Do You Know How to Read?

Do you know how to read?

Are you sure? Because the #1 skill for HR professionals, beyond the skills associated with the HR Competency Model, is the ability to read. If you have gotten this far, you are probably thinking you've got that covered. But do you? Do you really? Reading is more than stringing consonants and syllables together, it is knowing what you are reading and knowing just how to read it.

Knowing what you are reading

Documents come in all shapes, sizes and levels of importance.The Code of Federal Regulations, the Master Agreement, and the Americans with Disabilities Act are big deals. A department's standard operating procedure, a letter of instruction, or a smoking policy are little deals.

Look at the document in front of you. Is it a must do, should do, or a consider-only-if-the-feeling-moves-you type of a document? Is it promulgated, precedential or proposed? Is it a draft, a directive or a final decision sustained on appeal? Is it an exception, an exclusion or subject to expiration?

Does the document even apply to the question or issue at hand? Stop right there and don't reference, redact or refute it (or go any further) until you are sure.

Knowing how to read what you are reading

In most cases, you read a document from left to right and front to back unless, of course, you are reading a government document. Then you go front to back,to and fro and criss-cross references until you are tangled in a web of detail. Regardless, there are somethings that hold true across documents.

Process steps numbered 1-2-3-4 are sequential. That means 1 is to happen before 2 and 2 is to happen before 3 and the process is not complete until you finish the final step. Two items separated by AND means that they both are included. Two items separated by OR means only one item is necessary. The all-time tricky AND/OR combination pretty much leaves the option up to you, the reader. Sub paragraphs lose their meaning when separated from the main paragraph and contrary to popular belief, not all sub paragraph As are created equal and are not interchangeable. Get my drift?

References are cited for a reason and provide a backward trail of information. Follow them until you've gone full circle and end up right where you started. You have to know where you came from to know if you are headed in the right direction.

Knowing why this is important

HR is not a one-size-fits all profession nor are documents one-size-fits-all answers to questions. Documents are printed in black ink on white paper but don't be fooled, they are anything but black and white. Documents are not complete and final answers and I'd say that HR professionals who disagree with me are doing themselves a disservice.

So, do you know what you are reading now? You are reading a blog by an HR professional who is not an expert but is one with an opinion and a hot button (can you guess what it is?) You can take this in tongue-in-cheek, as it was intended, but please do so with a touch of seriousness.

Do you read me?

Easier Federal Job Applications? Yes!

If you are planning to apply for a job with the Federal government, you can start doing your happy dance now.

From the Federal Times, the dreaded knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) questionnaires will be phased out. The Office of Personnel Management plans to ask agencies in September to stop requiring job seekers to fill out the time-consuming questionnaires.

What are KSA questionnaires?

The Federal Times explains, "KSA questionnaires can contain dozens of questions requiring applicants to write essays describing their work experience or qualifications. HR specialists and subject matter experts then read through those responses — or use software to search for key words — and assign point values to KSA responses that help determine which applications will be reviewed further. But KSA questions are sometimes repetitive and require lengthy responses, and critics say they discourage some people from applying for federal jobs."

Yes, they do. When I initially reviewed the announcement to apply for my current position, I read it, put it away and thought, maybe even said aloud, "no job is worth this." I eventually did apply and it took the better part of a day. To me, this was not a normal application process.

What is normal?

Funny you should ask. Of the societal norm, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said in the article,

"Our society operates on a résumé-based approach, and for years, the government has had its own approach separate from that. What I’m hoping we can accomplish is a culture shift to have the federal government rely upon what the societal norm is.”

Federal HR benchmarking against the societal norm – now that’s COOL and something I can get behind. I hired people without KSAs before working in federal HR and I'd like to do that again.I started dancing in my office (almost) as I read on.

What is going on here?

I continued to read and then my dancing slowed and disbelief started creeping in. Some bucky Federal HR mangers were quoted in the article saying:

If we do away with KSAs, we’ll be moving away from information we need to properly evaluate people. I’m not sure this is going to work.

Switching to a pure résumé system isn’t the right idea. Without KSAs, HR offices will have to ask job seekers more follow-up questions, which will just end up slowing the hiring process further.

Let’s not create the illusion that because the process will be easier on the front end, it will also be easier on the back end. If this bogs down the hiring process, then we won’t achieve the result we’re looking for.

Hokey Spitballs! Get out from under your regulations and take a look around. We can hire without KSAs. The private sector does it every single day. The U.S Army and U.S. Customs Service do it.

Step Up Your Game

John Palguta of the Partnership for Public Service said, "some HR offices and reviewers who have been relying on KSAs, they’ll have to step up their game and be more creative in terms of how they evaluate people."

Yes! Let's be creative. Eliminating KSAs is the right thing to do and those not willing to consider that maybe there is a better approach to assessing applicants will need to step out of the way for others to try.

It's time for a change and streamling the federal job application is a change in the right direction.