Pennsylvania has cut hiring time for vacant roles by 40%

Pennsylvania’s secretary of administration, Neil Weaver, this week shared that the state further cut its hiring time for vacant roles, now decreased by 40% since Gov. Josh Shapiro took office in 2023.

On Wednesday, Weaver shared a status update on the Office of Administration’s efforts this week, stating that as of June 30, the average time to fill a vacant position is 54 days. In May, two Pennsylvania state employees — Miranda Martin, director of talent management, and Harrison MacRae, director of emerging technologies — told StateScoop that they had reduced time-to-hire from 90 days to 58 days. (Shapiro’s office has set a goal of slimming that number down to 50 days by the end of the year.)

That 35% reduction in hiring time, officials said, was partially owed to the agency’s use of generative artificial intelligence. The technology helped the office evaluate more than 3,600 open positions’ descriptions and job classifications for accuracy, and the state is currently exploring other ways to use the tech in the hiring process.

Some of the Shapiro administration’s other efforts to bring more talent into Pennsylvania’s state government have included developing resources for job seekers, such as trainings on interview techniques, improving position descriptions, holding job fairs and tailoring recruitment efforts to give hiring managers larger pools of candidates.

Pennsylvania’s release Wednesday said that the vacancy rate for state positions that related to processing permits, licenses and certifications remains at 5%, which is down from 14% at the beginning of 2023. This effort, officials said, helped to immensely cut the state’s backlog and boost response time across agencies. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection earlier this month announced a 98% reduction in its permit backlog, which it said was partly as a result of more quickly filling vacant positions that review applications. 

“When state agencies have the people they need, they can work more efficiently and provide timely services to Pennsylvanians,” Weaver said in the release. “Our work to reduce time to hire is part of Governor Shapiro’s broader efforts to improve customer service and make government more responsive to the people we serve.”