Washington, DC - During a panel discussion at the National Press Club, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director John Berry remarked on the dramatic progress made in modernizing the federal government's hiring process over the past year. Director Berry shared key metrics indicating improvement, while noting that much remains to be done.

"This progress reflects an aggressive, innovative approach to implementation," said Director Berry. "Our governmentwide efforts will ensure that we build and maintain the modern hiring system we need to attract the next wave of the best and brightest Americans to federal employment."

Since the launch of the Hiring Reform initiative in May 2010, OPM has supported federal agencies with 351 training sessions in 66 cities for 17,300 people involved in the hiring process. Successful outcomes from this effort have included:

• Hiring based on resumes and cover letters 91 percent of the time;
• Ninety-six percent of job opportunity announcements no longer requiring KSA essays;
• Hiring managers now have more choices - they get to see more resumes, because 89 percent of announcements have category rating;
• Applicants are now seeing shorter, easy-to-read job announcements, with 86 percent in plain language, and 66 percent are five pages or fewer.

Most significantly is the shortened hiring time, down about 15 percent to a governmentwide average of 105 days.

In closing, Director Berry said: "These are major accomplishments, but we're not done yet. OPM will continue to be the champion of the frustrated applicant and federal manager."