 |
City of St. Louis Department of Personnel Administrative Regulation NO. 121 |
The City of St. Louis Administrative Regulations have been converted to electronic format by the staff of the St. Louis Public Library. This electronic version has been done for the interest and convenience of the user. These are unofficial versions and should be used as unofficial copies.
Official printed copies of the City of St. Louis Administrative Regulations may be obtained from the Personnel Office at 1114 Market Street, Room 703, St. Louis, Missouri 63101.
Application, Recruitment, and Examination Procedures
PURPOSE:
This regulation will outline the Application, Recruitment, and Examination procedures for management, employees, and the general public. The objective of the Examination Division is to recruit the best-qualified workforce within the guidelines of the Civil Service Rules and Regulations, merit system principles and equal employment opportunity directives.
I. Recruitment and Application Process
A. The Department of Personnel will publish an Employment Opportunity announcement that will consist of the following information:
1. A unique Examination Number
2. Job Title
3. Salary
4. Nature of Work (job description)
5. Minimum Qualifications including special qualifications (e.g., police record check, special deputization, professional licensure)
6. Application Deadline (if appropriate)
7. Examination Components and their Weights
B. Notification of Application Period and Recruitment of Applicants
1. The Department of Personnel will publish and post current job openings on the bulletin board adjacent to its office.
2. Current Employment Opportunity announcements will be available online at www.stlouiscity.com under the link "Jobs with the City" and on the Jobs Hotline at 314-992-0996.
3. The Department of Personnel will conduct recruitment programs for specific difficult-to-fill positions. Recruitment programs may include but not be restricted to the following:
a. Advertisements in local papers and employment oriented Internet websites.
b. Advertisements in publications of professional organizations, trade journals, and website recruitment sites
c. Academic institutions, professional and trade organizations
d. Job fairs, search firms, and other recognized recruiting practices.
C. Application Period and Procedures
1. Applications are available on-line at www.stlouiscity.com, at the office of the Department of Personnel, or by mail if requested.
2. Applications will be accepted for a minimum of two weeks. For job classes where qualified applicants are difficult to recruit, the application deadline may not be established until an adequate number of qualified applications are received. When qualified applicants for vacant positions are extremely difficult to recruit, an examination may be given continuously to applicants who meet the minimum qualifications.
3. Applications will be considered timely if:
a. Received and time-stamped in the Department of Personnel by the close of business on the day of the application deadline;
b. Received by mail and postmarked before midnight of the application deadline date;
c. Posted via the online application system by midnight on the day of the application deadline date;
d. A resume has been submitted expressly demonstrating an interest in the examination prior to the application deadline date.
4. Persons may apply for more than one examination but are required to submit a separate application for each examination.
5. The Director of Personnel may cancel an examination if the need for an eligible list no longer exists.
D. Courtesy Notification Procedure
1. Individuals with an email address who express a verbal or written interest in applying for a particular job classification not currently open for application will be registered online and/or advised of the online Courtesy Notification system.
2. Individuals who express a verbal or written interest in employment but do not indicate a particular job classification will be advised of the online Application and Courtesy Notification system and the Job Hotline.
3. The use of Courtesy Notification postcards will be limited to individuals without an email address who express a verbal or written interest in applying for a particular job classification not currently open for application.
4. Courtesy Notification is a courtesy service and does not ensure that persons will meet the minimum qualifications for a position.
II. Examination Procedures and Eligible Lists
A. The Department of Personnel has developed minimum qualifications that are listed on the official classification specification and may modify qualifications after considering input from operating department personnel and other persons who have knowledge of the particular job class.
B. Applications are reviewed and applicants who meet the minimum qualifications are further evaluated on the next component of the examination. The review is conducted by the Department of Personnel staff. However, the Department of Personnel may, when appropriate, authorize other persons knowledgeable about the particular job class to review the application materials, under the immediate supervision of Department of Personnel staff. The Department of Personnel may use an evaluation of experience and training to limit the number of applicants invited to compete on subsequent examination components.
C. Ranking boards may be assembled to review applications to identify the best-qualified candidates. Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications but who, based on an evaluation of their experience and training, are not among the best-qualified candidates may be eliminated.
D. Ranking boards will consist of Department of Personnel staff, operating department supervisory/management staff and/or other subject matter experts. Unless other City experts are unavailable, Appointing Authorities will not normally be authorized by the Department of Personnel to sit on ranking boards for eligible lists from which they may make appointments.
E. Examination
1. Applicants must successfully compete on each component of an examination to have their name posted to the eligible list. The Department of Personnel will establish a passing point for each component of an examination. Applicants must qualify or achieve a passing score on each component before being allowed to compete on the next component.
2. Applicants who fail to appear for an examination component and do not contact the Department of Personnel will be eliminated from further consideration. Applicants who contact the Department of Personnel prior to the examination date to advise that they cannot appear at their scheduled time will be rescheduled if there are alternate dates and space is available (e.g., written test), or time is available (e.g., interview), or dropped from consideration if there are no available dates. In this event, they will be called again if the examination is reopened at a later date.
3. Applicants may review their examination papers within ten days of the date of notification of the final results.
F. The following methods will be used to break any ties that may occur in the final overall score of the successful candidates:
1. To break a tie between candidates on an examination, the first criterion used will be the highest score achieved on the examination component with the greatest weight. In cases where this criterion fails to break the tie, the Director of Personnel will break the tie based on criteria consistent with professional personnel practices.
2. On "Promotional Only" examinations, if ties cannot be broken by using the criteria in Section F (1), they will be broken by length of service. For breaking ties, time begins with the first CA, not LT.
