Governmentwide hiring plan calls on agencies to recruit ‘patriotic Americans’ into federal jobs

By Jory Heckman

The Trump administration is calling on agencies to hire federal employees more quickly, and will soon ask candidates applying for federal jobs how they will adhere to its government efficiency agenda.

The Office of Personnel Management, under a governmentwide Merit Hiring Plan released last week, is directing agencies to recruit “individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government,” and will have candidates on USAJobs fill out short essays about how they plan to support the administration’s priorities when applying for jobs.

The governmentwide hiring effort will focus on recruiting early career, STEM and veteran candidates.

Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell and Vince Haley, the assistant to the president for domestic policy, wrote that an overly complex federal hiring system “overemphasized discriminatory ‘equity’ quotas and too often resulted in the hiring of unfit, unskilled bureaucrats.”

“The American people deserve a Federal workforce dedicated to American values and efficient service,” they wrote. “Yet, Federal hiring criteria long ago abandoned any serious need for technical skills and adherence to the Constitution.”

The Merit Hiring Plan, mandated by an executive order that President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office, promotes some bipartisan policies — like having subject-matter experts evaluate the qualifications of job applicants, pooled hiring through shared certificates and promoting skills-based hiring for candidates without four-year degrees — but calls on agencies to vet candidates based on their support of the Trump administration’s policies.

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Under this hiring strategy, all federal job vacancy announcements graded GS-5 or above will require candidates to write four short essays, each 200 words or less:

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 have to certify that candidates are using their own words, and did not use artificial intelligence tools or large language models like ChatGPT to write these essays.

The hiring strategy directs agencies to cast a wider net to recruit the next generation of federal employees. Less than 9% of the federal workforce is age 30 or younger, according to the Pew Research Center.

“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,” the strategy states.

OPM and the White House are calling on agencies to focus their recruitment efforts on state universities, religious colleges and universities, and community colleges — and reach out to students at high schools, trade and technical schools, homeschooling groups, faith-based groups and 4-H youth programs about careers in the federal workforce.

OPM will stand up a talent team to oversee implementation of the Merit Hiring Plan, and track federal hiring data to ensure “only the most talented, capable and patriotic Americans are hired to the Federal service.”

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On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government. OPM is directing agency leaders to “take prompt and appropriate disciplinary action” against any hiring manager or federal employee who engages in “unlawful race preferential discrimination.”

The Merit Hiring Plan directs agencies to make hires in 80 days or less, on average. OPM data shows the governmentwide time-to-hire average was 101 days in fiscal 2024, and remained relatively unchanged in recent years.

OPM, under the Merit Hiring Plan, will limit resumes to two pages or less — a departure from the long-form resume that’s standard across federal hiring.

OPM plans to expand its data analytics capabilities on USAJobs and USA Staffing to ensure agencies are meeting governmentwide hiring goals. The strategy also encourages agencies to repost USAJOBS announcements to third-party recruitment sites, including LinkedIn, Handshake and Indeed, to reach a wider audience.

The new hiring plan also supports OPM’s “rule of many,” which gives hiring managers more flexibility when vetting candidates, and was developed under the Biden administration.

The “rule of many” will let hiring managers, before posting a job announcement, determine from several different options how they’ll score and rank applicants for an open position. That includes specifying how many of those applicants will end up on their final list of qualified candidates.