Appendix A_Merit-hiring-plan-5-29-2025-final.pdf

MEMORANDUM

TO: Heads and Acting Heads of Departments and Agencies

FROM: Vince Haley, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy

Charles Ezell, Acting Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management

DATE: May 29, 2025

RE: Merit Hiring Plan

The American people deserve a Federal workforce dedicated to American values and efficient service. Yet, Federal hiring criteria long ago abandoned any serious need for technical skills and adherence to the Constitution. Instead, the overly complex Federal hiring system overemphasized discriminatory “equity” quotas and too often resulted in the hiring of unfit, unskilled bureaucrats. The American people, who deserve a government that works for them, have suffered.

In his January 20, 2025 Executive Order 14170, Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service (“Restoring Merit”) President Trump directed that

“recruitment and hiring processes” become “more efficient and focused on serving the Nation” and that hiring be based on “merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution.” These changes will “ensure that the Federal workforce is prepared to help achieve American greatness, and attract the talent necessary to serve our citizens effectively.”

President Trump directed the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to “develop and send to agency heads a Federal Hiring Plan that brings to the Federal workforce only highly capable Americans dedicated to the furtherance of American ideals, values, and interests.”

President Trump stated that this Merit Hiring Plan must achieve seven goals:

1. Prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the

Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution;

2. Prevent the hiring of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion, and prevent the hiring of individuals who are unwilling to defend the Constitution or to faithfully serve the Executive Branch;

3. Implement, to the greatest extent possible, technical and alternative assessments as https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reforming-the-federal-hiring-process-and-restoring-merit-to-government-service/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reforming-the-federal-hiring-process-and-restoring-merit-to-government-service/ required by the Chance to Compete Act of 2024;1

1 Pub. L. 118-188, enacted in 2024.

4. Decrease government-wide time-to-hire to under 80 days;

5. Improve communication with candidates to provide greater clarity regarding application status, timelines, and feedback, including regular updates on the progress of applications and explanations of hiring decisions where appropriate;

6. Integrate modern technology to support the recruitment and selection process, including the use of data analytics to identify trends, gaps, and opportunities in hiring, as well as leveraging digital platforms to improve candidate engagement; and

7. Ensure Department and Agency leadership, or their designees, are active participants in implementing the new processes and throughout the full hiring process.

Finally, the Merit Hiring Plan must provide specific best practices for the human resources

(HR) function in each agency, which each agency head shall implement. These HR best practices are included as Appendix 1.2

2 President Trump directed that the Merit Hiring Plan must include specific agency plans to improve the allocation of Senior Executive Service (SES) positions to best facilitate democratic leadership, as required by law, within each agency. Such plans have already been developed pursuant to several previous

OPM guidance memos, most notably OPM’s February 24, 2025 guidance memo Guidance on Career

Reserved SES Positions and Agency Redesignation Requests. A new SES hiring plan and Executive Core

Qualifications are being issued concurrently with this memorandum.

The key elements of the following Merit Hiring Plan are:

1. Reforming the Federal recruitment process to ensure that only the most talented, capable and patriotic Americans are hired to the Federal service;

2. Implementing skills-based hiring, eliminating unnecessary degree requirements, and requiring the use of rigorous, job-related assessments to ensure candidates are selected based on their merit and competence, not their skin color or academic pedigree;

3. Streamlining and improving the job application process; and

4. Reducing time-to-hire to under 80 days by emphasizing the use of talent pools and shared certificates and streamlining the background check process.

I. Reforming the Federal Recruitment Process

This Merit Hiring Plan provides the process, technology, and policy tools to allow the

Federal government to hire the most talented, capable, and patriotic Americans—at scale, with drastically improved cost, speed, and quality.

https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Guidance%20on%20Career%20Reserved%20SES%20Positions%20and%20Agency%20Redesignation%20Requests%20FINAL.pdf https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Guidance%20on%20Career%20Reserved%20SES%20Positions%20and%20Agency%20Redesignation%20Requests%20FINAL.pdf

A. Ending All Racial Discrimination in Federal Hiring, Recruiting, Retention and

Promotion

A bedrock principle of the Merit Hiring Plan is that all Americans must be hired, recruited, and promoted in Federal jobs without regard to race, sex, color, religion, or national origin. Racial quotas and preferences in Federal hiring, recruitment and promotion “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.”3

3 See Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based

Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025).

Illegal, demeaning, and immoral “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs in hiring, recruiting, interviewing, training, professional development, internships, fellowships, promotion, and retention must end immediately.4

4 Executive Order 14151, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and

Preferencing (Jan. 20, 2025).

