TOPICS
TOPICS
Personnel chief isn't waiting on Congress to begin hiring reforms
The head of the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday told senators he supports a bill introduced in late March to improve government hiring practices, and believes most of its provisions could be implemented as administrative policy if Congress fails to act.
"I think it's a great bill," OPM Director John Berry said during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia. "Every one of [the provisions] are key pieces to the puzzle. ... We can move forward without its passage and adapt a lot of these things administratively."
But Berry acknowledged OPM's power to enforce new administrative policies was limited. At one point, he joked that his office was more like the "Office of Personnel Recommendations."
The bill -- sponsored by subcommittee chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and ranking member George Voinovich, R-Ohio -- would require agencies to create workforce development plans and applicant inventories, improve job announcements, and eliminate the knowledge, skills and abilities essays that have proven cumbersome to job applicants and managers alike.
Staff members said Akaka and Voinovich planned to push the legislation (S. 736) forward regardless of Berry's ability to make administrative changes.
The hiring system overhaul falls high on Berry's priority list. He told the subcommittee he planned to focus on recruitment and streamlining the hiring and security clearance processes before tackling training and workforce development.
"I think the reason why a lot of the past efforts have failed is that they've tried to do too much at once," Berry said.
The OPM chief said one of his first-year initiatives will be to recruit workers -- especially engineers -- from the auto industry in the Midwest for government jobs. "In the dark challenges we find, there's also a huge opportunity on the recruitment front," Berry said. "A number of the layoffs are people who were in the car industry. These were engineers, some of our best and brightest."
He said he expected the hiring process could be simplified within a year to focus on résumés rather than knowledge, skills and abilities statements.
He also promised to look into a security clearance issue Voinovich brought to his attention. Voinovich accused OPM of delaying the introduction of a computerized application form, designed to speed the clearance application process, in response to the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.
According to staffers from the senator's office, OPM sought a one-year delay in introducing the form even though the agency already had submitted a draft version to the Office of Management and Budget. The Government Accountability Office identified the lengthy security process for the Defense Department as a high-risk management concern.
"I want this off the list before I leave the Senate," Voinovich said, raising his voice and referencing his planned retirement in 2011.
Berry appeared surprised by the accusation.
"That is news to me. I'm a little blind-sided by that, sir," Berry said. "I will get to the bottom of that."
The new personnel chief also encountered some pushback on his priorities.
"We can't wait a year" on workforce development and training, said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service. "If you don't do planning right, you're shooting in the dark."
COMMENTS
- It is about time that the KSA's were eliminated. The VA is hurting for employees but the VA, in it's hurry to downsize got crazy in it's downsizing and chopped off it's own foot by eliminating the human element in the hiring process by closing down and digitalizing hiring process. I believe tha paperwork is important. The VA has done well in its hiring even with the old SF 71. It was the security background checks and the personal interviews that really gave us the system we have had and I believe it has been successful as it can be for a bureaucracy. It took me three years after twenty years in the military to get into the VA on an SF 71. I have am aware of alot of Veterans who dispite their military training and credentialing could not get in the VA because they did not know what the buzz words were when they applyied through USA Jobs or the other websites. The application process is burdensome. The KSA's do not help either because they are not used equally even within the same VA like ours. Topeka doesn't use them but Leavenworth does for most off their positions. When you ask for assistance or a facimilie to help with the application you get a blank stare and get directed to a book store. It should be done away with so the VA can get along with the business of hiring. Solomon Herrera Posted July 9, 2009 11:16 PM
- This is all well and good, but what about taking care of the people you already have? I rejoined the Federal system after spending 23 years as a Professional. At that time the position I accepted was an GS 11/12. After a HR mishap I was granted my GS12 just a little over 1 year later even though my Supervisor recommended, because of my experience, a jump to GS12 after I had been on board for 6 months. His request was turned down. Now I am in NSPS after converting from a GS12-4 to YD-2. I am a Registered Architect. If I was being hired today as a new employee I would be coming in as at least an evualivent to a GS13. Because I have stayed with the system, my salary is no where near what it should be. The last NSPS round (our first) was a dismal failure. It was clear after a misshap when an ecell document with every person showing their salary, number of shares received was published that the former GS15's got 5-6 shares, former GS14's got 4-5shares, former GS13's got 3-4 shares and former GS 12's got 2 shares. It seemed to have nothing to do with performance. It was quite clear that the "good old boy network" was still very hard at work. Two shares of an already small salary is highly unsatisfactory. Will the new reforms assess who they have and what they would have to offer to attain them today? Or do I have to leave the Federal system to get what I should be being paid? I suspect the parity system will only address the hiring of new people and leave us already loyal hard working people to lower and lower living standards. Jacalyn Habiger, RA Posted June 10, 2009 7:53 AM
- Streamlining the application process - now there's a novel idea! Here's a hint: when you go onto USAJOBS, you would think you could actually apply for a job through this website - not necessarily so. Most of the time when you cick on "apply' you are thrown into that agency's website application, and even for a summer job for students, they have to answer all kinds of ludricrous questions. even for a lifeguard job. Good luck with getting agencies to streamline this! Suzanne Posted May 18, 2009 9:08 AM
