ESC hiring initiative nets hundreds of qualified job seekers

By Kevin Gilmartin
66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

An Electronic Systems Center civilian recruitment and hiring initiative that was unveiled in November is already paying big dividends, with referrals of more than 300 highly qualified applicants for acquisition-related vacancies.

More than 40 newly hired ESC civilians are expected to report for work at Hanscom in the next two weeks in what will be the first surge of approximately 100 new recruits. Most of the new hires, and about 80 percent of all the candidates referred, currently live in the local area, precluding the need of relocating to the high-cost Boston area.

Several factors contributed to the success of the hiring initiative, according to ESC's Deputy Director of Personnel Sherry Farley, including a re-branding of ESC, launch of an easy-to-use recruitment web site, streamlined hiring procedures and rising unemployment in the private sector.

"We always knew this is a great and satisfying place to work, and the jobs here at ESC are competitive with private industry at all levels, but we had to find a new way to attract qualified applicants to ESC and help them understand the many benefits of becoming an Air Force civilian," she said.

The first step in that effort was to develop a branding campaign for ESC that succinctly explained the center's mission and the career opportunities available, and feature that information on a web site that could guide a potential applicant to the vacancy announcements posted on USAJOBS.gov. The website, afesccareers.com , was developed for ESC by TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, the world's largest independent recruitment advertising agency, under an Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition contract.

The center timed its launch of the website to coincide with the Boston Globe recognizing Hanscom Air Force Base in its "Globe 100: The Top Places to Work" section of the Nov. 9 Boston Sunday Globe. ESC ran a half-page help wanted advertisement in that special section, directing interested individuals to the new web site. In a matter of days, the site was inundated with visits from potential employees, many of whom followed through and applied on line.

But attracting candidates to apply was only half the battle, according to Ms. Farley. The other challenge was ensuring the applications were processed quickly and lists of qualified candidates were provided to ESC's managers before the applicants lost interest or got another job.

To tackle that challenge, ESC contracted with the Office of Personnel Management and significantly abbreviated the standard hiring process. According to Ms. Farley, applications for these ESC jobs now go directly to OPM, where personnel specialists rate and rank the candidates in two to five days, and send a list of highly qualified people to the ESC's hiring officials for consideration.

"We've also adopted the principles of OPM's 'End-to-End Hiring Roadmap,'" Ms. Farley said.

According to OPM, the End-to-End Hiring Roadmap was designed based on the assumption that applicants for Federal positions expect a simple and easy to understand application, timely updates regarding application status and a window of two-and-a-half months or less within which an applicant starts the job. To ease the process for job applicants, the roadmap calls for shorter job announcements, written in plain language, and the elimination of the cumbersome Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities narratives typically required along with a resume.

"This approach has worked extremely well for us," said Ms. Farley. "We are seeing unprecedented results in attracting top quality candidates for critical jobs at Hanscom and all other ESC locations."

ESC Vice Commander Brig. Gen. Terry Feehan, whose video image greets visitors to the ESC careers web site, is also impressed with the recruitment campaign's results.

"In less than four months, we have advertised positions, had hundreds of people apply, received lists of qualified candidates and made job offers," he said. "While we still have room to improve and tighten up the timeline, this is a really amazing improvement in the hiring process. All of our managers who have been living with vacant positions are excited about the quality and number of candidates they are receiving."

Michelle Rogers, chief financial officer for the 350th Electronic Systems Wing, who served on a selection panel for GS-12 finance specialist positions along with other wing CFOs, was very impressed with those interviewed.

"I didn't know what to expect, but the attitude of the candidates, and their excitement about working for the Air Force was amazing."

During the first round of competency based interviews, her panel interviewed 42 people and made 16 job offers. In the second round, they interviewed 36 and selected 12 people for offers.

"These were all highly qualified people with the potential to be CFOs," she said. "Their resumes were fantastic, and their attitude and work ethic was incredible. As long as we can retain them, I'm confident they will become our next generation of senior leaders."

Ms. Rogers said the 350th ELSW has eight vacancies and she expects to fill all of them with candidates interviewed by her and the other panel members.

Ms. Farley said that the ESC career web site and recruitment campaign will be expanded. The next step is expansion of our competency efforts to more grade levels and associated series of mission critical occupations and inclusion of non-acquisition positions throughout ESC.

(Archives)