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Government Leader home > news stories
02/21/07
OPM ‘retools’ to streamline federal hiring process
By John L. Guerra
Special to Government Leader
Federal managers, under the gun to find and recruit private-sector talent to replace retiring federal workers, want dearly to streamline and hasten the hiring process. Posting job openings too slowly or failing to communicate with applicants lengthens the hiring process and sends talented prospects into the arms of other employers.
The Office of Personnel Management’s online Hiring Toolkit is apparently catching on with agencies looking for ways to improve their hiring processes. The toolkit gives them step-by-step instructions, guidelines and tips for attracting and hiring quality employees based on a 45-day hiring model.
Though it’s too early to tell exactly how many agency managers use the hiring toolkit, they’ve started to take notice of the tools on the site, said Sully Thomas, acting associate director for human capital at OPM.
“They use the site for different improvements,” he said. “Agency ‘A’ may find that they need to improve their vacancy announcements, another agency may want to get rid of unnecessary steps they may have in their hiring process.”
OPM designed the toolkit after interviewing hiring managers and evaluating hiring processes at each agency. Thomas and other OPM designers noted where things went wrong and where processes kept positions unfilled for too long. One big trouble area the online toolkit is designed to fix: the timely notification of job applicants.
“We want agencies to speed up the hiring process,” Thomas said. “There is a 45-day notification requirement that agencies should follow. The toolkit helps them notify applicants on the status of their application within 45 days.”
The online toolkit is divided into four key segments: Prepare to Hire, Recruit Top Talent, Select the Best and Measure Success. Each segment contains thorough directions and samples to guide hiring managers. For instance, the Prepare to Hire section outlines several steps that prevent mistakes once the hiring process begins, including tools to analyze the requirements of the new position and a script to follow when the hiring manager talks to Human Resources about the position he wants to fill.
There’s also a sample contract between HR and the hiring manager covering the new position. Each segment also features white papers describing successful hiring processes.
The most popular feature of the site is the hiring process analysis tool, which tracks the manager’s hiring process and tells the manager when snags and delays occur. “It allows them to note the number of days each step in the hiring process takes in a visual that clearly shows you where some of the snags take place,” Thomas said.
There’s more work to do with the site, but he’s waiting before making improvements. “Once we get agencies to use it and to understand the toolkit, we can have a dialogue afterward to see which changes need to be made, if any,” he said.
OPM staff will visit agencies to teach hiring managers how to use the site. OPM’s hiring toolkit can be found at www.opm.gov/hiringtoolkit/.
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