Agencies must conduct Federal hiring, recruitment, retention, and promotion consistent with Executive Orders 14173 and 14151, the Department of Justice’s implementation guidance, 5

5 U.S. Department of Justice, Implementation of Executive Orders 14151 and 14173: Eliminating

Unlawful DEI Programs in the Federal Operations (March 21, 2025).

guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM),6

6 See OPM, Further Guidance Regarding Ending DEIA Offices, Programs and Initiatives (Feb. 5, 2025); OPM, Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders (Jan. 21, 2025).

and guidance from the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).7

7 EEOC, What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work (March 19, 2025).

Agencies may not directly or indirectly discriminate based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin in the design or implementation of any hiring, recruitment, retention, or promotion programs. They must ensure that all hiring, promotion, and advancement decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications and job-related criteria—not race, sex, color, religion, or national origin. An asserted interest in “diversity” or

“equity” cannot justify discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

To implement these requirements, agencies should take the following steps:

• Do not use statistics on race, sex, ethnicity or national origin, or the broader concept of

“underrepresentation” of certain groups, in any hiring, recruiting, retention or promotion decisions, or in the design or implementation of any technical or alternative assessments;

• Cease disseminating information regarding the composition of the agency’s workforce based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin;

• End all Special Emphasis Programs and other agency initiatives in the areas of hiring, recruiting, interviewing, training, professional development, internships, fellowships, promotion, or retention that discriminate based on race, sex, color, religion, or national https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/31/2025-02097/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/31/2025-02097/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-01953/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-01953/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Memo%20Further%20Guidance%20Regarding%20Ending%20DEIA%20Offices%20Programs%20and%20Initiatives%202-5-2025%20FINAL.pdf https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Memo%20re%20Initial%20Guidance%20Regarding%20DEIA%20Executive%20Orders%201%2021-2025%20FINAL%27.pdf https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-dei-related-discrimination-work origin; and

• Take prompt and appropriate disciplinary action against any hiring manager or other agency employee who engages in the unlawful race preferential discrimination described in this Merit Hiring Plan.

B. Leveraging OPM and Agency Talent Teams

The Chance to Compete Act allows agencies to establish “Talent Teams” to improve examinations, facilitate the writing of job announcements, share high-quality certificates of eligible applicants, and facilitate hiring for the competitive service using examinations. 5 U.S.C.

§ 3304(e). It similarly allows OPM to establish talent teams to facilitate hiring actions across the

Federal Government, provide training, create tools and guides to facilitate hiring, and develop technical assessments. Id. § 3304(e).

To implement the Merit Hiring Plan, OPM will stand up a Talent Team whose core mission is to drive the planning, execution, and ongoing monitoring of this Plan across all agencies. This includes a government-wide recruitment strategy to attract patriotic Americans with critical skillsets. It also includes ensuring the adoption of reforms such as skills-based assessments, pooled hiring via shared certificates within and between agencies, subject matter expert (SME) led resume and interview evaluations, and incorporating agency leadership interviews and sign-off as part of the hiring process. OPM’s Talent Team will monitor success metrics related to cost per hire, speed of hire, and quality.

OPM’s Talent Team will coordinate the creation of agency Talent Teams. Agency Talent

Teams will be selected by each agency’s leadership and Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) from current staff. Each Agency Talent Team will drive on-the-ground implementation of the meritocratic and efficiency driving recruitment process reforms outlined in this document.

C. Recruiting Patriotic Americans for Federal Service

OPM’s Talent Team, working with agency Talent Teams, will launch a government-wide recruitment effort to attract “individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution” to Federal service.8

8 Restoring Merit, §2(b).

Three areas (Early Career, STEM and Veterans) are highlighted below as examples of this recruitment strategy. Additional best practices for recruitment in each of these areas are included in Appendix 1.

1. Early Career Recruitment

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. 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. OPM’s Talent Team will partner with agency Talent Teams to build and maintain a strong talent pipeline of students, recent graduates and other early career talent. They will do so by targeting recruitment at state and land-grant universities, religious colleges and universities, community colleges, high schools, trade and technical schools, homeschooling groups, faith-based groups, American Legion, 4-H youth programs, and the military, veterans, and law enforcement communities. Agency Talent Teams, led by their CHCO, shall set early career hiring targets and track annual early career hires.

