TOPICS
TOPICS
Human capital officers' council outlines structural changes
A council of top agency personnel officials delivered its fourth annual report to Congress Thursday, informing lawmakers of changes and improvements last fiscal year.
The report from the Chief Human Capital Officers Council listed three main structural and organizational changes in fiscal 2006. These included allowing personnel chiefs to send three people from their organization to sessions at the council's training academy. The modification was intended to ensure that the best practices shared and discussed during sessions reach the appropriate agency staff members.
The report also noted that Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer, who serves on the council, asked each CHCO to appoint a deputy as a member, largely to create a stronger link between the council's activities and discussions with federal human resources directors. The deputies also were appointed to help identify the best practices for council meetings, training academy sessions and subcommittee meetings, and to ensure continuity when there are changes in leadership among the officers, according to the report.
In addition, the report described Springer's realignment of the council's subcommittees, resulting in six new subcommittees focusing on: emergency preparedness, hiring and succession planning, the human capital workforce, human resources line of business, learning and development, and performance management.
"The CHCO Council must be on the cutting edge of change," Springer said. "These three changes give the council the flexibility needed to help the CHCOs maintain their effectiveness."
The council was created under a 2002 law that required heads of 24 executive departments and agencies to appoint or designate chief human capital officers and to establish the panel. The 25-member council is composed of the OPM director, the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management, the CHCOs of the 15 executive departments and the CHCOs of additional agencies and the Small Agency Council.
COMMENTS
- She won't change the name or recognize the insult because she isn't an HR professional-- she is an accountant/CFO and these folks operate in the world of capital. So you, me, our chairs, our computers, the training budget are all capital. And if you check the backgrounds of the most of the CHCOs on her council you will find that they are also accountants. One of the reasons the federal government is in such sorry state is that accountants are running Personnel offices across the federal government. Now I'm not putting accountants down. Many are very good at what they do. But they wouldn't want me to run their budget office they should stay out of professional personnel offices. When HR reports to Finance it leads to a real lack of HR initiative. The malaise in the federal government exists because Finance has cut deep into the HR bone everywhere and when programs collapse the first response is to hire a contractor. GovExec.com reader Posted April 17, 2007 8:10 AM
- Dear Ms. Springer - Please change the name of this council and while you are at it change all the human capital and human resource references that have crept into Federal personnel management. As many of my Federal colleagues, I resent being referred to as capital or a resource. We are people and the folks whose careers we help manage are people, too. Please go back to referring to us as personnel. At least that term makes us remember that we are not dealing with capital or resources, we are dealing with human beings. It's high time we returned our focus to that! GovExec.com reader Posted April 16, 2007 3:24 AM
