Federal Government Employee Screening Practices: A Qualitative Case Study on the Influence of Hiring Millennials

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study is to explore what influence lifestyle polygraph screening hiring requirements have on federal government agencies to attract Millennial applicants in the Washington D.C. area. The broad theoretical framework under which this research study falls includes Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, generational theory, the social cognitive theory, and the social exclusion theory. Data collection for this research study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with thirteen members of the Millennial Generation and thirteen former federal government hiring managers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The interview data was entered into NVIVO 11 for data mining and categorization. This resulted in the establishment of common themes about the perceptions of Millennials and former federal government hiring managers about the lifestyle polygraph hiring requirement. The results of the study concluded that the lifestyle polygraph hiring requirement is not a deterring factor on the ability of federal government agencies to attract Millennial applicants. However, the lifestyle polygraph hiring requirement was found to be a deterrent in achieving federal government employment objectives in hiring Millennials. This study provided organizational leaders and managers with empirical data for evaluating and effecting potential hiring process changes. Recommendations for future areas of research include reassessing drug test requirements, exploration of potential polygraph examiner bias, and early intervention marketing at the middle and high school levels.