GSA looks to upgrade job vacancy management system
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The General Services Administration is researching a software-as-a-service application that would automate its job vacancy management system.
The General Services Administration is conducting market research for a system that would automate most of the checks, screening, assessments and general processes that go into finding and evaluating the best qualified people to fill agency job vacancies.
In a recent request for information on its search, GSA’s Office of Human Resources Management said it currently uses an “office off-the-shelf automated staffing and candidate assessment system,” to recruit, evaluate and refer candidates for GSA job openings.
The application, called GSAjobs, is hosted and maintained via an application service provider, and provides a menu of basic job vacancy management features, including automated assessment and candidate search applications.
In the notice, GSA said it is looking for a more robust software-as-a -service (SaaS) solution that would provide a powerful range of enhanced, automated features, including seamless integration to USAJOBS, the Office or Personnel Management’s premiere, governmentwide job vacancy and management system.
The ideal system would also be compliant with current federal hiring regulations and meet prevailing security requirements, GSA said, including security specifications required by GSA’s information technology office. Single sign-on access to would be provided for GSA human resources specialists via GSA's HSPD Identity Credentialing and Access Management System.
GSA has assembled a long wish list of potential new features for the system, including the ability to perform candidate assessments that “result in the highest quality candidates for consideration and selection in the shortest time possible,” the notice said.
GSA wants the system the system to automatically assess candidates using a variety of grades and certifications, including category ratings, wage grade, general schedule and senior executive service ratings.
Once a vacancy is identified, the system should “have automated processes that generate vacancy announcements and be capable of processing applications received under merit promotion or competitive services,” according to GSA.
Additional capabilities GSA wants to build into a future personnel management and search system include:
- Provide tracking information on the entire recruitment process from the initial recruitment action received in the HR office to the time a final selection is made, including entrance on duty date.
- Provide 24/7 electronic application access to job seekers and applicants to allow updating/editing of personal profiles at any time during a job vacancy period.
- Store assessment criteria in a “question library,” allowing users to view and select specific criteria to add to vacancy announcements.
- Provide for the rating and ranking applicants by subject matter experts , including on-line access to applicants’ resumes and responses to the assessment questions as well as automated collection and calculation of evaluations/scores.
- Use a variety of assessment tools, including structured interviews, panel scores and third-party vendor assessments.
- Assign different levels of user access to menus and data as appropriate.
- Provide a means of notifying applicants on the outcome of their applications through email or postings on authorized Internet websites.