CEO Recommended Reading -- Attracting Career Entry Hires: Sizing Up the Competition
MSPB Issues of Merit
July 31, 2007
Are Federal career entry new hires really looking for a job with the Federal Government—or are they just looking for a job?
The Federal Government is one player in Neverending contest to attract high quality, career entry talent. To win, we must know who the competition is.
MSPB has recently conducted a study of Federal career entry new hires. We surveyed almost 2,000 new GS-05, -07, and -09 employees to find out who they are, why they came to the Federal Government, and what the Government can do to attract more of them. 1 We also asked questions to learn more about the Government’s chief competitors—at least in the eyes of new hires.
We found that a large portion of Federal new hires actually set out to obtain a Federal Government job. When asked to describe their employment goal at the time they applied for their first Federal job, 31 percent of new hires reported that they were trying to obtain a job with the Federal Government. This answer was particularly popular among new hires working for the private sector at the time they applied—potentially indicating that they were looking for greener pastures in the Federal sector. Another 22 percent were looking for a job with a specific agency. Combining these two groups means that over 50 percent of new hires were specifically looking for a job with the Federal Government.
Though a large portion of new hires were seeking a Federal job, the Government still faces competition from other sectors for talent. To learn what types of organizations the Federal Government competes with, the survey asked new hires what other organizations they applied to when they were seeking their first Government jobs. The results are displayed in Table 1.
The largest portion of survey participants sent applications to the Federal Government. It is interesting that most participants sent only one to five applications to the Federal Government. This may indicate that those who were successful in the Federal hiring process had a good idea of the job they wanted and did not find it necessary to flood the Government with resumes.
Several recent studies found that the nonprofit sector is becoming an increasingly important competitor with the Federal Government because many Americans feel non-profits provide an even greater opportunity to impact society than does a governmental agency. However, almost 80 percent of our survey participants sent no applications to the nonprofit sector. State and local governments proved to be only slightly greater competition, with 40 percent of the participants sending applications to this sector.
This seems to indicate that Federal new hires, first and foremost, were determined to get a job with the Federal Government, which is good news for agencies. Considering that this research focuses on those who were successful in their Federal job search, we cannot accurately say what percentage of all applicants are interested in obtaining a Federal job. However, it is also plain that the Government’s primary outside competition for high-quality talent comes from the private sector. This finding supports the premise that the Federal Government needs to ensure that it is competitive with the private sector—whether through pay, benefits, work flexibilities, or other means—to attract and hire the best candidates.
1. “Career entry new hires” are defined as those in General Schedule and GS-Related Grades-05, -07, and -09 employees who were appointed into full-time, non-seasonal, permanent positions in Executive Branch professional and administrative occupations.
