Hiring & Recruiting for your CX Office

Understanding the federal budget overview and timeline is crucial for anyone involved in developing a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy within the federal government. The federal budget outlines the allocation of resources and priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, impacting all agencies and initiatives. Familiarity with this process ensures that CX strategies align with national goals and funding cycles, enabling better planning and implementation. Accessing the federal budget overview and timeline allows federal employees to anticipate funding changes and strategically adjust their plans to maximize effectiveness. The tools linked below outline the major phases and deadlines of the Congressional and Execution phases. 

• Hiring Process
• Hiring Authorities

The basis of delivering a successful project is having the right CX skill sets, and the first step is to start building and sustaining relationships with those who have successfully formalized CX in their organizations. You can deliver your CX goals by tapping into the expertise and support of those who understand:

• Government hiring
• Budgeting and funding
• Contracting
• Procurement
• Acquisition
• Bureaucracy

Hiring Team Checklist:

• Servicing Human Resources (HR) Specialist partner/advisor
• Classification partner/advisor
• Federal Contracting Officer partner/advisor (if a third party will be used for CX work)
• Federal Budget Officer partner/advisor
• Policy, Privacy, Civil Liberties, and/or Legal partner/advisor
• DHS-wide and Government-wide Hiring and CX Workgroups, point of contacts, and Community resources

Sharing Hiring Certificates

Sharing certificates across components as a collaborative CX hiring practice can improve the candidate experience and hiring manager satisfaction by:

• Decreasing the number of public announcements to which candidates apply
• Using resources more efficiently
• Reducing redundancy
• Resulting in faster hires

DHS has a policy of sharing the list of unhired qualified candidates with other DHS component agencies. This policy allows one announcement to yield many candidates across the department. CXD encourages sharing certificates as the best CX hiring practice. To share a certificate of eligible candidates, you must:

• Allow applicants to opt-in to having their names shared
• Add the following language to the “Additional Information” section of the JOA

Note: In the Job Opportunities Announcement (JOA) for the vacancy that multiple components can use the list of eligible candidates.

Shared Certificate: When an organization completes their selection(s), other agencies hiring for similar positions may share the remaining list of qualified candidates. You will have an opportunity to opt-in if you would like to share the following with other agencies:

• Name
• Application
• Assessment Results

There is no guarantee of further consideration, and you can continue to explore other job opportunity announcements.

• Customer Experience Directorate (CXD): CX at DHS
  • Leads, encourages, and formalizes customer experience policies, practices, and delivery throughout DHS. It realizes goals from Executive Order 14058, “Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government.”
• OMB CX Community for HISPS: CX - Performance Community - MAX Federal Community
  • Focuses on government-wide CX. It drives:
    • Cross-agency collaboration and projects
    • Sharing of best practices
    • Management of shared hiring
    • Other CX initiatives
• Technology Transformation Services (TTS) CX Center of Excellence (COE): CX | General Services Administration (GSA) - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence
  • Aids the development and maturity of CX capabilities across government
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Hiring Experience Group: HX@OPM.gov

You’ve realized you need to staff CX talent and CX-related roles, how will you hire based on these skills? How do you interview and assess candidates for their ability to deliver on the duties outlined in the position description? Below you will find an overview of options and resources specifically geared towards finding qualified candidates.

Download the Candidate Guide Here

Hiring in government is a multi-step process. Yet, it is one of the most important activities you can do; it’s tied directly to mission outcomes. There are many ways to staff for CX, such as filling billets, detailing, or working with contractors and vendors. The table linked below list a variety of options and programs available to help you fill positions for CX talent and CX-related expertise needs. Your human resources advisor, and CX / hiring communities can assist you in understanding your options and next steps.

