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Applicants for positions for which standards have been published must fully meet the specified requirements. If an appointing official determines that there is no qualified employee available for consideration in the normal area of consideration, the following alternative courses of action must be taken prior to requesting a waiver of the specified standard for the position:
- Expand the area of consideration for internal applicants.
- Conduct an extensive external recruitment effort aimed at the applicant pool for the position.
When there is valid reason to request a variation from a published standard, the following procedure is used:
- The appointing official must request, in writing, a variation of 1 or more items of a qualification standard through normal channels of communications to the manager of Selection, Evaluation, and Recognition.
- Requests for variation must include appropriate evidence to support the request. Such requests must be responsive to the following questions as well as any other pertinent information:
- Have adequate recruiting efforts been made to secure a fully qualified applicant (i.e., expansion of area of consideration, advertising, contacts with professional community groups, and use of employment services, etc.)?
- What is the impact of the variation on the equal employment opportunity policy of the Postal Service?
- Does the variation seek to lower an established educational requirement?
- Does the variation seek to establish a new education requirement where none has been required? (Mandatory education requirements should not be necessary for most bargaining positions.)
- Requests must be for qualification standards for the position only, never for an individual. If the waiver is approved, the selection process must begin again, using the revised standards for that particular position. All newly eligible applicants must be given consideration for the job.
- The qualification requirement waiver applies only until the job is filled. Subsequent vacancies for the same position must be posted using the published qualification standard.
- Normally, an employee may be selected for a position that has the requirements waived only once in any 12–month period.
The written request for variation from a qualification standard must be addressed as specified in 766.2a, and must include the specific information shown in 766.2b. The request must provide approving officials with the information necessary to reach a decision and provide employees with a record of an approved variation. The request will also serve as a record of the variation for inclusion in the vacancy file.
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