Mid-Career Hiring · 2017-04-04 · ★The hiring of external candidates for mid-career federal...

Mid-Career HiringRevisiting the Search for Seasoned Talent in the Federal Government

P A R T N E R S H I P F O R P U B L I C S E R V I C E

A R E P O R T I N T H E F E D E R A L H I R I N G S E R I E S

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4

The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to meeting the needs of gov-

ernment by inspiring a new generation to serve and revitalizing government. In its activities and publications, the

Partnership focuses its energy on achieving leverage through entrepreneurial partnerships and collaboration.

With an emphasis on action, accomplishments and measurable results, it acts as a catalyst for change.

Executive Summary

This report examines the federal govern-ment’s efforts to attract external talent to fill

key management and senior specialist positions– an issue that has taken on increased urgency inlight of current events.

September 11th prompted the creation of theDepartment of Homeland Security in 2002,which was the most dramatic restructuring ofthe federal government since 1947, and the 9/11Commission Report has made another reshuf-fling of the boxes appear likely. While thesestructural reforms are a step in the right direc-tion, their impact is in danger of being mini-mized due to a failure to adequately address theother side of the good government equation —good people.

The 9/11 Report says it best: “The quality ofthe people is more important than the quality ofthe wiring diagrams.”1 That is why it is impera-tive that our nation launch a comprehensiveeffort to get and keep high caliber talent in thefederal government at all levels.

Bringing these people into government willrequire a multi-pronged approach. One of themost practical things we can do to advance thiscause is to remove barriers to government serv-ice, and perhaps the greatest impediment facingprospective employees is the labyrinth that is thefederal hiring process.

This is one in a series of reports by thePartnership for Public Service to identify areaswhere we can improve federal hiring practices.This report will focus on a specific problemidentified by the 9/11 Report: the need toattract talent from outside the government to fillmanagerial and specialist positions – what arecommonly known as “mid-career” federal jobs.

The 9/11 Report specifically cites “the FBI’s tra-dition of hiring analysts from within instead ofrecruiting individuals with relevant educationbackground and experience”2 as one of the rea-sons we failed to thwart the 9/11 plot. TheReport also says one of the overriding issues thatmust be addressed is that “Imagination is not agift usually associated with bureaucracies.”3

Placing people from outside government in fed-eral management positions is an obvious way toinject new ideas and perspectives. But the mostcompelling case for bringing in new workersfrom outside government is not the 9/11Commission Report. It is basic math.

Simply put, the number of mid-career employ-ees who will retire in the coming years will likelyexceed the number of promotion-ready candi-dates who are already in the federal government.All good organizations develop talent from with-in, and clearly the federal government has donea good job on this front and should continue tomake this a priority. But with 430,000 fewercivil servants today than in 1990, and a pendingretirement boom, the federal government almostcertainly won’t have the “bench strength” to ade-quately fill these jobs internally.

This report is an update of the 2002 Partnershipstudy, “Mid-Career Hiring in the FederalGovernment: A Strategy for Change.” Some ofthe recommendations from the 2002 study havebeen adopted, in particular the establishment ofa Presidential Management Fellows Program toattract more experienced workers to the federalservice.

The new study shows that with the help of theseand other reforms, the federal government isdoing a better job of hiring external mid-careerprofessionals. But there is still room forimprovement. Key findings include:

F E D E R A L H I R I N G 1

Mid-Career Hiring

H The hiring of external candidates for mid-career federal jobs is on the rise. The num-ber of external hires at the mid-career (GS-12to 15) level increased from 8,009 in 2000 to10,485 in 2003. As a percentage, the federalgovernment filled 15.3 percent of its mid-career jobs in 2003 with candidates from out-side the government, up from only 10.5 per-cent of mid-career hires in 2000.

H The federal government has become moreefficient in its ability to attract externalmid-career candidates. In 2003, the federalgovernment managed to hire 2,476 moreexternal candidates for mid-career positionseven though fewer jobs were opened up tooutside candidates. In 2000, 21,162 vacan-cies (49 percent) were open to the public.But in 2003, only 15,719 vacancies (43 per-cent) were open to the public. That meansthat the federal government has gone from aratio of 0.38 external hires for each vacancyopen to external candidates in 2000 to a ratioof 0.67 external hired per vacancy in 2003.

H Attracting external mid-career candidatesrequires more than simply opening morejobs to the public. The Small BusinessAdministration opened up 97.1 percent of itsmid-career jobs to external candidates in 2003but filled only 4.2 percent of these positionswith non-government workers. On the flip

side, the State Department filled 22.8 percentof its mid-career openings with external can-didates despite opening up only 30.8 percentof those positions to the public. While open-ing more mid-career vacancies to a broaderaudience is part of the solution, this stepalone will not close the looming skills gap atthe mid-career level.

