Original Broadcast Date: 1/25/26
Presented by SAP
The federal government is undertaking one of the most ambitious workforce modernization efforts in decades, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor says the time for incremental change has passed.
In an interview on Fed Gov Today with Francis Rose, Kupor outlines OPM’s plan to consolidate more than 100 separate human resources management systems across government into a single platform by September 2027. The effort will impact more than two million federal civilian employees and represents a fundamental shift in how HR services are delivered across agencies.
Kupor explains that the challenge is not just technical, but organizational. Integrating data from more than 100 systems and connecting them to multiple payroll providers is complex, but governance is the bigger hurdle. OPM must ensure agencies feel meaningfully involved in the process without allowing requirements to fragment into dozens of custom solutions. To address this, OPM has spent the past nine months gathering requirements from major agencies, including HR, IT, and business leaders, and has established formal governance boards to manage technical decisions and business processes.
A key principle guiding the effort is avoiding customization. Kupor calls customization “the death knell” of large-scale modernization projects and says OPM is focused on keeping core human capital management functions—such as personnel records, employee self-service, and benefits administration—as standardized as possible. Agencies with truly unique needs will have a formal process to raise those requirements, but decisions will require collective approval to prevent splintering.
The consolidation effort is phased, with agencies grouped into three waves between now and 2027. Kupor says this approach allows OPM to track progress through defined milestones and adjust as needed, while keeping pressure on the schedule. The aggressive timeline, he notes, was set deliberately. After initially proposing a longer schedule, Kupor says White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles pushed for a faster target. His view is that projects tend to expand to fill the time allotted, so setting an ambitious deadline helps drive momentum.
Beyond systems consolidation, Kupor also discusses the launch of Federal Workforce Data, a new website that replaces the legacy FedScope platform. FedScope, which dates back to around 2000, served an important purpose but has become outdated. Kupor says users frequently complained about long data lags, limited usability, and a reporting interface that made it difficult to answer key questions.
The new platform is built on modern data warehouse technology that normalizes workforce data across agencies, ensuring consistency in how information is defined and reported. The result is a more flexible, user-driven experience that allows users to build tables, analyze trends, and access more granular data by department, demographics, and other dimensions.
Kupor emphasizes that OPM intentionally avoided trying to perfect the platform before launch. Instead, the agency delivered a usable product within nine to twelve months and plans to improve it based on real-world feedback. He says government too often delays releases in pursuit of perfection, when the better approach is to put tools in users’ hands and iterate from there.
The primary users of Federal Workforce Data include journalists, researchers, think tanks, and Congress. Kupor notes that congressional requests for workforce information can now be handled by directing users to the site rather than responding to lengthy data calls. He welcomes feedback from all users and says OPM is open to adding new features and data elements when they can benefit a broad audience.
Kupor also provides an update on TechForce, OPM’s initiative to modernize hiring for technical talent across government. The program focuses on roles such as software development, data science, artificial intelligence, and soon, product management. Kupor says agency demand is strong, with chief information officers eager to bring qualified technical professionals on board quickly.
To improve both speed and candidate experience, OPM acts as a centralized recruiting and vetting engine. Applicants go through skills assessments, resume reviews, and interviews before being placed into a shared pool of qualified candidates. Agencies then compete to recruit from that pool, rather than running separate hiring processes in isolation.
Kupor believes this shared approach reduces hiring time, improves quality, and eliminates the need for candidates to apply to dozens of agencies individually. It also introduces healthy competition among agencies, encouraging them to move faster and better articulate why candidates should join their missions.
Across HR modernization, workforce data, and hiring reform, Kupor’s message is consistent: government can move faster, deliver better tools, and improve outcomes by focusing on standardization, governance, and user feedback. Rather than allowing complexity to slow progress, OPM is pushing for practical solutions that improve how the federal workforce operates and serves the American people.