USA Hire recompete could jump to $750M over eight years
Gettyimages.com/Douglas Rissing
By
Nick Wakeman
The General Services Administration is taking over the management of this Office of Personnel Management contract as requirements expand and the administration pushes for more centralized hiring.
The General Services Administration has kicked off the research phase for the recompete of a contract for human resources support to the Office of Personnel Management.
GSA's takeover of the USA Hire contract is one of the largest acquisitions-to date that it has absorbed. OPM manages the current contract and also was one of the first agencies to turn over its acquisition operations to GSA.
Personnel Decisions Research Institutes holds the current contract, which OPM awarded in January 2021 at a ceiling value of $210.7 million. OPM has obligated $125.5 million in order volume since, according to Deltek data.
The follow-on contract will be significantly larger as solicitation documents released Thursday put the ceiling at up to $750 million over eight years.
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The request for information does not explicitly say that USA Hire will continue to be a single award, but some of the language GSA uses implies that it will be. GSA talks about “the contractor” and “an industry partner.”
“The project manager shall be a single point of contact for the contracting officer and the OPM technical point of contact and serve as the integrator for all engagements,” GSA writes in the RFI.
The new USA Hire contract will support the Chance to Compete Act and Trump administration executive orders. OPM is also seeking support for directives such as the Merit Hiring Plan, which emphasize more skill-based assessments in hiring and to centralize more hiring for all agencies at OPM.
Only 20 percent of hiring across the federal government currently goes through the OPM.
The contract is designed to manage millions of job applicants.
“OPM is seeking an industry partner who can assist the USA Hire program with delivering online assessments at scale across government as efficiently and effectively as possible,” GSA writes.
Some of the capabilities GSA and OPM are looking for include psychometric expertise to deliver the online assessments. They also want a scalable solution that can handle the expected growth and surges.
The new contract will incorporate more artificial intelligence as an assessment tool and to improve performance. They also want to use AI to spot applicants who use AI as an unfair advantage.
Responses to the RFI are due Oct. 8. GSA is planning one-on-one meetings for Oct. 22 and 23.