VA Employee Selection: Hiring Practices and Reform

Introduction

To firms of any size, the selection of qualified and capable employees is critically important. Selecting the wrong employee can cause major problems and is simply expensive even under the best of circumstances, as hiring and training new people adds significant costs. As such, organizations need to know precisely what they are looking for and how to find it. One organization that has experienced considerable struggles in this regard — up to and including at the leadership level — is the Veterans Affairs Administration (VA). Even following a recent change in leadership, the agency continues to face issues from top to bottom. While the VA has had notable missteps in hiring and selection, the core processes it has in place are actually quite solid.

Current VA Hiring Behavior

When it comes to organizations and their hiring practices and performance, public agencies like the VA are — and should be — held to a higher standard, for more than one reason. Taxpayer dollars are at stake, as is the case with all public agencies at every level of government, and the people the VA is meant to serve are veterans who have been injured in wartime. The combination of those two facts makes it all the more important to select the right personnel. A number of serious problems have emerged at the agency, including improperly shredded documents, veterans with life-threatening conditions dying or waiting too long for medical care, and other failures of accountability.

A review of the VA's hiring practices from as recently as 2014 reveals conduct that is unethical or, in some cases, outright illegal. In one instance, a position was created for a personal acquaintance within the Cemetery Administration — not because the role was actually needed. In another case, a woman was improperly provided with a letter of recommendation to help her obtain government contracts she might not otherwise have secured. In yet another situation, an employee was permitted to retire over an extended period specifically to raise their salary to $100,000 before the retirement was finalized. In short, the cronyism and favoritism present at the VA compounded other harmful practices that left veterans without the quality or quantity of care they were entitled to receive (Ybarra, 2014).

Beyond individual misconduct, bureaucratic red tape has further impeded necessary hiring. According to a 2015 report, the VA was authorized to hire 28,000 new clinical professionals to reduce wait times and improve the quality of care — an effort paired with a cash infusion of approximately $5 billion USD. However, administrative obstruction meant that only a fraction of those positions were actually filled (Robeznieks, 2015). Understanding human resource management in public administration helps explain why such structural barriers so frequently derail well-funded reform efforts in government agencies.

Strengths in VA Hiring and Performance Appraisal

Despite the documented malfeasance, the VA also does a great deal right and should not be judged solely by its failures. In the realm of hiring and selection, the agency offers a detailed and well-organized hiring portal on its website. Applicants receive a first-hand overview of what the hiring process entails, and a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section addresses common concerns. The VA also provides sections and programs tailored to specific applicant groups, including students, trainees, and military personnel. A step-by-step PDF guide walks applicants through the application process, and regional offices — such as the Houston VA office — maintain their own dedicated hiring websites (VA, 2016; Houston VA, 2016).

The VA's approach to performance appraisal is similarly transparent and well-structured. The agency publishes clear guidelines covering job classification, competency standards, employee awards and recognition, merit promotions, and grade-based pay increases (VA, 2016). Several important principles govern this framework. Unions are not permitted to negotiate over position classification. Management retains the right to change job duties in ways that affect classification, but position duty lists must always accurately reflect what the employee is expected to do. If a job changes, an updated position description (PD) must be provided to affected employees. Notably, phrases such as "other duties as assigned" do not appear in VA job descriptions, which means that performance expectations are clearly defined at the outset.

Performance appraisals are limited strictly to job performance; conduct unrelated to job duties is not considered. Each job duty is rated on a scale ranging from "unsatisfactory" to "outstanding." If an employee is not meeting expectations, they are placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and given 90 days to address their shortcomings (VA, 2016). The Office of Personnel Management's assessment and selection guidance provides the broader federal framework within which these VA policies operate.

Conclusion

The VA has been shown to be plagued by employment and hiring practices that are unethical, illegal, or at minimum incompetent. This must be brought to a firm and final end, and anyone who is part of the problem needs to be either retrained or terminated. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of malfeasance given the real lives and taxpayer dollars at stake. That said, the VA also does a great deal of good, and those strengths should be amplified and made the norm so that the veterans and oversight bodies who depend on the agency can gain — or regain — their trust in it. The failures of a few should not be allowed to overshadow the efforts and integrity of the many.

References

Carpenter & Dunung, Chapter 1, "Effective Selection and Placement Strategies" (pp. 639–648) in Challenges and Opportunities in International Business (v. 1.0). http://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/challenges-and-opportunities-in-international-business.pdf

Chapter 7: "Recruiting, Motivating, and Keeping Quality Employees" in An Introduction to Business (v. 2.0). http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-business-v2.0/s11-recruiting-motivating-and-keep.html

"Employee Recruitment Planning." Gale Virtual Reference Library, Encyclopedia of Management.

"Human Resource Management." Gale Virtual Reference Library, Encyclopedia of Management.

Houston VA. (2016). Veterans Affairs Office. houstontx.gov. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from http://www.houstontx.gov/vetaffairs/

Lievens & Chapman, "Recruitment and Selection" in The SAGE Handbook of Human Resource Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9780857021496.n9

Office of Personnel Management. (2016). Assessment & Selection — Designing an Assessment Strategy. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/assessment-and-selection/assessment-strategy/

"Performance Appraisal" in An Introduction to Business (v. 2.0). http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-business-v2.0/s11-05-performance-appraisal.html

Robeznieks, A. (2015). VA clinicians say bureaucratic barriers hinder hiring spree. Modern Healthcare. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150518/NEWS/150519906

VA. (2016). Navigating the federal government hiring process — VA Careers. vacareers.va.gov. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from http://www.vacareers.va.gov/application-process/navigating.asp

VA. (2016). Performance appraisal. Veterans Affairs Administration. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://www.va.gov/LMR/docs/Training/12_PG_Performance_Appraisal_FINAL.pdf

Ybarra, M. (2014). Former VA official guilty of prohibited hiring practices, preferential treatment: IG. The Washington Times. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/18/va-official-guilty-prohibited-hiring-practices-ig/