OPM issues regulation mandating stronger training programs

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday issued a regulation requiring agencies to monitor their training efforts more strictly, with an eye toward creating better managers.

The rule, which implements provisions in the 2004 Federal Workforce Flexibility Act, requires agencies to train managers within one year of their appointment to a supervisory position on mentoring and employee development, conducting performance appraisals and dealing with poor performers. Training would continue throughout managers' careers, at least every three years. Agencies also are to set up a comprehensive management succession program, to groom employees to replace current managers, according to a Federal Register notice.

"The focus of the program should be to develop managers as well as strengthen organizational capability, and to ensure an adequate number of well-prepared and qualified candidates for leadership positions," the regulation stated.

The new requirements will take effect immediately. They contain only minor revisions from a draft version published in September 2008.

To ensure training is effective, the regulation calls on agency heads to track, on at least an annual basis, whether their programs meet agency goals and are closing workforce talent gaps.

OPM also outlined new requirements for programs to train future and current federal executives. The rule stipulates that the 12-month Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, which agencies can use to fast-track qualified SES candidates, must include "substantive development experiences that should equip a successful candidate to accomplish federal government missions as a senior executive." And agencies must establish programs to help their existing SES members. This includes creating Executive Development Plans to collaborate on management strategies and to allow executives to share experiences and perspectives.

Jessie Klement, legislative director of the Federal Managers Association, praised OPM for recognizing what she claimed were long-standing deficiencies in managers' training. "We're pleased to see that OPM will hold agencies accountable," she said.

Klement urged Congress to go further by enacting the 2009 Federal Supervisor Training Act (S. 674), sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. In addition to codifying many of the regulatory changes, the bill calls for coaching in collective bargaining, employee rights, and addressing a hostile work environment. It also requires OPM to collect information about agencies' training programs.