Human Capital Management
Hiring Toolkit
Glossary of Terms Used in the Hiring Process
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ability - A present capability to perform an observable behavior or a behavior that results in an observable product. It is often broader and more abstract than skills or knowledge.
Agency - Any Department (e.g., Transportation) or independent establishment (e.g., Federal Trade Commission) of the Federal government.
Assessment - A systematic approach to gathering information about individuals; this information is used to make employment or career-related decisions about applicants and employees.
Assessment Strategy - An established plan for designing and implementing one or more assessment tools for an organization, occupation, or a specific situation.
Assessment Tool - Any test or procedure (for example, ability test, structured interview, work sample) used to measure an individual’s employment or career-related qualifications and interests.
Basic Qualifications - Refers to the minimum education and experience required to be considered for the job.
Basis of Rating - This term is used on vacancy announcements to describe the method that will be used to rate applicants. It will describe a method of scoring such as a scoring of responses to questions about applicants' knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), as when answers to KSA questions are scored, or when category rating is used, it will describe how many categories are being used and how applicants will be placed in each quality category.
Career Appointment/ Employee - The employment status of a permanent employee who has completed three years of substantially continuous, creditable service.
Career-Conditional Appointment Employee - The employment status of a permanent employee who has not completed three years of substantially continuous, creditable service.
Career Transition Assistance Plan-CTAP - A DOT placement program for employees adversely impacted by actions such as reduction in force (RIF), contracting out, and transfer of function. When a vacancy occurs, well-qualified personnel, who have pre-registered in the program, may be referred to fill the vacancy. CTAP registrants must be considered before certain outside job applicants.
Category Rating - A manner of evaluating candidates in the competitive hiring process. Under category rating, candidates are assessed against job-related criteria and placed into 2 or more pre-defined quality categories.
Certificate of Eligibles - A list of the highest-ranked eligibles, with veterans preference adjudicated, submitted to a selecting official for appointment consideration in accordance with the competitive selection laws and regulations.
Classification - A process through which Federal jobs (i.e., positions) are assigned to a pay system, series, title, and grade or band, based on consistent application of position classification standards.
Closing Date - The date beyond which applications for an advertised position will no longer be accepted. A closing date should be established for each vacancy and must be provided in the job announcement advertising the position.
Competency - A measurable pattern of knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics that an individual needs to perform work roles or occupational functions successfully. Competencies specify the "how" of performing job tasks, or what the person needs to do the job successfully.
Competitive Examination - A means of measuring the relative qualifications of applicants in competition for given positions. The competitive examination, which is open to all applicants, may consist of a written test, an evaluation of an applicant’s education and experience, and/or an evaluation of other attributes necessary for successful performance in the vacant position.
Competitive Placement Referral - A list used for consideration of current and former government employees.
Competitive Service - Defines a category of employment that covers most civilian jobs in the Federal government. Generally speaking, it means that these jobs are initially filled by members of the general public who go through an application process and compete for the position to enter the Federal service.
Competitive Status - Competitive status refers to an applicant's basic eligibility to apply for positions in the competitive service. Competitive status may apply to current employees who can be transferred, promoted, or reassigned without having to compete with members of the general public in an open announcement. It also applies to former Federal employees who worked for a prescribed amount of time (usually 3 years) or who have Veterans’ Preference. This status allows individuals to be hired to fill vacancies without competing with the general public in an open vacancy announcement.
Consultant - Someone who can provide valuable and pertinent advice generally drawn from a high degree of broad administrative, professional, or technical knowledge or experience.
Crediting Plan/Rating Schedule - Is an evaluation of an applicant’s job-related competencies/KSAs performed by a rater, or by an applicant’s self-rating. It is accomplished by evaluating the factual background of an applicant (e.g., positions held, levels of responsibility, accomplishments, job-related education) against established job-related criteria. It is a test document, the content of which is confidential and cannot be made available to job applicants.
Critical Hiring Need - A critical hiring need for a particular position or group of positions means that an agency has a need to fill the position(s) to meet mission requirements brought about by circumstances such as, but not limited to, a national emergency; threat; potential threat; environmental disaster; or unanticipated or unusual event or mission requirement; or to conform to the requirements of law, a Presidential directive, or Administration initiative.
Delegated Examining Authority - Delegated examining authority is used to fill competitive civil service jobs with—
(1) Applicants from outside the Federal workforce.
(2) Federal employees who do not have competitive status.
(3) Federal employees with competitive status.
Eligible Applicants - Applicants who meet the qualification requirements and "Who May Apply" (Area of Consideration) requirements for a position which is in recruitment.
