Federal HR

Welcome to the federal human resources community web pages. Here you will find updates on laws and regulations affecting federal HR as well as information about training opportunities.

Training Opportunities: The IPMA-HR International Training Conference scheduled for October 2-6 in Seattle, Washington features a track specially designed for the federal HR practitioner.

News: September 1, 2010 - The Partnership for Public Service released their annual report on the best places to work in the federal government.  According to the Best Places to Work analysis, employee satisfaction is at an all-time high of 65 out of 100, a 7.4 percent jump from 2003 when the rankings were first released, with 68 percent of agencies improving their index score since the last rankings in 2009. The primary drivers are effective leadership and a belief by employees that their skills are well-suited to their agency’s mission. Find out which agencies top the list of best places to work: http://ourpublicservice.org/OPS/

Federal Hiring Reform – President Obama announced hiring reforms on May 11, 2010. The reforms include the elimination of KSAs and substituting resumes and cover letters, requiring the use of category ratings instead of the rule of 3, and requiring managers to be more fully involved in the hiring process. OPM and OMB are tasked with reducing hiring time and measuring the speed and quality of the process. OPM has created a website focused on these changes: http://www.opm.gov/HiringReform/Index.aspx

Disabilities & Hiring - On July 26, President Obama issued an executive order to increase federal hiring of individuals with disabilities. The order directs three agencies to establish model recruitment and hiring strategies and develop mandatory training programs for both human resources personnel and hiring managers on the employment of individuals with disabilities.

Telework – A bill that would require federal agencies to permit telework eligible employees to work up to 20 percent of the time off site was passed by the House of Representatives on July 14 by a vote of 290-131. The Telework Improvements Act (H.R. 1722), codifies the governmentwide telework policy that Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry announced in April 2009.  In the Senate, S. 707 the “Telework Enhancement Act” requires agencies to create teleworking policies and procedures for eligible employees.

Roosevelt Scholars Act – IPMA-HR has endorsed legislation to create a civilian ROTC program by offering scholarships in mission-critical fields including science, engineering, public health, information technology, foreign languages and law, in exchange for a federal service commitment. The Roosevelt Scholars Act (H.R. 2789, S. 3510) would establish a small foundation to administer the scholarships (tuition and living expenses) of up to $60,000 per year, for a maximum of five years, in return, these scholars would commit to three to five years of service in a federal government agency.

Enhanced Retirement for Federal Employees – A bill to allow retiring federal employees and those leaving federal service to contribute unused annual leave to their Thrift Savings Account Plans (TSP) was introduced on March 17, 2010.  The “Federal Employees and Uniformed Services Retirement Equity Act of 2010” (H.R. 4865) was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Serviceand District of Columbia on March 24, 2010.