WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 17, 2024 —
Coast Guard civilian hiring – not always the easiest thing to do. It can be challenging to find enough qualified people and get them into the places they’re needed WHEN they’re needed. But if you’re responsible for civilian hiring in your office, we’re not telling you anything you don’t know.
The experts of the recruiting team in Civilian Workforce Management (CG-1C2) however, have quite a few tricks of the trade that could help make your civilian hiring efforts a whole lot easier.
The recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Hiring Expo provided a perfect stage for recruitment pros like Human Resources Specialists Eva Perez and Dale Perez to test their civilian hiring mettle. The event welcomed more than 8,000 visitors and the intrepid recruiting team completed a total of 1,168 face-to-face engagements and reviewed 778 resumes. They further facilitated 13 interviews and were able to issue 4 contingent job offers ON SITE. The excitement is evident in Eva Perez’s voice when she describes the experience. “We actually got to make job offers right there! We even had a bell to ring each time we placed someone,” she said.
“The DHS Expo was an amazing event,” says Perez’ colleague HR Specialist Hilda Mitchell. “The collaboration between all components of DHS is something I’ve never seen before. We may not have been able to offer every attendee a job, but we were able to educate them about the benefits of federal employment with the US Coast Guard.”
The civilian recruitment team understands the intricacies of hiring for a federal agency that can make time-to-hire longer than it might in the private sector. They’re taking advantage of every angle they can find to improve.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), or the Coast Guard’s “Human Resources “mothership” as Eva Perez calls it, provides an 80-day timeline to bring a new hire onboard unless there are additional security requirements. Eva Perez acknowledges that the Coast Guard is one of many agencies government-wide that still find that timeline a challenge. But, she said, the DHS Hiring Expo was: “a demonstration of what we CAN do. We CAN do this bigger and better. We’ve proven that.” Of the four contingent offers the recruiting team made at the Expo, two now have firm offers in under 60 days.
Eva Perez points to OPM’s “Direct Hire Authority” as a stand-out mechanism for meeting recruitment needs when there’s a severe candidate shortage or a critical hiring need. “It’s a by-name request authority and OPM has published a long list of job series’ that qualify for it,” she explains.
Dale Perez notes there are also unique circumstances that can aid veterans and people with disabilities seeking jobs with the Coast Guard. “Every day I talk to either an applicant or a hiring official about the non-competitive authorities that are available to both veterans and people with disabilities,” he said. “Often, they are unaware that when using a non-competitive authority, you can fill a vacancy in 60 days, versus the typical vacancy announcement on USA Jobs that will get filled in about 180 days, sometimes even up to a year. The impact on time-to-hire is just phenomenal.”
If hiring is part of your managerial responsibilities and you read those last couple paragraphs thinking “that would be great! How do I get in on this? What do I need to know?” – that’s exactly what Eva and Dale want to hear. They want YOU. Both discussed at length how important and beneficial it is when managers join them for events like the DHS Hiring Expo or invite the recruiting team to brief them on civilian recruitment options and the support they can provide.
“If you’re willing to do a little bit of work prior to the events, if you’re willing to come out and sit with us, we can help!” Eva Perez said. “And if you can’t travel, we can connect you with candidates virtually and do an interview right then and there. We have the technology to do that now.”
Curious about the experience? Ask one of the many groups that have already tried out, such as the C5I Service Center’s Information Assurance Branch (IAB), which recently wrote about their successes at the DHS Hiring Expo on their blog. “It’s amazing how many people are so dedicated to this organization,” says Eva Perez. “They’re not afraid at all to come out and talk to the public about working for the Coast Guard or to ask a potential candidate ‘what can I do to help you walk through that door?’ So, we welcome all volunteers that want to spend the day with us or even just a couple hours at a job fair – it’s great!”
If helping the Coast Guard be an employer of choice, meeting great people, and playing with cool technology isn’t enough to incentivize you to spend time at a job fair, Dale Perez gets right to the heart of the matter: “There’s a whole new level of personal satisfaction that you walk away with at the end of the day knowing that you’ve probably improved somebody’s future in a positive way.”
Can’t argue with that!
You can contact the CG-1C2 Recruitment Team at civilianrecruitment@uscg.mil or civjobs@uscg.mil for more information.
You can also visit their CG Portal page here: Recruitment, Outreach & Engagement - Home (sharepoint-mil.us)
Give them a follow on LinkedIn while you’re at it here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/u-s-coast-guard-civilians