Hiring Processes of Civil Servants

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Background
Alternatives
Recommendations
References

Abstract

State agencies need highly qualified staff to offer best services to the public and remain competitive in the job market. However, current hiring processes rarely attract and retain talented employees in state agencies. Therefore, civil service hiring processes require a review to match the best practices in the labor market and remain competitive as public and private organizations compete for the best talents. The essay provides recommendations for improving hiring processes with the aim of attracting and retaining the best talents in state agencies.

Introduction

In a dynamic environment, every organization must rely on its workforce and leaders, their efforts, skills, knowledge, visions and experiences to attain success. Therefore, organizations must strive to enhance their competitive edge, human resource practices and develop themselves in such environments (Llorens, 2010). Such activities also apply to public organizations and government agencies as they compete with private firms for highly qualified potential employees. Therefore, state agencies must hire qualified employees to provide services to the public. As citizens continue to demand for high quality services from state agencies, the quality of the workforce in various departments becomes an increasingly a major source of concern. This essay explores hiring processes of civil servants with the aim of identifying possible problems and providing possible alternatives and recommendations.

Background

Hiring workforce in public agencies may be different from private practices because of bureaucratic approaches. In some instances, state agencies may still rely on the ‘classic civil service’ hiring process. Such a process eliminates some of the advantages and flexibility, like networking or referral found in private human resource practices. Hiring processes are designed to limit or eliminate possible conflicts of interests, political favors or nepotism that could have unwanted impacts on an agency. In addition, public agencies may find it difficult to attract and retain highly qualified individuals in some of the departments like IT, which require specific sets of skills. Individuals who apply for such positions may meet the minimum qualifications required under civil service employment criteria.

However, due to the obsolete job description and classification models, they may not possess the right skills required for effective employee performance. In addition, there are also reports that some candidates do not approve the hiring procedures, especially the lengthy two-step testing. Further, candidates cite relatively lower compensation that government agencies offer.

Given these multifaceted challenges in hiring processes of civil service workforce, it is imperative to understand how such agencies can improve on their hiring processes and other human resource practices, such as compensations and rewards. Therefore, state agencies should review recruitment, testing, selection, job classification and compensation structures with the aim of improving their processes.

Alternatives

Recruitment

Some of the state agencies have fragmented recruitment processes, which may fail to attract the right candidate for a position. Moreover, potential recruits who have associated civil service with poor career growth may not express interests in state vacancies. As older employees approach retirement age, public agencies will lose critical skills that would be hard to substitute with younger employees (Hays, 2004). Hence, civil agencies must focus on the best recruitment practices. For instance, private companies focus on earlier recruitment processes for replacement, and as part of succession planning processes. Therefore, the civil service must evaluate demographic characteristics and changes in the job market in order to create suitable solutions to their recruitment initiatives (Llorens, 2010).

Moreover, as competition for qualified candidates intensifies, civil service should also engage in competitive strategies, such as direct recruitment from institutions of higher learning. Such practices have proved quite successful in the private sector. Moreover, a few public agencies have embarked on partnership with colleges to offer training in specific skills (Llorens, 2010). This is a practice, which has allowed the private sector to recruit and develop their employees’ careers. The overall goal of civil service recruitment strategies must focus on attracting a pool of candidates who are qualified for the job.

State agencies should embrace technology, particularly social media to recruit potential candidates for various positions.

Job classification and description

Every job category should clearly define minimum qualifications required. However, tasks have changed together with job classifications. Nevertheless, public agencies have failed to review job classifications and roles of employees to reflect changes accurately. Moreover, state agencies tend to have rigid job descriptions that do not reflect today’s reality in the job market.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand that poor job classification and description may hinder civil service from hiring highly qualified staff.

Civil agencies should review job classifications and descriptions by focusing on skills, knowledge, experiences, competence and abilities required to allow employees to do the job effectively. Job classification should also indicate compensation structures for candidates. Thus, minimum qualification required must reflect the current knowledge, skills and experience that candidates should possess.

Testing and Selection

Hiring processes for civil service aid involves decentralized examination and selection processes. These processes consume time, are costly, create confusion and could fail to identify the right candidate for the job.

Therefore, public agencies need to review the complex testing processes, which may guarantee points to other candidates before they even attempt the tests. Recruitment and staffing processes should be highly competitive, should be based on merits, candidates’ personal characteristics, and ability to do the job.

Compensation

For highly competitive positions, state agencies may not have highly competitive salaries found in the private sector. While the private sector continues to review and negotiate salaries with potential employees, state agencies take considerably longer time to review their salaries to reflect the economic realities of the time. Moreover, state agencies may find it difficult to compete with private firms for highly qualified staff. In most cases, state agencies experience high rates of staff attrition because of low compensation (Hays, 2004).

Therefore, it is imperative for state agencies to review and conduct regular studies to determine the best salaries for highly competitive positions. This would ensure that they attract the best candidates and remain competitive just like their private counterparts. Therefore, public agencies should evaluate and consider salaries offered in the job market to attract and retain the best candidates and enhance employee job satisfaction (Yang and Kassekert, 2010).

Training and Staff Development

In most cases, state agencies may fail to invest adequately in training and development needs of the hired staff. This is contrary to the best human resource practices and employee career development.

It is imperative for state agencies to engage in employee training, particularly in dynamic fields like IT in which there are constant changes as new tools and knowledge emerge. Agencies that do not training their staff may not be able to have the right skills for developing, maintaining and delivering technical solutions to the public.

Therefore, state agencies must also conduct regular training to employees to enhance service delivery. Training and development would allow state agencies to hire, retain and develop their workforce’ careers and adapt to changes in the job market. Employees need to develop their skills in order to tackle new challenges, growing workloads and handle impacts of technology on their departments.

Recommendations

State agencies require robust recruitment processes that reflect practices in the labor market. They must engage and collaborate with recruit agencies and colleges to attract the best candidates.
Public agencies need to review and update their job description and classification systems regularly. Such processes would account for rapid changes in the job market, employees’ qualification and competition for talented employees. Preferably, public agencies should relate their practices with the best practices in the industry for specific jobs in order to maintain competitive advantages, salary structures, enhance recruitment, retention and career growth for employees.
State agencies need to eliminate tedious testing and selection processes. Instead, they need to develop testing and selection processes that reflect the needs of specific departments. Such approaches would enhance decision-making process when testing and selecting employees.
State agencies should conduct salary assessment regularly in order to align their compensation structures with the private sector. This would ensure that such agencies also attract and retain highly qualified staff.
Training and developing should promote skill and knowledge development in any sector. Hence, state agencies need to engage in life-long training and development practices to develop employees’ skills for better job performance and career growth. This process requires training need analysis to identify areas with knowledge and skill gaps.
Currently, the private sector has embraced social media for effective recruitment. State agencies should also adopt social media for conducting pre-interview evaluation of potential employees. This would save time and costs on hiring processes.

References

Hays, S. W. (2004). Trends and Best Practices in State and Local Human Resource Management. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 24(3), 256-275. Web.

Llorens, J. J. (2010). Human Resources Management in a Changing World: Reassessing Public Human Resources Management Education. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30(1), 112-132. Web.

Yang, K., and Kassekert, A. (2010). Linking Management Reform with Employee Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Federal Agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20 (2), 413-436. Web.

Click Here To Order Now!