2. STEM Recruitment

The Federal government struggles to recruit and retain top STEM talent. To improve recruitment of candidates for STEM roles, OPM’s Talent Team will facilitate regular meetings with Agency Talent Teams, the Federal Chief Information Officer, the White House Office of

Science & Technology Policy, cross-agency councils (e.g., Chief Information Officer Council, Chief Data Officer Council) and functional communities to drive STEM hiring across the Federal government. OPM will also update, modernize and centralize STEM position descriptions and job titles across the Federal government, including the use of functional job titles.

3. Veterans’ Recruitment

To improve recruitment of qualified veterans, OPM’s Talent Team will own a strategic government-wide veteran recruiting roadmap, defining target occupations with agency leadership, and partnering with agency veterans’ program leaders to find opportunities to match the talents of individuals exiting the military with skills in demand at agencies.

D. Expanding the Use of Standardized Position Descriptions, Candidate

Inventories, Talent Pools, and Shared Certificates

All job announcements should use a descriptive, organizational, or functional job title that resonates with jobseekers in announcements for recruitment and when posting job announcements.

Job announcements should be in plain language, using available tools to ensure understanding by job seekers outside of government. And they should accurately convey the position and skills sought by the government.

In consultation with agency talent teams, OPM’s Talent Team shall write standardized position descriptions for the most common Federal occupations that tie to the 135 job series9

9 Appendix 4 lists the 135 job series for which USA Hire currently has validated assessments.

and grades currently covered by USA Hire assessment batteries.10

10 OPM has already begun this process by centralizing hiring actions for common occupations such as Budget Analysts, HR Specialists, and IT Product Managers positions. This allows applicants to apply once for roles at many agencies and allow agencies to select qualified candidates from a single shared certificate.

This will facilitate the use of validated assessments, talent pools, and shared certificates. And it will support the transition to skills-based hiring tied to assessments that accurately measure the knowledge, skills and abilities required of positions.

Agency Talent Teams should expand the use of shared certificates. They should do so both within their respective agency and across the Federal government, to streamline hiring. Agencies should collaborate with OPM to identify hiring actions that will use shared certificates or lists of eligible candidates external to the agency as both the originating and receiving agency (such as pursuant to the Competitive Service Act of 2015 (5 U.S.C. §§ 3318-19) and other hiring authorities), so that OPM can assist in connecting agencies for the purposes of certificate sharing.

Working with OPM, agencies should also use of talent pools to share certificates of qualified candidates for like roles across agencies, candidate inventories to share qualified candidates within an agency or department, and resume mining to enable recruiting teams to discover leads. Doing so will reduce the time to hire. That is because hiring managers can select from pre-existing candidate pools rather than posting an announcement for each new position.

E. Expanding OPM Talent Analytics Capabilities and Increasing Agency Use

Agencies should use OPM’s Talent Acquisition solutions (USAJOBS and USA Staffing) to improve hiring transparency, the user experience for job seekers, and Federal hiring data. This will give agencies access to a robust data and reporting capability.

OPM will also expand its data analytics capabilities. It will add dashboards, reports, and other data systems to enable agencies to track agency compliance with merit reform efforts through clear performance metrics (e.g., time to hire, assessment usage, candidate and hiring manager satisfaction, conversion rates, headcount target vs. actual).

II. Reforming the Candidate Ranking, Assessment and Selection Process to

Emphasize Merit and Competence

A. Implementing Skills-Based Hiring and Eliminating Unnecessary Degree

Requirements

At present, Federal hiring practices rely heavily on educational credentials, job titles, and years of experience. These metrics can overlook talented people who gained their skills through alternative pathways. Skills-based hiring shifts the focus from what applicants say on a resume to what applicants can do, demonstrated through proven, competency-based assessments.

President Trump’s Executive Order 13932, Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates (June 26, 2020), directed OPM to realign Federal hiring to a skills-based system by updating and integrating classification, qualifications and assessment practices and policy, and to remove unnecessary degree requirements. OPM will continue doing

so. In addition, agencies shall revamp position descriptions so that they delineate eligibility and qualification criteria and eliminate any requirements that are not relevant (such as degree requirements).

B. Implementing the Final Rule, Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-reforming-assessment-hiring-federal-job-candidates/ https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-reforming-assessment-hiring-federal-job-candidates/

Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many)

Implementing the proposed OPM Final Rule Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through

Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many) is a key foundational step in effectively implementing merit-based hiring using validated, skills-based assessments and rigorous candidate ranking. The Rule of Many enables agencies to evaluate candidates based on their relative ability, skills, and knowledge using a numerical ranking system. By certifying a pre-determined number of candidates in score order, the Federal government is returning to the core principles of merit-based hiring as existed during the era of the Civil Service Exam. This ensures that the most highly qualified candidates are certified for consideration by hiring managers, while upholding veterans’ preference.

