FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mike Callahan
Personnel Director
702-346-5295
CITY HIRING PROCESS DESIGNED TO ENSURE FAIRNESS
The City of
Mesquite recently completed the hiring process for two entry level office type positions, Data Entry Clerk and Receptionist. We received over one hundred applications for the Data Entry Clerk position and nearly that many for the Receptionist position.
We are grateful for the interest of those in the community who wish to work for the City; however, that number of applications presents both a challenge and an opportunity for human resources. The opportunity is, of course, to find a superb candidate who will truly add value to the organization. The challenge is how to fairly narrow the field of candidates from one hundred applicants down to eight to ten to interview.
We are often asked by candidates who did not receive an invitation to interview why they didn’t get that opportunity. A typical question is: “I know that I’m qualified, why didn’t I get an interview?” The answer is always difficult because most if not all who apply for these types of positions are qualified and in fact could most likely perform the job adequately. But we don’t have an opening for every qualified applicant; in these two cases we only had an opening for one out of one hundred. We recognize that there are many who are disappointed.
What we try to achieve during the screening and then the hiring process is to follow standard merit principles in order to hire the most qualified applicant. This process focuses on experience, training and education related directly to the job in question.
The process is to establish an application screening committee. This committee is usually made up of three individuals who are familiar with the job being filled. They typically are future co-workers, someone who currently or previously has held the same or a similar position or is the supervisor for the position. Once all three raters have scored the applications the scores are tabulated by human resources and the interviewees are selected based on those with the highest score.
The interview process works similarly, with three or more individuals chosen as members of an interview panel. We try to involve interviewers from other departments and include both supervisor level and co-workers as members of the panel. Once the interview panel makes its recommendation the top two or three candidates are referred to the Department head for interviews and a final recommendation. All new hires must finally be approved by the City Manager who reviews the process to make certain that the hiring decision is fair and based on job qualifications.
