IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS, BUT CONTINUED FOCUS AND ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS ARE NEEDED

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Office of Audit

IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS, BUT CONTINUED FOCUS AND ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS ARE NEEDED

Issued on September 13, 2010

Highlights

Highlights of Report Number: 2010-10-113 to the Internal Revenue Service Human Capital Officer.

IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is facing a major challenge with a large number of retirements expected over the next several years. The IRS has developed an agency-wide strategic recruitment plan, but follow-through and additional actions are needed to ensure the IRS attracts qualified employees. Effective recruiting increases the IRS’s ability to ensure taxpayers receive the best possible service.

WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT

In a prior audit report of recruiting activities, TIGTA determined that the IRS did not have an agency-wide recruitment strategy or performance measures to assess recruiting efforts. The overall objective of this review was to assess the IRS’s progress in developing an effective agency-wide recruitment program.

WHAT TIGTA FOUND

In the approximately 18 months since TIGTA completed its last audit of the IRS’s recruiting process, the IRS has taken significant actions to improve its ability to recruit qualified candidates. These improvements enabled the IRS to report that it is on target to meet its mission-critical occupation, geographic, and diversity hiring goals. As part of this effort, the IRS has completed many of the Office of Personnel Management’s key actions for recruiting and addressed TIGTA’s prior recommendations. For example, the IRS has recently developed a comprehensive agency-wide recruitment strategy.

While the IRS has taken many significant actions, it could enhance its oversight of program improvements by making changes to better monitor and measure its activities. By timely and effectively implementing the remaining recruitment key actions and measuring the impact of changes in recruiting processes, the IRS will have greater assurance that highly qualified candidates are attracted to IRS careers and will be able to focus on successful recruitment strategies and discontinue strategies that are ineffective.

While the IRS has made progress, improving recruiting activities will require long-term commitment and focus as some key actions take longer to implement and time is needed before the impact of changes can be measured and acted upon. For example, the IRS has not had enough time to survey new hires to obtain feedback on its new recruitment process or had time to collect and evaluate new measures on the effectiveness of its recruitment process.

WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED

In addition to continuing its focus on implementing best practices to build a fully effective recruiting program, TIGTA recommended that the Director, IRS Recruitment Office, develop measures for recruitment strategies, incorporate all applicable measures into a tracking system, and establish completion dates for milestones in the recruitment office action plans.

In response to the report, the IRS Human Capital Officer agreed with the recommendation and plans to take appropriate corrective actions.

READ THE FULL REPORT

To view the report, including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response go to:

http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2010reports/201010113fr.html.

Email Address: inquiries@tigta.treas.gov

Phone Number: 202-622-6500

Web Site: http://www.tigta.gov