Q&A
Timeline of the civil service hiring process
1:14:08
·
7 min
Council Member Restler and Deputy Commissioner Porter discuss the timeline of the civil service hiring process, breaking it down into several steps. The discussion reveals a lengthy process from exam notice to hiring.
- Time between exam notice and exam: approximately 90 days
- Time to score exam: 140 days (median in FY24)
- Time to post eligible list: about 21 days
- Time for agency to send call letters: about 30 days
- Time for agency to process and hire: estimated at about 6 months
- Total estimated time from exam notice to hiring: 14-15 months (best-case scenario)
Lincoln Restler
1:14:08
Yeah.
1:14:09
I I take you at your word.
1:14:11
Those are all, you know, meaningful efforts.
1:14:15
I think that we've heard from commissioner Park and her testimony over multiple hearings how committed she is to try and improve hiring at HRA.
1:14:22
And yet still, since the mayor's come into office, the head count of the agency has declined.
1:14:26
Right?
1:14:26
And, you know, the the level of service that New Yorkers deserve is just not being met.
1:14:32
And so, you know, we have a long way to go to get, to staff up at HRA.
1:14:37
I I just wanna dig into one more topic, and then I'll kick it over to colleagues.
1:14:41
Just talking through how long it takes someone to get hired through a civil service kind of through the civil service process, How long and I'll just if I could just walk you through the steps so I could try and understand it.
1:14:53
So how long between when an exam is noticed to when an exam is held on average?
1:14:58
Can you share with the
Katrina Porter
1:14:59
Usually within 3 months of the application period, we would host the multiple choice exam.
Lincoln Restler
1:15:04
Okay.
Katrina Porter
1:15:05
But for education and experience exams, the exam is the application period.
1:15:10
So, you know, once that that 28 days passes, then the the application period closes, and we would start the scoring process to have the exam administered.
Lincoln Restler
1:15:20
Okay.
1:15:21
I mean, we looked at recent kind of sampling of posted exams, and it was between a 120 and a 140 days on average from when the exam is noticed to when the exam is held.
1:15:32
But why don't we say 90 days for for the argument for for keeping it moving?
1:15:36
And how long does it take on average to score an exam?
Katrina Porter
1:15:39
So, we're we're working on a a an average cycle time as a per the MMR of 290 days, but we're well below that number.
Lincoln Restler
1:15:47
Right.
Katrina Porter
1:15:47
In f y 24, the median time between administration and exam, establishment was 140 days.
1:15:55
140.
Lincoln Restler
1:15:55
Okay.
1:15:55
Great.
1:15:56
So 140 days.
1:15:57
And then on average, how long does it take to post the eligible list after the, exam has been scored?
Katrina Porter
1:16:06
Usually within a few weeks.
Lincoln Restler
1:16:07
Okay.
1:16:08
A few weeks.
1:16:08
So why don't we say 21 days?
1:16:10
How's that?
Carmen De La Rosa
1:16:11
To post the exam.
Lincoln Restler
1:16:12
To post the eligible list after the exam has been scored.
1:16:16
And then how long does it take for an agency to send call letters, assuming the agency has vacancies?
Katrina Porter
1:16:21
So the way the certification process works is it's it's on two fronts.
1:16:26
If an agency has provisional employees upon establishment of the list, DCAS is going to automatically certify that list to the agency.
1:16:33
They don't need to ask for it.
1:16:35
Our process requires that we send it to them.
1:16:37
If if an, agency does not have, any provisional employees, then they need to ask d DCAS for the eligible list.
1:16:47
So that would mean that they have a vacancy to fill, and then they would reach out to DCAS, and we would then send them the list.
Lincoln Restler
1:16:52
So if they have a vacancy to fill, they reach out to you to send them the list, and then they send the call letters or you send the call letters?
Katrina Porter
1:17:00
The agency sends the call letters, and their process is guided by what we call the civil service list call guidelines
Lincoln Restler
1:17:07
Okay.
Katrina Porter
1:17:07
Which were established by DCAS.
1:17:09
They, provide, you know, rules and regulations around, how agencies should use civil service list.
1:17:17
And according to those the the list called guidelines, agencies have to give candidates 10 business days to, you know, an invitation 10 days before, you know, the the actual, interviews.