H The progress that has been made in bring-ing in new talent at the mid-career level isnot enough. Despite the progress that hasbeen made, 85 percent of mid-career federaljobs are still filled internally – a rate that can-not be sustained when you consider theexpected spike in the number of mid-careerretirements.

Recruiting mid-career talent from outside gov-ernment is hardly the silver bullet to address thefederal government’s challenges. But just as it isinsufficient to focus on the structure of govern-ment, and not the personnel, it is not enough togrow management from within while ignoringpools of talent from the outside. It’s noteither/or. It’s both. And this report will furtherexamine what has been and what needs to bedone on this front to ensure that federal hiringpractices are producing the best mix of people todeliver the effective government services that theAmerican people deserve.


Mid-Career Hiring

2

Introduction

Mid-career employees are the managers,supervisors and senior specialists who

drive the work of federal agencies from thetrenches, whether defending our country fromterrorist attacks or protecting investors from cor-porate malfeasance. These professionals, at thetop four grades (GS-12 to 15) of the GeneralSchedule pay system, make up 35 percent of thefederal workforce.4 Yet a major demographictransition in the federal workforce is placingincreasing stress on this cadre, requiring thatfederal agencies draw in more non-governmentcandidates to fill these jobs.

Simply put, the number of mid-career employ-ees who will retire in the coming years will likelyexceed the number of promotion-ready candi-dates who are already in the federal government.All good organizations develop talent from with-in, and clearly the federal government has donea good job on this front and should continue tomake this a priority. But with 430,000 fewercivil servants today than in 1990, and a pendingretirement boom, the federal government almostcertainly won’t have the “bench strength” to ade-quately fill these jobs internally.

The need to attract external talent into the fed-eral workforce has taken on increased urgency inlight of the 9/11 Commission Report. TheReport specifically cites “the FBI’s tradition ofhiring analysts from within instead of recruitingindividuals with relevant education backgroundand experience,” as one of the reasons we failedto thwart the 9/11 plot.

Mid-career hiring from outside government isnot only necessary but also desirable. Applicantswith significant experience outside governmentoffer fresh perspectives and ideas that can helpto maximize effectiveness and productivity.

Looking outside government may also be a pow-erful tool to improve diversity among agencymanagers, which is an area in need of attentionconsidering the fact that Hispanics are underrep-resented in the civil service, making up 7.0 per-cent of the federal workforce and filling only 4.3percent of high-level government jobs.5 Finally,advertising job openings to external candidates isconsistent with the merit principles of “fair andopen competition” that lie at the foundation ofthe federal merit system.6

It is important to note that external mid-careerhiring should complement, not replace, the pre-vailing practice within the federal government of“growing” management talent from within.

In 2002, the Partnership released “Mid-CareerHiring in the Federal Government: A Strategyfor Change.” This study offered a comprehen-sive look at the federal government’s perform-ance in filling mid-career positions with candi-dates from outside government and offered aseries of recommendations for improvement.

A number of these recommendations havealready been acted upon. The 2002 report:

H Called for the establishment of a “PresidentialManagement Fellows” program to expandopportunities for experienced candidatesinterested in entering federal service at theGS-12 to 15 grade levels. On November 21,2003, an Executive Order was issued, and theOffice of Personnel Management (OPM)released draft regulations for the program inJanuary 2004.

H Urged improved advertisement of federal jobsand their benefits. Since then, OPM, in part-nership with private sector leaderMonster.com, re-launched USAJobs as a “one-stop shop” for all government job openings.


Mid-Career Hiring

Currently, USAJobs averages roughly 180,000visits each day, up from about 26,000 a daybefore the re-design.

H Endorsed the Digital TechCorps ExchangeProgram, which had been introduced by U.S.Representative Tom Davis (VA), that wouldallow government and the private sector to“exchange” workers for up to two years. Thisproposal was signed into law in December2002, and OPM proposed rules for the pro-gram in January 2004.

H Proposed easing rules to facilitate hiring. TheHomeland Security Act of 2002 allows OPMto independently identify severe candidateshortages and grant direct hire authority tohelp agencies dramatically speed up hiring forcritical jobs (including mid-career vacancies)and offers a long-awaited alternative to thegovernment’s antiquated “rule of three,”which had constrained the pool of applicantsthat managers could choose from when fillinga vacancy.

H Encouraged federal agencies to expand thenumber of mid-career positions for whichexternal applicants are given serious consider-ation. Most agencies subsequently increased

their proportionate intake from the outsidefor these positions

H Called for the development of more competi-tive compensation systems. The Departmentsof Homeland Security and Defense are cur-rently implementing more market-based paysystems for their employees. In addition,Congress recently addressed the pay compres-sion problem for the Senior ExecutiveService, and OPM has just released rulesdefining the type of performance manage-ment system agencies must have in place totake advantage of this authority to pay SESexecutives higher salaries.

