TO: Department and Agency Personnel, Human Resource, and Affirmative Action Offices FROM: Scott DeFruscio, Director of Staffing Services SUBJECT: Beginning Office Assistant Email Canvasses The Department of Civil Service is pleased to announce that agencies will now have the option of email canvassing the recently established Beginning Office Assistant, Office Assistant 1- Keyboarding and related language parenthetic eligible lists, as they do with the Professional Career Opportunities (PCO) lists. These lists will be referred to collectively as "the BOA lists" in this memorandum. Many agencies have expressed interest in email canvassing these new lists in an effort to save time and resources. Email Address Query – Email addresses for the BOA list eligibles may be obtained from the Email Address Query. The email addresses you receive will be the most current email addresses the eligibles have provided. When more than one email address is shown for an eligible, canvasses must be sent to each email address. To access the query, log into HR Professionals, click on Examinations, then click on Email Addresses for Certs. You will need to select the exam series and enter your Cert number from your Eligible List Management System (ELMS) Cert. You can limit your request to a range of eligibles (for example 1 through 50). We suggest you select "Get Email List As Excel" to view the Cert eligibles. From the spreadsheet you can copy/paste some or all of the email addresses into the address portion of your email. This will allow you to identify the eligibles without email addresses listed and you may wish to phone canvass or send a paper canvass to these eligibles. If you cannot access the Excel version, you can use the "Get Email List as Text" option, but the eligibles without an email address will not be identified. Important: Certification eligibles without email addresses MUST be canvassed following the procedures for canvasses by letter and/or phone, if these eligibles must be coded to effect an appointment. Please be careful when coding your ELMS Cert, especially when using the bulk processing function, to ensure that codes are only entered for list eligibles who have actually been canvassed. Email Canvassing in General - Agencies may immediately appoint reachable eligibles who respond to an email canvass before the deadline for response. The email canvass must contain all of the information that would be provided in a canvass letter. For convenience and consistency, the email should provide this link to canvass letter information: http://www.cs.ny.gov/extdocs/forms/S-60.page2.pdf. Agencies must provide all information contained in the email canvass to eligibles who contact them with problems opening attachments to the email. Eligibles may respond to the canvass in a variety of ways (e.g., by letter or fax), even if the agency requests responses only by email. Agencies must consider timely responses, regardless of the method the eligible used to respond. If an eligible declines by email, the agency must mail a confirming letter to the eligible. If an email is returned as undeliverable, the agency must canvass the eligible by letter and/or by phone, if the eligible must be coded to effect an appointment. 10-Day Email Canvassing - 10-day email canvass procedures follow the procedures for canvasses by mail. Eligibles must be given at least 10 business days from the date the email is sent to respond to the canvass, consistent with Civil Service Rule 4.1 (b). If the eligible does not respond in that time the eligible may be coded NR (No Response), unless the eligible responds late. Late responders should be coded as LR, unless the candidate declines the position. 2-Day Email Canvassing - Agencies have the option of requiring a minimum two business day deadline for responses to email canvasses, similar to a phone canvass. However, eligibles who do not respond may not be coded as NR. Updating Email Addresses - Eligibles may update their email address by logging into the Department web site at https://www.cs.ny.gov/home/myaccount. Return to Top ^ |