Electronic system to ease hiring pain

The Interior Department's National Business Center began offering an electronic onboarding system to make it smoother to hire new employees. The program will be used to anticipate vacancies and navigate new employees through the hiring process.

Initially it will be limited to the National Business Center. But on June 29, it will be expanded to select offices at the Interior and Transportation Departments. It will be extended to other agencies for a fee by August.

"It's one-stop shopping for managers and for HR specialists to see the status of a vacancy from the planning step all the way through to the point where the person is on board," said Michael Colburn, chief of the NBC's human resources management systems division.

It's remarkable that a system like this has not been developed in the past because it is sometimes so difficult to find out what is happening across agencies. More important, such a system makes the hiring process a smooth one, as opposed to the often bumpy ride that applicants now face.

"It's horrible to come to a new job and then sit there for several days trying to find out what you should be doing," said John Palguta, vice president of policy and research at the Partnership for Public Service.

For more in this new system:
- check out this govexec.com article