Dear Mr. Kupor: Please fix federal hiring

The Trump appointment I’ve been waiting for was announced last night. Scott Kupor, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will lead the Office of Personnel Management. I have no thoughts on Kupor (don’t know anything about him other than what’s been announced), but I do have thoughts on the job he will be charged with doing, once confirmed. A lot of thoughts. Let’s start with federal hiring processes.

After the Thanksgiving break, my colleagues at Niskanen will be publishing recommendations for fixing how the federal government evaluates candidates for open positions. Assessments — or lack thereof — are just one small part of a system of hiring that needs a major overhaul, and we’ll address adjacent areas over the coming year, but these fixes are practical and should be taken up without delay. To get notified when our recommendations are published, sign up here.

I’m going to borrow liberally from a paper I wrote for Niskanen last year called Culture Eats Policy. This should give you a taste of just some of what Mr. Kupor is going to have to contend with.

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