Crucially, under the Rule of Many agencies will be able to establish minimum passing scores for assessments (i.e., cut scores) to certify a sufficient number of candidates to the hiring manager. The cut scores may be established based on the assessment used (as validated by job analysis data), based on business necessity (for efficiency), or based on a set number or percentage of eligible applicants. The flexibility to use cut scores will allow rigorous, merit-based pre-certificate ranking of candidates.

C. Requiring Technical or Alternative Assessments in the Federal Hiring Process, and Ending Self-Assessments

The Chance to Compete Act requires agencies to “incorporat[e] skills-based and competency-based technical assessments” into the Federal hiring process. Senate Report 118-250,

1. Specifically, agencies must “maximally adopt the use of technical assessments and phase out the use of occupational questionnaires (or self-assessments)” by 2027. Id.

To ensure that Federal jobs are filled based on merit and competence—not skin color or academic pedigree—every hiring process across the competitive service, or that is otherwise subject to competitive hiring processes must include at least one technical or alternative assessment before issuance of the certificate. Such assessments can be developed internally by the government or outsourced to private sector experts. Appendix 5 provides an overview of technical and alternative assessments that agencies can adopt.11

11 In addition, Appendix 6 includes OPM resources for agencies to maximally adopt technical and alternative assessments.

Agencies will continue to include in their job announcements which assessments they will be using for each position. Agencies must inform applicants on how they will be assessed and identify the methodology to determine the number of applicants to be referred for selection.

Agencies are additionally strongly encouraged to use at least two assessments throughout the hiring process to ensure a multi-hurdle process that produces a rigorously ranked and validated certificate. And agencies are strongly encouraged to use a USA Hire assessment. USA Hire currently offers validated, skills-based assessments for 135 job series (65% of positions posted on

USAJOBS).12

12 Appendix 7 provides a primer on USA Hire.

One best practice is to pair an initial USA Hire assessment with a structured resume review, interview, or writing sample review to create both “screen out” and “screen in” mechanisms pre-certificate.

As part of this Merit Hiring Plan, agencies will immediately phase out the use of self-assessments (e.g., occupational questionnaires) for rating or ranking. Self-assessments may only be used for minimum qualification and eligibility determinations, as described in Section III. Any further use of self-assessments for ranking candidates in connection with any job vacancy, other than seasonal work or positions graded at GS-01 through GS-04, or equivalent, will require express permission from OPM with an explanation of the compelling need for the use of a self-assessment.

D. Realigning Roles and Responsibilities in the Federal Hiring Process

1. The Hiring Manager

Hiring Managers are critical to defining current and future talent needs. They should be involved with and accountable for hiring strategy to ensure the right talent is hired for the right roles. Along with agency leadership, and in partnership with agency HR professionals, Hiring

Managers should have the authority to evaluate candidates and make selections. Hiring Managers should review candidate resumes as part of a structured resume review, conduct structured interviews with candidates and, along with agency leadership, have ultimate ownership of hiring decisions.

2. HR Professionals

Strategic Human Capital Management has been cited by the Government Accountability

Office as a governmentwide high-risk area for a quarter century. Yet little has been done to strengthen the skills of the Federal HR workforce to address these risks. There is an urgent need to upgrade the skills and capabilities of Federal HR professionals to implement President Trump’s long-overdue plans to reform the Federal workforce.

To drive governmentwide change in alignment with President Trump’s workforce policies and deliver high-quality Federal HR services, OPM will take a greater role in overseeing and delivering a high-quality training and development regimen for federal HR professionals. It will also lead efforts to maximally consolidate and coordinate Federal HR services and Federal HR IT platforms governmentwide to create efficiencies, enhance quality, and reduce redundancies.

3. Agency Leadership

President Trump has directed that the Merit Hiring Plan “[e]nsure Department and Agency leadership, or their designees, are active participants in implementing the new processes and throughout the full hiring process.”13

13 In this context, “agency leadership” includes the agency’s political leadership (including

Department and Agency Heads, Deputy Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Undersecretaries, Chiefs of

Staff, and Senior Advisors), its CHCO, and its Chief Operating Officer (COO).

As part of the Merit Hiring Plan, agency leadership, or their designees, will be involved throughout the full hiring process. In particular:

• Agency leadership will develop a data-driven plan at the start of the Fiscal Year, and each quarter, to ensure that new career appointment hires are in the highest-need areas.

• Agency leadership must approve the opening of new role.

