OPM director to resign
The director of the Office of Personnel Management announced on Tuesday that she will leave in mid-August for a job in the private sector.
OPM Director Linda Springer announced in an e-mail to employees that she will leave Aug. 13 for the private sector, though she did not give specifics on her new position. Deputy Director Howard Weizmann will take over as acting director.
"It has been an honor to be your leader these past three years and to help our agency continue its long record of service to our country and its civilian workforce," Springer wrote in the e-mail. "I know that with your support, the agency is in good hands."
Springer began her career with a 25-year stint in the financial services industry, a tenure that included executive positions at Provident Mutual and Penn Mutual Life Insurance companies. She pursued the same interests in government, serving as controller at the Office of Management and Budget and head of OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management before going to OPM.
Once at OPM, however, Springer broadened her horizons to include a campaign to promote and restore the prestige of federal service in addition to tackling thorny management issues. Among her signature initiatives was a nationwide advertising campaign promoting public service careers and the Career Patterns program, aimed at finding jobs suited to nontraditional work environments and hours. Springer also overhauled the federal retirement system by spearheading the shift from paper-based to electronic processing. The retirement calculator component of the project, however, ran into contracting delays in recent months. She introduced dental, vision, and health savings account benefits to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Springer did not abandon efficiency and performance issues during her tenure at OPM. She published OPM's annual strategic goals online, and made it possible for the public to track the agency's progress in meeting those goals. Springer also set aggressive targets for priorities such as reducing the time it takes to hire a federal employee and process a background investigation. Since the beginning of 2008, Springer has approved pay-for-performance pilots at the Veterans Health Administration and the National Nuclear Security Administration, advancing another management priority set by the Bush administration.
Springer's dedication to promoting federal employment won her friends at nonprofits like the Partnership for Public Service, at whose events she spoke frequently.
"The Partnership is extremely grateful to Linda Springer for her dedicated service in a critical position at a critical time," said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership.
The Partnership's relationship with OPM is likely to remain strong under Weizmann, who came to the agency from his position as president of the Private Sector Council, the Partnership's organization that provides connections between government agencies and relevant industry leaders. He was confirmed by the Senate as deputy director in 2007. Prior to his work at the Partnership, Weizmann led the human resources and European operations for Digex, the videoconferencing and telecommunications company that is now a part of Verizon, and also worked at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, the human resources consulting firm. Human resources is a family business for Weizmann, too: he and his wife, Jane Weizmann, co-authored a book on employee management titled Rewards and Business Strategy: People, Pay and Performance (CCH Inc., 2000).
COMMENTS
- OPM is, following in the footsteps of its predecessor agency (Civil Service Commission), primarily a human resource function. An HR organization manages people and all aspects of their recruitment and subsequent career paths vis-a-vis the requirements of U.S. Government agencies. It seems to me, though, that in undertaking the task of actively managing security clearance requirements of those people, it has become somewhat bogged down in often unnecessary self-developed minutia. Maybe new leadership will take a look toward more logical, common-sense and easily understood reporting requirements in line with those needed by OPM's agency customers? Arthur C. Sandstrom Posted July 16, 2008 9:59 PM
- I think Linda Springer has been a competent and dedicated director, who didn't do headline garnering things, but who made some systematic and important incremental changes. OPM is one of those vital but often overlooked parts of the federal government. Let's hope the next administration recognizes its importance to the future quality of the government workforce. nonprofit person Posted July 16, 2008 2:51 PM
- Springer's leaving is irrelavant. This agency functions largely in obscurity and below the public radar because of it's parochial mission. No one, including congress, pays much attention to what it does or doesn't do. Fact is, OPM poorly administers tens of BILLIONS of taxpayer and federal employee dollars annually in it's insurance programs. It's IG has refused to provide oversight for OPM insurance program operations, as required by law, for eighteen years. Waste, fraud, and even multi million dollar embezzelment by OPM employees, deceptive and dysfunctional Combined Federal Campaign operations, prohibited personnel practices -all are legend in OPM. Grossly mismanaged and largely unsuccessful efforts to develop electronic retirement systems began in the late 1980's and continue today flushing tens of millions. Makes no difference whether directors were appointed under a Republican or Democrat. Maybe a little worse under Clinton when they countenanced cover up of criminal activity in their own OIG. Ken Huffman Posted July 16, 2008 2:41 PM
