The frequently asked questions below are intended to assist agencies and Human Resources (HR) users in gaining a better understanding of the Candidate Inventory functionality in the USA Staffing system (USAS).
If you have additional questions that are not addressed, please contact your USAS Account Manager.
What is the Candidate Inventory Feature?
Candidate Inventory is an innovative feature that allows hiring managers direct access to search for available applicants without the need to complete a new recruitment process.
Why use Candidate Inventory?
Agencies can leverage prior recruitments to fill new vacancies without the need to begin the recruitment process again. This allows agencies to reduce their time to hire and make more selections from active merit Promotion, Non-Competitive recruitment authorities and certain Direct Hire authorities.
When should agencies use Candidate Inventory?
Agency policy and HR operations teams should collaborate to identify specific series, grades and locations that are routinely recruited or identified hard-to-fill vacancies, and by using that information could provide the data to make the business case to use Candidate Inventory.
Agencies opting to use the Candidate Inventory feature assume the responsibility establishing the policies and/or procedures for the identification of the specific series, grades, and locations to include in the inventory for Hiring Managers. Agency policy teams would also be responsible for the development of any agency specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for their Human Resource and Hiring Manger users.
To assist agencies with this process, the USA Staffing Program Office has created a Pre-Implementation Guide and Business Process Rules Example located on our Resource Center.
What is the difference between Candidate Inventory and the USAJOBS/Agency Talent Portal Resume Mining Feature?
Candidate Inventory exists within a single Agency – created in USA Staffing as an Organization. Only HR and HM users within that Organization can add applicants to and source applicants from that Agency/Organization’s Candidate Inventory. Conversely, USAJOBS’ Talent Pools feature allows Departments and Agencies to share certificates with each other across those organizational boundaries. Also, Candidate Inventory is limited to some types of merit promotion, non-competitive, excepted service and direct hire authorities while Talent Pools was designed to facilitate sharing Delegated Examining certificates and cross-government hiring actions as authorized by the Competitive Service Act. Lastly, Human Resources and Hiring Managers can use USAJOBS Resume Mining to find job seekers who have made their resumes searchable in their USAJOBS profile.
Please see the Candidate Inventory vs Talent Pools document for a side-by-side comparison of these capabilities located on our Resource Center.
How is Candidate Inventory different than a shared certificate?
Shared Certificates are supported by the Competitive Service Act which allows an “appointing authority” to share a competitive certificate issued under delegated examining procedures with one or more “appointing authorities” to make an appointment to a position that is in the same occupational series, grade level (or equivalent), full performance level, and duty location during the 240-day period beginning on the date of issuance of the certificate of eligibles. Candidate Inventory is a different approach to meeting the same need but suitable agency merit promotion, noncompetitive and direct hiring authorities.
Can a Candidate Inventory be shared across agencies?
Candidate Inventory may only be used within a single Organization in USA Staffing. For more information about your Agency’s USAS Organizational structure, please reach out to your USAS Account Manager.
Can applicants from any certificate be included in the Candidate Inventory?
No. Applicants on certificates that require Veterans Preference considerations such as Category Rating or Rule of Three may not be included in Candidate Inventory. Candidate Inventory is only appropriate for certain types of Merit Promotion, Non-Competitive recruitment authorities and some Direct Hire. Any use of Candidate Inventory should align with your agency’s policy and standard business process.
What should I do if my New Hire is having trouble logging in?
New Hires have their own Help Center link: https://nhsupport.usastaffing.gov/hc/en-us. Shared Certificates are supported by the Competitive Service Act which allows an “appointing authority” to share a competitive certificate issued under delegated examining procedures with one or more “appointing authorities” to make an appointment to a position that is in the same occupational series, grade level (or equivalent), full performance level, and duty location during the 240-day period beginning on the date of issuance of the certificate of eligibles. Candidate Inventory is a different approach to meeting the same need but suitable agency merit promotion, noncompetitive and direct hiring authorities.
Will there be a guide for Hiring Managers made available on how to use this?
There will not be a specific guide but there will be specific Online Help content for the pages, and step by step directions for the different tasks. These pages will be contextually driven by using the ‘?’ mark in the system and will be provided on the Release Notes.