36% of new IRS hires faced delays due to technical and security clearance jams

Buoyed by money from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS brought on nearly 53,000 new employees in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. 

Most of the new employees for those fiscal years were hired within the agency’s 80-calendar day time to hire target — about 33,800, or 64%. But the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration analyzed the 36%, nearly 19,000, that weren’t hired within the goal time frame and determined that workload constraints and miscommunication, held up security checks and limitations in IRS’ hiring management system all contributed to the delayed hirings. 

“Delays in the hiring process can put the IRS at risk of wasting resources due to losing prospective employees because the applicants who experience a prolonged hiring process may opt for alternative employment opportunities,” investigators wrote. 

TIGTA found that HR specialists took an average of 44 days, 29 more than the target, to review external applications, and officials who select candidates spent an average of 28 days, 13 more than the goal, to return their selections to the IRS Human Capital Office. Investigators blamed the missed targets on inadequate training, in particular. 

Additionally, TIGTA investigators noted that many reference materials were outdated, including the IRS’ hiring manual that hasn’t been modified since fiscal 2010. 

Out of the new employees whose hiring took more than 80 days, investigators used 106 of them to create a statistically valid stratified random sample. Almost all of the individuals within that sample who required a security check exceeded the 10-day target for completion by an average of 40 days. TIGTA pinpointed that getting fingerprints from applicants significantly contributed to these delays. 

Investigators also found shortcomings with the IRS hiring management system. For example, HR specialists have to manually enter a lot of data and there are not common unique identifiers, which can become a significant issue when two job candidates have the same name. 

TIGTA recommended that IRS:

• Create a plan to improve training, communication and coordination between hiring representatives and HR specialists throughout the hiring process to reduce delays. 
• Develop up-to-date reference materials on hiring. 
• Alert applicants to upcoming deadlines with respect to the fingerprinting process. 
• Request from the Office of Personnel Management additional automation enhancements for its hiring management system. 

In a letter accompanying the report, IRS agreed with each of the recommendations and said it has already taken steps to address them. 

The tax agency’s workforce at the end of fiscal 2023 was at approximately 89,800 employees, an increase from the about 80,200 workers in fiscal 2020 but still less than the 94,300 employees it had in fiscal 2010.