The Merit Systems Protection Board, after issuing
a lengthy report in 2003 aimed at getting agencies
to produce more effective vacancy announcements,
has said agencies still have a lot of work to do
in terms of improving job postings as a recruitment
tool.
It conducted a study in 2005 of randomly selected
announcements from USAJOBS that it said reveals
ongoing problems and that just one third passed
muster.
The good ones described why the agency’s mission
is important, how the position would contribute
to the mission, and the advantages of working in
a certain location, according to MSPB.
It said the bad ones failed to paint the job as
interesting, often pulling language from bland
position descriptions or classification standards –
in other words, they are often wordy and vague,
filled with jargon and acronyms, rather than
conveying enthusiasm and written with clear,
friendly language.
Unfriendly language might include the following:
“DO NOT contact our office asking if your
application has been received. We will not
provide verification of application receipt.”
MSPB said announcements should be polite and help
applicants, rather than confusingly instructing
them, as certain announcements did, to submit
responses to knowledge, skills, and abilities when
none were referenced. Other confusing instructions
included noting that the identification of
promotion potential does not constitute an
obligation on the part of the agency even though
the potential was not mentioned, and telling
applicants to send separate applications to each
location he or she is interested in working at
but only listing one address.
Further, MSPB said the full technological benefits
of the USAJOBS site are not being realized and
agencies are gearing announcements toward paper
by referencing page numbers, linking to government
forms that are already reproduced in the body of
the announcements or cluttering the announcement
with information already contained in the USAJOBS
vacancy template.