G. In some cases, specific positions within a job class may require special skills and abilities. Where this can be anticipated, applicants with those special skills and abilities will be identified in the examination process and designated by a selective qualification code on the eligible list.
H. Eligible lists are established for a period of two years, except that:
1. The Director of Personnel may cancel an eligible list after six months have elapsed from the date of establishment.
2. The Director of Personnel may extend the life of an eligible list.
I. Medical Examination Program and Substance Abuse Program
1. A pre-employment medical examination and/or drug screen is required prior to appointment on a select group of job classes as determined by the Director of Personnel.
2. For job classifications requiring a pre-employment medical examination or drug screen, applicants will be posted to the eligible list on a conditional basis prior to taking the medical examination. In these cases, applicants may be certified to vacant positions and shall be given a conditional offer of employment, but cannot be appointed until passing the medical examination and/or drug screen.
3. Correspondence will be sent to the operating department at the time of certification advising them that the person(s) selected for the vacant position(s) will be required to successfully pass a pre-employment medical examination and/or drug screen prior to the date of appointment.
4. After a prospective employee is examined, the results will be sent to the Department of Personnel, reviewed, and a decision made as to whether the candidate meets the medical standards required for this job class.
5. The Department of Personnel will notify the operating department as soon as possible, usually within 48 hours, of the results of the pre-employment medical examination and/or drug screen.
J. Misstatement/Misrepresentation and Reasons for Elimination
1. Upon discovery of a material misstatement or omission of fact on an employment application, the applicant or employee making such misstatement or omission may be eliminated on the exam and/or dismissed from the City Service, and prohibited from taking future examinations, as determined by the Director of Personnel.
2. Applicants who send other persons in their place to compete on an examination will be eliminated and, if employed, dismissed from the City Service and prohibited from taking future examinations, as determined by the Director of Personnel. City employees who take an examination for someone else will be dismissed.
3. Applicants who have a record of dismissal(s) from previous employment or recurring infractions of work rules or safety standards, may be eliminated on an examination for poor work history.
4. Applicants who have a record of criminal conviction may be eliminated on an examination. Applicants may be required to authorize the Department of Personnel to obtain a police record check and/or be fingerprinted for specific job classes.
K. Reopened Examinations
1. The Department of Personnel may reopen an examination under the same examination number, accept applications, and add candidates to an eligible list during the life of an examination and eligible list.
2. Persons competing on a reopened examination will be required to meet the same minimum qualifications and compete under the same examination criteria used when the examination was first announced and administered.
3. Applicants posted to an eligible list because of a reopened examination will be ranked in comparison with candidates already on the list based on their overall examination scores.
4. Applicants may only be examined one time under the same examination announcement to ensure the fairness of the examination. Exception: Applicants who were eliminated because of not meeting the minimum qualifications, but who subsequently meet the qualifications when an exam is reopened may be considered.
III Promotions
A. Current City employees with permanent status, employees who are currently on a reemployment from layoff list, and employees with career seasonal status, may be eligible to compete on "promotional only" examinations or be considered on a promotional basis on "open" examinations. To qualify on a promotional basis, the following conditions must be met:
1. The candidate must have received a successful or higher service rating on his/her most recent service rating. The Department of Personnel will consider the service rating that was in effect on the examination’s closing date, unless otherwise specified.
2. The candidate must currently have permanent status or career seasonal status in a job class in a lower pay grade, or be on a current reemployment from layoff list. Employees who are on an authorized in-service leave to fill an excepted position in the classified service may be considered on a promotional basis; eligibility is based upon the pay grade of the last position held in the competitive service prior to taking leave.
3. The candidate must meet all of the minimum qualifications listed on the examination announcement and successfully compete on each component of the examination.
B. Promotional candidates who pass an examination for a position in the classified service will receive a five-point preference on a scale of one hundred points on the exam. To receive the five-point preference, candidates must have promotional status, i.e., meet the conditions in Section III A, by the closing date of the examination or other date as determined by the Director of Personnel.
C. Current City employees may be placed on an eligible list for positions in the same or lower pay grade as "open" candidates by competing under the open competitive system.
IV. Internship Program and Cooperative Education and Employment Program
A. The purpose of this program is to allow qualified college students an opportunity to obtain practical job experience in their academic specialty while they are still completing their academic program.
B. These programs will be in areas where there is a recognized academic discipline (e.g., Planning, Engineering, Health Care Administration, Personnel Administration, Finance, etc.).
C. Students must have completed at least their freshman year and be in good academic standing.
V. Workforce Planning
A. The Department of Personnel may conduct periodic workforce planning sessions with operating department management personnel. The objective is to project staffing needs of the operating departments for the upcoming months. The data obtained from the workforce planning sessions will allow the Department of Personnel to allocate recruitment resources, prioritize examination schedules, and expedite filling vacant positions.
B. Operating department management personnel are encouraged to notify the Department of Personnel of upcoming vacancies as soon as they are definite and should submit requisitions as soon as possible. This is especially critical on difficult-to-fill positions where extensive recruitment programs may have to be implemented.
VI. Confidentiality
All files and records pertaining to examination and certification matters are confidential and are to be accessed only for legitimate business purposes. Requests for information regarding examinations should be directed to the Recruitment and Examination Section specialists.
VII. Appeals
Examination appeals are considered timely when submitted in writing to the Director of Personnel within 10 days of final notification of results.
If you have questions regarding this regulation, please call Recruitment and Examination Section at 314-622-4308.
DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL
Richard R. Frank
Director
Revised and Reissued: May 3, 2007