News
Press Releases: Internal Efficiency & Effectiveness
April 27, 2004
OPM Director James Announces Another Wave of Improvements to USAJOBS Web Site
Job posting process is focus of improvements
WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Coles James today announced the implementation of new improvements to the USAJOBS web site. The purpose of the improvements is to enhance the job posting process for federal recruiters and to standardize job announcements.
"The new job posting template will help agencies post their jobs more easily," said Director James. "There will be a step-by-step process for entering the job description, duties, qualifications and application information. In addition, the jobs will be presented to job seekers in such a way that provides a concise overview of each job on the first page, with more information available through clicking on hyperlinks or tabs."
Recruiters are presented with an easy to use job builder tool that contains a wealth of standard announcement text that has been written in plain English. The text can be brought into postings at the click of a mouse, but in most cases is also completely editable should a recruiter have to make changes to accommodate a unique agency need or policy. Recruiters also have new tools at their fingertips to quickly format announcement content including bolding, italics, indents, and the insertion of hyperlinks. A spell checker quickly runs through announcements before they can be posted to check for spelling errors, and includes innovative recruiter and agency level dictionaries that are dynamically updated to include Federal specific terminology and appropriately used acronyms. To assist agencies, a transition period has been set up to allow them to continue using their existing templates until they are comfortable using the new templates.
Since the launch of the new USAJOBS web site on August 4, 2003, there have been more than 53,962,800 visits by more than 45,532,160 unique visitors. All tolled, there have been more than 523,699,040 hits with more than 483,450 new resumes created and saved to the web site.
"Another key aspect of our ongoing effort to make USAJOBS more useful to agencies and users alike is that we've linked our customer service staff with the technical developers to better facilitate implementation of comments from recruiters and job seekers" Director James added. "This linkage provides a way for us to ensure that common complaints or suggestions can be implemented quickly."
The USAJOBS web site is ranked highly by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) approval rating system. Before the site was redesigned last year, the site rated 71 on a scale of 100. Since the redesign and subsequent improvements, USAJOBS scores an average rating of 75 or better and according to ACSI, compares favorably with private sector job search sites.
The enhanced USAJOBS web site, www.USAJOBS.opm.gov, is one of many initiatives developed to attract the best and brightest to the federal work force. Part of President Bush’s Management Agenda E-Government initiative - Recruitment One-Stop - USAJOBS consolidates federal jobs in one place, allowing users to spend more time applying for jobs rather than just trying to locate them.