• Agency leadership, or designee(s), may be involved in the candidate selection and ranking process, including by determining which assessments to use in connection with a particular role and participating in interviews, resume reviews, accomplishment record reviews, and writing sample reviews.

• Agency leadership, or designee(s), should function as a hiring committee in the candidate selection process:

o Agency leadership, or designee(s), must approve the selectee’s candidate packets

(resume, answers to application questions, interview feedback, job description for role) prior to offers being extended, o Agency leadership, or designee(s), should conduct a final “executive interview” to confirm organizational fit and commitment to American ideals. The level of agency leader that conducts this interview depends on the level of the position being filled.

Agency leadership will also be involved at the implementation level. The Merit Hiring Plan will utilize the President’s Management Council (PMC), comprised of the Deputy Secretaries or

Chief Operating Officer for the 24 CFO Act agencies, to facilitate participation of agency leadership in the implementation of new processes. The Merit Hiring Plan will utilize the Small

Agency Council as an engagement mechanism for non-CFO Act agencies.

III. Improving the Job Application Process

USAJOBS will add standard language in the job opportunity announcement template emphasizing that candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. And all job opportunity announcements will state that candidates will not be hired based on their race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

Going forward, to implement Executive Order 14170, all Federal job vacancy announcements graded at GS-05 or above will include four short, free-response essay questions:

1. How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the

United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.

2. In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes.

3. 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.

4. How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples, and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.

Applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM]). To reduce the burden on candidates, the responses cannot exceed 200 words per question.

This Merit Hiring Plan will prohibit the current longform Federal resume structure. Instead, there will be a 2-page limit on resume length. This will make resume review easier and make it easier for employees to move between the private and Federal sectors.

OPM and agencies will improve applicant user experience during the job search by encouraging applicants to make their resumes searchable in their USAJOBS.gov profile. This will allow Federal hiring specialists and hiring managers to find their resumes as part of agency recruitment campaigns or staffing searches. Agencies should re-post links to their USAJOBS announcements to third-party recruitment sites such as LinkedIn, Handshake, and Indeed to reach a wider job seeker audience.

Agencies may use a short eligibility questionnaire as part of the initial job application for screening purposes only. These may include initial, job-specific questions such as requiring candidates to certify, for example, that they are U.S. citizens, are willing to carry a firearm in performance of their job duties, or hold certifications that are required to perform the role. As set forth above, agencies must require at least one technical or alternative assessment for candidate ranking.

To improve communication with candidates throughout the hiring process, OPM will require automatic generation of USAJOBS and USA Staffing notifications for applicants at key stages of the hiring process, instead of relying on agency HR professionals to send notifications.

And OPM will merge USAJOBS and USA Staffing to create a more streamlined applicant experience and reduce duplication and redundant requirements.

IV. Reducing Time-to-Hire to 80 Days

Executive Order 14170 directs that government-wide time-to-hire be reduced to under 80 days. This goal refers to time to initial offer, though the Merit Hiring Plan will also seek to reduce delays associated with personnel vetting requirements.

Fully implementing practices like pooled hiring and shared certificates through USAJOBS

Talent Pools and Talent Programs and USA Staffing’s Candidate Inventory will significantly improve the Federal hiring time average. Implementing the Final Rule, Reinvigorating Merit-

Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of

Many) will reduce hiring time significantly. It will allow agencies to better manage the number of applicants certified to the hiring manager based on business necessity.

In addition, expanding system integrations between OPM’s Talent Acquisition solutions and other systems with a role in the pre-employment process will improve consistency and efficiency. These include NBIS (aka eQIP), E-Verify, USAccess, pre-employment testing providers (medical, drug, fitness) and credentialing systems.

A key factor in accelerating time to hire and strengthening the suitability and fitness of the federal workforce is streamlining and improving the personnel vetting process. The Merit Hiring

Plan requires agencies to prioritize personnel vetting reforms under the Administration’s Trusted

Workforce 2.0 initiative. This includes ensuring positions are properly designated and only the appropriate level of vetting is conducted. Agencies should also fully utilize available capabilities such as preliminary determinations and electronic adjudication. And agencies should enroll employees in continuous vetting, which routinely checks for post-appointment conduct that may impact their continued trustworthiness.

Agencies should seek to meet the end timeliness goals established in the Personnel Vetting

Performance Management Standards—21 days for low-risk positions; 25 days for non-sensitive moderate risk, and 45 days for top secret.

Reducing governmentwide time-to-hire will require improved reciprocity of security clearances across agencies for public trust positions to reduce delays in transferring workers and to allow previously-vetted individuals to more quickly return to the workforce. Agencies should seek to complete vetting within 3 days when reciprocity applies. When an individual departed the

Federal service within three years with no known unresolved derogatory information and is returning to the same level of position or lower, agencies should similarly seek to complete vetting within 3 days.

V. Reports and Implementation

Beginning on June 30, 2025 and continuing on the last business day of each month, each agency CHCO, working with the agency’s Talent Team, will prepare a report to update OPM and

OMB on the progress of implementation within each agency. The initial report shall identify the members of the agency’s Talent Team and their expected roles (including the Talent Pool Manager and Shared Certificate Coordinator), along with the agency’s specific plans for recruitment in the areas of veterans, early career, and STEM. Each monthly report will also include the agency’s report on:

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• Its progress in eliminating DEI in hiring, recruitment, retention and promotion;

• Its progress in building recruitment programs in alignment with this Merit Hiring Plan to attract highly-skilled, patriotic Americans to join the Federal service;

• Its progress in implementing technical assessments and cut scores, including policies around the use of cut scores;

• Metrics on the agency’s use of shared certificates, talent pools, and resume mining; and

• Its progress in reducing time-to-hire.

All reports shall be sent to merithiring@opm.gov and workforce@omb.eop.gov.

To ensure accountability, OPM will develop a Federal dashboard to track agency compliance with merit reform efforts. OPM’s Office of Merit Systems Accountability and

Compliance (MSAC) will monitor government-wide compliance with the Merit Hiring Plan, including the 80-day time-to-hire goal, and to maintain the compliance dashboard. In addition, the

CHCO Council Executive Director, in consultation with MSAC and OPM’s Talent Team, shall prepare a report each month on government-wide implementation of the Merit Hiring Plan. OPM’s

Talent Team and Office of HR Solutions will also host government-wide trainings with agencies on the use of assessments and compliance with this Merit Hiring Plan.

cc: CHCOs, Deputy CHCOs, Human Resources Directors, and Chiefs of Staff

Appendices:

1. HR Best Practices That Agencies Must Adopt

2. Primer on Custom Job Postings

3. Table of Current Federal Hiring Authorities

4. The 135 Job Series for Which USA Hire Currently Has Validated Assessments

5. Overview of Technical and Alternative Assessments

6. OPM Resources for Agencies to Maximally Adopt Technical and Alternative

Assessments

7. Primer on USA Hire mailto:merithiring@opm.gov mailto:workforce@omb.eop.gov

Appendix 1: HR Best Practices That Agencies Must Adopt

I. Reforming the Federal Recruitment Process

A. Ending All Racial Discrimination in Federal Hiring, Recruitment, Retention and

Promotion

• Do not directly or indirectly discriminate based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin in the design or implementation of any hiring, recruitment, retention, or promotion programs.

• Ensure that all hiring, promotion, and advancement decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications and job-related criteria, not race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

• Cease using statistics on race, sex, ethnicity or national origin, or the broader concept of

“underrepresentation” of certain groups, in any hiring, recruitment, retention or promotion decisions, and in the design or implementation of any technical or alternative assessments.

• Cease developing or disseminating information regarding the composition of the agency’s workforce based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin.

• End all Special Emphasis Programs and other agency initiatives in the areas of hiring, recruiting, interviewing, training, professional development, internships, fellowships, promotion, or retention that discriminate based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

• Take prompt and appropriate disciplinary action against any hiring manager or other agency employee who engages in unlawful DEI-related discrimination in violation of this

Merit Hiring Plan.

B. Leveraging OPM and Agency Talent Teams

• Create and sustain empowered agency Talent Teams to enable strategic recruitment and innovative hiring actions, including the use of assessments, pooled hiring via shared certificates within and between agencies, subject matter expert (SME) led resume and interview evaluations, and incorporating agency leadership interviews and sign-off as part of the hiring process.

• Appoint the agency CHCO to head the agency’s Talent Team.

• Ensure that the agency’s Talent Team has strong buy-in from agency leadership to drive on-the-ground implementation of the reforms outlined in the Merit Hiring Plan.

• Ensure that agency Talent Teams are constructed with proven, strong performers with key functional and occupational expertise and are committed to making merit hiring reform a reality in the agency.

• Specifically designate a Talent Pool Manager and a Shared Certificate Coordinator (may be the same individual) responsible for building agency-wide familiarity with and awareness of shared certificates.

• Track agency hiring metrics and keep agency leaders and OPM’s Talent Team updated on progress towards meeting the Merit Hiring Plan requirements.

