Conduct Agency Audit to Define Work Environment Issues

U.S. Census Bureau has as its core mission the task of conducting a variety of detailed statistical population analyses across the U.S. Its mission is to count everyone in America, making workforce diversity important to fulfilling its mission.

Problem

Like many Federal agencies, Census was facing a general wave of retirements by longstanding employees at all levels of the organization. Because the work of the agency relies on a professional workforce with specialized training in statistics and analysis, Census was having difficulty finding people with the necessary analytical skills. At the same time, Congress was investigating the issue of workforce diversity at Census.

Solution

WordsWork undertook a multi-pronged strategy:

• Perform audit of existing recruitment strategies and materials to attract and recruit employees.
• Conduct internal audit to determine if job responsibilities and descriptions aligned with day-to-day functions to meet expectations of hiring managers and supervisors.
• Create strategic recruitment plan for new and anticipated hiring opportunities; emphasis on recruiting a diverse workforce.
• Redesign existing recruitment materials to better align expectations and performance requirements.

Create Design New Recruiting Materials Meeting Employee Expectations and Agency Needs

Results

• Materials were geared to attract graduating college students by reflecting the highly technical challenges involved in jobs
• Census recruiters better able to tap prospective employees with materials accurately reflecting work environment, and diversity of people and opportunities