The strength of any organization rests on its people. Each year, federal agencies process over 22 million applications and hire over 350,000 individuals. Enhancing the hiring experience is essential to attract, hire, and retain a capable workforce equipped to tackle the diverse challenges and opportunities facing the nation.
Last month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released guidance aimed at enhancing the federal hiring experience for applicants, hiring managers, and HR professionals. This initiative aligns with the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) workforce priority focused on strengthening and empowering the federal workforce and includes a set of tools and best practices to drive improvements across all facets of the hiring process.
Key Components of the New Guidance
The newly released memo provides agencies with actionable steps to:
- Strengthen strategic workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, and data analytics at the enterprise-level;
- Design and build an improved applicant experience;
- Improve the hiring manager experience by ensuring applicants who are referred are appropriately qualified; and
- Empower HR professionals and minimize HR burden by simplifying processes to make more effective hiring selections.
Agencies will be asked to track and share their progress on improving the hiring experience. OPM will monitor progress using key Hiring Experience metrics.
Reducing the Administrative Burden in Federal Hiring
In addition, OMB, OPM, and other agencies are prioritizing initiatives that reduce the administrative burden of the federal hiring process placed on hiring managers and the public:
- Pooled Hiring: In a pooled hiring process, candidates apply once and are considered for multiple positions across the participating agencies or departments. This aids managers by providing a broader pool of qualified candidates, reducing the time and effort required to fill positions.
- Plain Language in Job Postings: For managers, this clarity means they spend less time determining if someone is qualified, making it easier to match the right candidates to the right positions.
- Creating and Investing in Additional Tools for HR and Hiring Managers: These tools enable them to more efficiently complete routine tasks and expedite administrative elements of the hiring process, making it easier to hire and meet their agency missions.
“This memo is a crucial step in modernizing federal hiring. It emphasizes the need for agencies to ask themselves, ‘Is this the job title that most resonates with job seekers?’ Too little do we see job titles like Software Engineer or Product Manager, that are common in today’s parlance. Instead, we see traditional government titles like IT Specialist or Management and Program Analyst.” said DHS AI Corps Director Michael Boyce. “This policy reflects my belief that descriptive job titles are essential for attracting and retaining top talent in the federal government and hopefully breaks the notion that a position’s job title on USAJOBS must match the name of the series used to classify the position.”
Complementary Efforts and PMA Expert Session Insights
To further support this initiative, OMB and OPM will also:
- Launch a data working group to explore expanded approaches to evidence-based hiring metrics.
- Kick off a series of free training sessions for hiring managers and HR departments to help improve their skills on how to use tools like the Agency Talent Portal.
- Conduct research on the applicant and hiring manager experience across the talent acquisition process.
In conjunction with the release of this guidance, we recently held a PMA experts’ session where key stakeholders gathered to explore how this guidance can drive impactful changes in federal hiring. The PMA team is excited to harness the innovative ideas and active engagement from these participants to ensure this memo fosters meaningful and lasting improvements across agencies.
As a commitment to strategic recruitment, OMB, OPM, and the Office of the National Cyber Director are co-hosting “Service for America” – an outreach and recruiting campaign. This effort models hiring experience tools and practices in support of mission-critical fields such as technology, AI, and cybersecurity. This campaign also threads other recruiting efforts organized by federal agencies and early-career outreach efforts led by OPM such as #GrowWithGov, internships and apprenticeships.
Get Involved
As we continue to enhance tools and resources to improve the hiring process, achieving lasting change will require ongoing collaboration with federal agencies and direct involvement from the key audiences impacted by the hiring process: applicants, hiring managers, and HR Professionals.
- For Hiring Managers or HR professionals: Register to learn more at an upcoming HX Learning Series.
- For Applicants: Register for the Service for America Campaign information session on September 11 from 2-3 PM ET. To get involved, sign up on USAJOBS and make your resume searchable, join an upcoming workshop, and apply for federal jobs and internships. For more information, search the hashtag #ServiceforAmerica.
For more information on the memo, read the White House fact sheet. To learn more about how the administration is committed to supporting the federal workforce, visit Performance.gov.
Stay Informed
We will continue to update Performance.gov quarterly with progress on agency and PMA priorities. We invite you to continue to track our progress and keep up with events by following Performance.gov on LinkedIn and Twitter (X). Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates straight to your inbox.
