Almost all Federal agencies are hiring employees based solely on information provided by the candidate, according to new data from a public dashboard report.
“Across the Federal government, 90 percent of competitive, open-to-the-public job announcements relied solely on an applicant’s answers to a self-assessment questionnaire and an HR resume review to determine whether their experience made them eligible for the position,” the dashboard report reads. “Of these, 53 percent resulted in a job offer being made to an applicant.”
Agencies are required by a June 2020 executive order, to conduct additional assessments for jobs open to the public. The goal of additional assessments is to evaluate applicants based on “job-related competencies and avoid over-reliance on self-assessments and federal-style resumes.”
GSA is the agency conducting the most additional assessments, with 72 percent of job postings using an additional assessment. The Department of Treasury comes in second, with 56 percent of job postings using additional assessments.
“To fully adopt using an additional assessment, agencies may need to develop and validate new assessments; retrain or hire staff; integrate subject matter experts; and update IT systems to better track assessments and assess applicants,” the report said.
The report showed no difference in job offers based on the number of assessments. Of job postings that used at least one additional assessment, 53 percent of applicants received a job offer – the same as job postings that did not conduct any additional assessments.
The Hiring Assessment and Selection Outcome Dashboard is a collaboration between the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), United States Digital Service (USDS), General Services Administration (GSA), and “agency partners.”
