GAO adopts OIG recommendations to improve hiring data and targets
The Government Accountability Office will apply revised controls to its hiring process, effective FY 2024, to better track time-to-hire for mission-critical staff.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has agreed to implement several Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommendations aimed at improving the reliability of its hiring-process data and the consistency of its internal time-to-hire targets. The changes bind GAO's internal human-resources and mission-critical occupation (MCO) hiring practices.
In fiscal year 2024, GAO's average time to hire MCO employees was about 103 days, exceeding its own internal targets of 98 or 101 days, depending on the application-review process, and OPM's executive-branch goal of 80 days. GAO's internal calculations also excluded roughly 30 percent of hired MCO employees and relied on inaccurate start-date information, limiting the agency's ability to monitor and improve hiring timeliness.
GAO fully concurred with OIG recommendation 1, which calls for a documented strategy to periodically review hiring-action lengths and address systemic inefficiencies, and with recommendation 4, which requires evaluating the target hiring time frame, documenting the rationale, and updating all internal guidance to reflect the established target. GAO did not fully concur with recommendations 2 and 3; the OIG revised recommendation 2 to define which hiring actions must be included in time-to-hire calculations and to implement controls ensuring all such actions are captured. Recommendation 3 was revised to establish controls for consistently documenting the start of hiring actions.
In response, GAO will develop the required periodic-review strategy, reassess and formalize its hiring-time target, and amend internal documents accordingly. The agency will also adopt the revised controls for inclusion scope and start-date documentation, aiming to reduce the average hiring cycle and lower the risk of losing qualified candidates.
By using more reliable data and unified targets, GAO expects to better align its hiring performance with the broader executive-branch benchmark, thereby strengthening its capacity to deliver timely, fact-based reports to Congress and the public.