Civil Service to End Use of Written Exam for Jobs

Applicants for civil service jobs no longer will have to take written examinations under a new Reagan Administration policy that will rely solely on college grades or job-related skills tests when hiring new workers.

Constance Horner, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in a speech today to a group of recruiters that the shift will allow the government “to pursue high-quality candidates aggressively” because they will be able to offer jobs on the spot.

The new policy will allow recruiters to hire any college graduate with a grade point average of between 3.0 and 3.25 on a 4.0 scale. Others could be hired after passing an Individual Achievement Record skills test related to whatever job is being sought.

These tests, the government agency said, will measure “the full range of relevant personal qualities required for successful job performance.”

Change in Criteria Needed

“We want the strongest possible civil service and we’re going to get it under this plan,” Horner said.

She said the government needs to change its criteria for hiring to compete with private industry in attracting job applicants.

“The pool of young workers entering the job market will shrink (to) . . . the lowest since the 1930s” during the next decade. “For the federal government, this means that competition to hire and retain qualified candidates will be fiercer than ever,” she told a recruiting conference.

She said current testing procedures are “so slow and cumbersome” that many of the best candidates for jobs go elsewhere.

Horner said she hoped the details of the plan could be worked out so the government could begin using the new hiring system by next April.

Horner said in her speech, to a conference attended by government recruiters, that the new approach to selecting entry-level workers will allow the government access “to the most intellectually strong, academically accomplished candidates” and still “ensure a workplace reflective of American racial and ethnic diversity.”

Concern About Change

But Robert Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, expressed concern about the change.

“Hiring on the basis of (grade point average) is contrary to congressional intent that hiring be done through a competitive exam that is nationwide in scope,” he said.

Horner’s proposal also was criticized by her OPM predecessor, Donald Devine, as “a sad day for the civil service when it can’t have an objective civil service exam.”

The government has had no entrance test for more than 100 jobs since 1982 when the Professional and Administrative Career Examination was discarded after it was deemed to be racially discriminatory.