1938: Civil Service

A number of stumbling blocks in the way of converting Government service into an effective career service were removed during the course of 1938. Acts of Congress, executive orders of President Roosevelt, and the activities of the Civil Service Commission and the Council of Personnel Administration combined to bring about these advancements.

Under the Postmaster Act which was passed by Congress and approved by the President on June 25, 1938, the classified civil service was extended to include, 14,800 postmasters of the first, second, and third class; No person holding a postmastership at the present time can be reappointed at the expiration of his present term unless he passes a noncompetitive examination prepared and held by the Civil Service Commission. Future appointments to vacancies must be made through competitive examinations.

By his executive orders of June 24, 1938, President Roosevelt made a number of provisions for improving personnel administration in the Federal service. Among these provisions were the following:

(1) The establishment of competitive promotion procedures throughout the service which will make fair provision for employees to compete for higher-grade positions.

(2) Training of employees for the particular work of the agency or department in which they are employed.

(3) The establishment in each department and in a number of agencies of procedures for handling employee grievances.

(4) The extension of competitive classified status to a large number of formerly exempt positions, including some high professional and administrative posts.

(5) Measures to expedite the establishment of registers of eligibles for certain high professional positions and to provide for keeping these registers up to date.

(6) Changing the length of the probationary period served by new appointees from six months to a year, and requiring periodic reports to the Civil Service Commission on their work during that time.

During the year 1938 a new system of oral examination was developed by the Civil Service Commission. New types of examinations were perfected and new examination techniques and methods were developed by the Research Division of the Commission and put into effect.

The Commission's Examining Division examined a total of 408,928 persons during the year. New appointments to departmental and field positions totaled 34,501.

The Classification Division of the Commission continued its work of reclassifying thousands of positions in the departmental service in order to allocate the duties and responsibilities of these positions to proper grades and to achieve better balance between the requirements of the positions and the compensation paid.

The Civil Service Act requires that the record and character as well as the mentality and physical fitness of Government service applicants be examined. Experience has proved that investigations profoundly affect the caliber of personnel brought into the service. It is apparent that the Division of Investigation is meeting increasingly heavy responsibility for certification of character of applicants as a result of the extension of the merit system.

Firm steps have been taken toward the development of uniform requirements for civil service positions for Federal, state, and municipal jurisdictions. Such uniform requirements would enable universities and schools to place greater emphasis on training for the public service and would make possible the joint use of registers of eligibles by Federal, state, and municipal civil service commissions. Since the adoption of such requirements would go far toward establishing a sound public career service, it is hoped that the project initiated by the Commission's Research Division will receive widespread support by states and municipalities.

A number of significant advances in the improvement of personnel administration were made under the sponsorship of the Council of Personnel Administration. The Council is an organization established for the purpose of developing in the Federal Government a more effective system of employment and personnel management, and for coordinating the activities of the Civil Service Commission and the various departments and agencies.

A plan for insuring fuller utilization of the probationary period as a means of eliminating nonqualified personnel and at the same time helping probational employees to overcome their weaknesses and strengthen their good points was devised by the Council and tried out for three months. The executive order of June 24 established this as permanent policy.

The Council also sponsored a series of conferences between Government and industrial leaders at which were discussed phases of personnel administration applicable to both Government and industry.

Machinery for developing an improved system of transfer and promotion throughout the service was set in motion. Pertinent information concerning each employee in the classified Federal Service is to be recorded on punch-cards and filed in the Certification Division of the Civil Service Commission. This system, by providing a method for quickly locating persons available to fill particular positions, and insuring that qualified personnel now in the service will have consideration for vacancies, promises to furnish the groundwork for the effective career system long desired by those genuinely interested in the improvement of Federal personnel administration.