U.S. Federal Hiring Practices 101

The mission statement of the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management is as follows: To recruit, retain, and honor a world-class workforce to serve the American people. It’s certainly an important and noble mandate.

Yet with such a wide variation of jobs within the U.S. federal government, from professional to administrative to blue collar to law enforcement to name just a few, the federal recruiting process can be confusing.

In a recent article published by Public Sector Digest, Stewart Liff, a Fellow with the Performance Institute and an HRM expert, outlines the basics, along with tips for making sound hiring decisions. Useful to both current government employees and public sector job seekers, the following infographic highlights hiring steps, from creating a federal job posting to selecting the right hire.

US Hiring Practices Infrographic

Note: While the infographic provides general hiring practices, there are always exceptions. For example, internal hiring is often a much simpler process. Moreover, individuals with disabilities need not always be subject to the same selection criteria.