2013 NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Arkansas State Jobs Improving State Operations

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1 2013 NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Arkansas State Jobs Improving State Operations Don Lukas, Manager Research & Special Projects Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Office of Personnel Management, State of Arkansas Project Initiation Date: August 1, 2010 Project Completion Date: February 1, P age

2 Executive Summary An Applicant Tracking Module for ARStatejobs.com affords Arkansas state agencies the ability to completely eliminate paper from the hiring process, dramatically increasing the speed of evaluating and hiring candidates, and saving the state over $250,000 since its implementation. Auto-generated messages deliver applicants more rapid responses pertaining to the status of their application. The module benefits hiring managers by enabling them to view applications, make annotations, and score qualified applicants, providing a speedier hiring process. These features have enhanced the Office of Personnel Management s (OPM) ability to facilitate agency usage and manage agency hiring policies and practices. The reduction of time used to complete the applicant review process has freed up several hours for agencies and their hiring officials. Citizens are also able to better track their application submissions and their application status. OPM, which led the project, sought the input of all state agencies, conducted surveys and held open forums to plan the needed functionality. This initial study and research promoted the development of features that have enhanced OPM s ability to facilitate agency usage and manage agency hiring policies and practices. The estimated savings to the state of Arkansas in paper and postage, for four years, totals over $1 million dollars. This dollar savings is combined with savings in man hours created for HR employees through the efficiencies gained by implementing the enhancements, and the avoided cost of higher priced, hard-to-customize, off-the-shelf HR products. With the addition of the Applicant Tracking Module, ARStateJobs.com has become the model for fully electronic job advertising, application processing and hiring for state government. 2 P age

3 Business Problem and Solution Description OPM needed a more effective method for state agencies to review applications and fill job vacancies. The business problem was an inefficient and costly manual applicant review process that took several weeks to complete. HR managers created a bottleneck by printing copies of applications, including résumés, and sending them to hiring officials who manually noted and qualified each application. The paper copies would then be compared amongst hiring officials. Notification letters were sent to applicants indicating whether or not the applicant met the minimum qualifications for the job posting. This original process took an average of six weeks to complete. Hiring managers spent more time reviewing applications than identifying and addressing trends in the quality of applications received and creating best practices to enable current employees to become more productive. Significant modifications were necessary in order to create standardized processes and expedite hiring practices. OPM determined that the optimum solution to address and resolve the the business problem was to create an Applicant Tracking Module that would allow agencies to electronically view, manage, qualify, and store applications easily, effectively, and at no additional cost to the state agency. OPM began this process by seeking input from state agencies on what essential features should be incorporated into the ideal applicant tracking system. All 204 state agencies were surveyed and invited to a forum hosted by OPM to gather their feedback. Working groups of key stakeholders were also created to provide ongoing input and guidance throughout the project. Over 1500 hours were spent developing the Applicant Tracking Module, which was made available to all state agencies at no cost, and requires no additional software (apart from a web browser) to function. Within the next four years, a savings of well over $1 million dollars will be realized by the state of Arkansas in the reduction of printing, postage, and time spent processing paper documents. Arkansas conservatively recognized a cost savings in excess of $250,000 within a year by eliminating the need to print letters, purchase envelopes, and provide postage alone. This is an annual cost savings of $1,225 per agency. The Applicant Tracking Module created a paperless process, maintained a multi-user workflow, and provided a modernized interface for hiring officials. The transformation of a paper intensive process into a completely paperless process has revolutionized the procedure for reviewing job applicants. Hiring officials are responsible for evaluating candidates for a specific position. The state has several thousand hiring officials who require limited access to the system for a small amount of time. HR managers select the hiring officials that are necessary for a particular job vacancy, and the system s a link that permits them secure yet restricted access to perform their duties, without the necessity for providing permanent login credentials. Communicating the value and 3 P age

4 usability of the Applicant Tracking Module to agencies will be the key in ensuring the continued success of this project. Significance Since the implementation of the Applicant Tracking Module, state agencies have realized a significant savings in the HR managers time spent reviewing applications for job postings. On average, each application is 13 pages long. Typically there are 40 applications received for every job posted, with a total number of job postings per year averaging around 12,000. This means that the introduction of the paperless hiring process has eliminated the need to print 6,240,000 pieces of paper and to send 480,000 letters (complete with postage). Aside from the cost savings to the state, the time savings equates to a reduction of five minutes per application. An agency reviews an average of 40 applications per job posting. Saving five minutes per application results in a total reduction of 40,000 personnel hours per year. The recognized time savings can be reinvested in conducting other tasks and creating better efficiencies within other areas of the agency. Applicants, human resource managers, hiring officials, and the OPM immediately realized the benefits of the Applicant Tracking Module. Applicants receive a quicker response from agencies regarding the status of their application, human resource managers screen applications to determine if the applicant meets minimum qualifications, and hiring officials are able to complete the interview process faster because of the prescreening process. OPM is the project sponsor of this project and the overseer for the state umbrella of human resource policies, which have integrated the Applicant Tracking Module into their best practices. OPM has realized an increased efficiency in monitoring agency usage while identifying trends in processing and the hiring of state employees. Benefit of the Project Moving from an antiquated and paper inundated process to a paper-free process has opened a new chapter of efficiencies that may have once seemed impossible. The paperless Applicant Tracking Module facilitates a multi-user workflow and has created a new interface for hiring officials, which greatly streamlines the process of engaging hiring officials, speeding up the hiring process. The Applicant Tracking Module has created numerous financial and non-financial benefits. This project was created at no cost to OPM or the state of Arkansas and undergoes regular product updates to ensure agency needs are met. The total cost 4 P age

5 savings to the state of Arkansas for paper usage exceeded $250,000 the first year the feature was in production. Currently 201 state agencies benefit from the efficiencies created by the introduction of the applicant tracking module. 5 P age