Los Angeles Fire Department Gets 150 Pages of Ideas to Improve Recruiting

Amidst allegations it has relied too much on nepotism and too little on diversity, the LA fire department now has 150 pages to read about what it can do to improve the hiring process.

For other organizations, some aspects of the report may be worth taking a look at.

The LA Times says the report, from the Rand Corp., cost $270,000. The mayor’s office had told Rand to look into a more fair hiring process, one that would keep costs down, and one that would improve diversity (a problem we’ve talked about with respect to New York, too).

The report took three months, and includes recommendations such as:

A better website
A recruiting campaign, with targeting in particular to minorities (female athletes, as an example)
The development of a much better link between the selection criteria and what it really takes to succeed on the job (is what’s being used for selection really what’s important?)
Revisiting who moves from early stages of selection to later stages; perhaps it’s too few
An appeals process for people rejected
More technology, such as less paper in background checks

Much more here in the PDF.