The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is directing federal agencies to manage all hiring actions within 80 calendar days. Its guidance outlined in a September 30 memorandum pairs that target with requirements for leadership oversight and regular reporting.

The 80-day figure comes from Executive Order 14170, "Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service," which President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office. The order led to the Merit Hiring Plan, which directs agencies to hire federal employees in under 80 days. According to OPM data, the governmentwide average time-to-hire in fiscal year 2024 was 101 days. Hiring reform, including reducing time-to-hire, and an emphasis on skills-based hiring is part of FMA’s policy agenda for 2026 and we broadly support the effort.

OPM's End-to-End Hiring Roadmap, a framework that sets out how the 80 days are meant to be spent, has long served as a baseline for agencies. A government audit report says OPM unveiled its End-to-End 80-day hiring model in September 2008 as guidance for agencies measuring total time-to-hire for posted vacancies. A 2010 report from Federal News Radio (now Federal News Network) said average hiring time had dropped to 110 days from 180 days, and OPM wanted to see it reduced to 80. A 2020 report found the process took 98.3 days in fiscal year 2018, down from 105.8 days in fiscal year 2017, while OPM's goal remained an 80-day governmentwide average.

OPM's newest memo to agencies states that agencies must manage all hiring actions within an overall 80-calendar-day timeframe. Its accompanying guidance includes interim benchmarks, such as 66 days from a validated hiring need to a tentative job offer, within the 80-day total.

The memo is also specific on its accountability provisions. The guidance says agency leadership must establish accountability for timely and effective hiring outcomes and tells agencies to designate an office or official responsible for tracking time-to-hire. It also asks them to establish measurable time-to-hire targets as part of workforce planning. The guidance describes reducing time-to-hire as a shared responsibility among agency leadership, Human Resources staff and others, and calls for regular reviews of agency performance against the time-to-hire goals. Agencies must continue reporting time-to-hire and Mission Critical Occupation data.

The guidance also describes ways to speed hiring across the federal workforce. It encourages agencies to apply appropriate hiring authorities, including Direct-Hire Authority and Schedule A, and says OPM offers multiple hiring models to help agencies match assessment rigor to position complexity and mission need. The Merit Hiring Plan itself emphasizes talent pools as a way to cut time-to-hire.

Whether agencies reach the target is likely to show up in OPM's time-to-hire dashboard and agencies' required reports. Hiring times have stayed above 80 days for more than a decade, and the new accountability requirements are an attempt to close that long-standing gap.