Executive Agent - The Executive Agent in DOT was created after the OA’s studied various automated staffing systems to replace the cumbersome paper-based processes. DOT decided to consolidate certain staffing and examining functions performed in conjunction with the automated system into a single Departmental “Executive Agent.” The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was selected as DOT’s Executive Agent (EA). The EA serves all of DOT components with the exception of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Excepted Appointment - OPM provides excepted service hiring authorities to fill special jobs or to fill any job in unusual or special circumstances under Schedules A , B, C, and D. These excepted service authorities enable agencies to hire when it is not feasible or not practical to use traditional competitive hiring procedures, and can streamline hiring.
Excepted Service - Refers to one type of Federal government service (another being the competitive service). Generally speaking, the Excepted Service covers civilian jobs in the Federal government that are not in the competitive service. Most often, employees of an entire agency (FBI, for example), are in the excepted service or all members of a particular occupational group (Attorneys) are designated for the excepted service.
Expert - Someone who is specifically qualified by education and experience to perform difficult and challenging tasks in a particular field beyond the usual range of achievement.
Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) - A government-wide placement program requiring activities to give placement consideration to well-qualified displaced employees (e.g., impacted by RIF) from other Federal agencies outside DOT. Individuals must apply for specific individual vacancy announcements in order to receive consideration.
Job Analysis - A process used to capture information about jobs, particularly the tasks and duties performed in the job, as well as the characteristics (knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies) that are necessary for an individual to perform the job effectively. The purpose of the Job Analysis is to identify the experience, education, training, and other qualifying factors possessed by candidates who have the potential to be the best performers of the job to be filled.
Job Opportunities Announcement (JOA) - A document that informs the public regarding a job vacancy. A job announcement describes the requirements of the job and qualifications for the job, and instructs applicants regarding how to apply for the vacancy. Job announcements must be posted on USAJOBS as a means of satisfying the public notice requirement.
Knowledge - A body of information applied directly to the performance of a function. It includes information about persons, places, facts, events, systems, ideas, theories, methods, procedures, principles, concepts, or cases, that a person mentally possesses as a result of formal education, training, or personal experience.
Mandatory Placement Programs - These programs (Career Transition Assistance Plan-CTAP, Reemployment Priority List-PRL, and the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan-ICTAP) minimize the adverse effects on employees, who, through no fault of their own, are affected by management-initiated actions. Mandatory placement program requirements must to be followed when the vacancy to be filled is subject to them.
Merit Promotion Procedures - An established DOT program designed to ensure a systemic means of selection for promotion according to merit which is used to promote competitive service employees.
Merit Staffing Program - System under which OAs consider an employee for vacant positions on the basis of merit. Vacant positions are usually filled through competition with applicants being evaluated and ranked for the position on the basis of their experience, education, skills and performance record.
Merit System Principles - Nine principles found in 5 U.S.C. 2301 by which Federal personnel management is to be implemented. They provide guidance for how managers should manage their human resources.
Mission Critical Occupations (MCOs) - Occupations agencies consider core to carrying out their missions. Such occupations usually reflect the primary mission of the organization without which mission-critical work cannot be completed.
Non-competitive Referral - A list used for candidates who do not have to compete for placement in the vacancy.
Preference Eligibles - Individuals who qualify for hiring preference because of their service in the military. Veterans’ Preference applies to virtually all new appointments in both the competitive and excepted service. Veterans discharged or released from active duty in the armed forces under an honorable or general discharge are eligible for Veterans’ Preference. A "retired member of the armed forces" who spent a career in the military is not a preference eligible unless he or she is a disabled veteran OR retired below the rank of major or its equivalent.
Position Description (PD) - A statement of the major duties, responsibilities, and supervisory relationships of a position. In its simplest form, a PD indicates the work to be performed by the position.
Position Designation - The proper level of investigation and screening required for a position based on an assessment of risk and national security sensitivity.
Probationary Period - The first year of service of an employee on a career or career-conditional appointment. During this period, the agency determines the fitness required, based on the employee’s ability and manner, for government service.
Prohibited Personnel Practices - Thirteen personnel practices found in 5 U.S.C. 2302 that must be avoided. These practices describe results or outcomes of poor management practices and should never occur. Managers are held accountable for making human resource decisions free of prohibited personnel practices.
Public Notice - The process of disseminating job vacancy information in a manner that assures that persons seeking Federal employment will have the opportunity to apply for the vacancy. Public notice explains to jobseekers when, where and how to apply for a Federal job. Public notice is required whenever you are considering hiring candidates from outside the Federal workforce for competitive service positions.
