Civil Service Bulletin 6.10B

STATE OF MAINE
BUREAU OF HUMAN RESOURCES

March 16, 1990

CIVIL SERVICE BULLETIN 6.10B

TO:	All Department Heads, Personnel Officers and Affirmative Action Officers
SUBJECT:	Screening, Evaluation and Selection Requirements for Direct Hire Employment Classes

Civil Service Law and Rules provide that certain classifications in the classified service may be designated by the Director of Human Resoruces as Direct Hire Employment classes and that the responsibility to manage the recruitment, screening and selection processes for these classes may be delegated to individual State agencies.

This bulletin revises requirements for Direct Hire Employment programs practiced by State Government agencies and supersedes Bulletin 6.10A issued on April 16, 1985.

I. Policy: Each agency shall ensure that its Direct Hire recruitment and selection programs are consistent with merit system principles and guidelines and Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity laws, rules, regulations and guidelines.

II. Recruitment: Agencies may choose the appropriate applicant pool (promotional or open competitive) from which to fill direct hire positions. If the occupation is identified as underutilized in the Agency Affirmative Action Plan, the decision to select Agency Promotional (AP) or Statewide Promotional (SWP) must be approved by the agency's Affirmative Action designate. Special recruitment sources for underrepresented groups should be notified of all open competitive vacancies. The Supported Employment/Special Appointment Program may be utilized regardless of the applicant pool selected.

Once the applicant group is chosen, notice of vacancies shall be made in accordance with the following procedures:

A. General Provisions:

1. Direct Hire Employment classifications may be kept open to application on a continuous basis, or for a specified term, as needed.

2. Job announcement bulletins will be developed by the user agency for each open competitive recruitment process. At a minimum, job bulletins shall contain the following information (See the suggested format shown in Attachment 1):

a) the purpose of the announcement
b) a description of the job
c) salary
d) dates within which applications will be accepted
e) location of vacancies
f) minimum qualifications and special requirements as appropriate
g) applicant screening procedures, as appropriate
h) how to apply
i) Equal Opportunity Employment statement

3. Promotional job announcements for positions which are familiar to the applicant group may be abbreviated for posting purposes. However, these abbreviated postings must state that more detailed information similar to that provided by open competitive annoucement bulletins will be made available on a request basis.

4. Promotional job announcements for positions which are not familiar to the applicant group should follow the suggested format guide for the open competitive recruitment process.

5. Classifications either closed to recruitment or open only to a restricted applicant pool (i.e., just employees of institutions) may be opened to recruitment or expanded recruitment as needed for affirmative action recruitment consistent with agency needs.

B. Notice Requirements: Notice shall consist of promotional postings and/or job announcement bulletins for the position/classification and, in the case of open competitive recruitment, public notice must be made. Public notice may include publication in one or more newspapers or in one or more professional magazines/journals. Public notice may be limited to a particular geographic area when wider notice would be inefficient or impractical.

Procedures for recruitment and notice are outlined below:

1. Promotional - Vacancies shall be posted in accordance with agency policy and labor contract agreements. A copy of the posting and/or job announcement bulletin shall be sent to the Bureau of Human Resources for informational purposes.

2. Open Competitive - Announcement bulletins shall be posted in accordance with agency policy and labor contract agreements. Announcements shall also be distributed to the Bureau of Human Resources so that candidates seeking State employment can be referred to appropriate openings and job information resources. In addition, announcements shall be sent to appropriate branch offices of the Maine Job Service where they shall be made available for inspection by all interested parties. Public notice is required.

An agency may request that the Bureau of Human Resources include an advertisement for a direct hire classification being opened to recruitment with the block advertisement published for classes in the competitive service.

Agencies using the Maine Job Service for exclusive applicant referral are not required to make public notice.

The Maine Job Service will provide three levels of service with respect to Direct Hire employment.

a) General - The Job Service will maintain a listing of open competitive announcement bulletins for Direct Hire classes which are open to recruitment and application, provide direct hire applications to interested applicants, and provide such information as may be available on the position and classification.

b) Recruitment Assistance - By agreement of any agency and Job Service, the Job Service may assist an agency's recruitment effort by listing the opening on the Maine Job Bank and recruiting and referring qualified applicants to the agency.

c) Exclusive Referral - The Job Service will negotiate exclusive referral agreements with any State agency that wants to do all of the recruitment for a Direct Hire position and/or classification through the Job Service. The Bureau of Human Resources will not require advertising when an exclusive referral agreement exists. In classifications that are underrepresented in the agency's Affirmative Action Plan, an "affirmative action job order" should be utilized.

