Staffing losses at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are one of the agency’s top management challenges, with vacancies being felt across key OPM components and services.
That’s according to a new report from the OPM Office of Inspector General which reviewed OPM’s top management challenges for fiscal year (FY) 2027.
The report noted that OPM processed nearly 1,000 separation actions in 2025 and as a result “teams have been expected to maintain mission delivery with fewer resources.”
Retirement Services Concerns
One area of concern is the Retirement Services Division. The IG report stated that the agency is struggling with customer service issues despite recent improvements to overall claims processing times, with federal employees and retirees facing challenges connecting with customer service and dealing with long wait times.
“Addressing these customer service limitations is crucial for improving the annuitant and survivor annuitant experience during ongoing agency changes,” the report said.
According to John Hatton, staff vice president of policy and programs at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), retirement services is an example of workforce reductions hitting before modernization efforts could take hold.
“While OPM initiated a digital retirement application and digital claims processing, that modernization was not fully implemented prior to the wave of retirements, and did not modernize the system sufficiently to allow for timely processing given the wave of retirements,” Hatton told Federal News Network. “Instead, OPM RS had more work, less staff and only partial modernization, leaving federal retirees with substantially delayed payments.”
Still, OPM appears to have made significant progress in reducing its retirement claims inventory. The number of pending claims fell to 8,814 in September 2026, down from more than 65,000 in February 2026.
Tech & Other Challenges
Another area of concern is the OPM Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), where workforce reductions are creating challenges as the agency takes on additional responsibility for managing IT functions in-house while pursuing major modernization projects and expanding its use of artificial intelligence (AI).
In addition to staffing, the report cited ensuring the integrity of the OPM-administered trust funds, modernizing information technology, and improving federal human capital management as other top challenges.
In response to the report, OPM spokesperson Kiki Nyoh said that the agency is "strengthening cybersecurity, modernizing legacy systems and managing expanded in-house responsibilities with a smaller workforce." The agency is expected to provide a formal response to the report's recommendations shortly.
