[IPAC-List] Use of Application and/or Examination Fees

[Mitch Stein]

James,

If I recall correctly NJ and NY charge a fee to take certain tests.

We've talked it about it from time to time as a defense against skyrocketing applicant rates to the point we can no longer handle them.  This has become like a ticking time bomb but so far we've tried other means to curtail the avalanche of applications.  The fuse was lit several years ago when we first introduced an online app, and has been further shortened by this economy as well as by shifting to Neogov.  (Neogov also lists our job postings on their governmentjobs.com site, and we have been hearing rumors that the government jobs site is being harvested by multiple third party sources to further spread the word).  

As a result, we had a recent example of opening a job class for recruitment...the job has a highly specific MQ which requires a license as well as highly specific experience, so most people are not going to be able to qualify.  In all of FY 07-08 we had a total of 11 applicants for that job class.  In self defense we have now closed almost all our job classes that were previously on continuous recruitment, and now open most job classes only when needed and only for a short duration.  So, we opened this job class for two weeks only and had 177 people who allegedly qualified and met the MQ, with several more who applied but apparently had not bothered to read the MQ.   

Things we've done in lieu of charging an application fee to reduce application volume: 

closing most job classes to continuous recruitment
opening certain jobs postings to promotion only to fill a specific vacancy
limiting promotion only job postings to only online applications
highlighting certain aspects in flashing red letters (e.g. the MQ, a test requirement, geographic location)
calling applicants who keep repeatedly applying for the same job class over and over
calling applicants who we have caught applying for the same job class using multiple accounts
closing down the online application during certain periods  

Hope this helps,
Mitch


Mitchell Stein, PhD
Human Resources Research Psychologist
TN Dept. of Human Resources
(615) 532-8069