The Office of Administration (OA) has reduced the average time to hire state employees from 90 days to 66 days, a nearly 27 percent reduction.
“We want to ensure that our Commonwealth agencies have the resources they need to effectively deliver the programs and services that millions of Pennsylvanians depend on,” Secretary of Administration Neil Weaver said. “Accelerating the hiring process helps them maintain staffing levels, which in turn minimizes backlogs and the length of time other employees may need to take on extra work while a position is vacant. Continuing to reduce our time to hire will help make us more competitive in the job market and attract more applicants to our job openings.”
In January, OA began piloting measures to streamline hiring and connect with more job seekers after Gov. Josh Shapiro urged state government to move at the speed of business.
Measures included rearranging the selection process sequence, holding hiring events that enabled job seekers to apply on-the-spot, receive immediate interviews and conditional job offers, and expediting the hiring process related to licensing, permitting, and certifications.
In July, OA formalized many of these efforts for noncivil service hiring. Changes include making it easier for hiring managers to extend on-the-spot job offers to candidates and limiting the posting time for most job vacancies to a maximum of five days.