By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

We begin Federal News Radio’s first annual Causey Awards, honoring high-achieving performance in human capital management! The awards bear the name of our own Senior Correspondent Mike Causey, who has had a life-long dedication to federal workforce management issues.

With that, we introduce Causey-winner Jennie Liming, one of the seven award winners.

Since 2008, Ms. Liming has worked with GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service to recruit entry-level talent for two mission-critical jobs: Contract Specialist and Program Analyst. Liming crafted the Early Career Professional Development Program.

Federal News Radio took the opportunity to ask the Causey Award-winning Liming about best practices that other agencies could use from her program.

We’re seeing all in the news about hiring reform and doing the right thing and changing the structure of how we bring people on board and whatnot. I think everybody can adopt these quick wins. For example, we feel very strongly, I do personally philosophically, that we shouldn’t leave these candidates in the dark, so we’re in constant communication with them. Always letting them know along the way. And because we start our recruitment cycle in January, some of these students are waiting all the way until May when we’re ready to make selections, so we have touchpoints along the way.

Secondly, said Liming, is the importance of the onboarding process.

We can emulate what the private sector already knows is the right thing to do, so we buddy them up. We partner them with a buddy inside the agency to make them feel that connection and start building that very valuable network before they even step foot inside the door.

Once the candidates raise their hand and take the oath, Liming said there should be more to that. “Share some of the cultural things that are happening” in the agency, “so that they feel a sense of belonging right from the beginning,” said Liming.

As for winning the Causey, Liming stammered a bit, saying “I’m just humbled by it because it does… take a village, and I have such a wonderful team that support me that work every bit as hard as I do.”

Congratulations Jennie Liming and team and thank you for your service!

View the complete list of Causey Award winners and check out what Jennie Liming told us in our Get to Know the Winners questionnaire.

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