A new report reflecting the views of 55 top human capital officers in the federal government suggests that the degree of difficulty for federal managers trying to hire and retain the talent government needs to operate today is perhaps higher than ever. Intensifying budget pressures could, however, be the spark needed to reform a stranglehold of antiquated federal hiring and pay practices.
The severity of federal human resources challenges is hard to understate. Keep reading →
The Office of Personnel Management took steps today to extend federal health insurance coverage eligibility to temporary firefighters and fire protection personnel working on wildland fires across the country.
OPM published an interim final regulation under the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program, in response to direction from President Obama, that ensures federal firefighters and their families will have access to the same health insurance afforded to full time federal employees, according to a statement issued by OPM Director John Berry. Keep reading →
Turns out, paying back student loans can result in more and better candidates for job openings within the federal workforce and better retention and satisfaction once they’re hired.
As the No. 1 federal department in helping employees pay back their student loans, the Department of Defense cities the program designed for doing so as a major factor in recruiting and retaining civilian personnel. Keep reading →
COMMENTARY: OPM’s newly issued “2012 Status of Telework in the Federal Government”
report contains new insights on telework, some good news, and at least one major issue that will require close oversight.
Despite the inability to accurately track trends over the previous years due to changes in how the data is being gathered and reported, it’s clear that the use of telework is increasing significantly and also being accepted as a normal and desirable business practice. Keep reading →
Trying to measure the real return on investment for allowing federal employees to telework has inevitably involved a bit more art than science. Intuitively and anecdotally, it seems obvious that giving federal workers more flexibility to work remotely makes smart economic sense; and it goes a long way toward improving employee productivity and satisfaction too.
Yet after years of trying to implement telework policies in the federal government, it’s clear from the Office of Personnel Management‘s first comprehensive report to Congress on Telework, released July 6, that assembling reliable figures about telework implementation is still not an easy task. Keep reading →
Nearly 169,000 federal employees are teleworking at least one day a week but there is a long way to go before the government’s entire workforce of 2.1 million can join the office of the 21st century, OPM said in a report to Congress.
The 2012 Status of Telework in the Federal Government report to Congress, released on July 6, is the first comprehensive look at the government’s telework world and the emerging changes in a culture that once required federal employees to physically be in the office at all times. Keep reading →
The move toward federal telework depends upon federal managers supporting the effort as well as find innovation solutions to problems that come up along the way.
That’s what Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry reportedly told the audience at the Federal Managers Association’s 74th National Convention & Management Training Seminar in Arlington, Va. this week. According to Federal Computer Week, his keynote address emphasized the importance of managers’ role to spearhead and steer the workforce times evolve. Keep reading →
David Bowen, OPM’s new chief technology officer, is using his experience as the FAA’s CIO to modernize the government’s troubled retirement application system.
Bowen, on a one-year detail from the FAA to help fix the government’s outdated pension system and bring its backlog down to zero by 2013, has the background in fixing tough challenges and difficult systems. Keep reading →
Millions of federal employees, retirees and their families will soon be able to benefit from a software tool developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that allows individuals to download their personal health data from the websites of their health plans.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said it has asked all health insurance carriers who participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) to add the tool, known as the “Blue Button” and its functions to personal health record systems on their websites. OPM made the request Dec. 19, 2011, but announced the move publicly Jan. 18. Keep reading →
The story last week about the Office of Personnel Management bringing in a 25-year IT veteran, David Bohen, to serve as its new chief technology officer to concentrate on the agency’s outdated retirement system reminded me of my own recent experience with the federal retirement system.
I left federal government service over a year ago after 30+ years, but decided to delay my formal retirement because I was too busy and had heard about the long delays in processing retirement applications.
In fact, I remember well listening to OPM Director John Berry’s keynote at the FOSE Institute Knowledge Management Conference last May and about the improvements in processing time that had, and would, be made under his leadership. That gave me hope that if I waited a little longer my experience would be better and it was.
I was especially interested in the part of the story that said: “OPM also created a proof of concept of an online retirement application to demonstrate how an electronic, web-based application could be used to collect data from an applicant and his or her agency human resource office that is required when an employee retires. This information could be used to reduce dependence on the current paper process.”
The paper (online PDF) application was the only thing that really bothered me because I thought in this day and age it would be electronic.
So here are the things I learned and the timeline I experienced:
The online PDF form Application for Immediate Retirement (CSRS) and is 20 pages long. (Less than my OMB online security clearance which was over 50 pages long!)
You do not need to complete the Certified Summary of Federal Service part of the form(SF2801 pages 17-20) because your agency should forward that to OPM soon after you leave your agency. The story mentioned “on average, it takes 133 days to process requests for employee salary records from various agency in order to calculate retirement payouts. I really like that OPM starts giving you a interim payment that is usually less than the final calculated amount.
I sent my paperwork on November 22nd. Note: The paperwork should be sent to: US Office of Personnel Management, P.O. Box 440, Boyers, PA 16017-0440, unless you are in a hurry like I was, and then it should be overnighted to: 1137 Branchton Road, Boyers, PA 16017-0440. It cannot be hand-delivered to OPM in Washington, DC.
Keep reading →