C. Recruiting Patriotic Americans for Federal Service

• In coordination with OPM’s Talent Team, develop and implement a recruitment outreach program to attract individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution to Federal service.

1. Early Career Recruitment

• Ensure that early career recruitment focuses on candidates who will faithfully adhere to the

Constitution and American ideals.

• Build and maintain a strong talent pipeline of students, recent graduates and other early career talent via proactive in-person and virtual recruitment activities targeting state and land-grant universities, religious colleges and universities, community colleges, high schools, trade and technical schools, homeschooling groups, faith-based groups, American

Legion,4-H youth programs, and the military, veterans, and law enforcement communities.

• Set early career talent hiring targets and track annual early career hires.

• Use the Pathways Intern Talent Program and the Recent Graduates Talent program, available as part of the USAJOBS Agency Talent Portal, which connect interns and recent graduates who meet program requirements for conversion to permanent or term employment in the civil service but are not able to be converted at their employing agency, with other federal agencies.14

• Leverage Pathways Program custom USAJOBS postings to support targeted recruitment of students, recent graduates, and other early career talent.15

14 See OPM, New Pathways Intern and Recent Graduate Talent Programs (October 23, 2024).

15 Appendix 2 contains a primer on how to use custom job postings, and Appendix 3 contains a model timeline for Early Career hiring.

https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/10-23-2024%20Memo%20on%20Pathways%20Intern%20and%20Recent%20Graduates%20Talent%20Program.pdf

• Require the integration and use of assessments in the Pathways Program hiring process to ensure strong, skills-based vetting of candidates.

• Identify occupations that are strong candidates for Federal apprenticeship programs and partner with OPM to implement.

• Use the Pathways Program to hire interns, with appropriate use of assessments to ensure high-quality candidates.

• Use the USAJOBS Talent Programs feature to identify qualified Pathways candidates and recent graduates.

• Use OPM’s Internship Portal and USAJOBS Internship Portal, which provide a clearinghouse to match Federal internship opportunities with early career talent.

• Utilize hiring authorities for college graduates and post-secondary students. See 5 C.F.R.

§ 315.614; 5 C.F.R. § 316 subpart I.

2. STEM Recruitment

• Use pooled hiring and shared certificates when filling STEM positions.

• Tag STEM positions to ensure they are easily viewable by job seekers on USAJOBS branded search pages (i.e., tech.usajobs.gov; ai.usajobs.gov; stem.usajobs.gov) and refer to these pages in agency STEM recruitment efforts.

• Take advantage of governmentwide direct hire for technical positions.

• Use Schedule A(r) hiring authority under 5 C.F.R. § 213.3102(r) to build fellowship programs and professional/industry exchange programs that connect government employers with top private-sector talent.

• Leverage term appointment and expert/consultant hiring authorities to bring in top private sector talent on a project/term basis.

• Take advantage of hiring flexibilities under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act to obtain details of employees from Federal and non-Federal organizations, including state, local and

Tribal governments, as well as non-profit organizations and educational and research institutions that meet eligibility criteria and advance the core principles stated in Executive

Order 14170.16

• Use OPM’s Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program.

16 Appendix 3 contains a full list of available hiring authorities.

https://www.opm.gov/intern/current-interns/ https://intern.usajobs.gov/Search/Results?hp=student&wt=15328&s=salary&sd=desc&p=1 https://www.chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/9-23-2024%20Governmentwide%20DHA%20STEM%20Cyber%20Extension%20and%20Amendment%20CHCO%20Memo.pdf https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/intergovernment-personnel-act/#url=Provisions https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/human-capital-management/cybersecurity/federal-rotational-cyber-workforce-program/

3. Veterans’ Recruitment

• Leverage partnerships with relevant state and local veterans’ workforce programs and

Veterans Service Organizations, including Hiring Our Heroes, the American Legion, Student Veterans of America, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

• Utilize the USAJOBS Resume Mining feature to identify and connect available veteran applicants with roles for which they may be qualified.

• Conduct outreach to veterans and military spouses and encourage them to create

USAJOBS profiles with searchable resumes that can be easily leveraged by agency recruiters to generate leads for open roles.

• Maintain lists of qualified veterans and military spouses from which they can quickly make selections.

• Utilize non-competitive special hiring authorities such as Veterans Recruitment

Appointment Authority, the hiring authority for 30% or more disabled veterans, the

Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA), the military spouse hiring authority, and the Schedule A authority for individuals with certain disabilities.

