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- VA chipping away at oldest disability claims in backlog
- What's the latest on phased retirement?
- New mobile tools gives agencies ‘giant innovation permission slip'
- Congress pressures agencies to speed up office consolidations
- Furlough Friday: Multiple agencies took advantage of holiday weekend
- Data breach puts DHS employees at risk of ID theft
- IRS replaces official in Tea Party controversy
- Commerce nominee sails through hearing
- Obama nominates Archuleta as next OPM director
- FedRAMP achieves another cloud security milestone
- Tangherlini to be nominated as permanent GSA chief
- House GOP panel moves on deep budget cuts
- OMB reworking financial system requirements
- Federal retirement funds temporarily tapped
- Friday federal headlines - May 24, 2013
Presidential appointees face long, winding road to confirmation
No matter who wins the Presidential election, non-career officials who might one day serve in either an Obama or Romney administration will face a cumbersome appointment process that is just starting to be reformed. Linda Springer, who served as the head of the Office of Personnel Management during the George W. Bush administration told In Depth with Francis Rose the onerous Senate confirmation process for political appointees has been a longstanding issue.
Health plans: The law of averages
When shopping for your family's 2013 federal health plan, even as you enter year three of a pay freeze, there are a couple of things to keep in mind, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
Premiums for federal health plan set to increase 3.4 percent
The Office of Personnel Management announced 2013 premiums for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program are set to increase 3.4 percent. That's slightly below last year's increase of 3.8 percent, which had been the lowest since 2008. In 2010, premiums rose 7.3 percent.
Berry aims to nix HR from high risk list in the next year
Cyber criminals might unknowingly provide the impetus to help agencies address a cybersecurity skills gap. OPM also is working with agencies to address other shortfalls in key workforce competencies.
Feds see success in streamlining complicated hiring process
The federal government's hiring process has long been plagued with a poor reputation. However, since President Barack Obama issued an executive memo in 2010, the Office of Personnel Management has taken great strides to streamline the hiring process as well as to incorporate other reforms to make it easier to hire recent college graduates, people with disabilities and veterans. Federal News Radio spoke about this with Linda Bilmes, a senior lecturer at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, as part of the special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years.
OPM digging out of retirement-claims backlog, but much work remains
OPM made changes to successfully chip away at an ongoing inadequacy, but the progress came after years of complaints from retired federal employees and urgings from lawmakers. Federal News Radio speaks with David Snell, director of retirement services for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association as part of the special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years.
Leadership, oversight help slash security clearance backlog
The longstanding delays and backlogs with personnel security clearances were effectively addressed by the Obama administration. Initial investigations now take an average of 44 days to complete compared to 189 days in 2005. Federal News Radio speaks with Evan Lesser, founder and managing director of ClearanceJobs.com as part of the special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years.
Administration recognizes quality of work depends on quality of workforce
The goal was to achieve an efficient, effective and accountable government. A key strategy was to change the way the federal employee approached the job. In part three of Federal News Radio's week-long, multimedia special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years, we examine the tactics employed to create a more efficient workforce; hiring and SES reform, reducing backlogs in security clearances and retirement claims, building a cyber workforce, telework and the overall support of the civil servant. Four were rated as effective, two as more progress needed, and one as ineffective.
OPM's innovation lab spurs new way of problem-solving
The sub-basement of the Office of Personnel Management's headquarters resembles more of a tech start-up than a federal office building. The innovation lab, as OPM calls it, provides a brightly-lit, open room for employees to meet and tackle the "stickiest" of the agency's problems.
Agencies, colleges share top recruiting tips in tight budget times
Tighter budgets are impacting agencies' ability to recruit new employees, according to the results of an exclusive Federal News Radio survey. But while budget dollars may be dwindling, agencies still need new hires to fill vacancies caused by retirements and others leaving civil service. Federal recruiters and college advisers say there are certain cost-effective and innovative techniques that work better than others when it comes to finding the next generation of federal employees.
Few retired feds cash in on dual compensation
Among six federal agencies surveyed, few are using a defense waiver allowing partially retired workers to collect a salary and their full pension benefit, a new Government Accountability Office report says.
Retirement claims hit highest level since January
Federal employees submitted nearly 9,000 retirement claims in August - more than in any other month besides January, which typically sees a wave of feds taking retirement. The Office of Personnel Management received 8,973 retirement claims in August, nearly a thousand more than it projected. The agency processed 11,896 claims, also surpassing its goals.
What would a second term for President Obama mean for feds?
The administration promotes numerous policy and program successes and it is on these successes President Obama's second term priorities likely will be built. The Office of Management and Budget did not respond to requests for specifics on the President's management agenda for the next four years, so we looked to the previous initiatives and asked experts for their opinions to devine the future in part 5 of our special, week-long multimedia report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years
White House selects innovation fellows for five federal projects
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park is naming 18 innovation fellows today to work on five "high-impact" federal IT projects.
Sequestration, the Ryan budget, and more
Host Mike Causey moderates a roundtable discussion
of sequestration, postal service buyouts, and
more.
August 15, 2012
OPM: Agencies can use flexible work schedule for science, engineering activities
The Office of Personnel Management wants agencies to use workplace flexibility to encourage federal workers to pursue activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — or STEM.
OPM breaks down the basics of phased retirement
The Office of Personnel Management released a factsheet to federal agencies in July explaining what phased retirement is and how it will work.
Medina advocates better CHCO communication to stop budget axe
Federal chief human capital officers should develop a consistent message about the effects of budget cuts on human resources, said CHCO Council Executive Director Kathryn Medina. The goal is to explain the tangible effects of spending reductions on core agency missions.
Retirement claims tick up, but OPM continues cutting backlog
The Office of Personnel Management received more claims than expected last month, but for the third month in a row processed more claims than it expected to. OPM has also made progress cutting the longstanding backlog of retirement claims. At 44,679 claims, there are now fewer retirement claims stuck in the backlog than there were in December 2011, when OPM began tracking them as part of a new push to eliminate the logjam.
USAJobs passes independent cybersecurity test
Auditors found no security weaknesses that present an immediate threat to the jobs portal or user information housed in its database. The test represented the site's first independent security evaluation since OPM took control over USAJobs.gov from Monster Government Solutions in Oct. 2011. Under MGS management, hackers broke into the portal twice in 17 months.
