For decades, the government's HR systems have been one of the biggest scapegoats for agency performance problems. There have been scores of criticisms. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry now gets his turn to try to reform many long-standing federal HR challenges. In our series, HReinvented, Federal News Radio asks experts what would it take to build a better personnel system? We find where innovation already exists in government and ask, could these examples be a model for the rest of the agencies?

OPM Director John Berry promises big changes for hiring, retention, retirement

Promised changes are starting to take hold; 900 new employees are screened, waiting to be hired.

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NSPS: the end is near

The Pentagon has named John James Director of the NSPS Transition Office. He joins us with a look at the future of NSPS and pay for performance.

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Roundtable: hiring should be about people

People are the best investment in human capital. Technology is good, but not the best. More from David Ellwood, Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School

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OPM takes smaller steps to modernize retirement processes

Agency Director John Berry will hire someone to oversee the new approach to automating and calculating retirement data. Berry says he hopes to make up to 70 percent of the most common calculations electronic. OPM also just has begun a results oriented pilot in two offices as part of a workplace flexibility initiative.

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Data propels GSA's plans for the acquisition workforce

The Office of Governmentwide Policy is collecting information on common agency procurement needs and workforce issues. The office is preparing for huge increase in funding for 2011 for training and hiring.

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HReinvented: Why NSPS didn't work

In our ongoing series, HReinvented, Ruby Butler DeMesme, Director of Human Capital Innovative Market Strategy for Deloitte and a former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force tells us why she believes one of the most infamous pay-for-performance systems, the National Security Personnel System, didn't work out as planned.

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HReinvented: OPM's new database cuts hiring by 3 weeks

The agency says 12 databases hold 100,000 potential job applicants for many of the most commonly hired positions throughout government. OPM will search the database for the agency based on their hiring need and provide them with a list of candidates, slashing the hiring time from the very beginning.

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HReinvented: Employee unions call for tweaks to the system

AFGE and NTEU see areas where OPM could improve the federal human resources processes, but believe a major overhaul is not necessary. AFGE calls for more steps in the GS system and a broader use of career ladders. NTEU wants managers to receive more and better training on the how to best use the current HR processes.

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HReinvented: NRC aims to stay on top as 'best place to work'

Over the last several years, one federal agency has ranked highest in government-wide employee surveys as the "best place to work in the federal government": the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in Rockville, Md. But in an era where OPM plans to reform the hiring and management of federal workers, how does NRC plan to stay at the top of its game as an "employer of choice"? Federal News Radio's Max Cacas continues our week-long series, HReinvented.

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HReinvented: Getting the outsider's view on HR reform

A lot of the focus of HR reform in the government has been internal - how to make the system work better from the inside - for hiring managers, CHCOs, and OPM itself.

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HReinvented: NRC as a model for federal HR reform?

WFED's Max Cacas talks with Miriam Cohen, Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency has consistently been voted the "best place to work" in an annual survey from OPM.

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Commentary: FMA says hiring reforms must come first

Patricia Niehaus, National President of the Federal Managers Association, explains why the government must concentrate on the impact of the employee, rather than tenure and classification.

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HReinvented: Defense re-tunes its hiring machine

J.D. Sicilia, Director of the DoD Lean Six Sigma Program Office and Howard Seamens, Performance Improvement Specialist with the Human Capital Portfolio in the DoD Lean Six Sigma Program Office say they've cut hiring time and improved candidates for Defense jobs.

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Air Force moving to global training perspective

Service's new program focuses on giving civilian leaders a broader education of the Air Force's mission. The program is funded by Air Force headquarters and aims to give civilian leaders similar training to those in the military.

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HReinvented: USAF takes new approach to training civilians

The United States Air Force is taking a corporate approach to training civilian leaders. It will launch the new program this summer.

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HReinvented: Ideas for improving the federal hiring process

David Lewis, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, has suggestions for how agencies can make it easier on those who want to become federal employees.

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HReinvented: CPO Zients previews changes to hiring

As part of our special week-long series "HR: Reinvented", we asked Federal Chief Performance Office Jeff Zients to preview changes coming to personnel practices in the federal government. He told us, changes will start at the beginning.

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HReinvented: Former OPM Director Janice LaChance forecasts tough changes

Change can happen, but it will be difficult, says President Clinton's last OPM Director.

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HReinvented: Feds mixed on OPM's HR reform plans, survey finds

A new Federal News Radio survey finds that almost half of all respondents do not think federal human resource processes will improve. Employees also say they think most of the HR processes need to be overhauled, but think the GS System works.

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