Hiring Assessments

Executive Order 13932 – Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates, dated June 26, 2020, is focused on modernizing and reforming civil service hiring through improved identification of skills requirements and effective assessments of the skills job seekers possess. Section 3 of this EO directs agencies to no longer solely rely on the candidates’ self-reporting but instead supplement that assessment with other tools in order to create a multiple hurdle approach to evaluating the candidates during the selection process.

The Department of the Interior published a new Personnel Bulletin (PB) on December 22, 2020, implementing the Department’s requirements for assessment practices during the selection process based on this EO. This PB outlines the standards and procedures required of assessment tools and processing during the employee assessment and selection process. 

Examples of assessments that could be used as part of the multiple hurdle process include: