Federal Daily - July 28, 2008
MSPB Report: Competitive Hiring On Decline
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2005, fewer people were hired for white-collar positions under the government’s
traditional competitive examining process than were hired under special hiring authorities, said a
report from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The report, released July 24, looked at the
four most commonly used government-wide appointment authorities: Competitive Examining (CE), the Veterans
Employment Opportunity Act, the Veterans Reemployment Act and the Federal Career Intern Program. Many
hiring authorities receive a significant level of use—and while no single authority accounts
for a majority of new hires, it is significant that fewer than one-third of new hires in FY 2005 came
from CE, the traditional hiring authority open to all applicants, the report said. Two-thirds came
from the other, special hiring authorities, the report said. Also, 36 percent of supervisors involved
in the hiring process did not recognize which authority they had used to process applicants. In general,
there was considerable confusion regarding the length of an individual new hire’s probationary
period when they were hired under special authorities. Even more problematic, survey results indicate
that many supervisors may not be aware of the implications of their use of these alternative hiring
authorities, or the specific training and assessment responsibilities that accompany their use, the
report said. “There is a role for these exceptions, but their extensive use may have implications
for the future and agencies need to be aware of this when they create their recruitment strategies,” said
MSPB Chairman Neil McPhie. To see more, go to: www.mspb.gov/netsearch/viewdocs.aspx?
docnumber=350930&version=351511&application=ACROBAT.
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GAO Says USPS Needs to Better Assess Outsourcing Efforts
The U.S. Post Service (USPS) needs to establish a process to track the results of its outsourcing
activities that are subject to collective bargaining and report the results to Congress, said a Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report released last week. The GAO looked at the effectiveness of USPS
outsourcing, which has become a larger part of the postal service’s business plan. For example,
privately contracted delivery routes grew by almost 25 percent since 1998, while comparable USPS employee
routes did not. GAO could not determine USPS’s total outsourcing contracts related to bargaining
unit work because the Postal Service does not separately track these contracts. It did provide data
on some outsourcing that has impacted work by employees of its four major unions in the areas of retail,
processing, transportation and delivery, the report said. Because USPS does not have a comprehensive
mechanism for measuring results—including any actual savings—it could not provide information
on the effectiveness of its outsourcing. “Without cost-savings data, postal managers, stakeholders
and Congress cannot assess the risk and value of outsourcing,” the report said. “Also,
accountability for results is limited.” To see more, go to:
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-787.
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DOL Launches Initiatives to Help Vets
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) on July
25 unveiled two initiatives aimed at promoting the hiring of veterans and protecting the rights of
applicants with disabilities. The “Good Faith Initiative for Veterans Employment” (G-FIVE)
effort offers incentives to federal contractors for employing and advancing covered veterans, said
Charles James Sr., deputy assistant secretary for OFCCP. The second initiative, “Ensuring the
Accessibility of Online Application Systems,” is designed to make sure that federal contractors
and subcontractors provide equal opportunity to qualified applicants with disabilities when they are
applying for jobs using an online system. Electronic job application systems must be accessible to,
and usable by, applicants who have disabilities, or the contractor must provide a reasonable accommodation
that allows an equal opportunity to compete for a job, DOL said. “Nothing is more fundamental
to equal employment opportunity than the opportunity to apply for a job,” said James. “As
more and more employers turn to the Internet, this initiative is crucial to ensuring that disabled
veterans and other qualified individuals with disabilities are afforded that opportunity.” To
see more, go to: www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/esa/esa20081025.htm.
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