DHS Automates Hiring Processes

Wired Workplace spoke with Jeffrey Neal, chief human capital officer at the Homeland Security Department, on Monday about the agency's new IT platform that simplifies and accelerates its recruiting and hiring activities. The tool, called TalentLink, uses electronic routing and approvals, automates the rating and ranking process, standardizes vacancy announcements using plain language, and facilitates communication with applicants. The tool also eliminates the knowledge, skills and abilities questions traditionally found on federal applications, allowing DHS applicants to simply submit a resume, Neal said.

"What we've found is the more you try to mirror the paper process with technology, the less effective your technology is," he said. "In the federal government, we've tried to automate that paper process, and that often involves long, many-page applications and essay questions."

The Office of Management and Budget in June sent out a memorandum for agencies to begin mapping their hiring processes and writing plain-language job descriptions for their 10 most prevalent positions. Neal said the TalentLink system is putting DHS ahead of the curve on meeting the new requirements.

Thus far, DHS headquarters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Office of the Inspector General have implemented TalentLink, and the department plans to launch the system throughout the entire department within the next two years.

TalentLink plays the largest role in DHS' overall human capital business system modernization, Neal said. Other portions of the modernization will involve a departmentwide learning management system that links handles the administration of employee training and education, he said. The department also plans to create a comprehensive DHS careers Web site that links all of the agency's subcomponents.

"A comprehensive site would allow applicants to get more complete information on career opportunities in the entire department and not just in the headquarters or a component," he said. "It would allow us to take advantage of all the recruiting done by various components ... and help us take advantage of what we're doing at career fairs."