An effort to expeditiously fill chronically high state job vacancies with displaced federal workers in Hawaii since February is being touted as a success, though program use has been selective.
Over the past six months, Operation Hire Hawai ‘i, established via executive order by Gov. Josh Green, has resulted in 142 hires through Aug. 20, including many new employees not from the federal workforce amid a purge under President Donald Trump.
“The results have been really promising, ” state Department of Human Resources Development Director Brenna Hashimoto told members of the House Committee on Labor in a progress report on the “OH-HI ” initiative Aug. 23 at the state Capitol.
“This program has been really successful in expediting the process, ” she said.
Hashimoto told the panel that 6, 149 applications were received through the program, resulting in 142 jobs being filled in various state agencies that collectively had about 5, 000 vacant civil service jobs, excluding public school teacher positions, when OH-HI began.
As of Friday, the hiring count was up to 147, and 13 of the new state employees indicated they had come from the federal workforce, according to DHRD.
About one-third of applicants through OH-HI were from the federal workforce, according to Hashimoto, who also said that individual state agencies were using the recruitment program only in some circumstances to fill positions.
“We’re finding they’re using it selectively when it’s a critical job to fill, or they have a lot of vacancies and they want to try to use Operation Hire Hawai ‘i, ” she said. “They don’t use it for everything.”
Hashimoto noted that OH-HI was being used for 127 different recruitment efforts since February, including a two-day job fair at the Hawai ‘i Convention Center in April that attracted over 900 job seekers. Currently, about 40 recruitments remain open through the special program, while about 500 other recruitment efforts are open under the state’s regular hiring process that can take months.
State agencies have hired about 800 people this year through July under the regular recruitment process, though DHRD said that can’t fairly be compared with OH-HI because many of the 800 hires may have stemmed from efforts that spanned more than seven months.
Under OH-HI, the department sends applications to agencies in need of corresponding jobs a day after they are received, and agencies are then supposed to make tentative hiring decisions within 14 days.
Of the 142 hires through OH-HI, Hashimoto had information on which agency made hires in 112 cases as of Aug. 20. Two agencies, the Department of the Attorney General and the Department of Human Services, made the most, with 22 each.
DHRD itself made five hires. Three agencies made no hires despite requests : the Department of Law Enforcement, the state Public Library System and the Department of Budget and Finance.
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism submitted the most requisitions for hiring among agencies—27—and was able to hire eight people. By comparison, the Department of the Attorney General made eight requisitions that led to its 22 hires.
Hashimoto told the panel that more use of OH-HI by agencies isn’t occurring because the program shifts considerable work typically handled by DHRD to individual agencies, which often don’t have the resources to make better use of the program.
ASSESSMENTS of the results by members of the House committee were fairly positive, despite the number of resulting hires representing less than 3 % of applicants in a program targeted to recruit highly qualified personnel being culled from federal employment or from jobs that are losing federal funding.
“It sounds like the program is going very well, so congratulations on that, ” said Rep. Jackson Sayama, chair of the House Committee on Labor.
Sayama (D, Wilhelmina Rise-Maunalani Heights-
St. Louis Heights ) had asked Hashimoto why OH-HI couldn’t become the state’s standard procedure for hiring, and was informed of the limitation that has made the program more of an option.
Sayama also asked about agencies making conditional job offers through OH-HI within two weeks of receiving applications.
Green said in February that he was directing state agencies to do so, but the written order doesn’t include such language. Hashimoto told the panel the timetable isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. “It’s a little bit aspirational, ” she said.
Another difference with the initial stated intent of the program was its focus on displaced federal workers. Under OH-HI, anyone can apply for positions listed on the program’s website at.
Rep. Scot Matayoshi (D, Kaneohe-Maunawili ) expressed some frustration with the program’s inception through an executive order from Green instead of using a state law enacted last year that aimed to accomplish the same thing.
“I got to admit, I’m a little irritated, ” he told Hashi moto. “The departments can already do this.”
Matayoshi authored House Bill 1832, which Green signed into law July 3, 2024, as Act 186.
The law authorizes state agencies to review applicants’ minimum qualifications for vacant positions rather than DHRD, and requires DHRD to provide agencies with applications it receives for vacancies under certain circumstances.
DHRD opposed the bill, which Matayoshi claimed can achieve the same results as OH-HI but hasn’t been used.
Hashimoto said some differences exist between the year-old law and OH-HI, including less work for individual agencies under OH-HI.
Matayoshi said after the briefing that it’s hard for him to assess if OH-HI is being used enough, though he likes the program. “I do like Operation Hire Hawai ‘i, ” he said. “It’s essentially my program.”
Camron Hurt, program manager for Common Cause Hawaii, a nonprofit advocate for government accountability, said it’s also hard to assess the effectiveness of OH-HI based on the number of hires after six months.
“I think it’s too soon to tell, ” he said.
DHRD INTENDS to continue OH-HI for about a full year or possibly longer, and tentatively plans to hold another job fair in October or November after the next federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
A lot of Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce has been in turmoil with litigation, union challenges and even rehiring.
The president’s order, aimed at eliminating “waste, bloat, and insularity, ” followed an initial buyout offer accepted by about 75, 000 federal workers around the country and a hiring freeze that included a recommendation to rescind around 200, 000 job offers and jobs for probationary employees.
The federal government employs about 2.4 million people.
Hawaii was home to about 35, 500 federal civilian workers in 2024, according to DBEDT.
“It’s sort of uncertain what will happen when the next federal fiscal year starts, so we plan to continue this project at least through early next year, ” Hashimoto said.
Green’s order stays in force unless modified or rescinded by a subsequent order.