The government overall is “healthy” in its compliance with requirements that hiring be fair and open but there are risks in the growing reliance in hiring authorities that are alternatives to traditional competitive examination, MSPB has said in a report.
It found, for example, that while half of all vacancies government-wide were filled through competitive examination (which MSPB abbreviated as CE) in 2000-2001, that percentage fell to the 30 percent range in 2008-2011 before rebounding a bit to 37 percent in 2012, the latest year for which the report had figures.
“The increased use of special hiring authorities may be both a warning and a problem,” MSPB said. “For CE to be disfavored is a warning that there may be some difficulty with the authority itself. That is, agencies may perceive some difficulty or inefficiency with CE, such that approximately two out of every three hiring actions avoid using it to make a selection. The decreased use of CE is a problem because CE is the only hiring authority that is open to all qualified U.S. citizens. As a result, as more restrictive authorities are used to hire Federal employees, the less fair and open the system may appear to be.”
The most commonly used alternatives included several special hiring authorities for veterans, direct hire, and student hiring authorities. It noted that about four-fifths of those hired under the authorities for veterans are male, resulting in a decline of the percentage of women among new hires—dropping from 43 percent in 2000 to 37 percent in 2012, and undercutting diversity.
“Agencies must balance the competing public policy goals of fairness and openness in hiring, granting preference to veterans, and recruiting a workforce that is representative of all segments of society within their hiring strategies,” it said.
