Restoring the civil-service exam would bring fairer selection and a more competent workforce.
In 1981 the federal government stopped using the most objective measure for assessing applicants’ ability to do their jobs—the civil service examination—and we got more incompetent civil servants.
Bring back an updated version of the Federal Service Entrance Examination and apply the Rule of Three for all new hires. (the “Rule of Three”…limited the hiring official to a choice among the three highest-scoring candidates—the only truly effective way to limit the role of personal preferences in hiring decisions). It won’t transform the civil service immediately, but it would dramatically improve the competence of new hires and the fairness of their selection.