Poor Tech Hampers Applicants

The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and PDRI, a human resources consulting firm, issued a report on Thursday that "found government does a poor job of evaluating applicants for federal positions," according to an article on Government Executive.

Here are some findings relating to technology:

1. Incompatible systems burden job applicants and handicap agencies. "There are 10 different systems now in use across the federal government just for applicant tracking, and the inability to share information across the systems creates difficulties for applicants and for the staff who manage hiring."

2. Agencies make poor use of applicant tracking systems. "HR specialists and hiring managers often just know the basics of using these systems and are therefore prone to mistakes unless they have help."

3. Keyword searches do not effectively match applicants to jobs. "There are upwards of 5,000 job postings on USAJOBS.gov on any given day (many with confusing, jargon-filled descriptions), and the only options to narrow down the choices are keyword searches or demographic criteria such as agency name, location and occupation. It is not surprising that job seekers we spoke with almost uniformly said they were unsure which jobs matched their qualifications."