Building a Diverse Work Force: Scientists and Engineers in the Office of Naval Research (1997)

To analyze ONR's recruitment and hiring practices, the committee examined data from 13 ''case files'' documenting the hires of scientists and engineers between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 1995.

The hiring actions were grouped into three types: no recruitment, limited recruitment, and open recruitment. No recruitment (2 hires) means that no vacancy announcement was prepared or advertised; the individual selected was the only candidate. Limited recruitment (4 hires) means that applications were limited to current Navy or DoD employees. Open recruitment (7 hires) means that the position was open to all qualified applicants, including those in industry and academia.

The limited and open recruitment practices applied to various geographic "areas of consideration": either the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area or nationwide. Thus a position which was open to qualified applicants in every sector of employment (academia, government, or industry) might have been advertised in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area only.

There were nine case files where the job vacancy was advertised and the number of applicants known. Out of a total of 210 applicants for those nine positions, there were 106 qualified applicants. Data were not available on the race or disability status of the job applicants because those items are not included on the federal application form (SF171). ONR does ask applicants to fill out a separate (voluntary) form which gives this information, but none of the files examined had that form in them.