Hiring Freeze

Effective November 16, 2010, all agency components and the State Disability Determination Services (DDS) are in a full hiring freeze. Reasonable Accommodations, Presidential Management Fellow, and Hardy-Apfel IT Fellow hires are excluded from the freeze. All requests for exceptions are limited to critical vacancies and should be directed to the Waiver Council for review.

Policy

• If a component subject to the freeze wants to hire from outside the DC-level component or outside of the agency, the Chief of Staff (CoS) must approve a hiring exception request prior to making a selection or posting the vacancies until the freeze is lifted.
• If a component wants to make a selection or post a position that might affect another DC-level component, it must submit a hiring exception request to the Waiver Council to make a recommendation to the CoS for her decision.
• Internal DC-level component selections/postings do not require Waiver Council panel review or CoS approval.
• If the CoS approves a vacancy posting, no additional CoS approval is required to make a selection from that posting.

Notes:

• Components can fill staff positions from staff positions within a DC-level component. 
• Components can fill operational/workload positions from  operational/workload positions within a DC-level component..
• If a person in a staff position moves into an operational/workload position, the vacant staff position cannot be backfilled from outside the DC-level component.
• A component cannot fill an internal staff position with a person from a workload position.  Requests for exceptions to this policy would need to go before the Waiver Council.

Questions and Answers

Issuing Best Qualified Lists (BQLs)

1. Are SPOs able to issue BQLs for previously or currently announced vacancies?
   
   The SPOs will continue to issue BQLs to components. Components are responsible for obtaining approval for a critical hiring exception, as necessary.
2. Will expiration dates for the BQLs be extended due to the hiring freeze?
   
   In some cases, expiration dates may be extended, by request, following the current process for requesting extensions.

Selections

1. Will pending selection actions be processed?
   
   If the selection paperwork (e.g., signed BQL)/electronic request (e.g., FPPS action, email notification) was in the SPO on November 16, 2010, these actions will be processed.
   
   If the selection paperwork/electronic request was not in the SPO on November 16, 2010, and if the selection is from within the DC-level component, the SPO will process the action.
   
   If the selection paperwork/electronic request was not in the SPO on November 16, 2010, and if the selection is from outside the DC-level component, CoS approval is required.

Noncompetitive Actions

1. Are exceptions required before converting employees to career/career-conditional appointments?
   
   No.
2. Can competitive temporary actions (promotions, reassignments) be extended or made permanent if they will expire before the end of the hiring freeze?
   
   Yes, if the promotion/reassignment is from within the DC-level component it may be extended or made permanent. If it is across DC components, the Waiver Council must review the request.
3. Is exception approval required to select an individual for a staff position if that person holds a Noncompetitive Certificate of Eligibility (based on completion of a leadership development program) and is currently in an operational/workload position?
   
   Yes.

Details

1. Is it permissible to detail an employee from a staff position to a staff position within the same DC organization (e.g., RO staff component to DCO HQ staff component)?
   
   Yes.
2. Is it permissible to detail an employee from a staff position in one DC-level component to a staff position in another DC-level component?
   
   Yes. The Waiver Council must review these requests.
3. Is an exception required to detail an employee from an operational position to a staff position within the same or different DC organization (e.g., RO workload component to ORDP HQ staff component)?
   
   Yes. Further, moving an operational/workload employee to a staff position is not recommended and should be rare.
4. Can details in place as of November 16 be extended?
   
   Yes, if the detail is from within the DC-level component, it may be extended. If the detail is across DC components, the Waiver Council must review these requests.

DDS

1. There is not a clear definition of what constitutes a hiring “commitment” for the DDSs. In preparing guidance for the Regions and DDSs, can we define commitment to include any written commitment that a region has made to state Parent Agency or Legislature for hires in a DDS?
   
   The definition of a commitment is when the Agency has extended a job offer to a specific individual. Just granting hiring authority to a component or in this case the DDSs (or its Parent Agency/Legislature), does not grant a commitment, but simply the authority to go forth and hire. In this situation, the Agency would not deem this a commitment.
2. In the DDSs, the contracted MCs show up in staffing counts in order to capture the work years, but are not captured as hires. Are contracted MCs subject to the hiring freeze?
   
   Similar to Regional Medical Consultants, MCs for the DDSs are contracts and technically counted as other objects funding and do not count as hires. In this situation, as long as the advisory DDS budget can fund the level of MCs contracted for, you can continue to contract for MCs. However, the statement “subject to the availability of funds” should be included in the contract language.
3. Can the DDS request exception hires for critical hires through the Waiver Council as well?
   
   Yes, DCO should follow the same procedures for other Operations components in submitting requests for exception hires.

Special Category Hires:

Reemployed Annuitants

1. Under the SSA-specific authority, will reemployed annuitants with a projected termination date of September 30, 2010, be allowed to extend through December 31, 2010, if no prior commitment has been made?
   
   Yes, but reemployment of annuitants is subject to the freeze restrictions.
2. Can reemployed annuitants still be hired?
   
   All requests for reemployment of annuitants into staff positions, regardless of the authority used, will be subject to the freeze restrictions.
3. Can a component reappoint reemployed annuitants that they currently have in place for longer periods of time? Can the component replace those that they lose? Can the component hire up to their authorized level of annuitants?
   
   A component can reappoint existing reemployed annuitants as long as there will be no break in service but cannot replace losses or hire more without a waiver exception through the Waiver Council. SSA's-specific dual comp waiver authority expires on December 31, 2010. If a component wishes to retain a reemployed annuitant currently on board, a new dual comp waiver request must be approved under the new government-wide authority before December 31. The reemployed annuitant's new appointment must be effective January 1, 2011 or the reemployed annuitant will be considered a new hire and the Waiver Council procedures must be followed.

Developmental Programs

1. What impact does the hiring freeze have on formal developmental programs where participants have IDPs (ALP, LDP, component developmental programs)?
   
   All developmental programs may proceed normally.

Student Programs

1. Can current recruitment efforts be completed to hire a STEP?
   
   No. An exception must be requested.
2. Can STEP participants hired for the summer 2010 continue working during the year into FY 2011?
   
   Yes.
3. Can STEP participants be replaced?
   
   Yes.
4. Can components allow students to work over tour during holidays and time off from school?
   
   Yes, Components can allow students to work over tour in order to fill in the gaps in coverage during holiday times as long as they stay within their current allocation. We will need to revisit this decision once we receive our annual appropriation or another continuing resolution.

Other

1. Can a PTP employee in a staff position convert to FTP?
   
   Yes. The effect of this action is deemed de minimis and therefore, exempt from the freeze.
2. Can components designate certain traditional staff positions; e.g., Center Directors, IVT staff, HR specialists, as automatic exemptions to the freeze?
   
   No. Each Deputy Commissioner must make a case for exemption(s) per the Template.
3. Are delegated employees exempt from the freeze?
   
   No.