Supplemental Guidance on the Merit Hiring Plan

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued this guidance memo on its Merit Hiring Plan. The memo itself has four attached guidance memos, each on a different aspect of implementing the new hiring approach: a memo on agency leadership involvement, two memos on the use of self-assessments, and updated guidance on establishing agency "Talent Teams." Together, the guidance memos significantly increase the involvement of political appointees in making hiring decisions and creates centralized tracking by OPM of agency hiring decisions. For example, one memo emphasized the administration's requirement that an agency's leadership must be heavily involved in the hiring process for non-political career employees: "Agency leadership includes the agencyʼs political leadership (including Department and Agency Heads, Deputy Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Undersecretaries, Chiefs of Staff, and Senior Advisors), its Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), and its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Agency leadership, or their designees, must actively participate in all phases of the hiring process." Specifically: "Agency leadership, or their designee(s), should conduct a final 'executive interview' to confirm organizational fit, alignment with agency values, and commitment to public service."