This update to the 2002 report reveals theimpact of these reforms and gives a revised pic-ture of the federal government’s efforts to recruitmid-career talent from outside of government. Italso lays out a new set of recommendations onhow to do a better job of attracting externalcandidates for these critically important jobs.

A Need for Change: Mid-Career Hiring NeedsLikely to Increase

The impending retirement crunch facing all ofgovernment will hit mid-career levels hardest.OPM’s most recent retirement projections reveal


Mid-Career Hiring

4

YearProjected

RetirementsActual

Retirements

FY 2001 50,771 (3.7%) 40,285 (2.7%)

FY 2002 51,012 (3.4%) 41,302 (2.8%)

FY 2003 44,305 (2.9%) 50,032 (3.3%)

YearProjected

RetirementsActual

Retirements

FY 2001 7,958 (4.4%) 7,217 (4.0%)

FY 2002 8,820 (4.8%) 7,805 (4.2%)

FY 2003 6,526 (3.5%) 8,836 (4.7%)

Projected versus Actual Retirements (Supervisors)Projected versus Actual Retirements (All Grades)

that 31.7 percent of full-time permanent federalemployees will be eligible to retire in the nextfive years.7 As evident in the graph below, retire-ment eligibility levels among mid-career workersare even higher.8

Retirements at mid-career and senior levels willcreate thousands of job openings and a corre-sponding need for talented individuals to fillthese positions.

Retirement eligibility, of course, is an incom-plete picture. Looking beyond retirement eligi-bility rates to retirement projections confirmsthat the attrition rate will present significantchallenges.

Data from the Office of Personnel Managementindicates that among all federal employees (aswell as among supervisors), 2003 was the firstyear in recent history when government employ-ees retired at rates higher than those projected.9

Although the percentage of retiring employeesremains low (less than five percent), those whoretire are among the employees with the

strongest institutional knowledge and talent.Furthermore, since many agencies were downsiz-ing during much of the 1990s and now mustplay catch-up while dealing with expandingworkloads, even a modest retirement rate can

have a distressing impact. Adding to this pres-sure is the fact that significant numbers of fed-eral employees voluntarily leave governmentbefore retirement, often to work in the privateor nonprofit sector. In FY2003, in addition to50,000 retirements, more than 47,000 federalemployees resigned, died or were terminated.

These ongoing circumstances will require bothlarge-scale promotion from within and exter-nal hiring to fill the gaps. Which of theseapproaches is best will depend upon the spe-cific responsibilities and requirements of thejob in question. Nevertheless, given the scaleof the government’s pending talent needs,there will be many positions in which external

applicants will be highly desirable.

The State of Mid-Career Hiring

To better understand how the federal govern-ment has responded to these workforce

challenges through external hiring, thePartnership looked at two key data points: thenumber of mid-career vacancy announcements(those at the GS-12 to 15 levels) open to exter-nal candidates10 and the number of externalmid-careers hired by the government.

Hiring External Mid-Career Candidates Is on theRise

As reported in the Partnership’s 2002 report onmid-career hiring, the federal government con-tinues to draw the vast majority of its mid-careerhires from within its workforce via competitive

F E D E R A L H I R I N G

Mid-Career Hiring

5

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

GS-5

GS-7

GS-9

GS-11

GS-12

GS-13

GS-14

GS-15 54.4%

45.5%

39.6%

37.8%

34.1%

30.1%

25.7%

24.2%

Percentage eligible for retirement

Federal Retirement Eligibility Rates

promotion. The graph at leftdemonstrates that the proportion ofcompetitive service11 new hires fromoutside government is much lowerfor mid-career positions than forentry level jobs.12

While still relatively low, the num-ber of individuals hired into GS-12to 15 jobs from outside governmenthas increased. Of the more than68,000 employees hired at the GS-12 to 15 level in FY2003, morethan 15 percent were from outsidegovernment, as opposed to just 10percent at the time of the originalreport.13

The graph at left shows the steadyincrease in the percentage of GS-12to 15 jobs filled by candidates fromoutside the federal government, asopposed to job movement withingovernment through promotion,transfer and conversion from non-permanent authorities (such asPMIs or career interns).

This four-year trend demonstratesthat agency officials are increasinglyturning to professionals from out-side the government to fill upper-level positions where appropriate.

This is not surprising in lightof recent economic condi-tions that reduced privatesector competition as well astargeted recruitment effortsinitiated by federal agenciesin response to internal needs.Although the shift is notdrastic, the net increase overa four year period, in both


Mid-Career Hiring

6

YearNumber ofExternal

Hires

Number ofInternal

HiresTotal Hires

PercentageExternal

FY 2000 8,009 68,438 76,447 10.48%

FY 2003 10,485 58,191 68,676 15.27%

External Hires at Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Level

10%

11%

12%

13%

14%

15%

16%

Perc

enta

ge fro

m o

utsi

de g

over

nmen

t

2000 2001 2002 2003

8,009

9,823

10,644

10,485

External Hires at the Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Level

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

External Hires

Internal Hires

GS-15GS-14GS-13GS-12GS-11GS-9GS-7GS-5

Num

ber of

hire

s

FY 2003 External versus Internal Hiring

the percentage and raw number of external mid-career hires, suggests that the emerging “bestmix” includes more professionals who join thegovernment after spending part of their careersin the private sector or elsewhere.