1:17:30
So they're they're responsible for sending out the call letters.
Lincoln Restler
1:17:33
So in your experience working with a bunch of different agencies, can you give any rough estimate of how long that usually takes for agency as vacancies?
1:17:42
They reach out to DCAS.
1:17:44
They request the information.
1:17:45
DCAS sends it to the agency.
1:17:46
Agency sends out the call letters.
1:17:48
How long It's a 30 it's a 30 day process.
Katrina Porter
1:17:51
Agency has has 30 days to use the cert and return it to DCAS.
Lincoln Restler
1:17:54
And then this is probably the most painful question.
1:17:58
How long does it take the agency to process and hire employees, including OMB approval?
1:18:02
I guess that must range just extraordinarily, but any insight that you can offer us there?
1:18:06
So
Katrina Porter
1:18:07
in most cases, we require agencies to obtain OMB approval before they request a list certification, and that's to avoid or to, reduce any delays in onboarding candidates after they are selected.
1:18:21
And so, what I wanted to mention is that we we have, you know, heard that the, onboarding process does take some time.
1:18:30
So, DCAS did embark on what we're calling the HR transformation project, where we looked at the the the forms that need to be filled out.
1:18:39
The, document that kind of man that, what we call the the comprehensive the CPDB document was a document that had, like, 50 pages.
1:18:47
Through HR transformation, we were able to, reduce those, forms to about that document to about 30 forms.
1:18:55
And then we also took a look at all of the other documents that employees have to fill out as a part of their onboarding process to streamline and eliminate as as necessary.
Lincoln Restler
1:19:04
So when you decided that you were gonna start working with agencies to help streamline this process, did you do an assessment of how long it's normally taking on average?
Katrina Porter
1:19:12
Yes.
1:19:13
We did.
1:19:13
Well, we we, used information that we received from city agencies Yeah.
1:19:18
About their process.
Lincoln Restler
1:19:19
What'd you find?
Katrina Porter
1:19:20
I don't have that that data point handy right now, but I can definitely I I can't maybe one of the team members can can check for me.
1:19:27
We'll get back
Lincoln Restler
1:19:28
to you.
1:19:28
Months?
1:19:29
6 months?
Katrina Porter
1:19:30
It varied by you know, depending on the the agency's, you know, hiring practices or vary by agency.
Lincoln Restler
1:19:37
But 6 months is a seems like a reasonable estimate?
Katrina Porter
1:19:41
In some cases.
Lincoln Restler
1:19:42
Okay.
1:19:43
So what we're talking about, just to kinda add that altogether, approximately 90 days between when an exam is noticed to when an exam is held, unless it's just based on experience
Kadian Outar
1:19:54
Mhmm.
Lincoln Restler
1:19:54
And education level, then it's 28 days.
1:19:58
But 90 days Plus, how long does it take to score an m m to to score the exam as reported in the MMR, a 140 days.
1:20:05
How long does it take to post the eligible list?
1:20:07
We said about a few weeks, so let's say 21 days.
1:20:09
How long does it take for an agency to send call letters, go back and forth?
1:20:13
Took about 30 days.
1:20:15
And then how long does it take an agency to process and hire the employee?
1:20:17
You're gonna get back to us on a firm number, but we're gonna say about 6 months.
1:20:20
When we add that all up, if my math is okay and Molly again will kick me, I got about 430 days.
1:20:27
So we're talking about 14 months, 15 months to be able to put that all together from the time somebody is taking an exam to getting hired.
1:20:40
Best you know, good to if everything's working well.
1:20:42
And the thing that I I said and that's if every single process is going from point a to point b as quickly as possible.
1:20:48
You noted in the middle of that that the agencies are seeking o and b approval before they're getting the call letters sent out.
1:20:55
I'm assuming there's a delay there because we all know how OMB works, so that that's not happening exactly, you know, as efficiently as possible.
1:21:04
So the best case scenario of kind of a 15 month process, 14, 15 month process, in fact, is probably quite a bit longer for for most people.
1:21:15
Is that right?
1:21:15
Do you track kind of from exam taken to hiring on average?
1:21:18
Is that an outcome that you're looking at?
1:21:20
And should it be an outcome that DCAS is looking at?
Katrina Porter
1:21:22
We're looking at from exam administration to, to establishment.
