Recruitment and selection in north carolina: a profile of municipal personnel practices (1)

This study surveys recruitment and selection practices, focusing upon North Carolina municipal governments. Sources and methods of recruitment, qualifications tested for, and criteria and screening methods used are examined. In addition, the effect of city and organizational size as well as that of governmental structure on these personnel practices are studied.

In general, the use of personnel practices is linked to both increased municipal population and the number of public employees. Certain basic techniques (e.g. local advertisement of vacancies, the use of training and education as selection criteria, reference checks, background investigations, and pre-employment interviews) are widespread. However, other personnel techniques associated with objective recruitment and selection (e.g., special recruitment requests to minority, women's, and professional organizations and formal tests) have but limited use. The comparison of job duties with candidate skills along with the use of standard questions as guides for interviews while receiving moderate use merit more.

Clearly, there are a number of techniques that only begin to be used extensively when cities exceed a certain threshold (10,000+ population; 100+ employees). The presence of a city manager (in council-manager municipalities) or a town administrator (in mayor-council municipalities) also appears to foster a more professional approach to personnel management. Throughout this study the presence of a town administrator increased the usage of individual techniques; in a number of instances two-, three-, and even four-fold increases are noted.