Federal Recruiting and Hiring

Since 1964 federal agencies have been allowed to offer higher starting salaries to new workers who have superior or unique qualifications. Over the years, that authority has been expanded. In 1988 the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) gave all federal agencies the authority to approve such federal appointments without first seeking permission from OPM. The 1990 Federal Pay Comparability Act further expanded that authority by extending the allowance for higher starting salaries to new workers below the GS-11 grade. GAO was asked to review agencies' use of this authority. It discovered that while the authority is a very helpful recruiting aid for agencies, control over the use of the authority needs improvement. Specifically, GAO found that OPM's guidance to agencies on when they may offer higher starting salaries should be more instructive to help agencies decide who qualifies for higher starting salaries. For example, the guidance should (1) require agencies to compare, where practicable, candidates' qualifications with those of current employees in the same positions and (2) outline conditions that define "special need." GAO believes that current OPM guidance, which is designed more for candidates with experience, is inappropriate for positions below GS-11. Better guidance from OPM would also help agencies that are major users of the authority to develop their own, more tailored guidance.

GAO found that: (1) personnel officials reported that the advance in-hire authority had enhanced their ability to attract highly qualified people and increased the timeliness of personnel actions; (2) adequate controls were necessary to avoid charges of abuse or favoritism, since the advance in-hire authority enables agencies to pay employees holding the same position different starting salaries; (3) during fiscal year 1990, the 10 civilian installations reviewed made 2,324 appointments to GS-11 and above positions, and of those appointments, the agencies made 25 percent using the advance in-hire authority; (4) the advance in-hire salary for 97 of the 99 appointments reviewed was within the governing pay ceiling, and none of the 99 exceeded the highest step of the related grade; (5) because candidates for positions below GS-11 may lack work experience, proving that a candidate possesses superior qualifications or meets a special need may be more difficult than doing so for GS-11 or above positions; (6) written explanations of why candidates qualified for advance in-hire salaries were available for 99 of the 100 appointments, but those explanations lacked the kinds of comparative data necessary for judging whether appointees' qualifications were superior or unique; and (7) at the 10 installations, only limited monitoring occurred.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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