Fewer Mid-Career Jobs Are Open to OutsideCandidates

Although the number of experienced, non-feder-al workers who are being successfully recruitedinto government service has steadily increasedsince the Partnership issued its first report, thenumber of mid-career jobs open to the generalpublic has steadily decreased.

When a federal agency decides toopen a position to external candi-dates, the agency is required to listthat job on the USAJobs websitemaintained by the U.S. Office ofPersonnel Management (OPM).While this satisfies the minimumpublic notice requirement estab-lished by OPM, federal agenciesmay also advertise those positionsmore widely through the use of tar-geted recruitment bulletins orannouncements (e.g., to collegesand universities) or through the useof paid advertisements in the printor electronic media.

When the Partnership issued its firstreport, the federal government wasopening more than half (51 per-cent) of its vacancy announcementsto external applicants. In FY2003,more than 36,000 vacancyannouncements were posted atUSAJobs for jobs at the mid-careerlevel.14 Of those, only 43 percentwere open to applicants from out-

side the federal government.15 This represents adecrease since the time of the Partnership’s origi-nal report in both the raw number and the per-centage of vacancy announcements that wouldallow managers to consider both external andinternal talent in filling positions.

The drop in the percentage of mid-career vacan-cies open to external applicants represents areversal in the trend observed in the two yearsleading up to the Partnership’s original report.As shown below, there has been a steady declinein mid-career vacancies that are open to thepublic since FY2001, following a three yeartrend showing gradual increases in the number

42%

44%

46%

48%

50%

52%

Perc

enta

ge

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

15,58621,162

25,119

18,129

15,719

Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Vacancies Open to External Applicants


Mid-Career Hiring

7

YearNumber of

VacancyAnnouncements

NumberOpen toPublic

PercentageOpen toPublic

FY 2001 49,155 25,119 51.1%

FY 2003 36,596 15,719 43.0%

Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Vacancies Open to External Applicants

of mid-career positions open externally.16

One might expect to see the number of externalmid-career hires decrease along with the declinein the number of vacancy announcements openexternally. However, our data shows that inrecent years the trends are going in oppositedirections.

Understanding the movement of these twotrends (number of external hires and vacancyannouncements open externally) requires furtherresearch. Shifts in the data could be caused by amyriad of things; the amount of movement andthe reasons for that movement are likely to varydramatically by agency. Indeed, historical per-spective on federal government hiring practicesdemonstrates that the relationship between thesetwo trends is hardly obvious – it takes morethan opening vacancies to sources outside gov-ernment to increase the number of qualifiedexternal applicants (and eventual hires) for eachvacancy.

Government Efforts to Attract External Mid-Career Candidates Are More Efficient

While the cause of the data trend is unclear, thefact that hiring is increasing while the numberof open vacancy announcements is decreasingleads us to believe that agencies are becomingmore efficient at targeting external candidates.17

In FY2000, every ten vacancy announcementsthat were open to external applicants producedjust under four external mid-career hires, but byFY2003, the government hired nearly sevenexternal mid-career professionals for everyvacancy announcement open to external appli-cants (see chart below).18

Thus, after determining that a mid-career jobshould be open to applicants from outside gov-ernment, federal agencies are, on average, doinga better job of attracting and hiring qualifiedexternal mid-career professionals than they werethree years ago.

Efficiency and Approaches Vary Greatly AmongDifferent Agencies

An agency-by-agency evaluation ofmid-career hiring and vacancyannouncements confirms the appar-ent disconnect between openingvacancies to external candidates andsuccess in hiring external candi-dates. There is little overlapbetween those agencies that hirelarge numbers of people from exter-nal sources and those that open alarge percentage of their vacanciesto external applicants.

Among cabinet and large independ-ent agencies, the Small BusinessAdministration opens almost all ofits mid-career vacancies to external


Mid-Career Hiring

8

Year

Number ofVacancy

AnnouncementsOpen to External

Applicants

Number ofExternal

HiresRatio

FY 2000 21,162 8,009 0.38

FY 2001 25,119 9,823 0.39

FY 2002 18,129 10,644 0.59

FY 2003 15,719 10,485 0.67

Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Hiring Success as Ratio


Mid-Career Hiring

9

AgencyExternal Mid-Career

Hires (%)Mid-Career Vacancies

Open to Public (%)

