TOPICS
TOPICS
OPM chief urges next president to promote public service
Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer on Wednesday called on the next president to recast Uncle Sam's brand, and said upcoming retirements would be manageable if government made the appropriate outreach efforts.
"As daunting as the retirement wave is, there is a huge pool [of potential recruits] out there for the asking and the taking," Springer said at a breakfast sponsored by GEICO during Public Service Recognition Week. "We just need to reach them."
But in the 25th annual observance of Public Service Recognition Week, Springer was not sanguine about the challenges government faces.
"The fact is, we have uneven brand recognition," she said. "The federal government as a whole doesn't have a good brand reputation, but individual agencies do," Springer noted, adding that NASA has an attractive public image, while the Internal Revenue Service "isn't exactly a magnet."
Generally, the public knows very little about what government does and how it affects their daily lives while also performing unique functions and providing a wide range of job opportunities, Springer said.
Other organizations have pointed out that the public's inability to connect government operations to their own lives was a significant barrier to recruiting and rebranding.
"We are so lucky to live in a free country where we have the highest standard of living and the best public servants in the world," Tony Nicely, GEICO's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said on Wednesday. "We count on public employees for safe highways, for safe travel through the air, [and] so many things we in the private sector take for granted."
The Partnership for Public Service tackled the issue of demonstrating the reach of government work in its annual report, using examples of everyday life to illustrate where government agencies play a role.
But Springer emphasized that the call to public service has to come from the president, without regard to whether he or she is a Republican or Democrat. "I believe that no matter who wins... if the first address [to the nation] is, 'No matter who you are, no matter what your background, if you want to come, there's a place for you,' I believe there would be an excellent response."
COMMENTS
- Something needs to be done to consolidate the hiring process. Applicants can submit resumes thru the USAJOBS website, but they seem to go into a black hole with no responses or a way to check the status. Army has the CPOL website with resume builder which lets users check the status of their resumes. Too many systems between all the different agencies. I like the idea of recruiting from high schools. I took a civil service exam to get into the clerical field. It was entry level, but the government had good benefits and better pay than I could make in private sector at the time. I worked my way up thru the system from a GS-3 to GS-12 (NPSP Pay Band 2). I learned a lot. There isn't any way for someone to come in at the ground floor and work their way up any more. A lot of the jobs don't really require a 4-year degree, but that's the requirement now. I'd rather hire someone with a good work ethic and drive than someone with a 4-year degree who feels entitlement. CSRS Posted May 8, 2008 4:40 PM
- As usual finger pointing the problem with recruiting is OPM. They are the bottle neck and act like the standard gov't practice old and archaic. Another activity that needs a house cleaning, the whole hiring practice could be farmed out to Manpower and A76'd dan m ketter Posted May 8, 2008 12:32 PM
- Director Springer is absolutely right -- the next president needs to use the bully pulpit to promote public service, rather than score cheap political points by bashing "bureaucrats." One way the next president can show that he is serious about promoting public service, particularly among a younger generation, is to embrace the Public Service Academy, which would be the civilian counterpart to the military service academies. The U.S. Public Service Act already has 19 Senate co-sponsors and 96 House co-sponsors -- what it needs now is a president! CMA Posted May 8, 2008 12:32 PM
