Improving Federal Job Postings: The Saga Continues…
GovernmentExecutive.com is keeping up with a critical issue: federal job postings. This is a serious concern deserving of attention. But who knew “KSA” would be part of common parlance in the land of federal employment? Monday’s article reports that agencies still need to better streamline their job announcements as part of the government’s push to reform the bureaucratic federal hiring process, a top official from the Office of Personnel Management.
Sixty-one percent of agencies have simplified their job vacancy postings, said Nancy Kichak, OPM’s associate director for employee services, while 89 percent of agencies have abolished the much-reviled knowledge, skills and abilities statements that for years applicants painstakingly filled out and managers waded through. Kichak said there is a disconnect between agencies’ desire to eliminate KSAs and the habit of writing long and complicated descriptions of job vacancies.
“We don’t want to hear it [via KSAs], but we’re certainly willing to say it ourselves,” she told an audience during a conference on federal financial management in Washington. Kichak said the goal is to push managers to produce job announcements that are less than five pages long. She said at various times, some postings have been as long as 38 pages.
38 pages?! Yikes. Progress has been made, though. During the past year, agencies have transitioned from KSAs to category ratings as well as to a resume- and cover letter-based system. In addition, OPM last month debuted a new online platform that tests applicants for a variety of positions across government. Not exactly baby steps, but as most agree, there is more to be done.
