Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Federal managers have 105 authorities covering 85 hiring codes. It's crazy and slow.
The Office of Special Counsel is taking a step forward with a new, five-year strategic plan for the future. As more federal employees turn their cases to OSC than ever before, the agency said it's adjusting its priorities to better meet the demands of an increasing workload and persistent budget uncertainty.
With 31 percent of the federal workforce eligible to retire by September 2019, most agencies acknowledge they're racing against the clock to recruit and hire the next generation of federal employees. But repeat, persistent challenges are preventing them from recruiting new, young talent, agency chief human capital officers say.
Charlie Phalen has spent four decades in the personnel security business, most recently at Northrop Grumman, and before that, in top security positions at the CIA and FBI.
In the case of federal employee engagement, a 1 percent change means something is going on. That's what happened in the most recent Federal Employment Viewpoint Survey. For an interpretation, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turns to Tim McManus, chief operating officer of the Partnership for Public Service.
In a report released by the Merit Systems Protection Board on Sept. 26, nearly 20 percent of federal resource management officials surveyed said political appointees at their agencies received no comprehensive training on merit system principles.
Federal employees and their families will see a 4.4 percent increase in their Federal Employee Health Benefit premiums next year. But FEHBP participants will pay 6.2 percent toward their health care costs. The government share is 3.7 percent.
The Senate twice failed to approve a cloture vote on Sept. 27 to stop debate on the short-term continuing resolution attached to a House bill which lawmakers are using as the legislative vehicle to fund the government and avert a government shutdown. The vote would have officially ended debate on the continuing resolution, allowing a final passage vote on the bill.
Rather than outsource the work of delinquent tax collection, thousands of IRS employees set to lose their jobs in the next eight years could be retrained on how to do the work.
At first glance, this year's results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey might not show many significant improvements. But several large and small agencies, including the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Office of Special Counsel, made noticeable improvements in employee engagement this year.
Monzy Merza, the director of cyber research and chief security evangelist for Splunk, makes the case for agencies to invest in training and educating its cyber workforce as much as tools and automation.
The Air Force says it’s ready to start training at least some of its enlisted members to fly aircraft. Classes are set to begin next month, and the graduates would be the first enlisted pilots in the Air Force’s 69-year history.
Beyond the headlines involving a new name for the B-21 long-range strike bomber, a doubling of the Air Force’s drone pilots and several new initiatives by the new chief of staff, there was an abundance of lesser-noticed news during the three days of events at the Air Force Association’s annual conference.
Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) wrote to OPM acting Director Beth Cobert asking for the agency to give federal employees and retirees more time to understand why long-term health care premiums increased so much.