Conducting Competitive Selections

DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE & FINANCIAL SERVICES
Bureau of Employee Relations
Telephone (207) 287-4447
FAX (207) 287-4452 TDD (207) 287-4537

No.: OSER-49

Date: May 21, 1998

Subject: Conducting Competitive Selections

To: All Holders of Employee Relations Manuals

From: Kenneth A. Walo, Director, Bureau of Employee Relations

In a recent arbitration decision involving a competitive selection the arbitrator ordered the State to prepare and disseminate to all agencies having competitive selections an instruction sheet explaining applicable arbitral precedent on how these selections should be conducted. The arbitrator further ordered that the instructions must be "explicitly reviewed with interview panels and appointing authorities."

Attached is such an instruction sheet. Each member of a competitive selection panel is to be provided a copy of these instructions prior to any competitive selection and given the opportunity to discuss and ask any questions about the instructions.

It is this Bureau's intention to meet with the departmental personnel officers in the near future to further discuss these instructions and answer any questions you may have. In the meantime please feel free to contact this Bureau with questions.

Thank you.

IMPORTANT BULLETIN - TO BE RETAINED IN EMPLOYEE RELATIONS MANUAL

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONDUCTING COMPETITIVE SELECTIONS
IN ACCORDANCE WITH RECENT ARBITRAL PRECEDENT

I. Length of State Service is important. The Selection Panel must give length of satisfactory state service appropriate consideration along with qualifications for the position.

A. Every interview panel must be aware of the relative length of state service of each applicant prior to the interview. This should be provided to them by the personnel officer.

1. Length of state service is defined as the total amount of time spent working for the state in a permanent position in any department. This service need not be continuous.

2. Time spent in a part-time or seasonal position counts equally toward length of service calculations; however the weight given such service in considering it may be less than that given to full time year round service.

B. The panel must expressly consider relative length of satisfactory state service, and there must be evidence of such consideration.

1. After the interviews the panel should discuss the relative lengths of state service and weigh relative lengths of service and qualifications of the candidates.

2. If, after that weighing process, the panel or a panelist determines that a candidate with less state service is the best qualified for the position, they should set forth in detail why the junior candidates qualifications outweighed the other candidate's greater state service. This should be in writing and "based on legitimate judgments as to the relative strengths of the candidates and how those strengths relate to the particular requirements of the job."

Put yourself in the place of the candidate with much longer state service. Wouldn't you want to know why someone with much less service was selected for the position?

II. The Selection Panel must consider past job performance. 1

A. Past job performance is relevant as a predictor or future job performance. "Some observation of past performance should be used to determine if there are gross disparities in performance, major deficiencies, or to clarify or double check impressions created at the interview." There are several ways in which a selection panel may consider past performance.

1 This requirement applies to noncompetitive selections as well.

1. The recent (usually past three years) performance appraisals for each candidate may be reviewed. Unless the same person supervises all candidates, there may be concerns about the comparability of the assessments.

2. A panelist (usually the Chairperson) may contact the supervisors of the candidates who received the highest rankings after the interview (usually the top two or three).

3. Some agencies have used supervisory references prepared before the interview specifically with the particular promotional position in mind. This works best when an agency had a large number of similar classes such as DOT.

B. Depending on the particular facts in the selection at hand you may wish to use one method as opposed to another, or to use a combination of these methods. For example, if there are candidates from outside state service, or if it is well know that one candidate's supervisor writes very critical appraisals of employees while another gives all employees top rankings, supervisory references may be better than performance appraisals. The method used should be as consistent as possible within the selection.

III. The panel cannot give a candidate who has been in acting capacity in the promotional position to be filled a possible advantage by considering that acting capacity service in the selection process.2

A. A candidate may not be permitted to gain an advantage by virtue of having served in the position being filled in acting capacity.

Therefore experience and/or knowledge gained by a candidate solely because s/he had served in acting capacity in the position may not be considered.

1. Interview questions must be framed so that answers are not directly related to specific experiences a candidate had while serving in acting capacity.

2. The panel shall direct the candidates not to mention such acting capacity service or any experience or knowledge gained soley through such service. One panelist or the monitor

should monitor the questions and answers. Should a candidate forget this instruction, s/he should be reminded of it and asked to correct the answer to only contain information based on non acting capacity experience. The other panelists should be instructed to strike out of their notes and not consider any portion of the answer based improperly on acting capacity.

3. Where an agency has been ordered by an arbitrator or settlement agreement to reselect for a particular position, the state must do everything feasible to minimize the possibility that the originally selected candidate will be advantaged by the time s/he spent in the job. Just as with acting capacity, the state may not consider the knowledge and experience gained by the originally selected candidate solely because s/he was in the position.

2 This requirement applies to noncompetitive selections as well.

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Conducting Competitive Selections