Hiring from pools – Advertised or non-advertised appointment

Overview

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What to consider?

A job advertisement makes potential applicants aware of an opportunity and allows them to express their interest. Information in a job advertisement can affect a person’s decision to apply. For example:

Area of selection and recourse

• Did the area of selection on the original job advertisement include the organization where the appointment will take place?
• For the appointment to be considered advertised, employees in the organization where the appointment will take place should have been eligible to apply for the original job opportunity.

• Who will be affected by the appointment and will they have recourse rights?

• In an internal advertised process, recourse rights are given to candidates in the appointment process only.
• In an internal non-advertised process, recourse rights are given to those in the area of selection, which is determined by the hiring manager and which would include the organization or unit where the appointment will take place.

Merit criteria

• Are the merit criteria for the job being staffed consistent with the merit criteria on the original job advertisement?
• As per the Public Service Commission’s Appointment Policy, the established merit criteria must be included in the job advertisement.
• The merit criteria specify the requirements for the job and describe what the job entails. This may have an impact on whether a person decides to apply.
• For the appointment to be considered advertised, the merit criteria for the job being staffed need to be sufficiently aligned to those on the original job advertisement, so as not to have reasonably affected a person’s decision to apply.

Other information

• Is the other information related to the job being staffed consistent with the information in the original job advertisement?
• As with merit criteria, other information included in a job advertisement may affect a person’s decision to apply (for example, job location, tenure, group and level, stated intent of how the appointment process may be used).
• For the appointment to be considered advertised, there should be a reasonable link between the information in the original job advertisement and the position to be staffed. Potential applicants should have a reasonable expectation that the position could be staffed based on information in the original job advertisement.

Scenarios

The following scenarios illustrate key considerations discussed above. Each scenario suggests an appointment mechanism (advertised or non-advertised) based on an examination of the specific considerations noted. All relevant factors should be considered when deciding between an advertised or non-advertised appointment process.

• Scenario 1

  Area of selection and recourse

  • Department A conducted an internal advertised process open to: Persons employed in Department A occupying a position in the National Capital Region. The job advertisement did not indicate that similar positions may be staffed in other departments. A hiring manager from Department B would like to appoint a candidate who qualified in this appointment process.

  Appointment mechanism: Non-advertised

  Rationale: Since persons employed in Department B were not eligible to apply to the initial job advertisement, they would not have access to recourse with an advertised appointment. Choosing a non-advertised appointment provides Department B employees with recourse rights.

• Scenario 2

  Area of selection and recourse

  • Department A conducted an internal advertised process open to: Persons employed in the public service occupying a position in the National Capital Region. The job advertisement did not outline how the process would be used. A hiring manager from Department B would like to appoint a candidate who qualified in this appointment process to a similar position in the National Capital Region.

  Appointment mechanism: Advertised

  Rationale: Persons employed in Department B were eligible to apply to the initial job advertisement if they were interested in the opportunity. Recourse is available to all applicants, including those from Department B who participated in the process.

• Scenario 3

  Area of selection and recourse

  • The Public Service Commission advertised a process through the Post-Secondary Recruitment campaign to create an inventory for use by any organization. Anyone who met the eligibility requirements on the job advertisement could apply. After assessment, candidates could be hired in organizations across the federal public service. A hiring manager from Department B would like to appoint a candidate who qualified through this recruitment campaign to a position in Department B.

  Appointment mechanism: Advertised

  Rationale: Candidates were eligible to apply to the inventory, where it was clear on the job posting that it would be used to staff positions across the federal public service.

• Scenario 4

  Merit criteria

  • A department completed an internal advertised process open to persons employed in the federal public service occupying a position in the National Capital Region. Another manager from the same department would like to appoint an employee who qualified in this process. However, the advertised process included 1 qualification that is not required for the new job being staffed.

  Appointment mechanism: Advertised OR non-advertised

  Rationale: Depending on the nature of the qualification that is not required for the new job being staffed, there might have been an impact on potential applicants’ decision to apply for the opportunity.

  In a case where potential applicants might have decided not to apply, or might have been eliminated on the basis of the qualification from the original job advertisement that is not required for the new job (for example, experience in planning and conducting audits), a non-advertised appointment may be appropriate.

  If not requiring one of the initial qualifications would not have affected potential applicants’ decision about whether to apply (for example, tact), an advertised appointment may be appropriate.

• Scenario 5

  Merit criteria

  • A hiring manager would like to staff from an internal advertised process previously completed by their organization. The new position is similar to the position initially advertised. However, the manager requires 2 additional qualifications that were not listed as merit criteria and were not assessed when the pool was created. The hiring manager is considering all qualified candidates. Each candidate will be invited to be assessed against the 2 additional qualifications.

  Appointment mechanism: Advertised

  Rationale: The hiring manager may add qualifications deemed necessary for the position. All qualified candidates will have been assessed in a fair and transparent manner against the additional qualifications. Candidates who were not interested in applying to the initial position would not likely be interested in the new job because of the 2 additional qualifications. With an advertised process, all candidates who initially applied should have access to recourse for any appointments from the pool that result from this assessment.

• Scenario 6

  Other information on the job advertisement

  • An internal advertised process was launched for a help desk analyst position. The area of selection was open to persons employed in the federal public service across Canada. The job opportunity stated that the position was in Moncton. The job opportunity did not list any other work locations or indicate that positions may be staffed in various locations within the department. The regional office in Fredericton, in the same department, would now like to appoint an employee who qualified in the process. The position is identical: a help desk analyst.

  Appointment mechanism: Non-advertised

  Rationale: While the distance between locations may not seem significant, potential applicants may search GC Jobs based solely on where they want to work. Because the position in Fredericton was not noted on the original job advertisement, people who have set GC Jobs to search for positions in Fredericton only may not have seen it. Factors such as job location and tenure related to the job advertisement may affect potential applicants’ interest in the opportunity.

• Scenario 7

  Other information on the job advertisement

  • Department A launched an internal advertised process to staff a policy analyst position. The area of selection was open to: Persons employed in the federal public service across Canada. The job opportunity stated that the use of the pool would be restricted: “This pool will only be used to staff positions in Department A.” A hiring manager from Department B wants to use this pool to staff a policy analyst position in their department.

  Appointment mechanism: Non-advertised

  Rationale: The note on the job advertisement about the restriction of the use of the pool might have affected potential applicants’ interest in the opportunity. The job opportunity did not indicate that jobs could be staffed in other departments or agencies. For this reason, persons pursuing positions in other departments might not have applied.

For more information

Hiring managers can contact their human resources unit to discuss how specific issues are handled in their organization.

The Public Service Commission supports organizations through Staffing Support Advisors assigned to each organization.