III. General Application Requirements: Each applicant for a Direct Hire classification must establish eligibility by completing and submitting to the hiring agency a Form PER 3, Maine Bureau of Human Resources Application for Direct Hire Employment classes. Applicants must complete a separate Direct Hire application (PER 3) for each Direct Hire Employment classification for which they wish to be considered.

A State Government agency may require information supplemental to the application form, provided the same supplemental data is solicited from all applicants for the class involved, and provided this information is solicited for job-related purposes. Supplemental information forms must conform to Merit System principles and Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines. Copies of these forms should be provided to the Agency Affirmative Action designate for informational purposes.

IV. Screening/Evaluation/Selection: Agencies are required to establish job related screening and selection processes for Direct Hire positions and classifications. The same screening and selection processes must be applied to all applicants for a given position or classification, and all applicants must meet the minimum qualification criteria established for a position or classification in order to be eligible for further consideration.

Certain positions within a classification may require specialized experience, training or skills which are exceptional to those established to those established as the standard for the classification. In these cases, the agency may establish job related special qualifications and screening processes listed on the announcement bulletin. For classifications open on a continuous basis, the supplemental qualifications and screening processes must be applied to all applicants, including those who may have established earlier eligibility for the classification under the standard criteria, unless separate notice and recruitment is conducted to fill the position.

All screening, evaluation and selection criteria must meet Merit System principles and Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines.

In classifications that are underrepresented in the agency's Affirmative Action Plan, a machanism should be developed whereby applicants in the applicable protected groups are referred for interview.

Qualifications criteria, screening and selection processes used by an agency to fill Direct Hire positions shall be subject to audit by the Bureau of Human Resources for conformance with merit system and EEO/AA policy and standards.

V. Records: The central Personnel Office of an agency is responsible for maintaining records for its Direct Hire classifications, but may delegate this responsibility to the appropriate agency sub-division.

The following practices are required:

A. Application Forms - All applications submitted to a State agency or institution must be maintained by that agency or institution for a minimum of two (2) years.

B. Evaluation and Related Papers - Applicant evaluation information, to include numerical scores (or PASS/FAIL notations) on all parts of the screening process, interview questions and interview results and written correspondence related to these matters should be maintained with the applicant's application form. Selection interviews and hiring decisions are a definite part of the competitive process and must satisfy Merit System and Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. Records pertaining to these employment actions must also be maintained for a minimum of two (2) years.

C. Applicant Survey Data - (Tear off page of application form). The survey data voluntarily provided by applicants for Direct Hire classes should be received and maintained by an employee of the State agency or institution who is not involved with the selection process. This employee should forward application tear-offs to the Bureau of Human Resources at the end of the work day. THIS SURVEY DATA IS CONFIDENTIAL AND THE STATE AGENCY OR INSTITUTION MAY NOT UTILIZE OR COPY ANY PART OF IT WITHOUT APPROVAL FROM THE BUREAU OF HUMAN RESOURCES.

D. Activity Reports - Each State agency or institution must complete PER 45, Activity Report for Direct Hire Employment Classifications and submit it to the Bureau of Human Resources on a reporting period basis. (Reporting periods will vary from agency to agency in accordance with the size of the workforce, turnover rates, etc.). These reports will be compiled by the Bureau of Human Resources as part of its overall Applicant Tracking System.

VI. Confidentiality: All documents pertaining to the application, screening and selection of individual applicants for Direct Hire Employment classes shall be kept confidential by the State agency or institution which maintains them, except that these materials, other than test and interview questions, may be made available to a person or persons by the signed release of the applicant or employee.

Sections of the Civil Service Law and Rules and applicable contractual agreements which concern Direct Hire Employment (non-competitive) classes shall remain in effect together with the requirements of this Bulletin unless or until any of these laws, rules requirements or agreements are modified.

Nancy J. Kenniston, Director
BUREAU OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Attachments

1. Performance Management System Overview and Instructions
2. State of Maine Performance Management Form
3. Computation of Anniversary Date