Management
Agencies look to AI to improve hiring and build workforce skills
The chief human capital officers also emphasized the importance of improving the skillset of the mid-career workforce.
Workforce
Unions urge court to force ruling in ‘loyalty question’ lawsuit
Three months after a hearing on whether to block federal agencies from asking four politicized essay questions of every federal job applicant, a federal judge still has not issued a decision.
Management
After year of pushing employees out, OPM embraces familiar recruiting playbook
In order for agencies to attain top talent, Office of Personnel Director Scott Kupor pointed to job websites specific to college students, multi-agency position postings and tech recruiting programs — all strategies that the Biden administration also employed.
Workforce
OPM moves to allow agencies to promote workers faster
Officials said the nearly 80-year-old requirement that federal employees serve in their current positions for at least one year before they may be promoted is “outdated.”
Tech
Tech Force set out to hire 1,000 technologists last year. It’s onboarded 10 so far
The effort is meant to infuse the government with young engineers, cyber and data workers. It follows the loss of almost 20,000 technology workers through the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the workforce last year.
Workforce
Nuclear waste oversight at risk as staffing vacancies mount, watchdog warns
After a wave of departures tied to the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, nearly half the positions in the Energy Department office overseeing nuclear cleanup sit empty, including many critical safety and engineering roles.
Management
Why federal agencies still need to defend hiring standards
COMMENTARY | The Trump administration may be pulling back on disparate-impact enforcement, but agencies still face lawsuits, scrutiny and pressure to prove hiring standards are tied to the job.
Exclusive
Workforce
'Going to be a s***show': Parks, Interior struggle to hire temporary staff ahead of busy season
The department fell well short of its goals last year and is failing to keep pace with even that level of hiring.
Workforce
Feds wary of skills-based hiring survey after 15 months of attacks
The combination of a lack of outreach around a newly deployed survey of federal workers’ skillsets with the recent flood of layoffs, purges and reorganizations has made some reluctant to participate in the bipartisan initiative.
Tech
Growing agency talent is critical for modernization, Transportation’s IT head says
“When there is support and excitement, then you can do magic,” Pavan Pidugu, the Transportation Department’s chief digital and information officer, said about engaging personnel across the agency to drive meaningful IT modernization.
Workforce
After reductions, VA chief says facilities can 'hire where they need and what they need'
Those facilities must still operate within overall staffing constraints, however.
Workforce
From bowling repairs to zoology, Trump admin consolidates job titles affecting 5,000 feds
The impacted employees will not lose their jobs and OPM says it will help them be more agile.
Workforce
FAA sets records in effort to hire gamers as air traffic controllers
The agency received over 12,000 applications in less than two days, making the effort “wildly successful,” according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Workforce
OPM cuts degree requirements for government tech jobs in new standards
The changes have been years in the making and represent a federal hiring apparatus more focused on applicable skills than specific backgrounds.
Workforce
OPM seeks cybersecurity talent to join Tech Force
"Through Tech Force, we’re recruiting highly skilled cybersecurity professionals to take on real challenges and strengthen the government’s defenses where it matters most,” OPM director Scott Kupor said in a statement.
Pay & Benefits
VA's failure to use its new authority to boost pay for doctors draws bipartisan criticism
Department officials, including those in the Trump administration, have long complained that legal pay caps are hurting retention and veteran care.
Tech
DOJ clears the way for government to hire technologists still connected to their private sector employers
Ethics experts and public sector lawyers told Nextgov/FCW that they are skeptical about the arrangement of private sector technologists joining the government on leaves of absence while retaining their deferred compensation packages.
Workforce
OPM finalizes Biden-era reg revamping federal hiring of college students
The Trump administration made only minor tweaks to a 2021 interim rule aimed at encouraging agencies to hire students still at school to part-time jobs and eventually convert them to permanent posts.
Management
OMB is hiring for a deputy federal chief information officer
“If you know how to run large systems, cut through noise, and turn strategy into execution across government scale, this is that job,” Federal CIO Gregory Barbaccia said about the search for his deputy.
Workforce