Guidance Regarding Final Regulations on Recruitment & Relocation Incentives

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued guidance on its new regulation regarding limits on incentive payments made to prospective or current employees for recruitment or retention purposes. Those payments are sometimes authorized when the agency determines the position is likely to be difficult to fill in the absence of an incentive, and the new regulation permits agencies to approve some payment amounts higher than the ordinary threshold. The guidance provides an explanation of the new rule, templates for requesting waivers on limits applicable to relocation benefits, and instructions. The guidance provides that each agency decision to provide an incentive payment must be approved by that agency's Strategic Hiring Committee, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with the administration's Merit Hiring Plan and the agency’s Annual Staffing Plan. This regulation also gives agencies the ability to shorten the period of time that such employees must work after accepting the incentive payment. This change occurred in the context of President Trump's statements that he wants to move large numbers of positions out of the Washington D.C. area to places, as he put it "filled with patriots who love America."