U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Introduction  |  From Soup to Nuts  |  Targeting Your Efforts  |  Tools

Introduction

This website is a toolkit. Using the tools provided, you can take important steps now toward improving the way you recruit highly qualified individuals to Federal employment. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and a nonprofit organization, Partnership for Public Service (PPS), have joined together to lend their proven tools and techniques to this website to help you improve your hiring process.

Each has assisted Federal departments and agencies in improving their hiring. OPM utilized an end-to-end improvement process with special attention to a 45-day Non-SES hiring model [36.3 kb]. That model helped agencies identify the steps in their processes that tended to bog them down.

Meanwhile, PPS conducted a project called the Extreme Hiring Makeover where agencies tackled process redesign, marketing, recruiting, and assessment.

Both OPM and PPS would like to thank the Departments of Education (Federal Student Aid), Energy (National Nuclear Security Administration), Health and Human Services (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Personnel Management (Office of Human Resources) and the Small Business Administration.

From Soup to Nuts

So you want to make over your entire hiring process from beginning to end? The "Soup to Nuts" Makeover Template [465 kb] will take you step by step through the entire process. It's the next best thing to having your own consultant.

Back to Top

Targeting Your Efforts

If your agency prefers to target a specific aspect of your hiring process but you’re not sure which one, ask yourself these questions. Do you need to:

1. Shorten how long it takes to hire someone?
2. Improve communication between Human Resources and hiring managers?
3. Write job announcements that appeal to a larger pool of qualified applicants?
4. Select candidates that better satisfy hiring managers?
5. Measure whether your agency’s hiring is competitive with other sectors?

Back to Top

Tools

Here are several tools to help you better understand the issue and plan your approach to improving your hiring:

Strategies to Improve Federal Hiring [297 kb]
Actions you can take today

Hiring Process Checklist [180 kb]
A summary of the key process steps

Hiring Models
Focuses on the steps of the hiring process that are most visible to applicants

• 45-Day Non-SES Model [36.3 kb]
• 45-Day SES Model [38.8 kb]

Hiring Process Analysis Tool
Flash [284 kb] | HTML [12 kb]
An interactive tool that helps you identify the areas of your hiring process most in need of improvement.

Focus Group Templates
Use these templates to solicit input from your various audiences during the initial analysis of your hiring process.

• Hiring Manager Questionnaire [332 kb]
• New Hire Questionnaire [270 kb]
• HR Staff Questionnaire [276 kb]

Reports on hiring “makeovers”

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [275 kb]
• Housing and Urban Development (HUD) [233 kb]
• Small Business Administration (SBA) [247 kb]
• Extreme Hiring Makeover Case Studies [233 kb]
  • National Nuclear Security Administration
  • U.S. Department of Education
  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Back to Top