Department of Agriculture 14.06% 34.42%

Department of Commerce 12.11% 46.49%

Department of Defense 20.87% 33.22%

Army 22.24% N/A

Air Force 21.63% N/A

Navy 21.38% N/A

Other Defense 15.61% N/A

Department of Education 12.62% 60.45%

Department of Energy 12.71% 39.91%

Department of Health and Human Services 25.36% 58.00%

Department of Homeland Security 10.30% 27.55%

Department of Housing and Urban Development 13.94% 25.93%

Department of the Interior 12.61% 35.48%

Department of Justice 8.34% 30.04%

Department of Labor 12.30% 57.01%

Department of State 22.83% 30.83%

Department of Transportation 13.96% 51.20%

Department of the Treasury 6.45% 33.21%

Department of Veterans Affairs 9.93% 47.21%

Agency for International Development 20.14% 35.65%

Environmental Protection Agency 12.56% 49.83%

General Services Administration 14.06% 34.27%

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 11.47% 43.41%

National Science Foundation 8.70% 32.43%

Office of Personnel Management 11.29% 63.54%

Small Business Administration 4.24% 97.14%

Social Security Administration 7.72% 61.41%

Agency Breakdown of Mid-Career (GS-12 to 15) Hiring and Vacancy Announcements

applicants (97 percent) but fills all but four per-cent of those jobs from within. TheDepartment of State appears to be more strate-gic in opening vacancies to external applicants.It manages to fill almost 23 percent of its mid-

career jobs from externalsources despite onlyopening 31 percent ofmid-career openings toexternal applicants. Thetable on the previouspage represents cabinetand major independentagency data on thisreport’s two central areasof exploration. Agenciesthat opened more than50 percent of their mid-career vacancies to exter-nal applicants or selectedmore than 20 percent oftheir mid-career hiresfrom external sources inFY2003 are highlightedin red.

While agency missions,recruitment budgets andhuman resources priori-ties vary greatly, lessonslearned and best practicesfrom one agency can

prove instructive to other agencies’ midcareerhiring efforts.

Among senior human resources officials at majorfederal agencies, targeting mid-career talent fromoutside government is highly regarded whendone strategically. Rosemary Taylor, the DeputyAssistant Secretary at the Office of HumanResources, Department of Health and HumanServices, believes that her agency hires externallyfor more than one-quarter of its mid-career posi-

tions, “because of the nature of our work-force…[we hire] scientists, doctors, people man-aging major entitlement program like TANF[Temporary Assistance For Needy Families] andHead Start.”

For other agencies, success in attracting externalmid-career hires is a result of specific agency ini-tiatives to transform its workforce. As part ofSecretary of State Colin Powell’s DiplomaticReadiness Initiative, State is working to close asignificant civil service hiring gap and broughtin more than 20 percent of its mid-career hiresfrom outside government last year. According toSharlyn Grigsby, the Director of the Departmentof State’s Office of Civil Service PersonnelManagement, “It wasn’t going to help [close thegap] to do just internal promotion, soDepartment of State’s civil service has sought toopen up vacancies to all sources.” As shown bythe data above, State has excelled in bringing inexperience from outside government to a greaterextent than many agencies that have openedmore vacancies to the public.

According to Grigsby, the benefit of externalmid-career hiring is that “seasoned, experiencedindividuals can really hit the ground running.They’ve got experience that is directly related tothe job.” In addition, hiring from externalsources adds another perspective that can betapped in achieving agencies’ missions. EllenTunstall, the Director of Workforce Issues andInternational Programs for the DefenseDepartment’s Office of Civilian PersonnelPolicy, noted, “there are all kinds of diversity inthe workforce, not just gender or race, but diver-sity in terms of background, skills and ways oflooking at things. I think that where you have agood mix of those kinds of experiences you aregoing to be better equipped as an organization.”

Some agencies have programs to attract experi-


Mid-Career Hiring

10

“I was the CEO of twonot-for-profit companiesand I reached a point,after 17 years, when I hadaccomplished all of mylong range goals. I wasat a turning point andlooking for new chal-lenges, and that’s when Idecided to pursue anopportunity in the feder-al government.”

— Mary Burness

Ms. Burness joined theDepartment of Labor after acareer in the non-profit sector.She recently completed DoL’sSES Candidate DevelopmentProgram and is currently aSpecial Assistant at theNational Institute of Health’sNational Cancer Institute.

enced talent, such as the Department ofDefense’s business fellows program and theDepartment of Labor’s MBA recruitment pro-gram.19 Others, like HHS, do not explicitly tar-get mid-career professionals in their recruitingbut often are attractive to experienced profes-sionals from outside government because of thenature of the work done by the agency andbecause workers in state government and privateindustry have an opportunity to see first-handthe work that is done at HHS through its exten-sive social service programs.

