“This is about making sure we have a workforce that is responsive to the needs of the American people. The president has been a real leader in this area.”

WASHINGTON, DC – US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor joined Greg Kelly Reports on Newsmax to discuss the Trump Administration's efforts to restore merit-based hiring and strengthen accountability across the federal workforce.

WATCH HERE

On managing the federal workforce:

"We get the opportunity to manage about two million people who are part of the civilian workforce here in the government. So, the short answer is that it is going well. As you know, from day one, the president was very clear that merit was going to be the thing that actually matters for hiring, promotions, and the evaluation of employees and we have been hard at work making sure that is the case. For a long time, people had ideological issues that were dominating hiring, or we just had a system, quite frankly, that made it difficult to hold people accountable to do the good work for the American people, and I am glad to say that we have made progress there. So, thank you for the opportunity to tell people about it."

On restoring merit-based hiring:

“…when we look at the two million civilian servants who come in every day and work at the expense of the American taxpayer to do the activity that we need them to do, whether they are in Social Security or the IRS or whatever the case may be, we have got to have the right people in the right seats. We have got to have an environment that is a high-performance culture where we can hold people accountable, and when people do great, by the way, we should reward them, promote them, and move them through the organization. That is really the prevailing doctrine that we have been trying to put in place through OPM this year."

On bringing skills-based assessments back to the federal hiring process:

"I think what you have seen is a number of things. Number one…people making decisions on the basis of other characteristics, which are just not relevant from a job perspective. So, we made it very clear from the beginning, and I think we have done a very good job at this, saying, look, we want people to be assessed for the skills that they bring.

“I'll give you a very simple example. Historically, before we got here, people used to get interviewed through what was called a self-assessment. So, if you were applying for a job, we would ask you to fill out a questionnaire, and you would self-attest to what skills you had, and that would be the basis for making a hiring decision. From my perspective, that makes no sense. We actually have things like actual tests where we can test your aptitude and your civic skills. So, one of the things we have done, which is a very simple way to make sure that merit prevails over any other ideological views, is to actually require people to take an assessment. It is very simple, and that is a very obvious example."

On accountability in the federal workforce:

"… we have historically had a big problem with accountability in the workforce. So, if you look at any federal survey over time, what you will see is people say managers did not hold people who do not carry their weight appropriately. They do not hold them accountable, and you see this time and time again in surveys.

“So, we have been changing the rules and changing the regulations to train managers on how to actually manage employees and hold them accountable. We have been changing the rules to make sure that if someone is not doing the job, you have to put them on a plan. You either get them success from that plan or you have to actually take some action to move them out of the organization. It is not about being callous. This is about making sure we have a workforce that is responsive to the needs of the American people. The president has been a real leader in this area."