In a study released in January, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board offered four ways for the federal government to improve the usefulness of its training and experience assessments of potential employees.
The study suggests agencies should improve the accuracy of training and experience assessments by grounding them in job analysis, improving the questions asked, as well as the rating scales, scoring and applicant self-assessment.
Furthermore, the paper said agencies should increase the verification of applicant information by agency-driven approaches that rely on corroborating applicant claims.
The study is aimed at fixing two major problems within training and experience assessments. The board found that trying to predict future job behavior from the past is hard because what an applicant reports is not always what happened, and training may not always be applicable to future events.
In addition, the board said problems exist in the way applicants assess their own proficiencies.
“Applicants may have trouble recalling or reporting the most appropriate or applicable experiences,” the study said.
It also said applicants may not have an accurate prospective of their talents or may not accurately evaluate them.
The report is required from the board by law and is used to improve how agencies assess candidates for federal jobs.
The study pointed out that training and experience have become increasingly important in job applicants and previous ways of assessing their proficiencies have been largely unsuccessful.
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