Department of Labor Human ResourcesDirector Deliza Salas sees mid-career hiring as adelicate balance at her agency, where only 12percent of mid-career hires are made from out-side government but where more than half of allmid-career position openings are advertisedexternally. “The truth is that while everyonewants to get the people from outside, [internalcandidates] are all well known and well respect-ed within the agency,” she said. “In theory, ifyou possess the competencies we are looking for,it doesn’t matter where you got them from.”

The “Right Way” to Hire Extends to Mid-CareerHiring

Mid-career hiring is subject to the same road-blocks that experts inside and outside govern-ment have highlighted across the federal govern-ment’s hiring process. Regardless of job type andapplicant pools, the federal government oftentakes longer to fill vacancies than private sectorcompanies. A recent General Accounting Officereport based on interviews with the HumanResources Directors at the government’s 24largest agencies identified a hiring process that istoo time consuming: with an estimated threemonth average time to hire.20 Expanding a jobsearch to include external candidates may place

more stress on the process but in many casesmay be necessary to find the right match for thejob(s) at issue.

Recent observations about federal vacancyannouncements are even more alarming whenapplied to external mid-career candidates, whohave little or no previous exposure to the federalsector and its vernacular.A review of federal vacan-cy announcements by theMerit Systems ProtectionBoard found that morethan half of all vacancyannouncements sampledwere poorly written, useddifficult-to-understand orthreatening language, andmade little or no attemptto sell the federal govern-ment, the agency or theposition to be filled.21

The qualifications criteriacontained in vacancyannouncements may alsopresent a more substan-tive barrier to externalcandidates. Qualificationsthat unduly stress experi-ence that can only beamassed in governmentdiscourage quality exter-nal applicants from applying and also exacerbatenegative perceptions of an inward-looking feder-al bureaucracy. In determining the desiredskills, experiences and source for filling a mid-career vacancy, agencies must consider the com-mitment of career civil servants while not over-looking the vast potential of external talent.


Mid-Career Hiring

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“[Public service] wasalways something I want-ed to do...I was alwaysinterested in being a fed-eral prosecutor. [Today] Iprosecute people whoare involved in violatingthe endangered specieslaw...people who aresmuggling or tradingendangered species. It’sa great job…and it’s ajob that is unique to fed-eral government.”

— Wayne D. Hettenbach

Mr. Hettenbach left privatepractice to be a Trial Attorneyin the Department of Justice’sEnvironmental and NaturalResources Division.

It’s Not Going to Be Easy

A recent survey by the Partnership for PublicService found that the older people get, themore difficult it is to recruit them into govern-ment service. When you ask college studentsand recent graduates if they are “interested inworking for the federal government,” 65 percentrespond yes. For mid-career professionals, only49 percent respond favorably. And when youask if “there are great jobs for people like me inthe federal government,” 69 percent of collegestudents agree, but that number drops to 49percent for mid-career professionals.

The survey also finds that 63 percent of mid-career professionals believe that “when it comesto helping other people” a not-for-profit groupis where they can “do the most good.” Thiscommon belief on the part of mid-career talent

undermines one of the federal government’s pri-mary selling points, which is the opportunity tomake a difference in other people’s lives.

Finally, if the federal government wants to sig-nificantly enhance its ability to attract mid-career candidates, it will need to address the per-ception that the federal government is a placethat stifles innovation. Seventy-eight percent ofmid-career professionals believe that “the federalgovernment workplace is in desperate need ofreform to make it a better place for people towork.”

These numbers prove that experienced mid-career workers are going to be even more diffi-cult to recruit than younger candidates, whichmeans the federal government will need to gothe extra mile if it seriously wants to draw fromthis talent pool.


Mid-Career Hiring

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Moving Forward: Recommendations for Change

Recruiting mid-career talent from outside of government will be a crucial factor in government’sability to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Attracting, hiring and retaining quality mid-career employees requires a holistic approach, fromworkforce planning to identify areas where experienced talent is needed, to recruiting qualifiedapplicants, assessing their skills, making the sale, and integrating mid-career professionals into theexisting workforce. To help federal agencies – and the federal government overall – tap the poten-tial of external mid-career talent, the Partnership for Public Service offers the following recommen-dations as a roadmap to successful midcareer hiring:

Federal agencies should:

1. Transform federal workplaces into environments that reward performance andencourage innovation. There is no greater obstacle to recruiting our most talented citi-zens than the widely-held perception that the federal government is a place that stiflescreativity and entrepreneurial thinking. Significant reforms are needed to make govern-ment a more dynamic and performance-based environment. The federal governmenthas a new opportunity on this front with the establishment of merit-based pay systemsat the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. If these reforms prove success-ful, they may be emulated by other agencies, making their implementation vital to thecause of making the federal workplace more attractive to external candidates.

