The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, signed into law a year ago this month by President Obama, created a lot of buzz around the word ‘telework.’
According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memorandum, the Act provides a framework for agencies to better leverage technology and to maximize the use of flexible work arrangements, which will aid in recruiting new federal workers, retain valuable talent and allow the government to maintain productivity in various situations. Keep reading →
In 2007, Admiral Thad Allen had a feeling that something was changing in the workforce he led. There was something fundamentally different about the new generation of men and women in the Coast Guard. So Allen, who had become the 23rd Commandant a year earlier, did what nobody would expect a 36-year veteran to do — he embraced social media and started blogging.
“I was sensing a change with the advent of social media and how young people were aggregating [data] and producing behaviors without being in each other’s presence,” said Allen, who spoke to Breaking Gov contributor Dan Verton at his new Booz Allen Hamilton office in McLean, Va., last week about a variety of management topics, including the importance of “meta-leadership” in government. Keep reading →
A recent informal survey of government professionals showed that leadership development training is the top priority for government agencies’ training programs, with leadership development the first priority of 28% of respondents for fiscal year 2011, and the first priority of 38% of the respondents for FY12. The informal survey was conducted by American Management Association (AMA) Enterprise Government Solutions.
It makes sense that government organizations are continuing to focus on leadership development and those skills that make a good leader great, with so many baby boomers retiring, and budgets tight. Keep reading →
A few federal workers gathered last month at a coffee shop in D.C. with the goal of helping other agencies make government available to citizens via mobile technology.
Specifically, they created content for the Making Mobile Gov Wiki. Keep reading →
Employees in the private sector continued to be more satisfied with their jobs, the way their organizations work and their supervisors than their counterparts in the federal government, according to data released this week by the Partnership for Public Service. Keep reading →
Human resource executives expressed doubt Wednesday about attracting and retaining top talent needed to drive innovation, particularly in the current economic climate.
“We are in competition for high demand talent,” said Anne Manganaro, Director of the Office of Strategic Human Capital for the National Reconnaissance Office. “With cuts to the military and potential reductions in DoD on the civilian side, it will be even more difficult. When it comes to a pipeline of technical talent, we’re in a national crisis. It’s effecting out ability to grow. That’s what keeps me up at night.” Keep reading →
The Partnership for Public Service today released the 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings – an important tool for Congress, the Obama administration and agency leaders to measure employee job satisfaction and commitment, gauge federal agency progress and identify signs of trouble.
“When agencies are poorly managed and workers aren’t committed, the public suffers,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Keep reading →
Mistakes happen. Whether you are a politician or a plant manager, you will slip up and make a mistake at work from time to time. The key is knowing how to handle your gaffes to get past them as quickly as possible.
In the past couple of weeks we have seen some excellent examples of crisis management play out in front of us. Republican presidential candidate hopefuls Herman Cain and Rick Perry have both made some serious negative headlines recently, but they have handled their situations quite differently. Keep reading →
When applying to college, students and their parents traditionally have worried about grades, aptitude test scores and application essays. And then there’s the complex financial aid process that requires the submission of detailed tax information.
Supplying the tax data, in fact, has long proven to be a huge headache for many families, and in some cases it’s a major barrier. But thanks to Julie Rushin of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), millions of students and their families are now benefiting from a new user-friendly system that takes away that worry about the tax information. Keep reading →
In his first public address since his appointment as federal CIO, Steven VanRoekel said his first priority will be to maximize the government’s ROI in technology innovation beginning with closing and optimizing data centers.
At an event co-hosted by TechAmerica, TechNet and PARC on Tuesday at the Churchill Club in Palo Alto. Keep reading →