Beth Cobert, the deputy director for management at OMB, said the administration has to help agencies get the skills and capabilities to move to a digital world more quickly and improve the quality. She said an updated Digital Services Playbook is coming in the next month. The IRS is one of the few agencies to grasp how digital services can improve its mission.
With fewer SES awards being handed out, Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, wonders whether executives are performing less well than they did in years past or if the standards simply have gotten too tough?
Federal leaders are getting more excited about moving their agencies toward a more digital existence. But new research by the National Academy of Public of Administration and ICF International finds the majority of federal respondents need help to make lasting change to their agency's services. And that help is coming from the Office of Management and Budget. Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller tells In Depth with Francis Rose how OMB will further how agencies move to the digital world.
The Office of Personnel Management already has some New Year's resolutions for the federal workforce: Set up a governmentwide mentorship program for the Senior Executive Service and establish an employee engagement point person for every agency.
Some days, it's not easy being a senior career executive in the Federal Government. Ill will reached a peak last summer at the height of scandal in the Veterans Affairs Department. That led to Congress enacting legislation cutting the civil service protection of SESers at the VA. A couple of weeks ago, President Obama gave the SES a pat on the back, promising to make the service into how it was originally envisioned. So what will 2015 bring? David Dye, the director of Federal Human Capital Services at Deloitte and a former official at the Office of Personnel Management, offered some answers on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Guidance from the Office of Management and Budget cuts financial management regulations governing federal grants and other assistances by 75 percent, reducing the risk of waste, fraud and abuse and promoting greater transparency.
It even sounds complicated: making information resources assessible, discoverable, and usable by the public, and making open and machine readable the new default for government information. But that's what the White House ordered in May of 2013. Now agencies are finally getting their heads around how best to meet the requirements of the open data policy. Several agencies realize what's needed is a combination of policy and action. Federal News Radio's executive editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details about the plans of some agencies to meet this 18-month-old policy.
USDA, DHS and Transportation are taking steps to implement OMB's May 2013 open data policy. Each agency faces policy and process challenges, but they say progress is starting.
As a matter of "caution," the Office of Management and Budget discussed shutdown contingencies with agencies today as Congress continues to debate a bipartisan budget deal. Federal funding runs out at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
The House and Senate Armed Services committee members agreed to keep a pared down version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act in the final National Defense Authorization Act.
Harvard, the Commerce Department and the Office of Management and Budget are stealing away three senior executives from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The U.S. Digital Service team is working with VA and other agencies to hire and train employees to apply the agile development approach to projects. Mikey Dickerson, USDS director, said the goal is two-fold: to create lasting agile development capacity in agencies and to ensure agencies think about citizens' needs first and foremost.
Senior managers soon may have more to fret about when it's time to discuss their performance with the boss: Are they engaging employees and creating inclusive work environments?
Under President Obama's executive order on immigration, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson released a slew of memos outlining the agency's push to reform its personnel structure, review premium pay, and better secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Office of Management and Budget says PortfolioStat data is proving the positive impact agile development is having on IT projects. The U.S. Digital Service is providing both help and training to expand the understanding and use of agile development.