A talent pool is a list of qualified candidates who are already on an approved shared hiring certificate and ready to be hired. These candidates have opted-in to share their federal application with other federal agencies who are hiring for similar positions. You can use talent pools to find candidates that fit your hiring needs.
Talent pools offer agencies an easy way to access shared hiring certificates that fall under the Competitive Service Act (CSA) or OPM’s Cross-Government Hiring Actions (CGA). There are two types of talent pools - CSA talent pools and CGA talent pools. A CSA talent pool can be created by any agency interested in “advertising” shared certificates with other agencies and a CGA talent pool can only be created by OPM. OPM’s Hiring Experience (HX) team determines the CGA hiring actions based on governmentwide hiring needs.
Under the CSA, an agency may share a competitive certificate issued under delegated examining procedures with one or more agencies for a position that is in the same occupational series, grade level (or equivalent), full performance level, and duty location.
Each talent pool includes the following details:
- Job announcement number
- Series
- Grade
- Promotion potential
- Location
Each talent pool has a list of candidates who are qualified and approved for hiring based on the above details. You can use the talent pool if your agency is hiring for a position that has the same series, grade, promotion potential and location.