AFGE represents some 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Our members serve in virtually all functions of government and are employed across a wide spectrum of agencies. At AFGE, we are as diverse as the services we provide.
Hiring the next generation of federal employees is a serious undertaking. Those charged with the task have both a legal and social responsibility to conduct federal hiring in the most open, fair, and competitive way possible, and the plain fact is that openness, fairness, and competition take time.
Federal agencies have a legal and moral responsibility to honor veterans’ preference. Internal candidates who were selected into career ladder positions must be given the opportunities they have been promised. Background checks, and in some cases, security clearances, have to be conducted. Information regarding education and prior employment must be verified. Working for a federal agency is not the same as working at a private firm, and it takes time to make sure an applicant meets the standards and requirements our society expects the federal government to uphold.
Although much emphasis is placed upon external candidates for federal jobs, the retention of current employees should also be a priority. Current employees often make the best candidates for federal job openings. The federal government’s policies should encourage the employees in whom it has already invested to look for career development possibilities within the government rather than outside it.
The Obama administration recently announced several strategies it intends to use to expedite federal hiring. The first is to require every agency to establish SWAT teams to "map" current hiring processes in order to identify bottlenecks and problems. The SWAT teams are also charged with rewriting job announcements in plain English. The second is to have similar agencies work together to share "best practices" in pursuing all of the reform policies that emerge from the administration’s efforts.
The third item involves additional training for hiring managers, and the last item involves establishing a mechanism to notify applicants of their status in the hiring process at four different points: when their applications are received, when it has been assessed for basic qualifications, when it has been referred to a "selecting official" (or not), and when a final decision has been made.
The administration has announced that it is working on additional strategies, and AFGE has pledged to work collaboratively on any program that will facilitate insourcing and career development, while maintaining the commitment to open competition and veterans’ preference in hiring.
-- 2010 Issue Papers