2017 Innovations in State Government
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State of Pennsylvania Office of Administration 2017 Innovations in State Government Title: Rebranding Pennsylvania as an Employer Category: Personnel 2017 Innovations in State Government | Rebranding Pennsylvania as an Employer Executive Summary (10 points) Like many other public sector organizations, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania faces stereotypes about government agencies and employees that make public employment unattractive to many job seekers. Unfortunately, the way the commonwealth previously presented itself to job seekers only served to reinforce many of these false perceptions with a static, outdated and desktop-only website; dense, bureaucratic language; and an unintuitive hiring process. These conditions also placed the commonwealth at a competitive disadvantage among employers for talent in the marketplace. In order to provide the best services to our citizens, we need to be able to attract the best talent to our workplace. The PA Office of Administration (OA) has pursued efforts to increase the quality and quantity of candidates applying for state government positions through rebranding, updated technology, process improvements and legislative reforms. In April 2017, OA launched a completely new employment website at www.employment.pa.gov for job seekers with a modern design and rich, engaging content to portray the meaningful work we offer and the extraordinary people who have chosen careers in public service. In addition, all job postings were re-written to remove bureaucratic language and jargon and be easily understandable to the general public. This was further supported by the use vacancy-based job postings that allow agencies to provide more detailed information about the jobs being offered. Since the changes were implemented for non-civil service positions, the commonwealth has experienced an increase in the number of job applications submitted online. Agencies have also noted that their job postings are attracting better-qualified candidates whose skills are a better fit for the duties of the position. OA has also worked collaboratively with the State Civil Service Commission and General Assembly to enact legislative reforms that have cleared the path for similar improvements to Pennsylvania’s merit hiring system that will enable Pennsylvania to have a single website for individuals to learn about commonwealth employment and view and apply for jobs in state government. [2] 2017 Innovations in State Government | Rebranding Pennsylvania as an Employer Innovation (30 points) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s executive branch has over 73,000 salaried employees, making it the second largest employer in the state. With 16 percent of its workforce eligible to retire and reduced complements due to budgetary pressures, every position and every hire is more important than ever. However, the commonwealth’s recruitment and hiring processes have put it at a competitive disadvantage among employers seeking new talent. The overall goal of the initiative is to increase the number of qualified candidates who apply for jobs by rebranding the commonwealth as an employer and making the hiring process more convenient and user-friendly for job seekers. Rebranding OA rebranded its employment website, www.employment.pa.gov, to reposition the commonwealth in the talent marketplace. The redesign included input from diverse stakeholders, including agency recruitment professionals, Next Generation Task Force members (volunteer group of millennial-age state employees working on recruitment, retention and branding issues) and commonwealth interns. OA also conducted research into the employment websites of leading private sector employers and gathered input from focus groups and college campus interviews. The new site delivers a look and feel and user experience that are more customer-focused and consistent with the expectations of today’s job seekers. The previous website had gone largely unchanged for seven years. From a content perspective, static, text-heavy pages have been replaced with vivid photographs and engaging videos that highlight our exceptional employees and career paths and make visitors want to apply with us. • Working in PA: The homepage features a content tile that can be used for videos about working for the commonwealth generally or that highlight specific jobs that are “in demand” or during peak recruitment periods during the year. • Open Jobs: All content on the site seeks to drive users to view and apply for positions. In addition to being prominently displayed on the homepage, there are links to our job listings on nearly every page via a custom footer or calls to action embedded into the content. Generic and bureaucratic job postings were replaced with easy-to-understand vacancy-based postings that seek to “sell” our jobs and entice individuals to apply. • Spotlights: The site profiles real employees in a variety of fields to highlight the meaningful and diverse work we offer as well as employee mobility, opportunities to advance, pleasant work environments and supportive supervisors and co-workers. The order in which Spotlight articles are listed can be customized so that specific positions are featured more prominently during peak recruitment periods. • Benefits: The site also goes beyond the traditional salary and retirement benefits to highlight work-life balance, career development, employee discounts and charitable [3] 2017 Innovations in State Government | Rebranding Pennsylvania as an Employer giving. • Internships: Information about all state government internship programs is gathered into a comprehensive directory and features a video of recent interns describing their experience with the commonwealth. • Veterans: The site includes a page targeting servicemembers returning to the civilian workforce that highlights job placement services, veterans-only benefits and the opportunity to continue to serve. OA has also begun to leverage social media as a recruitment tool and has used it to successfully promote our upcoming vacancies like a digital director, parole agent trainees, seasonal CDL drivers, and increase awareness of temporary clerical pool positions. With the establishment of a centralized talent management organization, OA will be able to more effectively coordinate recruitment efforts and implement an enterprise social media strategy for jobs. Process Improvements Another obstacle to recruitment was the commonwealth’s hiring process. OA implemented LEAN and vacancy-based job postings for non-civil service vacancies. Previously, postings were for generic job categories (finance, information technology, etc.) without any information on the specific position, its location within the state or whether a vacancy was currently open. An example from the PA Department of Revenue (DOR) demonstrates the effectiveness of the improved posting language. The department needed to fill an Administrative Officer 5 vacancy in the Lottery Commission. This position acts as the Director of Sales, so DOR wanted to attract candidates who had experience directing a sales force and selling consumer packaged goods. Rather than try to fill the vacancy with candidates applying to a standard “Administrative Officer 5” posting, DOR created a posting using the Director of Sales job title that included a summary of the job (instead of the job class specification), high level goals, a relation to the mission of the organization and basic requirements, as well as emphasizing the public service aspect of state employment. Two weeks after posting, DOR received 71 applications, which yielded 20 top choices. Three candidates were from lottery offices in other states, while the remaining candidates possessed the sales management experience that DOR was seeking. While attending a national conference, a DOR senior leader received compliments from colleagues in other states that the job posting was “really progressive” and “appealing!” Updated Technology The online presence for non-civil service employment consists of two components: an informational/marketing website and software as a service platform to view and apply for vacancies. With the majority of web traffic coming from mobile devices rather than desktops, the commonwealth recognized the need to adapt to this shifting preference. OA redesigned the website to be mobile responsive so that visitors can easily navigate the website on any device, from a full-size desktop PC to a pocket-size smart phone. The job postings and [4] 2017 Innovations in State Government | Rebranding Pennsylvania as an Employer online application platform also uses responsive design, providing a seamless end-to-end experience for users. Internal job postings were previously available to employees through an intranet portal and/or distributed via email or displayed on bulletin boards in hallways and breakrooms. Now all internal job postings are on the same software as a service platform (NEOGOV) used for external non-civil service postings, which has allowed the commonwealth to decommission the old intranet portal, which was custom built and nearing end of life. As part of the new website launch, OA enabled a job interest card functionality that allows users to select job categories that are of interest to them in order to receive email notifications when new vacancies are posted. Rather than having to monitor the website daily for new postings, users can now opt to be notified when a particular position of interest becomes available. Legislative Reforms OA worked with the State Civil Service