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Online Recruitment Test of Civil Servants in The Ministry of Industry
The Ministry of Industry

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Public’s interest in becoming civil servants tends to be very high as shown through the number of applicants for various vacancy in The Ministry of Industry that reach 10.000 applicants every year. In Indonesia, educated unemployment is prevalent, accounted at 1.142.751 individuals in 2010. It consists of 441.100 diploma graduates and 701.651 bachelor graduates. The population is a potential resource for civil servants. Every Indonesia citizen have equal opportunities to become civil servant, but our geographic condition as an island nation poses a challenge for equal distribution of such opportunity. Other challenge comes from the reluctance of the young job seekers to spare their time and money to obtain various documents for the administration of recruitment test while the documents are actually only needed once they pass the test. Past experience has shown that requiring too many verification documents creates problem in its filing and storage. The committee must put a lot of work to process those documents properly. In the past, especially for the early stage, the resources needed to conduct the test were large. The committee must provide a large examination room and a large volume of question sheets copy. recruitment test participants must come to region’s capital to take the test. In 2006, The Ministry of Industry limited the number of applicants to deal with the increasing cost of the recruitment. It was a disadvantage for the young job seeker because their chances are getting slimmer. Collecting money from the applicants to cover the cost of the recruitment test was not a solution because it will diminish the interest thus greatly lowers our chances of employing the best of the young individuals.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
The Ministry of Industry, through a regulation set in 2009, regulated that the first stage of its civil servant recruitment test will be conducted online. Conventional method in selecting the civil servants involves the provision of question sheets of which number equals the number of applicants for the test. If a test has 10.000 participants, and the question sheet contains 10 pages, it will require a large amount of resources for providing 100.000 question sheets. The utilization of information technology, through computerized test, eliminates those requirements thus creating budget efficiency. In the new recruitment test system, job seekers are no longer required to submit various documents before it is needed, thus creates cost efficiency in their part too. Assuming the cost for acquiring various verification documents at IDR500.000 per job seeker, our new mechanism since 2008 helps them collectively save IDR20billion.
 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
Online recruitment Test of Civil Servants in The Ministry of Industry is unique in the sense that it eliminates bureaucratic barriers for job seeker. We identified that interests in applying for jobs a civil servants are influenced by the abundance of paperwork and our system respond to that by utilizing information technology. The first stage of our recruitment test can be taken anywhere anytime and every Indonesian citizen can participate. The schedules are emailed or texted to test participants. Such schedule is needed to make sure that the server is not overloaded and making the web site inaccessible. For the availability of network and its server, internet provider in cooperation with the Ministry allocate a special bandwidth during the online registration and online test. It guarantees that the access to the ministry’s web site is always open. To ensure the quality and independency of the questions, the ministry constructs a special question bank in cooperation with several universities. During the test, questions are presented after in-application randomization thus ensuring its fairness. We also open a special service center for responding the enquiries from test participants during the registration and the online test.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
The steps we take in the implementation of the online test are as follow: a. Composing a Ministry Regulation dictating the online test b. Revitalizing the infrastructure i.e. networks and servers. In this step we utilize the existing resources in our ministry and develop it further to accommodate the online recruitment test. c. Empowering the Ministry’s human resources in the field of information technology. We develop the application for online recruitment test using internal resources without spending extra money to buy an entirely new software. d. Providing question bank in cooperation with universities. A bank system ensures the quality of the question given in the recruitment test. e. Cooperating with Internet service provider. As part of this step, we sign an MoU with Internet service provider and allocate a dedicated bandwidth. f. An agreement from The Ministry of Government Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucracy Reform. g. In the future, we hope to be able to centralize the administration of online recruitment test of civil servant and the Computer Assisted Test.
 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
Online Recruitment Test of Civil Servants requires the involvement of the following stakeholders: a. The Minister of Industrial Affairs As the highest authority in The Ministry of Industry, the Minister is committed to realizing a fair, cost effective and qualified recruitment tes and has issued a regulation to achieve such purpose. b. Secretary General and Echelon I officers who hold the full responsible for the execution of the Online Recruitment Test. c. IT developers in The Ministry of Industry. d. Internet service providers. The cooperation between our ministry and the provide involve the provision of co-location server for the registration and the online test. e. Universities in the construction of question bank. Their involvement is essential in securing the independency of the questions for the test. f. The Ministry of Government Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucracy Reform g. The National Civil Servant Agency
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
The budget for Online Recruitment Test of Civil Servants comes from the National Budget. The design and developing process of the system is an in-house development that utilizes our own resources and is cost effective. For the online test, we secure a special bandwidth that is connected to IIX (Indonesian Internet Exchange) thus ensuring the security and the stability of the network during the test.
