A. Austen II Recruitment and selection popr

Recruitment and selection
in public service

Agata Austen-Tynda, PhD
Chair in Public Management
University of Economics
in Katowice
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Agenda
• Precursors to Successful Recruitment and
Selection
• The civil service staffing process (recruitment and
selection)
• Public service motivation
• Trends in recruitment and selection
• Best practices in improving recruitment selection
process
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Definition
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Recruitment can be defined as:
all activities directed towards locating
potential employees
the attraction of applications from suitable
applicants.

The aim of recruitment is to get the best
person suited to the job based on objective
criteria for a particular job

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Why is recruitment and
selection so important?
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Reversing the Erosion of the Public Service
Ethic
Personnel has long been perceived (and
even defined) in terms of control, rather
than service to the broader organization
Civic Culture and Tradition
Sound recruitment and
selection practices also
depend on complementary
HRM systems
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Why is recruitment and
selection so important?

Costs of mistakes:
engaging incompetent,
underqualified,
unmotivated employees;
employing another
person requires repeating
the process and
generates costs

Element of PR
strategy

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Rules of recrutiment and
selection
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Commonality
Openess
Competitiveness
Legality
Non-discrimination
Constancy of criteria
Neutrality
Objectivism
Transparency
Personal data security
Acting without delay

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Recruitment

The civil service staffing
process
Planning and approval for staffing
Position announcement
Selection of recruitment strategies

Selection

Selection of „tests”
Screen, interview, and checks (reference and other)
Final selection / Negotiate and hire
Postselection considerations

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Employer recruitment

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Elements influencing effectiveness of
recruitment:
The breadth and quality of the process
The size of the labour pool and the location of
jobs
Offered pay and benefits
Job quality and requirements of the position

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Organizational image

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Applicant’s perspective

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Avoiding cold, unthoughtful and dilatory
treatment:
Timing to minimize anxiety
Feedback to optimize scarce job search
resources
Information that makes distinctions
Enthusiastic, informative, and credible
representatives

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Planning and approval
1. Taking review of the need for the position to take
into account the following:

strategic and operational plans for the
organization

funding

current staffing structure

targets for diverse staffing profiles across all
levels;
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current staffing and skill levels;


anticipations in terms of new positions,
restructured positions, eliminated positions

how the needs for the position might best be met
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Planning and approval

2.


Labour market survey:
trends in terms of
availability, salaries,
education levels

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Position
announcement

Title and agency affiliation
Salary range
Description of duties and responsibilities
Minimum qualifications
Special conditions
Application procedures

Equal opportunity employment
Classification
Career potential
Special benefits
Time and place of applications

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Capabilities
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Technical skills – knowledge and abilities
connected with particular job position
 policy development and analysis,
 improved systems for monitoring and evaluation
and systems to improve financial management;
 planning,
 budgeting
 reporting.
Other criteria:
 Diversity and broad representation of minority
and protected class
 PSM
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Manager Ministerial and

Parliamentary Services (516394)
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Applications Close:– Friday, 12 September 2008.
Salary:– $76,007 per annum.
Community and Health Services (Public Sector) Award,
Administrative and Clerical Stream Level 10.
Permanent full-time day work.
Location:– Hobart.
Enquiries to Sharon Trueman, Department of Health
and Human Services, phone (03) 6233 3761, email

You are encouraged to apply online (below) or forward
your hard copy application quoting the vacancy
number to: Recruitment Services, Human Resources,
Department of Health and Human Services, GPO Box
125, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001.
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

Duties:

Manage the operations of the Ministerial
and Parliamentary Services function
including provision of high level coordination, information and advice services
to the Department and to the Minister
including the timely preparation and
provision of high quality correspondence,
briefings, speeches and other documents
for and on behalf of the Minister.
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Desirable Requirements:
High level analytical, conceptual, strategic, research
and creative skills and the ability to understand the
political, social and organisational environment in the
context of the health and human services sector;
identify relevant issues and priorities and make sound
judgements
high level interpersonal skills including written and oral
communication skills, negotiation and conflict
resolution skills;
the ability to develop, manage and maintain
collaborative stakeholder and client networks; and to

work collaboratively with senior executives and peers
to achieve common goals and objectives.

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Who should work in public
service?
Public service motives
Rational

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Norm-based

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Affective

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Participation in the process of policy
formulation
Commitment to a public program because
of personal identification

Advocacy for special or private interest
A desire to serve public interest
Loyalty to duty and to government as a
whole
Social equity
Commitment to a program from a genuine
convinction about its social importance
Patriotism of benevolence
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Public service motivation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

attraction to policymaking
commitment to the public interest
social justice
civic duty
compassion
self-sacrifice

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Analysis: Candidates

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Who is the ideal candidate for the agency?
What has attracted qualified candidates to the
agency?
How did those qualified candidates learn about
openings?
Why is the pool of qualified candidates shrinking?
What is the value system of the new generation
and how can the agency package itself to show
potential candidates that the agency has what
they desire?

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Recruitment strategies
Job posting
 Electronic posting
 Personal contact recruitment
 Recruitment by mail
 Head-hunting
 Noncompetive recruitment
 Develop a recruiting DVD


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Recruitment strategies:

Partnerships

University/college/
high school
communications,
art and computer
science programs

Other city
departments or
agencies to
advertise

Student Interns

Professional
production
companies and
advertising
agencies
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Analysis: recruitment strategies
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What has worked or not worked in terms of recruitment
strategies and advertising in the past?
Are signing bonuses or other incentives important?
How can current employees be ambassadors for the agency
and help recruit qualified candidates?
What recruitment materials does the agency already have
and how current are they?
Does the agency have a recruitment website and how many
hits is it generating?
Has the agency used paid advertisement in the past and, if
so, what value did it ad to the recruitment process?
What strategies is the agency using to attract the interest
of grade school up to high school students?

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Selection criteria
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Electoral popularity – policy-making jobs
Patronage – designating officials or employees
without a requirement for a formalized application
process
Merit based-system – using processes that
analyze job competencies and require open
applicaton procedures
Seniority – internal candidates; provides sense
loyalty
Representativeness – minorities should get
positions in areas of underrepresentation

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Selection criteria
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Selection criteria should be expressed in terms of:
 Essential – requirements that are critical to
successful performance in the position without
which a person could not be appointed; and
 Desirable – requirements that would enable
the person to perform at a higher level in the
position, but without which the person could

still be appointed.
The total number of essential and
desirable criteria shall not exceed
10.

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Selection criteria
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Selection criteria shall:
be written in simple and clear language;
be specific and not overlapping or repetitive;
be based on the real requirements of the position;
not be excessive in number (i.e. not more than 10
in total)
not discriminate unlawfully either directly or
indirectly against applicants
not favour either internal or external applicants;
and
be consistent with the classification standards of
the position.
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