2. The secretary should use these goals and objectives for the beginning of a performance appraisal for the person hired into this position. It doesn’t matter if the West Dakota Department of Envrironmental Affairs does or does not have a “formal” performance appraisal process in place. Filling a new position provides an excellent opportunity for the supervisor — in this case the secretary/department director — to mentor the person in the position. Even Cabinet-level political appointees can do this. Or, the secretary can delegate this to the deputy secretary/director. And, even experienced administrators and managers can benefit from well-placed mentoring guidance. The performance appraisal keeps the person hired focused, and it provides an accountability mechanism for the secretary to assist in ensuring that the purpose behind the establishment of the position is achieved or at least advanced.

In each of the above items, the purpose is to assist both in the interview and selection process and in the important performance monitoring effort. It should result in a better hiring process and, most importantly, in a better shot at achievement of the expected results — it supports a “win-win” for both the persons involved and for state government. This is an example of responsible management in the public sector.

If Buzz Lightyear, the space commando character from the movie Toy Story, were a government manager, he would shout “TO GOOD GOVERNMENT AND BEYOND!!!”

James M. Kasprzak
Director
Bureau of Administrative Services
Michigan Family Independence Agency

FOCUS ON RECRUITING, NOT REVISING THE JOB DESCRIPTION

I agree with Bob Behn that the priority here is to get the “right people” to apply for this position. Changing the personnel bureaucracy can wait. To attract the right people, the secretary must first understand that a job description, a performance goal, and a job advertisement are different from each other. Each has a role in this case study, but their roles are different. Ideally, all three can coexist, even peacefully, and can be used to hire a talented director of environmental partnerships.

First, the job description. Ordinarily, this is a boilerplate document used to support an organization’s classification system. It catalogues job duties, often in a mind-numbingly boring and/or “vacuous” fashion. That may frustrate the secretary, but it’s not the end of the world.

Performance goals, on the other hand, detail the results the person in the position is expected to accomplish (e.g., reduce specific forms of pollution, increase habitat productivity by 5 percent), while performing the duties listed in the description.

Then there is the job ad (or announcement, brochure, Internet posting, etc). This will be a key to getting the right people to apply. The ad should describe the job in a way that allows potential candidates to decide if they’re qualified and interested (in personnel-speak, this is known as providing a “realistic job preview”).

My advice to the secretary is to work with personnel to get the job description approved as quickly as possible, using whatever language personnel thinks will work. Then, more importantly, the secretary and personnel can devote their time, resources and energy to conducting an aggressive recruiting campaign (”cast a wide net”).

A first step in this campaign is to craft a job ad (and/or brochure, etc.) that describes this exciting opportunit, and doesn’t sound like a job description. The implication in the case description is that the job ad has to duplicate the description. I disagree.

In Wisconsin, when we train managers how to recruit, we tell them that there is no law that a job ad has to look like the job description. In fact, we tell them there should be a law that an ad can’t look like the description.

How many times do we see a classified ad for a public sector job that is a single paragraph, maybe 14 inches long, with small, dense type? This ad looks like a legal notice and seems to scream to the reader: “This is a government job.” This approach doesn’t attract candidates — it discourages them, and wastes time and money.

To hire a qualified director, the secretary should work with personnel to craft an attractive and compelling ad, brochure, etc. that outlines job duties (in plain language); includes goals (e.g., reduce specific forms of pollution, increase habitat productivity by 5 percent); details qualifications (innovator, consensus-builder); tells the reader why this is a great opportunity; identifies the salary range; and describes how to apply.

The case description is full of words that could be used in the recruiting campaign to describe the job and what the governor and secretary expect (e.g., improve air and water quality; collaborate on multimedia enforcement and mitigation strategies; reduce the accumulation of pesticides, toxic substances and other wastes; improve wildlife habitats; create collaborating partnerships; etc.). The secretary has already “pounded out” much of this material — it should be used in the job ad and the recruiting campaign.

The ad should also attract candidates by publicizing and emphasizing the positive aspects of this exciting opportunity. I’d focus on the challenge of this brand-new position, its uniqueness, the opportunity to improve the environment and therefore the quality of life for West Dakota’s citizens, the chance to create a national model for regional environmental partnerships, etc. This it what will attract applicants.

After the secretary reviews the résumés of the many qualified people who will undoubtedly apply for this exciting opportunity, he or she will decide whom to interview. Then, personnel can send those applicants copies of the job description, perhaps accompanied by the message that this is simply the technical description of the job. Then the fun — interviewing — begins, and should be conducted as Dr. Behn describes.

For too long in the public sector, many of us have simply assumed that we’ll always have enough qualified candidates for our jobs. As a result, we didn’t pay enough attention to recruiting and marketing our opportunities. That time is long past, and now we must develop ways to recruit more widely and effectively. In this “Manager’s Dilemma” case, I believe the secretary can successfully recruit a director, by aggressively conducting a broad, multi-media recruiting campaign. He or she can accomplish this while still meeting personnel’s technical requirements.

Robert J. Lavigna
Administrator
Division of Merit Recruitment and Selection
Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations

Madison

TURF MIXING

You’re mixing turfs. Job descriptions have nothing to do with performance goals. Now, I’m not saying they shouldn’t, I’m just saying they do not from my experience. Job descriptions are the turf of Human Resources or, more exactly, of Personnel Management (PM). The average PM knows Planning, Coordinating, Developing, Monitoring, Filing, Typing, Spinning, Weaving, Attending, Conducting and all those other great task-like terms. They can screen a job application or résumé in seconds with terms like that. Everett’s got it right.

Now, when your secretary of environmental affairs gives Everett a statement of specific responsibility with attached specific goals, he’s lost. How do you expect him to screen job descriptions with words like that? These terms are in the turf of the Office of Management and Budget (more specifically, in the Performance Budget Book published quarterly). Tell your secretary that he’s about to have a turf battle on his hands. Let Everett do her job and go talk to the source of his financing, who understands accountability. He’s just expecting too much from his HR system. Nothing is as simple as that in government.

Frederick Stanley
Senior Management Analyst
Office of Internal Audit City of Orlando, Florida

Agree or disagree? If you think you have a better way to deal with this month's Manager's Choice dilemma or would like to expand on the approaches presented here, share your thoughts with other readers. Send your solution to mailbox@governing.com. Please include your name, location, government or business title or job description, and a daytime phone number (for verification purposes).