Budget

OPM: Agencies cut hiring time to 105 days

The 2010 annual performance report found that agencies have cut their average hiring time to 105 days, down from 122 days a year a ago.

Federal News Network Staff

March 4, 2011 4:08 pm

< a min read

By Jolie Lee
Federal News Radio

Federal agencies have cut their average hiring time to 105 days, down from 122 days a year ago.

All agencies are trying to reduce hiring time to 80 days for the most commonly filled positions, according to the 2010 annual performance report from the Office of Personnel Management.

In 2010, about half of the new hires within an agency were hired within the 80-day time frame.

Last year President Obama issued a memo to agencies calling for agencies to put in place a “commonsense hiring process.” The complexity and inefficiency of agency hiring deterred potential applicants, the president said in the memo.

However, despite the shortened hiring time, applicants are not any more satisfied with the hiring process, the OPM report found. On a scale of 10, applicant satisfaction slightly decreased from 5.36 to 5.20.

The president’s memo also called on agencies improve veterans hiring. Twenty-four agencies have incorporated vet hiring training materials within their strategies. Government-wide, vets accounted for nearly 25 percent of new hires in 2010, up from 22.7 percent in 2009.