The Talent Recquisition Process

The value chain process that this paper will focus on is the talent acquisition process – specifically recruitment and hiring - in the Federal office that I support. Talent acquisition policy for Federal civilian agencies across the Federal government is managed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). They dictate the steps that must be accomplished and the timeframes for each step. Execution of their policy happens at the agency level.

There are many rules laid out by OPM around recruitment and hiring activities. The office that I support is not compliant with all OPM-mandated rules, including meeting the individual step or total lifecycle timeframes on a consistent basis. As a result, the hiring managers express their frustration

The materials that the office would benefit from having updated or created include 1) standard operating procedures, 2) process flow documentation, 3) checklists, and 4) POC lists.

Thorough standard operating procedure documentation (SOPs) are needed to give step by step instructions on how to carry out the HR functions. I am not aware of one existing currently for the hiring functions. This would contribute to efficiency and uniformity of performance across the processes. Process flow documentation would supplement the SOPs by providing a visual of the processes, including handoffs to other offices, and could be scenario-based to cover all cases that may arise during the recruitment and hiring process. Creating checklists would add value by showing at-a-glance what needs to be done to complete individual tasks. A POC list would add value by giving information about key players involved in the process enterprise-wise, including the details about their role and where they fit in, which office they work in, and their contact

These trainings would be focused on Federal hiring rules and guidelines from OPM’s level down to the office level. The purpose of these trainings would be to increase competency in order to increase efficiency. Trainings would be on the following topics:

1) A general overview of Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which contain the principal set of rules and regulations regarding administrative personnel in the competitive service

2) Eligible competitive and non-competitive hiring authorities under which people can be hired, including Direct Hire authority, Veterans preference and disabled veteran authorities, and Schedule A disability hiring authority, among others

3) OPM hiring guidelines and timeframe mandates to ensure that the staff is aware that there is a clock on each of the processes that they are performing or managing the performance of and that the agency is graded on their performance in meeting or not meeting these time frames

4) Agency-specific HR policies and processes

5) Systems training on the various human resource information systems that HR professionals would be fluent in

Process-Specific