The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a governmentwide hiring plan on Thursday that instructs agencies to hire employees more quickly, focusing on early career and STEM talent.
The Merit Hiring Plan was mandated by an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office entitled Reforming the Federal Hiring Process And Restoring Merit To Government Service.
As the order instructed, the plan directs agencies to hire Federal employees in under 80 days. According to OPM data, the average governmentwide time-to-hire in fiscal year 2024 was 101 days.
The plan also directs agencies to focus on recruiting qualified, early career talent. According to the Pew Research Center, fewer than nine percent of Federal employees are younger than 30, and 28.1 percent of Federal workers are ages 55 and older.
“The Federal government struggles to recruit qualified early career talent. In addition, Federal hiring too often focuses on elite universities and credentials, instead of merit, practical skill, and commitment to American ideals,” Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell and Vince Haley, the assistant to the president for domestic policy, wrote in the plan.
“Going forward, agencies shall ensure that early career recruitment focuses on patriotic Americans who will faithfully adhere to the Constitution and the rule of law,” they said.
OPM said its talent team will work with agencies to target recruitment at high schools, state universities, religious colleges and universities, community colleges, homeschooling groups, 4-H youth programs, and faith-based groups – as well as the military, veterans, and law enforcement communities.
Additionally, applicants will now need to respond to several short essay questions during the recruitment process. For example, one essay question asks: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
They will also need to confirm that they are using their own words in answering the essay questions and not using artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT.
The plan also calls on agencies to improve the recruitment of candidates for STEM roles. OPM said it will hold regular meetings with agency talent teams, the Federal chief information officer (CIO), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, cross-agency councils such as the CIO Council and Chief Data Officer Council, and “functional communities to drive STEM hiring across the Federal government.”
OPM encouraged agencies to use pooled hiring and shared certificates when filling STEM positions. It also encouraged them to use OPM’s Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program for employees performing IT, cybersecurity, and cyber-related functions.
Notably, OPM teased coming assessments for the IT community, including a “Data Skills Assessment” that is expected to be available in September. It also said the “Structure Interviews (questions and scoring benchmarks) for IT Specialist positions” is expected to be available in September.
The agency also pledged to expand its data analytics capabilities to identify trends, gaps, and opportunities in the hiring process. OPM encouraged agencies to use USAJOBS and USA Staffing to “improve hiring transparency, the user experience for job seekers, and Federal hiring data.”
Beginning on June 30 and continuing on the last business day of each month, each agency will need to prepare a report to update OPM and the Office of Management and Budget on their implementation progress.