 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
a. The increasing number of recruitment test participants. The quality of civil servants obtained from the recruitment is expected to increase as the increase in the number of participant. b. Equal distribution of opportunity for all Indonesian citizens. The participants are no longer limited, both in number and their place of origin. The new mechanism can now accommodate recruitment participants from remote areas. c. Cost efficiency both for the recruitment test participants and the committee. The only spending from the test participants is for their own internet connection. As committee, the Ministry spends less money to provide online test than to copy physical test sheets. d. The tests are free of trouble. Since we provide an online service center, inquiries are responded quickly. e. The result of the test is acquired instantly. Conventional recruitment test involved the manual examination of the answers, which took a long time. In online test, the answers are stored and examined by system thus giving instant result.
 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
Monitoring on the execution of our online recruitment test is conducted for the Internet connection, test participants and public complaints. Technical support team provides immediate solution for any inquiry in the monitoring. The results of evaluation on the program from 2008 to 2013 are as follow: a. The service given are rated “Good” (56.36%) b. The ease of access to the recruitment process is rated “Good” (58.72%) c. Majority of information regarding the test is obtained through electronic media (89.81%) d. The procedure for test validation is rated “Structured” (63.87%) The quality of test questions are guaranteed through meetings and coordination with universities.
 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
The sheer number of participants causes a series of problems especially in the stability of our network during the registration process. Our service center received a number of calls and email inquiries, which were immediately attended to. We anticipate the similar overload to the system by scheduling the test for the participants in batches. The solution is proven successful in maintaining the stability of the network and there were no serious trouble during the test. To solve any problems regarding the difficulties for the participants to get the schedules, we sent them emails and text messages.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
The key benefit of Online Recruitment Test is the efficiency and cost effectiveness of an online system. Young job seekers, as a group is a huge potential, and simple solution such as exempting the complicated requirement from the recruitment process contributes very significantly to their enthusiasm. On average, the recruitment test attracts 10.000 participants who are 27 years old or younger each year. The recruitment test also creates equal distribution for every Indonesian citizen, as 40% of the participants each year comes from outside Java Island. The National Budget is no longer burdened by the expensive manual recruitment that involves the allocation of fund for building, test inspectors and test sheet provision. The Ministry of Industry has recruited civil servants whose qualification is accountable and among them are the young recruits with high potentials.
 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
Other ministries have also implemented the method we have been using to attract more participants in their recruitment tests. In 2014, The Ministry of Government Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucracy Reform has regulated that every recruitment test must only require it participants to submit copy of their Citizen ID. Also in 2014, The National Civil Servant Agency in cooperation with The Ministry of Government Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucracy Reform conducted Computer Assisted Test for civil servant recruitment. It was not online but in the future, it can be integrated from one server thus eliminating the need for the staffs to attend the test as inspectors or computer operators.
 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
Since the implementation of Online Recruitment Test, we have learned that opportunity distribution is an important aspect in government’s practice. Our efforts in realizing it, have been paid off through the quality of our recruits. As a system, Online Recruitment Test in The Ministry of Industry contributes to the accountability of test questions because it involves university’s experts. We have also learned that less works and resources allocation do not necessarily mean lower quality of services. The resulting simplification of procedures and the reduction of time consumed is a priceless reward for the reduction of money that we spend. Less works is of course different from less effort, for in the Online Recruitment Test extra efforts are certainly made and it is made with high level of efficiency.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   The Ministry of Industry
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Achmad Sanusi Achmad Sanusi
Title:   Personnel Bureau of Ministry of Industry  
Telephone/ Fax:   +62 21 525 5509, Fax: +62 21 525 2203
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   karopeg@kemenperin.go.id  
Address:   Jl. Jendral Gatot Subroto Kav. 52 - 53
Postal Code:   12950
City:   South Jakarta
State/Province:   DKI Jakarta
Country:  

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