Selection Process Requirements for MSS Program Positions.

This policy memorandum sets forth the requirements and guidelines for the selection process for positions in Interagency Merit System (IMS) counties under the authority of the Merit System Services (MSS) Program.

Consistent with merit system standards, county departments are required to administer at least one competitive examination as part of the selection process for Program positions.

Effective January 1, 2023, the MSS Program will no longer accept requests to waive examinations during the selection process for program positions.

Examinations for the establishment of eligible lists shall be competitive and of such character as fairly to test and determine the qualifications, fitness, and ability of competitors to perform the duties of the class or position for which they seek appointment. All examinations are required to meet MSS selection standards of validity and jobrelatedness through linkage to a valid job analysis (JA). Further, the merit selection process requires that the examination tool and job-related rating criteria be developed prior to reviewing or examining any individual application.

The following types of examinations may be used:

• Oral Interview/Qualifications Appraisal Panel (QAP)
• Written Examination
• Work Sample/Performance Test
• Supplemental Questionnaire
• Training and Experience Evaluation (T&E)

The MSS program maintains job analyses and readily available written and/or oral examinations for all MSS classifications. If another selection tool is desired, the county department must notify their MSS Analyst in advance and provide the names of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to work with the MSS program to develop the new examination. The new examination shall be created prior to the recruitment being advertised.

For counties with county-specific classifications, the MSS program recommends using the comparable MSS classification if one exists.

For counties seeking the use of MSS examinations to fill vacancies for their countyspecific classifications, the county personnel department must submit documentation showing valid linkage between the JA for the county specific classification and the examination for the MSS classification which they seek to use.

For example: Say Sacramento County Department of Social Services has a county specific classification entitled Social Worker I, High Risk Community, Sacramento County but the county would like to use the MSS Social Worker I examination to fill their vacancies. The class specifications are different, but Sacramento County feels they are similar enough to show relatedness. In order to request approval to use the MSS Social Worker I examination, Sacramento County must document the relatedness (linkage) of their county specific classification’s valid JA to the MSS classification specification as follows:

Requests to use MSS examinations for county specific classifications, along with substantiating linking documentation, must be submitted to the MSS Analyst assigned to your county prior to requesting to utilize an MSS examination for a county-specific classification.

Requests to use MSS examinations for county-specific classifications without submission of a valid JA will be denied.

The Merit Principles require that the recruitment, selection, and advancement of employees is on the basis of their relative knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA), including open consideration of qualified applicants for initial appointment. The JA is the foundation for identifying the KSAs required for a specific classification and developing and administering valid job-related examination processes.

The JA shall serve as the primary basis for demonstrating and documenting the jobrelatedness of examination processes conducted for the establishment of eligible lists. Further, JAs conducted for county specific classifications shall adhere to the legal and professional standards, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection, outlined in this memorandum, and county personnel departments shall ensure that the following elements are included in JA studies conducted:

• The JA must be performed for the classification for which the subsequent examination is developed and used.
• The JA methodology utilized must be described and documented.
• Final data from the JA must be presented in writing.
• The JA data should be collected from a variety of current sources (e.g., literature review, incumbent input, supervisor input).
• The sample size and group of subject matter expert participants in the data collection activities must be representative of the jobs within the job classification for which the JA is conducted, as well as be of sufficient size to yield adequate data.
• Job tasks must be specified in terms of their importance or criticality and their frequency of performance, as well as a determination of the essential job tasks.
• Job tasks must be sufficiently detailed to derive the requisite KSAs.
• The important or critical KSAs required upon entry for successful job performance must be specified.
• The KSAs must be operationally defined; for example, the general KSA “typing skill” should be expanded to “skill to type general business correspondence at a rate of no less than 60 words per minute using a computer and word processing software up to six hours per day”.
• There must be a linkage between the essential tasks and the important, required upon-entry KSAs and the class specification KSAs.
• The JA must have been validated within the preceding five years.

It is incumbent on county personnel departments to ensure that their JA studies comply with the aforementioned requirements to ensure the integrity and job-relatedness of their examination processes for county specific classifications.

As a resource, MSS has created and attached a Job Analysis Template and JA-Class Spec Linking Template to this policy memorandum.

Additional Job Analysis Resources

The examination method, process, and length of eligibility are required to be listed on the job posting. County departments are prohibited from modifying the selection process listed on the job posting once it has been advertised.