The USAJobs site needs to be improved but so do many other aspects of the federal recruitment process, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was told this week.
While a main focus was on how OPM is upgrading that site—long criticized as difficult for applicants to navigate—experts said that central hiring portals are just one way employers should be reaching out for the talent they need, and actually are decreasing in importance compared to mobile applications and old-fashioned personal references.
A Partnership for Public Service witness noted that just 7 percent of federal workers are under age 30, compared with 23 percent of the overall workforce. In some especially critical jobs, the federal number is even lower—just 3 percent in IT jobs, for example—even though the Millennial generation in general has a high level of interest in public service, he added.
Recommendations included:
* making greater use of internships through programs such as the Pathways program that is designed to pave the way toward conversion to permanent jobs but that accounts for just 5 percent of hiring;
* improving job vacancy announcements by shortening them, using plain language and dropping unneeded government-specific terminology;
* increasing targeted, localized recruiting at venues such as college campuses and career centers; and
* using hiring managers out to sell potential applicants on working for that agency or the government in general, at forums such as meetings and conferences.
