want this information
before it hires an applicant? For the
same reason as Government. This is
done in order, to place an evaluation
upon the education and experience of
the applicant, to be judged according
to the requirements for proper per-
formance of duties. Yet Mr.. Worthy
says that private industry does not use
this type Of examination system, but
instead, tries to build up case of
examination versus interviews. What
magic means does private industry en-
ploy in their interview? Are they really
separate from the vast amount of edu-
cation, employment and reference data
required by private industry? Doesn't
Mr. Worthy know that the interview is
being used in Government where it is
desirable? Mr.. Worthy is either quite
ignorant Of his subject or he has some
specific reason for making such un-
factual statements. He recommends
system of making every agency respon-
sible for its own examining and re-
cruiting and urges greater decentraliza-
ton of recruiting from the Civil Serv-
ice Commission to the various bureaus.
Could it be that he is not aware that
such decentralization has been in effect
for some time and that there is very
little examining and recruiting func-
tions that the bureaus cannot use if
they so desire? 1t might be worthy"
for Mr.. Worthy to educate himself
along these lines and even go so far
as to find out whether the bureaus de-
sire to take over more of the examining
and recruiting in view of the fact that
they can presently obtain authority to
do practically anything they desire.
If Mr.. Worthy is sincere and also can
be considered as a spokesman for the
administration, he should take steps
to either amend or eliminate the Classi-
f1cation, Civil Service and Veterans
Preference Acts, which provide factors
of rigidity affecting examining and re-
cruiting operations in the Federal serv-
ice. Whether recruitment of personnel
for the Federal service is handled
through the operations of the Civil
Service Commission, boards of exam
liners. or by some as yet uncreated or
ganization within the establishments
themselves, the same human elements
which provoke most Of the operating
problems will be the same. The re-
luctance of operating personnel to trust
the Judgment Of any one other than
themselves in making appointments is
always going to be present. Our prob
lem is to admit this fact and put
healthy system of operation in their
hands rather than unfactually criticize
existing systems by oversimplif1cation
E. H. Woodward