4 steps to reduce time-to-hire in federal agencies
Over the past three years, the time-to-hire for federal mission-critical occupations has continually increased from 97 days to more than 101 days. And, while there was an encouraging reduction in hiring time for HR and contracting positions in 2023, the upward trend overall highlighted the many difficulties that federal agencies face.
It’s a challenge to recruit and hire qualified candidates for mission-critical federal agency positions. The U.S Office for Personnel Management (OPM) wants hiring practices to take less than 80 days but HR professionals struggle to meet this metric due to known inefficiencies combined with the lack of time to analyze and fix problems.
One of the main challenges facing hiring managers today is a heavy workload that impacts and slows down the process of recruiting—taking too long to reach the point where an interview panel can be scheduled.
At ICF, we bring a knowledge of best practices from across our federal client base so that you don’t have to start from scratch and can find those “aha” moments that allow you to optimize your recruitment process. We’ll analyze, determine where the inefficiencies are, and come up with a set of proven strategies to address them.
We recently developed a strategic approach to hiring and recruitment across various offices within a large homeland security organization—serving as the blueprint for cutting down time-to-hire from an average of more than 190 business days to OPM’s goal of under 80 business days. Here’s how we did it.
How to acquire talent in less time
We support our federal clients with a four-step process that is designed to streamline processes and reduce time-to-hire.
Step 1: Capture the “true” current state through mapping.
While the process may be understood by staff, that doesn’t always mean that the understanding is consistent with how the process truly flows. By focusing on clearly capturing the process steps as well as documenting the implicit and nonstandard steps that have developed because of inefficiencies, we can reveal where improvements can be made.
Step 2: Interview stakeholders to identify root causes of inefficiencies.
Instead of using stopgaps to treat problem areas, ask staff “Why is it done this way?” Move away from “this is the way we’ve always done it” thinking and introduce human-centered design. Get to the bottom of how things are currently operating and where stakeholders incur issues in the process.
Step 3: Analyze the process and think of technology as a tool, not a solution.
While tech is part of the solution, it is not the sole answer to closing gaps and filling open requisitions. People need to understand their roles in the process and it’s important to have a deliberate approach to guide efforts. Focus on breaking down the process data gathered through steps 1 and 2 to identify the contributing factors creating the inefficiencies. This will inform the solution generation process.
Step 4: Combine a deep internal understanding with an outside perspective to create recommendations for improvement.
Steps 1 and 2 focus on understanding your agency and user needs while steps 3 and 4 benefit from an understanding of what works well in other agencies. Depending on the findings of the previous steps, customized recommendations can be made that address significant issues such as excessive volume of hiring actions, loss of candidates due to slow or insufficient job offers, and misalignment between business units and HR requirements.
Human-centered solutions
We put recruits, hiring managers, and human resource staff at the center of our approach to reducing time-to-hire. By addressing this challenge with a comprehensive approach, we can ensure that the need to adapt to a new set of tools, processes, procedures, policies, and structure is human-centered.
As mentioned above, we recently used this approach to improve the hiring and recruitment across various offices within a large homeland security organization. Our strategic approach focused on mapping their hiring process, identifying pain points, streamlining procedures, addressing delays, and fostering collaboration. This approach allowed ICF to develop recommendations that significantly improved their time-to-hire from an average of more than 190 business days to OPM’s goal of under 80 business days.
With extensive services and experience with almost all federal agencies plus a large footprint in health, financial, defense, and logistics markets, we offer the strength of 200+ seasoned staff helping clients achieve their missions. Reach out if you’d like to know more about how we can reduce your time-to-hire!
