In response to the President's direction in Executive Order 14170 titled, "Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service," the Domestic Policy Council and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a Merit Hiring Plan (May 29, 2025).  This new plan is an ambitious overhaul of federal hiring processes to restore accountability, ensure merit-based recruitment, and attract top talent to the federal government.  It modernizes recruitment practices, eliminates outdated barriers, and reaffirms the foundational principle that federal employment is based on skill, dedication, and a commitment to American ideals.  The plan includes the following appendices:

1. HR Best Practices That Agencies Must Adopt
2. Primer on Custom Job Postings
3. Table of Current Federal Hiring Authorities
4. The 135 Job Series for Which USA Hire Currently Has Validated Assessments
5. Overview of Technical and Alternative Assessments
6. OPM Resources for Agencies to Maximally Adopt Technical and Alternative 
Assessments
7. Primer on USA Hire

OPM also issued a Merit Hiring Plan Fact Sheet (May 29, 2025), Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (September 2, 2025), Guidance on Agency Leadership Involvement in Implementing the Merit Hiring Plan (February 23, 2026), and the Updated Guidance on Establishing Agency Talent Teams (February 23, 2026) for stakeholders.  Additional resources are available on this webpage regarding related training, assessments, the job application process and pooled hiring.

Assessment Training

• Launch of OPMʼs Designing an Assessment Strategy: Fundamental Concepts, Processes and Applications Training and Use of Hiring Assessments: A SME-Based Approach Training Courses (December 5, 2023)
• Launch of OPM’s Structured Resume Review Training (February 13, 2023) 

Merit Hiring Plan Learning Series

• Skills-Based Hiring Guidance and Competency Model for Artificial
  Intelligence Work (April 29, 2024)
• Federal Workforce Competency Initiative - General Competencies and
  Competency Models (September 20, 2023)
• Guidance on the Use of Self-Reported Assessments (February 23, 2026)
• Guidance on Use of Hiring Assessments when Utilizing Direct Hire Authority (February 23, 2026)
• Federal Hiring Assessment and Selection Outcome Dashboard

• Agency Guidance on the Two-Page Limit on Resume Length (September 12, 2025)
• Applicant Guidance on the Two-Page Resume Limit (September 12, 2025)
• Job Titling Guidance in Alignment with Executive Order 14170 and the Merit
  Hiring Plan (September 9, 2025)
• Additional Merit Hiring Plan Guidance on Using the Four Short Essay Questions (June 23, 2025)
• Updated Additional Merit Hiring Plan Guidance on Using the Four Short Essay Questions (April 30, 2026)
• Merit Hiring Plan Clarification on Workforce and Applicant Flow Data (June 11, 2025) 

Cross-Government Hiring (OPM-led Pooled Hiring)

• Cross-Government Hiring Resources

Agency Shared Hiring (Competitive Service Act)

• Implementing Policy Guidance for the Competitive Service Act (Shared Certificates) (January 11, 2018) 

• Shared Certificate Guide for Monster Hiring Management Enterprise (MHME) (July 29, 2024)
• Shared Certificate Guide for USA Staffing (June 2025)

Additional Resources

• Guidance to Support Cross-Government Applicant Sharing (November 2024)
• New Talent Pools (Shared Certs) Feature for USAJOBS’ Agency Talent Portal (December 1, 2023)

• Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring through Candidate Ranking Memorandum 
• Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many) Final Rule
• Rule of Many Federal Hiring FAQ
• Rule of Many and Skills Based Hiring FAQ
• Rule of Many and Three Considerations FAQ
• Rule of Many and Veterans’ Preference Fact Sheet
• Rule of Many Compared to Category Rating FAQ
• Rule of Many Shared Certificates Amongst Agencies FAQ
• Sample Rule of Many Policy