The Office of Personnel Management will focus its efforts around six pillars and a series of initiatives to improve how it uses and delivers technology services. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said the plan helps reinforce the collaborative approach needed to implement IT systems.
CBS MoneyWatch Columnist Allan Roth discusses what you can do to maximize your TSP investments, and Nicole Johnson from the Federal Times discusses OPM's plans to reform its IT systems. March 12, 2014
The Obama administration is calling on agencies to get smarter about tracking employee morale and engagement. The administration plans to roll out an "engagement dashboard" this year that agency supervisors can use to track the mood of their workforces. It's just one part of a planned overhaul of federal management called for in President Barack Obama's fiscal 2015 budget blueprint. Other initiatives include a revamp of the General Schedule personnel system, real-time performance reviews of management efforts and enhanced training for senior executives.
More than 12,000 federal employees filed for retirement last month, according to new data from the Office of Personnel Management. That was about 2,200 more retirement applications than the agency expected to receive under new monthly projections it began using this month. Despite an overall slower pace of retirements this year compared to last, OPM's progress in clearing a longstanding inventory of claims appears to have stalled. In fact, the backlog grew in February by more than 2,200 claims.
Federal offices in the D.C. region will open with a two-hour delayed arrival Tuesday, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Federal workers will have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. Workers are expected to arrive at work no later than two hours after they are normally expected to.
Federal employees thanked the Office of Personnel Management for its early announcement that federal agencies in D.C. would be closed Monday. The comments come in stark contrast to complaints about OPM calling closures or delays too late.
OPM Director Katherine Archuleta didn't have details on the proposals, but she said agencies need to learn from each other and build on their successes.
The Preventing Conflicts of Interest with Contractors Act would block the Office of Personnel Management from contracting with companies to perform final quality reviews if those same companies are also responsible for conducting initial investigations. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta announced in early February that, going forward, only federal employees would conduct final quality reviews. The new bill writes Archuleta's decision into law. Otherwise it could be reversed by a future OPM director.
Federal agencies in Washington, D.C., are open Wednesday. Employees have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework.
The Office of Personnel Management closed federal offices Thursday because of snow, but that doesn't mean all federal operations ceased. Click through the gallery to see how feds and others conquered the snow. Email us your photos. What did you do on your day off Thursday? What does your agency's parking lot look like today? We'll continue to update this gallery with your pics!
Federal agencies in the Washington, D.C., region are open Friday, February 14, with a two-hour delayed arrival in effect. Employees also have the option to take unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework.
President Barack Obama signed the OPM IG Act into law this week. The law provides the agency's top watchdog with an additional source of funding to conduct audits and investigations of the security-clearance process.
Among the issues considered Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were contracting practices at the Office of Personnel Management that allowed the largest background-investigation contactor -- accused by the Justice Department of taking improper shortcuts and defrauding the government -- to conduct quality reviews of its own work.
The Office of Personnel Management told contractors last week that the solicitation under the Customized Human Resources Solutions Services initiative would be withdrawn and a new one would be released in the coming months. OPM says the government's training and management assistance needs changed and the current RFP wouldn't meet them.
The Office of Personnel Management has decided that final quality reviews for background investigations will be conducted by government employees -- not contractors. A Feb. 6 statement from OPM Director Katherine Archuleta provided to Federal News Radio said starting Feb. 24 the quality-review process for background checks will be "fully federalized," and that "only federal employees will be conducting the final quality review before the investigative product is sent to the agency for review and adjudication."