Managers, supervisors and HR professionals in today's federal workforce must place significant emphasis on recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce. While this has always been important, it is even more so in light of the President’s Memorandum on Hiring Reforms which requires managers and supervisors to be more fully involved in the hiring process. This course is designed to help the participant develop the knowledge and skills necessary to perform a wide array of staffing functions. The participant will explore current staffing laws, regulations, rules and procedures as they apply to job analysis, recruitment, qualification analysis and veterans' preference.

Objectives:

• Describe the benefits and services of automated recruitment systems
• Determine candidates’ eligibility and qualifications for FWS and GS positions
• Apply veterans’ preference rules and procedures
• Recognize Merit System principles and prohibited personnel practices
• List methods to establish credibility with managers and supervisors
• Develop job analyses and crediting plans
• Distinguish between the competitive and excepted services
• Use direct hire authorities to appoint candidates where appropriate
• Describe the features and advantages of an upward mobility program
• Select the most appropriate type of appointment and source(s) of recruitment when filling a job

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Learn about the federal hiring process, procedures that must be followed when hiring employees, and how to select and retain the best-qualified candidates for your agency's jobs.

Objectives:

• Use newly acquired research skills and understanding of staffing issues to effectively advise customers on Federal employment issues
• Recognize the legal basis and requirements for filling positions
• Identify roles and responsibilities of supervisors, managers and Human Resources in staffing procedures and activities
• Articulate the relationship between staffing and other Human Resources functions
• Identify sources of information on pertinent staffing laws, regulations, and guidance
• Identify recruiting authorities and methods that can be presented to agency management as options when filling positions
• Describe the steps required to conduct a job analysis
• Identify the Major Duties and KSAs of a General Schedule position
• Describe the content of a crediting plan and identify its function in the staffing process
• Develop a vacancy announcement under the agency’s merit promotion plan
• Determine minimum qualifications based on OPM’s Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions

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Effectively and correctly use Category Rating, as required by the President's Hiring Reform initiatives, to rate and refer Federal job applicants. Learn how to develop quality categories that distinguish candidates, apply veterans' preference, prepare certificates for the selecting official, and select candidates from the certificate.

Objectives:

• Understand the elements and purpose of the President’s Hiring Reform Initiative
• Identify the impact of the hiring reform on current processes 
• Understand how the category rating approach is used
• Understand the importance of job analysis to define quality categories
• Understand how to create a crediting plan when using category rating
• Identify categorical competencies from resumes without KSAs 
• Understand how to read resumes for applicant screening 
• Evaluate resumes for placement of applicants in categories
• Correctly apply veterans’ preference using category rating

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The Communicating Effectively course is designed to strengthen participants’ skills as effective oral and written communicators by equipping them with the tools and strategies needed to develop and deliver effective oral presentations; identify and overcome communication barriers; provide feedback; engage in ethical communication; plan, organize and edit written documents; correctly produce memoranda; and use email appropriately.

Objectives:

• Use strategies for effective planning and writing
• Utilize techniques for identifying types of information, organization, style, and audiences
• Identify the characteristics, skills, and techniques of effective communicators

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The Consulting Skills for HRM Professionals course enhances participants’ effectiveness as an organization's in-house consultant on human resource issues by teaching them to build partnerships, lead teams, establish personal credibility, improve communication skills, analyze problems, and use interest-based and group problem-solving techniques.

Objectives:

• Recognize and apply techniques for establishing personal credibility
• Build partnerships and lead teams inside and outside of the workplace
• Recognize actions required to transition from internal consultant to change agent and strategic partner in mission accomplishment
• Use active listening to improve communication skills
• Analyze problems and use interest-based and group problem-solving techniques to find solutions

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The Customer Service in Government course strengthen participants’ skills for providing exceptional customer service, dealing appropriately with difficult customer behavior, and using feedback to continuously improve the service they provide.

Objectives:

• Identify the elements of the President’s memorandum on hiring reform
• Identify the impact of the hiring reform on VA
• Identify how resumes and cover letters can be used to screen applicants for eligibility and minimum qualifications
• Identify how the category rating approach is used to assess and select applicants
  

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Understand the basics of EEO laws as they affect federal employment. Learn about prohibited forms of discrimination; the federal sector EEO complaint process; techniques for identifying and avoiding workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation; and supervisory responsibility for affirmative employment in the federal sector.

Objectives:

• Identify agency responsibilities for establishing and maintaining EEO and affirmative employment programs
• Recognize the evolutionary flow of EEO law
• Understand the role and responsibilities of EEO and human resources practitioners in the EEO program

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