Ability – A competence to perform an observable behavior or a behavior that results in an observable product.

Agency Certification Program – A certification developed by an agency, group of agencies, or other group that demonstrates a person’s proficiency in the job-related competencies/KSAs. An agency certification program does not have to be recognized by a professional community.

Applicant – A person who applies for a vacant position.

Appointee – The person who is ultimately appointed to a position, and who enters on board with the hiring agency.
Appointing Officer – A person having the authority, by law, or by duly delegated authority, to appoint, employ, or promote individuals to positions in an agency.

Appointing Authority – The legal or regulatory basis on which a specific appointment may be made to a Federal civilian position.

Assessment Center – A method of evaluating a candidate’s job-related competencies/KSAs using multiple raters and exercises to evaluate each competency. Assessment centers utilize a variety of competency-related assessment simulations, including group exercises, in-basket exercises, questionnaires, fact-finding exercises, interviews, and role-playing.

Assessment Tool – A device or method used to measure the degree to which an applicant possesses the competencies or KSAs necessary for successful job performance. Examples of assessment tools include rating schedules, written tests, work samples, and structured interviews.

Augmentation – A procedure by which additional points are added to the ratings of eligibles based upon an assessment of competencies/KSAs pertaining to specific job-related criteria that were not previously measured.

Auditing – The process by which the certifying action is taken on a returned Certificate of Eligibles by the Human Resource Office to comply with legal and regulatory selection procedures.

Behavioral Consistency Method – A method of evaluating a person’s training and experience by asking candidates to describe their major achievements in several job-related areas identified for the position, called job dimensions (i.e., competencies/KSAs). The behavioral consistency method operates on the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.

Bilingual/Bicultural Certification – A special hiring program established under the Luevano Consent Decree to hire eligible applicants who meet the program’s criteria into positions for which a proficiency in the Spanish language or knowledge of the Hispanic culture is beneficial.

Bona Fide Consideration – An applicant receives bona fide consideration when his or her name is within the group of three eligible candidates referred to the selecting official on a certificate list and a legal appointment is made from the certificate. Each eligible candidate is entitled to three bona fide considerations for the same appointment before he or she can be eliminated from consideration.

Candidate – An applicant who meets the minimum qualifications requirements for a position, and is therefore eligible for consideration. See also ‘eligible.’
Career Conditional Appointment – Appointment to a non-temporary position in the competitive service.

Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) – A program designed by an agency to actively assist its surplus and displaced employees by providing selection priority for competitive service vacancies. Under the career transition assistance plan (CTAP), you must notify employees who are surplus or have been displaced from your agency of vacancies that your agency plans to fill in their local commuting area.

Certificate of Eligibles – A list of the highest-ranked eligibles in score and veterans preference order, submitted to a selecting official for appointment consideration in accordance with the competitive selection laws and regulations.

Closing Date – The date beyond which applications for an advertised position will no longer be accepted. A closing date should be established for each vacancy and must be provided in the job announcement advertising the position.
Competency – An observable, measurable pattern of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics that an individual needs to perform work roles or occupational functions successfully.

Competency-Based Job Profile – A statement of the general and technical competencies required for optimal performance in an occupation or job family. Competencies identified as critical for a job provide a basis for developing applicant assessments and related products.

Competitive Appointment – An appointment based on selection from a competitive examination or under other specific authority.

Competitive Examining – The competitive examination, which is open to all applicants, may consist of a written test, an evaluation of an applicant’s education and experience, and/or an evaluation of other attributes necessary for successful performance in the position to be filled.

The process used to fill civil service positions with candidates who apply from outside the Federal workforce. It is also used to enable current Federal employees without civil service status to compete for a permanent appointment and to enable employees with civil service status to compete for other Federal positions.

Competitive Status – A person’s basic eligibility for assignment (for example, by transfer, promotion, reassignment, demotion, or reinstatement) to a position in the competitive service without having to compete with members of the general public in an open competitive examination. Once acquired, status belongs to the individual, not to the position.

