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Federal recruitment and hiring: Fishing for talent
How federal leaders can quickly reel in top talent to meet the mission
The federal recruitment and hiring process takes a long time. There’s an average of 101 days between a new hiring request and a candidate’s start date, according to OPM. Federal mission leaders are frustrated with navigating such a lengthy and complex process. They are often confused about where to begin and which parts of the process they can control. Teams are left with extra work. The candidate experience suffers. And federal government agencies don’t get the talent they need.
With limited time and federal teams already at capacity, how can mission leaders gain some control and tackle inefficiencies to improve the hiring process?
Federal recruitment and hiring strategy
“How do I think strategically about roles, rather than just fill vacancies?”
What’s wrong
Federal mission leaders feel stuck in a process they don’t control. They find themselves filling individual vacancies instead of making strategic hiring decisions aligned with current and future workforce needs and their talent management strategy.
Make it right
- Identify gaps. Establish workforce planning approaches to routinely assess skills gaps between current and desired future workforce needs.
- Set priorities. Leverage data-driven outputs from workforce planning to prioritize positions for hire in coordination with other offices.
Federal recruitment and hiring: Marketing
“How do I attract top talent with a compelling employee value proposition?”
What’s wrong
Federal mission leaders often find it difficult to effectively market to target candidates. What’s more, they feel they are at a disadvantage. Top talent often perceives industry jobs to be more appealing and better for career growth.
Make it right
- Know the market. Turn to AI platforms to analyze job market trends, competitor hiring activities, and salary benchmarks to help craft stronger, more compelling employee value propositions and attract top talent.
- Know your people. Understand what drives your workforce—what they are passionate about and why the mission is important to them. Use these insights to tailor outreach that resonates with mission driven candidates.
- Be specific. Use built-in low code automation tools to seamlessly update position descriptions with required skills and competencies.
Federal recruitment and hiring: Sourcing
“Where do I find qualified, diverse candidates who have the specific skills I need to join my team?”
What’s wrong
Identifying a pipeline of prospective candidates for open roles can be overwhelming. Federal mission leaders often need to fill niche roles, and they don’t know where to start to recruit this specialized talent.
Make it right
- Repeat what works. Gather and analyze your past recruiting patterns to determine how you found your strong performers.
- Turn to your people. Involve your current workforce in recruitment efforts (e.g., employee referrals, sharing job posting on social media).
- Act on feedback. Review and update processes based on candidate and staff feedback to improve the candidate experience.
Federal recruitment and hiring: Screening
“How do I effectively screen prospective candidates and track the status of open roles?”
What’s wrong
The screening process is often manual and does not leverage technology to match skills and experiences with open roles. Without a centralized applicant tracking system, federal mission leaders have no visibility into hiring. They have to depend on enterprise HR for updates to understand the candidate pool and the status of the hiring process.
Make it right
- Streamline resume scanning. Automate resume scanning and highlight qualified candidates based on position requirements.
- Automate tracking. Evaluate how to use existing or new technology and/or automation to track applicant status and trigger actions needed.
- Double down on skills. Instead of relying on self-assessments, focus on skills-based and multiple-hurdle assessment questionnaires to identify the most qualified candidates.
Federal recruitment and hiring: Selection
“How can I hire the best candidate while meeting requirements?”
What’s wrong
Federal mission leaders struggle to understand complex hiring requirements and don’t have standardized resources to help with interviewing techniques and hiring decisions. Many don’t have time to conduct thoughtful interviews.
Make it right
- Standardize evaluation. Develop position-specific standard interview questions and evaluation criteria.
- Train interviewers. Create training programs and enablement resources to equip interviewers with techniques and insight for selecting qualified candidates.
- Speed up the process. Consider panel-style interviews and create checklists for decision makers to make the selection process faster.
Ready to catch top talent?
At Eagle Hill Consulting, we can help you find, hire, and retain the talent you need by making the recruitment and hiring lifecycle faster and more efficient.
