Personnel chief isn’t waiting on Congress to begin hiring reforms
Many of the provisions in a bill to streamline the federal job application process can be accomplished administratively, OPM director tells lawmakers.
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."