Content Validity – A characteristic possessed by an assessment instrument whose contents accurately reflect actual job requirements. For example, a typing test would likely be a highly content-valid instrument for assessing a person’s qualifications to be a clerk-typist. Also referred to as ‘face validity.’

Crediting Plan – A method by which a candidate’s job-related competencies/KSAs are evaluated by reviewing the factual background of a candidate, to include positions held, levels of responsibility, accomplishments, and job-related education they have received. Also called a ‘rating schedule.’

Cut-off-Date – The date after which applications will continue to be accepted, but will not be given initial consideration. A cut-off date may be useful where large numbers of applications are expected over an extended period of time, and there is an immediate need to fill a position. If a cut-off date is established, it must be provided in the job announcement advertising the position.

Displaced Employee – A current agency employee serving under a competitive service appointment in tenure group I or II who has received a specific reduction in force (RIF) separation notice, or notice of proposed removal for declining a directed reassignment or transfer of function outside of the local commuting area.

Eligible – An applicant who satisfies the minimum qualifications requirements for the position, and therefore is eligible for consideration. See also ‘candidate.’
Excepted Service – A term used to describe all civil service positions that are not in either the competitive service or the Senior Executive Service.

Experience – Experience is an indicator of proficiency that relates to the school, home, community, voluntary or work experiences of the candidate that are related to the competencies/KSAs needed to perform in the job.

Indicator of Proficiency – A source of evidence that a candidate possesses job-related competencies/KSAs (e.g., agency certification program, education, experience, professional activity, and professional certification).

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) – The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) is a process by which employees who have been involuntarily separated may receive selection priority for jobs in agencies other than the one in which they were previously employed. (See Chapter 4 and 5 CFR Part 330)

Interdisciplinary Position – A position involving duties and responsibilities closely related to more than one professional occupation. As a result, you could classify the position into two or more occupational series. The nature of the work is such that persons with education and experience in two or more professions or may be considered equally well qualified to do the work.

Job Announcement – A document that informs the public regarding a job vacancy. A job announcement describes the requirements of the job, and instructs applicants regarding how to apply for the vacancy.

Knowledge – A body of information applied directly to the performance of a function.
KSAs – An acronym for ‘Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.’ An applicant’s qualifications for a position are often determined with reference to the KSAs that are relevant to successful performance in that position.

Merit Promotion Procedures – A placement made under the authority of 5 CFR Part 335, ‘Promotion and Internal Placement.’ With certain important exceptions (e.g., VEOA) only career status employees may apply for positions that are to be filled under merit promotion procedures.

Minimum Qualifications – Qualifications that an applicant must possess, at a minimum, to be eligible for hire or promotion under the competitive system. Minimum qualifications are typically expressed in terms of job-related years of experience or education, i.e., course credit hours or a combination of the two. Applicants who do not meet the minimum qualification requirements for the position receive no further consideration.
Multiple Certification – The concurrent referral of an applicant to more than one grade, specialty, and/or geographic location. Also known as ‘dual certification.’

National – A person who was born in an outlying possession of the United States on or after the date of formal acquisition of such possession (including American Samoa, Swains Island, and the Northern Mariana Islands), or who is a child of nationals under certain circumstances, or who meets other requirements described in law at 8 U.S.C. § 1408.

Noncompetitive Action – An appointment to or placement in a position in the competitive service that is not made by selection from an open competitive examination, and that is usually based on current or prior Federal service. A noncompetitive action includes (1) all of the types of actions described under in-service placement; (2) appointments of non-Federal employees whose public or private enterprise positions are brought into the competitive service under title 5 CFR Part 316.701; and (3) appointments and conversions to career and career-conditional employment made under special authorities covered in 5 CFR Part 315.
Notice of Results – A letter that notifies an applicant of the status of his or her application.

Open Period – The period during which applications may be submitted for consideration. The duration of the open period must be sufficient enough to provide adequate public notice of the vacancy, and must be clearly specified in the job announcement. OPM recommends that agencies prescribe an open period of no fewer than five (5) calendar days.