Qualification Standards - Are intended to identify applicants who are likely to perform successfully on the job, and to screen out those who are unlikely to do so. The standards are not designed to rank candidates, identify the best qualified applicants for particular positions, or otherwise substitute for a careful analysis of the applicant's knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Quality Categories - Are groupings of individuals with similar levels of job related competencies or similar levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities (KSAs).
Quality Ranking Factor - Quality ranking factors are knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) identified on the vacancy announcement for the positions to be filled, that could be expected to significantly enhance performance in a position, but unlike selective factors, are not essential for satisfactory performance (For example, skill in public speaking might be used as a quality-ranking factor for a position in an organization where policy changes are communicated to the public in several ways and oral communication is one of the ways).
Reasonable Accommodation - Any change to a job, the work environment, or the way things are usually done that allows an individual with a disability to apply for a job, perform job functions, or enjoy equal access to benefits available to other individuals in the workplace.
Reemployment Priority List-RPL - This is a statutory program that requires agencies to give reemployment consideration to former competitive service employees of the agency separated by RIF or who have fully recovered from a compensable injury after more than one year. RPL registrants must be considered before certain outside job applicants.
Register - A list of eligible applicants compiled in order of their relative standing for referral to Federal jobs, after competitive civil service examinations.
Rule of Three - A list of eligible applicants compiled in order of their relative standing for referral to Federal jobs, after competitive civil service examinations.
Selective Factors - Are knowledge, skills, abilities, or special qualifications that are determined to be essential for the performance of the duties and responsibilities of a particular position. They are used in conjunction with OPM’s qualification standard and applicants who do not meet both the qualification standard and the selective factor are ineligible for further consideration.
Skill - A present, observable capability to perform a task with ease and proficiency. It often requires the use of equipment, machinery, or tools and implies measurable performance.
Special Hiring Authorities - Can be used to quickly fill a position by reaching out to potential applicants of a specific type. For example: Veterans, Persons with Disabilities under Schedule A, Peace Corps and AmeriCorps/VISTA Volunteers, and Students and Recent Graduates under Schedule D.
Special Placement Program Coordinator - An individual in the HR Office who helps management to recruit, hire, and accommodate people with disabilities. Some of the roles and responsibilities are: advising officials about candidates available for placement in jobs; providing hiring officials with information on reasonable accommodation; helping hiring officials to determine the essential duties of the position and to identify architectural barriers and possible modifications; helping persons with disabilities get information about job opportunities; and providing information to organizations involved in the placement of applicants with disabilities.
Specialized Experience - Is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and is typically in or related to work of the position to be filled.
Staffing/Hiring Strategy - A strategy or plan for recruiting and hiring based on the agency's strategic goals and objectives. It includes analyzing and establishing viable recruitment sources that will produce candidates with mission-critical competencies and fill the vacancies in the organization, and targeting these sources for recruitment efforts.
Status Applicants Candidates - Those individuals who are current or former Federal civilian employees who hold or held non-temporary appointments in the competitive service, not the excepted service. When a job opportunity announcement indicates that status candidates are eligible to apply, current and former career and career-conditional employees may apply.
Status Employee - One who has completed the probationary period under the career-conditional employment system. Also known as an employee with competitive status.
Strategic Human Capital Plan - A plan that sets forth how DOT’s human capital management strategies will be aligned with the our mission, goals, and objectives through analysis, planning, investment, and management of human capital programs. Broadly stated, the plan describes what DOT will do to ensure its employees have the mission-critical competencies required to carry out DOT’s strategic goals. This includes workforce planning and deployment; succession planning; recruiting and retaining talent; achieving performance goals; and addressing unique programmatic challenges.
Subject Matter Expert (SME) - An individual with comprehensive knowledge of the duties and responsibilities necessary to perform a specific job. The overall role and responsibility of the SME is to provide a recommendation based upon their subject matter expertise to the HR office in regards to relevant information needed to fill a vacant position. The SME must serve in a neutral and objective capacity.
USAJOBS - A website that provides the public with comprehensive information regarding Federal employment. Agencies must post their job vacancy announcements on USAJOBS as part of the public notice requirement.
Veterans' Preference - Laws that were enacted to prevent veterans seeking Federal employment from being penalized because of time spent in military service. Consequently, veterans who meet eligibility requirements and who are disabled or have served on active duty during specified times or campaigns are entitled to preference over nonveterans for hiring from competitive lists of eligibles and for retention during reductions-in-force.
Workforce Planning - An assessment undertaken to look at the workforce and tie the Human Capital strategies to the agency goals and objectives.
Workforce Transformation Tracking System (WTTS) - A system that provides the ability for managers and HR staff to track and monitor hiring activities through the various stages of the hiring process and will enable staffing of positions in a more timely and efficient manner.