Workforce

  • The Internal Revenue Service is facing another big budget cut if the total the House of Representatives approved turns out to be the total the agency gets. The House voted for a bill to bring the IRS' 2015 spending limit to below sequestration levels. That's a cut of more than $300 million. Jessica Klement is Legislative Director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. She explained on In Depth with Francis Rose how the IRS' potential 2015 budget would affect its employees and other agencies.

    June 24, 2014
  • Training your agency's employees by sitting them down in a classroom in front of a teacher giving a lecture won't work for the federal government anymore. Mike Casey is the chief learning officer of the General Services Administration and a guest for the Executive Suite on In Depth with Francis Rose. He's at the forefront of the effort to teach agency managers the difference between training and learning. Casey said knowing the difference could make a big impact on the cost to run your agency. Read related article.

    June 24, 2014
  • Is your agency getting as much value out of its social media efforts as it could be? A new report offers tips for agencies looking to take advantage of the data that can be mined from Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets.

    June 24, 2014
  • Federal employees now have the right to request a more flexible work schedule and managers must "carefully" consider those requests, President Barack Obama told agency heads in a June 23 memo on expanding workplace flexibility in the federal government. The memo, which coincided with a White House conference on working families, also encourages agency heads to expand flexible workplace policies, such as telework, alternative work schedules and temporary part-time duty "to the maximum extent practicable."

    June 24, 2014
  • If you've been in government for a while, you know it is something like riding a roller coaster, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. Thrills, chills but rarely any spills. So, how long will your luck hold out?

    June 24, 2014
  • Boosted by a recovering economy and a booming Wall Street, assets in the Thrift Savings Plan have continued to climb. Since reaching $400 billion in February — the highest amount ever recorded — assets under TSP management grew to more than $412 billion by the end of last month. But as total assets have increased, so have calls to tweak the program that's provided federal employees with 401(k)-style retirement accounts since 1987. Still, the TSP has consistently resisted calls to modify its simplified, tried-and-true structure.

    June 23, 2014
  • The House of Representatives passed a bill that would cut more than $300 million from last year's Internal Revenue Service budget. This adds to the tension between Congress and the IRS over lost emails.

    June 23, 2014
  • OPM's Katherine Archuleta and HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration release a memo providing guidance to agency leaders about how to identify individuals in mental health distress. The guidance also offers resources to federal employees looking for help.

    June 23, 2014
  • The House and Senate have appointed members to a conference committee on legislation to revamp the Veterans Affairs health care system. Regardless of how Congress ends up changing the structure to address long wait times for patients, the system will need more money for emergencies. That is one request from the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many front-line VA employees. J. David Cox is the union's president and a former VA nurse. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss how the problems at the VA are affecting the front-line employees.

    June 23, 2014
  • Thanks to Congressional budget cutters and the White House sequestration program, two of the most important federal operations - the IRS and the Social Security Administration - are getting smaller and slower. So, how much longer can we afford these 'savings', Senior Correspondent Mike Causey asks?

    June 23, 2014
  • Linda Rix, co-CEO of FastYeti Incorporated will talk about a new website that helps veterans navigate their way through the with benefits claims process. June 20, 2014

    June 20, 2014
  • Dr. Janice Presser, CEO of the Gabriel Institute and Grant Thornton's Virginia Gibson will discuss the importance of performance reviews and how to improve them. June 20, 2014

    June 20, 2014
  • An early House version appropriations language for 2015 would bring the IRS budget below sequestration levels in fiscal 2015. Earlier this week, the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government approved funding levels that are more than $300 million below what the agency has to spend this year. IRS officials have been adamant that even that level is far too low. The bill comes right after warnings from the Government Accountability Office for the IRS to make some long term budget plans to better deal with an uncertain financial future. Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, is looking at what the cuts would mean for agency operations and the workforce. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose these cuts go too far. Read related article by Federal News Radio's Stephanie Wasko.

    June 20, 2014
  • The Federal CIO Council conducted its annual boot camp June 18 and 19, at the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Here are some tweets that participants posted during the event.

    June 20, 2014