The HR managers have also requested additional job fair events and ways to better use technology and data to reach their hiring goals. At a March 1 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, subcommittee chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.) said the government has a "hiring crisis."
The average hire time "has steadily risen to 106 days" in 2017, he noted. That is higher than the 100 days it took to make hires in 2016.
Government agencies must also contend with "31% of our federal employees across the federal workforce [being] eligible to retire at this point," he said.
"This is not sustainable," Lankford said. "The best and brightest candidates will not wait around for three and a half months, and our strategy cannot rely on hoping that they do."