Entering Phase 2 of the Hiring Modernization Project

This piece was published internally on October 27th, 2017

We hit some key milestones, which has allowed us to shift into phase 2 of the Hiring Modernization Project. As a reminder, our project is currently comprised of three phases:

1. Experience mapping: collecting all the research we need to have really good problem definition (ending)
2. Process refinement: ideation and prototyping (~October/November)
3. Tech and procurement scoping: implementation based on what tools are available to us today and what the various key constituents need (~December/January)

Presented to the Civil Service Commission

We spent 15 minutes introducing the Hiring Modernization Project to the Civil Service Commission on October 16th. The project was well received, and we’re excited to continue providing updates and sharing the challenges faced when hiring, especially as they related to rules and policies.

Workshops with Hiring Managers

We held two workshops with hiring managers to build on some initial work that had already been done by the Digital Services team to understand the hiring process from the hiring manager’s perspective.

Key takeaways:

What stood out the most was how the hiring process is relatively unknown to hiring managers. There are bits and pieces of the process they are very familiar with because it requires them to take an action (eg: submit a form, select a candidate to interview, submit a different form). But in terms of understanding the entire process, and how the steps flow chronologically, there is an immense amount of confusion and uncertainty experienced by hiring managers. The hiring manager journey map, can be visually represented as such:

Final visualizations for HR journey maps

Similarly to how we visually represented the hiring manager hiring process, we were able to finalize the hiring process from the HR perspective. The process, as you can imagine is complex and long, however, we were able to make sense of the various work streams by highlighting specific goals and objectives.

1. What skills do we need [at the City and County of San Francisco]?
2. How do we assess skill x?
3. How many people do we need with skill x?
4. How do we hire for skill x?
5. How do we place existing employees with skill x?

Due to the sheer length of the hiring process, we recognize this map is illegible, however it does provide an overview of the 5 different work streams we highlighted above and how they relate to each other

David walking through the HR journey map

This process overview also allows us to see where hiring managers, HR professionals and candidates interact with each other:

Pivoting into phase 2

This documentation has allowed us to quickly transition into phase 2 of our project (Process refinement: ideation and prototyping).

Concretely, what this means is we are hosting ideation workshops that focus on problem solving and solution identification. We are inviting HR professionals, hiring managers and recent candidates to participate to ensure a good cross-section of perspectives.

We’ve hosted one session already that yielded 18 problem statements and 5 solutions.

Problem statement selection

Examples of some problem statements

All problem statements from 10/26 ideation session

Solutions/ideas included:

(Remember, these are just ideas, we haven’t committed to implementing any of these yet)

1. How might a candidates apply for similar roles knowing there is not a common application? More robust ATS that allows for internal sourcing and matching candidates to jobs with relevant experience and qualifications.
2. How might a candidate provide verification of experience knowing that their previous employers will not provide verification in the format that the city requires? Provide alternatives to certifying experience.
3. How might a hiring manager attract the best candidate knowing that market perks are superior? Create a department of marketing for CCSF.
4. How might a hiring manager get a current ‘superstar’ employee promoted knowing the employee is not a good test taker? Automatically qualify candidates for promotion interview.
5. How might an HR professional meet the expectations of hiring managers and candidates knowing that both have little knowledge of the hiring process? Simplify the process and ensure that everyone follows the process.

What’s next?

We see this phase as having two parallel tracks.

1. Prototyping and testing ‘low-hanging fruit’ technical solutions to inform the RFP (the ‘low-hanging fruit’ is informed by the areas of opportunities identified by the steering committee in the last post)
2. Teasing out larger concepts and themes that related to improving hiring beyond the scope of an RFP for a new Applicant Tracking System. Ie: all the things that software can’t address alone. (This is what the ideation sessions are for)

By the end of this phase, we will have:

• tested and prototyped a few technical solutions to inform the RFP, and
• gathered a list of about 50 problem statements with about 20 ideas on how to address hiring from a rules, policy, resourcing and operations perspective

To sign up for an ideation session, register here. As always, if you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: monique.baena-tan@sfgov.org. We’d love to hear from you!

-David and Monique

Monique Baena-Tan is Researcher and Service Designer for the Hiring Modernization Project. Most recently Monique led design research on Code for America’s talent initiative which included a job board to help technologists find opportunities in public interest tech, and documented best practices across the country in government hiring.

David Huebner is Project Manager and Strategy Advisor for the Hiring Modernization Project. He most recently worked at Code for America where he led a talent initiative focused on helping governments improve their people practices to ensure they can hire and retain technologists to deliver services most effectively. Previously, David worked at Google as a Manager on a strategy, analytics and effectiveness team focusing on hiring and people services.