Download the CX Skill sets Matrix Here

• Build relationships with hiring and government experts, as well as CX communities (see hiring team checklist)
• Join CX hubs and Communities of Practice to drive:
  • Integration
  • Collaboration
  • Scaling
  • Skills development
  • Sharing of CX best practices
  • Fostering a CX oriented culture
• Understand government hiring, funding, contracting, and implementing new initiatives.
• Bake CX into senior leadership and general schedule (GS) performance plans to drive focus and accountability for CX.
• Embed CX in positions throughout the organization by classifying position descriptions with CX and human-centered design components.
• Leverage cross-agency CX hiring pilots.
• Leverage full time employee (FTE) detail opportunities within or across agencies.
• Encourage CX details and rotations; employees can learn and practice to build out CX skill sets and experience.

Based on the results of the classification determination, a position description will include the following:

• Major duties
• Responsibilities
• 9, 6, or 4 factors (one of which is knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)
• Official job series
• Title
• Grade

Generally, position descriptions have 4 sections:

• Introduction
• Major duties
• Factors, which describe:
  • KSA requirements
  • Level of responsibility
  • Reporting
  • Supervisory relationships
• Conditions of employment, such as:
  • Drug testing
  • Licensing
  • Ability to obtain security clearance

When identifying a role to fill there may already be a position description in place. It could either be in your organization, or in another organization doing similar work. Your HR Specialist can:

• Identify any existing position descriptions
• Provide advice
• Provide sample position descriptions
• Assist you to create a new one

Use and customize these position descriptions (and the associated USAJobs announcements, when available) to hire for CX talent and CX-related skill sets.

• GS2210-15 SUPV IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Product Manager) (OCIO/CXD)
  • Working title: Supervisory Product Manager
• GS2210-15 SUPV IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Human-Centered Designer) (OCIO/CXD)
  • Working title: Supervisory Human-Centered Designer
• GS2210-15 IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Product Manager) (OCIO/CXD)
  • USAJOBS - Job Announcement – Working title: (Senior) Product Manager
• GS2210-15 IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Human-Centered Designer) (OCIO/CXD)
  • USAJOBS - Job Announcement – Working title: (Senior) Human-Centered Designer
• GS2210-14 IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Product Manager) (OCIO/CXD)
  • Working title: Product Manager
• GS2210-14 IT Specialist (SYSANALYSIS) (Human-Centered Designer) (OCIO/CXD)
  • Working title: Human-Centered Designer
• GS-0301-13/14/15 Customer Experience Strategist
  • USAJOBS - Job Announcement – Working title: Customer Experience Strategist
• GS-0301-15 Customer Experience Strategist (STATE)
• Chief Customer Officer SUPV (GSA)
• USAJOBS - Job Announcement – USDA SES Director, CX

A human-centered culture needs employees who strive for excellence and organizational transformation. Adding CX-related duties and KSAs to non-CX PDs, and CX goals to performance plans can improve customer experience.

Download the Templates Here

When funding options are limited for hiring, here is an example of alternate opportunities to help provide resources for efforts. The Homeland Security Rotation Program (HSRP) and Joint Duty Program (JDP) are initiatives at DHS aimed at helping employees develop their skills, meet important mission needs, and grow both personally and professionally and are available on a limited basis. Programs like these can also be valuable for building your organization’s CX capacity, especially when you're starting to focus on improving customer experiences and incorporating Human-Centered Design principles. DHS employees have the option to apply for assignments and post their own assignment opportunities within these programs.

Additionally, there's another option called a detail, authorized under 5U.S.C. § 3341, which allows employees to work in different parts of the department for up to 120 days. Each DHS component might have its own way of handling details, so it's good to check your organization's specific policies. Usually, getting a detail requires official paperwork from your home agency, like a Memorandum of Agreement and SF 52, which are stored in your employee file. Once your detail is finished, you'll go back to your official position of record. Your organization may have options like these that can be a great way to get extra training or provide support to your agency when you need it – without going through the entire hiring process.

Authorities

• DHS Directive 250-10, Employee Details Policy
• DHS Instruction 250-10-001, Employee Details
• DHS Policy Statement 256-04, Employee Details External to DHS
• Title 5 U.S.C. § 3341, Details; Within Executive or Military Departments and 5 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 300, Subpart C, Detail of Employees

Resources

• DHS Career Development
• CFO Detail Hub: Workforce Development - Home (dhs.gov)