In his OPM blog post, “Everyone Has a Plan – Until You Step Into the Ring,” Scott Kupor underscores that federal workforce planning requires strategy, discipline, and a focus on delivering meaningful results for the American people. Agencies can no longer rely on prior-year headcounts or automatic hiring. Instead, staffing must be deliberately aligned with mission priorities. Key goals include:
Align Talent with Mission Priorities
Agencies must ensure they have the right people in roles that support the administration’s top objectives, while eliminating wasteful spending in areas that are inefficient, unnecessary, or misaligned. Resources should be directed toward initiatives that provide the greatest value to taxpayers.
Use Contractors Strategically
Beyond roughly 2.1 million full-time employees, the government relies on at least twice as many contractors, with annual spending around $750 billion. Contractors serve important temporary or specialized roles, but their use has increasingly expanded into a permanent “shadow workforce.” Agencies should employ contractors strategically, rather than as substitutes for qualified federal employees.
Implement Strategic Hiring Committees
With nearly 300,000 hiring managers and widely distributed authority, hiring has often been treated as the default solution. Strategic Hiring Committees will guide managers to consider process, organizational, or technological improvements first, while ensuring highly skilled employees are brought on when truly needed.
Move Beyond Prior-Year Headcounts
Staffing plans will no longer be based solely on prior-year numbers or budgets. Agencies will develop bottom-up plans focused on their functions, alignment with presidential priorities and statutory obligations, necessary staffing levels, and comparisons with current headcount.
Prioritize Merit-Based Hiring
Employees will be selected based on formal assessments rather than self-attestation. OPM will also leverage pan-government hiring data to centralize recruiting for high-demand roles, improving efficiency, compliance, and the overall applicant experience.
Reform Performance Management
With roughly 99.7% of employees currently rated “fully successful” or higher, accountability is minimal. Agencies must ensure first-line managers supervise effectively, provide ongoing feedback, and hold employees accountable to deliver results for the public.
Focus on Mission, Not Micromanagement
This workforce planning initiative is not intended to mandate headcount reductions or focus on raw FTE numbers. Agencies should prioritize resources, incorporate efficiency, and deliver the best possible service. Where appropriate, contractors may substitute for FTEs (or vice versa) to reduce costs without compromising service quality. Once staffing plans are approved, agencies do not need to seek additional OPM permission for investments — the goal is to enable mission-focused staffing, not to enforce ongoing micromanagement.