2. Market the government specifically to mid-career talent. It’s one thing to makereforms, but it’s just as important to get this message of reform out to the public.Agencies need to develop recruiting materials tailored to mid-career professionals. Thesematerials should stress the reform message, but they should also highlight other sellingpoints that resonate with mid-career audiences. In the Partnership’s recent poll of mid-career professionals, this group identified “good benefits and insurance,” “helping peopleand making a difference,” and “serving mycountry/community” as the three most salient reasons toconsider federal employment. The federal governmentshould also create incentives that can be marketed tomid-career candidates, such as Ohio Senator GeorgeVoinovich’s proposal to provide more vacation time formembers of the Senior Executive Service and personnelwho join the government mid-way through theircareers.

3. Identify skill gaps that can be filled by external candi-dates. When agency leaders conduct comprehensiveworkforce planning, they should evaluate the depth andbreadth of their employee pool to assure that it has thehuman capital resources to meet not only current chal-lenges but also any projected skills gaps that will emergewith impending retirements. For mid-career positionsin which the number of qualified internal candidates islimited, agencies would benefit from casting a wider netin looking for replacements.

4. Be strategic about what jobs will be opened to thepublic. The fact that the Small Business Administrationopens the most mid-career jobs to the public but hiresthe fewest external candidates should teach the govern-ment a lesson. Agencies should avoid policies that sim-ply require that all vacancies be open to the public.These policies do not yield results and unnecessarilyincrease the workload on human resources staffs. Anunintended consequence is that if external candidatesapply for these jobs and are given short shrift, negativeperceptions about the federal hiring process are reinforced. At the same time, agenciesshould think about opening jobs that have traditionally been closed to the public, ifthere is not a compelling reason to limit these jobs to internal candidates.


Mid-Career Hiring

“I was in the U.S.Marines for 30 years.The last 15 years I’ddone higher staff levelassignments, workingthe ‘government end’ ofthe Marine Corps…theskill sets I had from stafftime lent themselves toworking for govern-ment…it just seemed likea good idea.”

— Paul Briggs

Mr. Briggs joined theDepartment of Labor after a30 year military career withthe United States MarineCorps that culminated with aposition on the staff of theSecretary of Defense. Herecently completed DoL’s SESCandidate DevelopmentProgram and is currently aSpecial Assistant atEmployment and TrainingAdministration’s Office ofNational Programs.

5. Write vacancy announcements that do not alienate applicants. For years the federalgovernment has been criticized for utilizing vacancy announcements and job descrip-tions that are arcane and off-putting. The Partnership strongly advises that, if theyhaven’t already done so, federal agencies should make a major commitment to rethink

vacancy announcements and job descriptions to assure that they arewritten in a way that is easily digestible and appealing to peoplefrom outside government, particularly those mid-career profession-als who are used to private sector recruitment and marketing tech-niques. For starters, they should stop calling them “vacancyannouncements” and use more colloquial language like “job open-ings.” In addition, federal agencies should evaluate the qualifica-tions standards in vacancy announcements to make sure they donot unnecessarily skew selection toward internal applicants.

6. Use available hiring flexibilities to both attract applicantsand reduce the length of the hiring process. During the past fewyears, there has been a great deal of legislative and regulatory actionto increase hiring flexibilities. But these new flexibilities will onlyshow results if they are employed throughout the government.Unfortunately, there is significant evidence that they are not beingused. A 2004 OPM survey of agencies showed that only oneagency has filled more than 15 positions using category rating, and20 of the 23 agencies surveyed have filled five or less positions usingcategory rating (the new alternative to the “rule of three”). OPMshould continue to help agencies educate their human resourcesprofessionals and management about existing hiring flexibilities,and agency leaders should encourage the use of these flexibilitiesand allocate adequate funding. Programs that are already in placelike recruitment bonuses, relocation bonuses, and direct hireauthority for specialized and high-need occupations could be majortools in helping agencies attract and retain the experienced talentthat is necessary to meet agency objectives.

7. Expand mentoring and orientation programs to help integrate and welcome externalmid-career hires. While external mid-career hires can bring a wealth of skills and abili-ties as well as a fresh perspective to federal agencies, it is important that hires from out-side of government (as well as new employees transferring from other agencies) are givenassistance in learning the culture and work process of their new agencies. ThePartnership recommends that agencies implement orientation programs that recognizethe unique culture of the federal workforce and help external mid-career hires assimilate.On the individual level, agencies could implement mentoring and professional develop-ment programs to promote both short term assimilation and long term retention ofexternal hires.

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“Working for an inter-national organizationoffers a lot of perspective…in my current job I’vebeen able to bring withme a unique understand-ing of UN culture andbureaucracy. I’ve done alot of things that gaveme experience with dif-ferent organizations andI’ve really benefited fromthat.”

— Dennis J. King

Mr. King joined theDepartment of State as aForeign Affairs Analyst in theBureau of Intelligence andResearch after working forUSAID, the United Nations,and National Public Radio. Heworks on humanitarian issuesfor the Bureau’s HumanitarianInformation Unit.