Outstanding Scholar – A hiring program created by the Luevano Consent Decree. This program permits the hiring of any individual with a baccalaureate degree who has at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale or is in the top 10 percent of his or her graduating class (or of a major subdivision, such as a College of Arts and Sciences).
Preference Eligible – A veteran, spouse, widow, or mother, who meets the definition provided in 5 U.S.C. § 2108. Preference eligibles are entitled to have 5 or 10 points added to their earned score on a civil service examination (See 5 U.S.C. & sect; 3309). Preference does not apply, however, to in-service placement action such as promotions.
Priority Consideration – Special placement priority that is given to a candidate who was previously denied consideration due to erroneous or lost consideration.

Professional Activity – A professional activity is evidence of substantial contributions to a profession that is related to the competencies/KSAs needed to perform the job.
Professional Certification – A professional certification is an indicator of proficiency that takes into account the certification that is issued and recognized by a specific general professional community or industry that demonstrates a person’s proficiency in the competencies/KSAs needed to perform the job.

Quality Ranking Factor – Quality ranking factors are competencies/KSAs that are expected to enhance performance in a position. Unlike selective factors, quality ranking factors are not used as a ‘screen out’ factor.

Reemployment Priority List (RPL) – A list of employees within the local commuting area who have been separated from your agency due to reduction in force (RIF) or work-related injury. If an employee on the RPL is qualified for a vacancy that exists within his or her local commuting area, you must (with few exceptions) select that employee before hiring anyone from outside the agency.

Reinstatement – Non-competitive appointment of a person formerly employed in the competitive service (i.e., who either had a competitive status or was serving probation when separated) into the competitive service as a career or career-conditional employee.

Reinstatement Eligibility – The conditions under which a person may be reinstated into the competitive service.

Selective Factor – A KSA, competency, or special qualification without which a candidate could not perform the duties of a position in a satisfactory manner. Selective factors are applied in addition to minimum qualifications. Applicants who do not meet a selective factor are ineligible for further consideration.

Senior Executive Service (SES) – The employment system that applies to any positions that are classified above GS-15 and involve executive management and high policy-making responsibilities. SES positions are excluded from the competitive service, the system of rules and regulations that applies to most civil service positions.

Skill – An observable competence to perform a learned psychomotor act.
Status Applicant – An applicant who has satisfied requirements for competitive status.
Status Employee – A current Federal employee who has competitive status.
Structured Interview – An assessment method in which candidate’s job-related competencies/KSAs are evaluated using standard questions that are scored systematically using predetermined criteria or benchmarks for all interviews for a particular job. The benchmarks provide behaviorally-specific examples of what constitutes high, medium, and low levels of proficiency. In each structured interview, the applicant is asked the same questions in the same sequence, and his or her responses are scored according to the predetermined criteria or benchmarks.

Subject-Matter Expert (SME) – A person with bona fide expert knowledge about what it takes to do a particular job. First-level supervisors are normally good SMEs. Superior incumbents in the same or very similar positions and other individuals can also be used as SMEs if they have current and thorough knowledge of the job’s requirements.
Surplus Employee – A current agency employee serving under an appointment in the competitive service, in tenure group I or II, who has received a Certification of Expected Separation or other official certification issued by the agency indicating that the position is surplus.

Temporary Appointment – A non-status appointment to a competitive service position for a specific time period not to exceed one year.
Term Appointment – A non-status appointment to a position in the competitive service for a specific period of more than one year and lasting not more than four years.
Transmutation Table – A mathematical table that is used to convert raw scores obtained by applicants to ratings between 70 and 100.

Veterans’ Preference – A special privilege that entitles qualifying veterans to certain advantages in consideration for federal employment.

Well-qualified Employee – An eligible employee whose competencies/KSAs clearly exceed the minimum qualification requirements for the position.

Work Sample Assessment – An assessment method in which a candidate’s job-related competencies/KSAs are evaluated based on work-specific activity or simulation of a work activity. A writing sample is an example of a work sample assessment.