Utah's IPA Center-Report on Cooperative Recruitment and Selection

• Author: William M. Timmins
• DOI: 10.1177/009102607500400303
• Published date: 01 May 1975
• Date: 01 May 1975

UTAH'S

IPA

CENTER-REPORT

ON

COOPERATIVE

RECRUITMENT

AND

SELECTION

WILLIAM

M.

TIMMINS

Table

1

UIPA

Statistics

by

Participating

Agencies

(December

1973)

•William M. Timmins is associate professor

of public administration at Brigham Young

University in Provo, Utah. He served for a

number of years as a personnel specialist in

the Utah State Personnel Office and for six

years as chairman of the Salt Lake County

Merit System Council. He has authored a num-

ber of books and more than twenty articles in

national [ournals. He

has

done extensive con-

sulting in personnel with anumber of states

and local governments, including work with

several Asian nations.

hand, office machine operation, telephone

switchboard equipment,

and

card punch

operation.

The

written examination is the

U.S. Civil Service Commission's test for

office assistants. Special permission was

granted

the

Utah

IPA

Center

for

the

use

of this validated instrument across jurisdic-

tional lines,

and

considerable precautions

are exercised to keep

the

test secure. As

far as

the

writer is aware, only the Utah

State Merit System

and

the Salt Lake

Orders Referrals Hires

390

146

38

23

109

18

8

1

1

1

735-

6214

1261

375

26

300

233

55

8

76

18

8566-

602

164

51

13

56

18

6

2

5

2

919

Agency

State of Utah

Salt Lake County

Salt Lake City

University of Utah

Utah State University

Utah County

Davis County

Weber State

Weber County

Murray City

Totals

How

the

Center

Works

All applicants are

required

to take a com-

mon written test, covering verbal abilities

and

clerical aptitudes.

Depending

on

the

job requirements, they also demonstrate

possession of such skills as typing, short-

In

December

1972,

the

Utah

Intergovern-

mental Personnel Agency

Center

was

launched.

During

the first

year

of its op-

eration,

ten

or more

public

jurisdictions

(federal, state, local

and

university) par-

ticipated in

the

services of

the

Center,

which was funded by a U.S. Intergovern-

mental Personnel Agency grant to

the

Utah

State

Department

of Community Affairs.

Utah's Governor, Calvin L. Rampton,

had

strongly endorsed the original proposal

and

openly sought

support

among

the

various

jurisdictions at the time of

the

initial

grant

application. In effect,

the

grant

funded

a

"new, combined examining program for

city, county, state

and

federal jobs through

Utah

State Employment Security Offices"

for a

broad

range of office

assistants-

clerks, typists, stenographers, etc.

The

Center

received

extensive-and

fa-

vorable-media

coverage in

Utah

as a "one-

stop shopping center" for applicants seek-

ing clerical employment in public agencies.

Fourteen

offices of

the

Utah

State Employ-

ment

Service across

the

state have coop-

erated

in

the

program

by recruiting,

accepting applications, administering ex-

aminations, etc.

Table

1details

the

sta-

tistics of

the

first year of the

Utah

IPA

Center.

156

PUBLIC

PERSONNEL

MANAGEMENT,

MAY-JUNE

1975