Mid-Career Hiring

8. Create networks to generate an active pipeline of experienced talent interested ingovernment work. After nearly a decade of not hiring on college campuses, many fed-eral agencies have begun to focus on renewing their relationships with colleges and uni-versities to get the word out about entry-level opportunities. But for recruiters, the net-works and relationships they need to forge to recruit mid-career professionals are moredifficult to tap. Thus, the Partnership urges agency human resource professionals andmanagers to identify and tap into the appropriate networking channels to target desiredmid-career employees. Appropriate networks include graduate and professional schools,alumni associations, professional and trade organizations and commercial career buildingorganizations (both web-based and otherwise).

9. Develop and enhance hiring programs that work for mid-career professionals. Afteridentifying occupations or vacancies that would benefit from external recruitment,agency leaders need to determine whether talent from the outside is best attractedthrough the regular competitive hiring process or specialized programs. The Partnershipcontinues to advocate that the federal government develop and use special programs toattract high quality talent at the mid-career level.

For example, a major recommendation of the Partnership’s 2002 mid-career hiringreport was the creation of a Presidential Management Fellows program for mid-careertalent. This was accomplished in November 2003 when President Bush signedExecutive Order 13318, renaming and restructuring the Presidential ManagementIntern Program to include a senior fellows component that will allow mid-level profes-sionals both from within and outside government to take advantage of a series of train-ing and development opportunities over a two-year period. The Senior Fellows programwill be launched in the near future with a class of several dozen fellows. The Partnershipstrongly supports OPM’s work to expand the old PMI program and hopes that the newcadres of PMF senior fellows will eventually expand to match the number of junior fel-lows to create a viable recruiting program for mid-career talent that mimics the highimpact the PMI program has had over the past 25 years.

10. Make sure that efforts to look for external talent compliment the existing workforce.External mid-career hiring should be conducted in a way that is sensitive to the legiti-mate expectations of current employees. If efforts to bring in mid-career professionalsfrom external sources are viewed by the existing workforce as threatening to their careerprospects, employee satisfaction levels can decline with serious implications for organiza-tional success. External hiring initiatives should always be accompanied by careful atten-tion to the developmental needs of the existing workforce through the design of careerpaths and other means. Agency leaders should be careful to communicate to employeesthat there remain significant opportunities for progress in their careers.


Mid-Career Hiring

Endnotes

1 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, “The 9/11 Commission Report,” 399.

2 ibid., 77.

3 ibid., 344

4 The federal General Schedule pay grade system includes 15 grades, with 10 intermediate steps in eachgrade. GS-12 to 15 salaries range from $52,899 to $113,674, and are adjusted according to localeconomies. Only the approximately 7,000 members of the federal Senior Executive Service have a highersalary range.

5 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Annual Report to Congress: Federal Equal Opportunity RecruitmentProgram,” 2003. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the civilian labor force. Highest levels of systemdefined as GS-13 to 15.

6 The merit principles are the set of guidelines set in place to prevent patronage appointments and toensure that federal appointments are made according to the knowledge, skills and abilities of an applicant,5 U.S.C. Section 2301.

7 Based on end of FY2003 cohort analysis projected to end of FY2008, U.S. Office of Personnel Management,2004.

8 The figures represented in the graph do not include early retirements.

9 “Supervisors” are defined as any employee that performs at least one other employee’s annual perform-ance appraisal. Data is for full-time permanent non-seasonal employees. U.S. Office of PersonnelManagement, 2004.

10 USAJobs is the official job website of the federal government. All available jobs must be posted on thissite for viewing by either all applicants or current federal employees only.

11 Positions in the Executive Branch are placed in the competitive service and filled through an open competi-tive selection process unless excepted by statute, Executive Order, or OPM action.

12 Central Personnel Data File, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2003.

13 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2003. The data for FY2000 reported here differs from that in ouroriginal report. The figures have been recalculated for technical accuracy, by excluding mass-transfers ofemployees from one organization to another due to a reorganization, and including some promotionauthorities that were previously excluded.

14 Each vacancy announcement can cover one or more vacant positions.

15 Monster House Data Source, Office of Personnel Management and USAJobs, FY2003. The FY2001 data hasbeen updated to reflect new collection techniques used as a result of the USAJobs redesign.

16 Monster House Data Source, Office of Personnel Management and USAJobs, FY1999-2003.

17 There is not a one-to-one correlation between a posted vacancy announcement and a hire made becausevacancy announcements can be for multiple open positions, and agencies are not required to hire any ofthe applicants that result from a vacancy announcement.

18 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, USAJobs and Central Personnel Data File.

19 The Department of Labor MBA program hires recent Business School graduates who often have significantwork experience at GS-9.

20 General Accounting Office, “Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve Executive Agencies’ HiringProcesses,” 2003.

21 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, “Help Wanted: A Review of Federal Vacancy Announcements,” 2002.

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