Hiring Freeze New Hire Confirmation Process in USA Staffing

This information is intended to help USA Staffing customers understand the recent changes to the new hire area, which was updated to support the federal hiring freeze enacted as part of Executive Order 14170.

When a New Hire record is created, HR and Onboarding users will be presented with this Confirmation message, which contains seven options that align to reasons for accessing the new hire record. This modal will display the first time an HR or onboarding user accesses a new hire record and will continue to pop up until a user selects and confirms their selection. Once confirmed, the selection cannot be changed.

If the user presented with the confirmation modal is unable to select the appropriate reason or is unsure what to select, they should click ‘I cannot confirm,’ and the record will be closed. The next user to open the new hire record will again be presented with the modal and given a chance to confirm.

The selection is available through reporting. We hope to make it visible in the new hire’s history log in the future.

There are some exempted organizations and positions, which are managed by OPM’s Office of the Director. If you do not automatically see the confirmation for a new hire, it’s because you are part of an exempt organization or hiring for an exempt position. No action is needed if you do not see it automatically.

• Options 1 through 5 in the confirmation modal will add the new hire to a queue for approval. After confirming one of these options, the user will see a message indicating the request has been submitted and is pending approval.
• While the record is pending a decision:
  • Only custom notifications are available while the record is pending an approval decision.
  • Job Offer notifications templates are not available.
  • HR and onboarding users may access the new hire record to prepare it for quick action once a decision is made. For example:
    • upload documents
    • add workflows and tasks
    • queue documents for eOPF transmission

• Options 6 and 7 permanently disable offer letters for the New Hire record moving forward. New hire records do not transfer to the queue for approval.
  • The user will be presented with an orange warning banner indicating “You have selected an option that will permanently restrict all users from sending any type of offer to this new hire”.
  • Once confirmed, these cannot be changed.
  • If selected in error, cancel the record, create a new one, and submit it for approval using the correct confirmation reason.
  • Re-auditing the new hire from the same certificate using a different request number will re-open the same new hire record previously cancelled and will not generate the confirmation modal.

Approval Process

If a new hire record is approved, the HR/Onboarding Specialist who submitted the request will receive an email confirming the approval decision and the job offer notification types (i.e., tentative, official, invitation) will be reactivated within the record.

If a new hire record is disapproved, the HR/Onboarding Specialist who submitted the request will receive an email confirming the disapproval decision, and all users will be denied access to the record.

The date that the new hire record is approved or disapproved will be available through reporting sometime in April 2025. Agencies may wish to incorporate this into their time to hire metrics, so please follow the reporting release notes for updates.