The complexity and confusion of the federal hiring process is nothing new. As the nation’s largest employer, federal hiring frequently gets lumped together and taken to task for its many challenges and issues. But many of them are baked into statutory rules and requirements. A memo last week from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) outlined several steps the government is taking to un-uck the federal hiring process.
The memo advises federal agency heads on topics including:
- Strategic workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, and data analytics.
- Applicant/candidate experience, including DEIA, accessibility, and efficiency.
- Internal processes and customer experience
The memo looks to improvements in hiring but also overall federal workforce health and strategic vision. OPM will be addressing progress on the memo through hiring experience metrics. The current memo and work builds upon previous OPM and OMB progress into skills-based hiring, the Pathways program, and other efforts to make federal employment more attractive and attainable to the broader U.S. population.
