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.
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. Agencies often share a certificate via a talent pool when they believe other agencies might have an interest in hiring for the same position.
OPM’s Hiring Experience (HX) team determines the positions for a CGA hiring action based on governmentwide hiring needs.