• Use the Department of Defense – Operation Warfighter (OWF) and SkillBridge Program, the Department of Veterans Affairs – Non-paid Work Experience Program (NPWE) and

Disabled Veterans in a Training Program (OJT) to help meet mission critical occupations need.

D. Expanding the Use of Standardized Position Descriptions, Candidate

Inventories, Talent Pools, and Shared Certificates

• When posting a new position, use standardized position descriptions developed by OPM for the 135 job series and grades currently covered by USA Hire assessment batteries

• Empower hiring managers to use the full range of hiring authorities and assessment strategies available to them, particularly those that relate to critical, specialized, or hard-to-recruit skills, and that they are aware of allowable recruitment activity in accordance with merit system principles and lawful personnel practices.

• Identify positions, through the workforce planning process, including those that require critical and specialized skills, needed across multiple agencies for which recruitment actions, certificates, or lists of eligible candidates could be shared within the agency or with other agencies as part of a governmentwide pooled hiring strategy.

• Collaborate with OPM to identify hiring actions that will use shared certificates or lists of eligible candidates external to the agency as both the originating and receiving agency, and use the Talent Pools feature in the USAJOBS Agency Talent Portal to share the candidates across agencies.

• Operationalize use of talent pools to share certificates of qualified candidates for like roles across agencies, candidate inventories to share qualified candidates within an agency or department, and resume mining to enable recruiting teams to discover leads.

• Use Resume Mining on USAJOBS to reach active job-seekers for specialized needs and to identify well-qualified Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) candidates.

H. Expanding OPM Talent Analytics Capabilities and Increasing Agency Use

• Use OPM’s Talent Acquisition solutions (USAJOBS and USA Staffing), or platforms of equivalent quality, to improve hiring transparency, the user experience for job seekers, and

Federal hiring data.

• Use the USAJOBS Agency Talent Portal and USA Staffing Candidate Inventory to ensure hiring managers have innovative talent acquisition tools to access searchable resumes, talent pools, talent programs, and candidate inventories. This will allow agencies to actively cultivate talent pipelines and facilitate active recruitment through communications that encourage candidate engagement.

• Review hiring manger satisfaction surveys and other hiring metrics on a quarterly basis to drive continuous improvements to the hiring process.

II. Reforming the Candidate Ranking, Assessment and Selection Process

• Use any rating and ranking method allowed by law and regulation and appropriate for the given hiring action when initiating a competitive recruitment action, giving hiring managers more control in designing hiring processes relevant to their talent needs.

• Include at least one technical or alternative assessment before issuance of the certificate.

Agencies are strongly encouraged to use at least two or more assessments throughout the hiring process to ensure a merit-based process that produces a rigorously ranked and validated certificate.

• Do not use self-assessment questionnaires for rating and ranking, other than seasonal work or positions graded at GS-01 through GS-04, or equivalent, unless specifically authorized by OPM due to a compelling need. Self-assessments may only be used for minimum qualification and eligibility determinations.

• Identify SMEs who can improve and support agency qualification processes (e.g., through the use of structured resume reviews, developing specialized assessments) in accordance with merit system principles and lawful personnel practices (5 U.S.C. §§ 2301-02).

• Create, update, and use skills-based and multi-hurdle assessments (to include agency-developed and off-the-shelf assessments like USA Hire) to align with leading practices.

• Allow hiring managers to allocate time within standard responsibilities for subject matter experts to participate in processes, such as supporting HR professionals in identifying and assessing technical skills and tasks for position descriptions and job announcements.

• Allow hiring managers to ask applicants to provide a short description of their technical skills or showcase their technical ability for the position as part of a structured interview.

• Train HR professionals on the end-to-end assessment process designed to provide a list of highly qualified candidates for hiring manager review, which includes conducting a job analysis and screening applicants for needed competencies. As part of conveying assessment requirements, emphasize to HR professionals the need to be familiar with the passing score assessment process under which applicants must score a passing grade to be deemed eligible for advancing to the next level of the hiring process.

• Invest in assessment measurement expertise (e.g., hiring or contracting for industrial-organizational psychologists) to train HR professionals to create and continuously update skills-based assessments in partnership with hiring managers.

• Ensure active participation in the hiring process by Department and Agency leadership.

III. Reforming the Job Application Process

• For each job application graded GS-05 or above, include four short, free-response essay questions in all Federal job vacancy announcements:

o How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the

United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government?

Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.

o In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes o 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.

o How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Please provide one or two specific examples, and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.

• Limit resume length to 2 pages and prohibit the present longform Federal resume.

• Use…