The NRC dating service?
November 17th, 2009 | HR Management Uncategorized | Posted by Steve Losey
Future NRC engineers? (from CBS' Big Bang Theory)
It seems like everybody’s got a new idea for attracting new talent to the federal government these days. But Jim McDermott, chief human capital officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thinks he’s found a foolproof way to convince young engineers to come to his agency: Find them dates.
“There are incentives, and then there are incentives,” McDermott told a crowd of human resources officials at the HCMF Conference in Arlington, Va., earlier today. ”When we’re hiring, we say, ‘Is there a significant other in the picture?’ If there’s no significant other, I tell them, ‘We can help.’ ”
McDermott said his unorthodox recruitment pitch works because while nuclear engineers may know how to split atoms, they’re not quite so adept on the dating front:
McDermott
“Now, engineers study a lot in college,” McDermott said. “They neglect very important extracurricular activities. My girls went to school with engineers, [and] they said, ‘Dad, they don’t know how to dance, they don’t know how to dress, they don’t even know how to talk.’ ”
Engineers may not necessarily become better dancers by taking a job at NRC, but McDermott said they can meet other single engineers (who probably won’t roll their eyes at Star Trek or lectures on reactor cooling systems). McDermott said NRC’s dating scheme — which he jokingly called “NRC Harmony,” after the eHarmony online dating service — has so far resulted in about eight or nine weddings.
McDermott’s comments made me think of the sitcom Big Bang Theory, which features hopelessly nerdy theoretical physicists and their often-failed efforts to find romance. McDermott said he’s seen bits of the show, which hit close to home: “I thought I was watching something on the NRC.”
Tags: fun
New OPM guidance on ‘burrowing in’
November 9th, 2009 | Agencies HR Management OPM | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
A quick heads-up, in case you haven’t heard: The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo late last week announcing a new policy on political appointees “burrowing in” at the end of an administration.
The memo, from OPM director John Berry, requires all agencies to get OPM’s permission before moving political appointees into career positions (at all levels). OPM previously required permission for such moves only during election years. The policy, which takes effect in 2010, applies to anyone who has held a politically-appointed job in the previous five years.
OPM’s reviews will be conducted by career employees.
“Burrowing in” attracted a lot of attention late last year, as it does every election year: Roughly 20 political appointees switched to career jobs during the waning months of the Bush administration.
Tags: John Berry, political appointees
Partnership for Public Service founder dead at 70
November 9th, 2009 | HR Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Samuel Heyman, the businessman who founded the Partnership for Public Service eight years ago, passed away Nov. 7. The New York Times reported that Heyman died due to complications from open heart surgery.
Heyman was an assistant U.S. attorney at the Justice Department until he entered the private sector in 1968.
OMB director to staff: Step to it.
October 1st, 2009 | Executive Office of the President HR Management OMB Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
As a runner and general fitness nut, I was pleasantly surprised to find a press release in my inbox from the Office of Management and Budget this morning announcing a new mandate for OMB staff: wear a pedometer.
OMB Director Peter Orszag launched the “OMB Pedometer Challenge” today to improve employee health by having everyone wear a pedometer to track their physical activity throughout the day.
Employees will enter their daily steps on an internal Web site and compare their activity levels to Orszag’s activity levels and their division’s levels. They’ll also be able to enter health statistics like body mass index, blood pressure and heart rate to help track improvements in their health.
The employee with the highest activity level each month wins lunch with Orszag and the highest performing team wins a “health happy hour.” Free lunch and/or a free happy hour? That’s inspiration enough for me.
Orszag said:
This challenge will make all of us more aware of our current activity levels and help inspire us to increase our physical activity. Evidence shows that pedometers are one of the most cost-effective ways to increase physical activity. And in true OMB fashion, we like to walk down the path cleared by the best data.”
The challenge is part of a larger effort to improve the health and productivity of the federal workforce, while reducing health care and disability costs, OMB said in the news release.
Firing poor performers: Federal Times wants to hear from you
August 6th, 2009 | HR Management Homeland Security | Posted by Steve Losey
Everybody’s heard the urban legend that it’s impossible to fire a government worker, but Federal Times wants to take a closer look at the federal firing process and find out what’s really going on. And to do that, we’d like to hear from you. Are you a manager who has found it impossible to get rid of the one bad apple in your office who can’t — or won’t — improve? Or has your agency backed you up when you needed to terminate someone for disciplinary reasons or poor performance? On the other hand, are you an employee who lost your job with the government, or did you successfully fight an attempt to remove you? What, if anything, should be done to improve the process?
E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’d prefer that your name not be published, that’s fine by me.
On another subject, I’m also interested in talking to Border Patrol agents and instructors at the Artesia, N.M. training academy about the agency’s massive hiring wave over the last few years. Are the agents hired since 2006 of the same caliber as recruits hired in the past? Has quality of new agents suffered as the agency tried to double its ranks in a few short years? Were you a recruit who decided that a career with the Border Patrol wasn’t for you, and if so, why?
Tags: Border Patrol, Firing, HR Management, performance management, recruitment
Breaking: Task force recommends reconstruction of NSPS
July 16th, 2009 | Defense HR Management Pay & Benefits | Posted by Elise Castelli
From Steve Losey at the Pentagon:
The National Security Personnel System Task Force is about to recommend the Defense Department continue with NSPS with some major revisions, such as improved communications between managers and employees and improved transparency for the pay pool process.
Check back with FederalTimes.com later today for Steve’s full report on the task force’s NSPS recommendations.
Tags: NSPS, NSPS review
Orszag: Poor performers need a plan
May 20th, 2009 | HR Management OMB | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
I’m at the release event for the Partnership for Public Service’s 2009 “Best Places to Work” report, which measures employee satisfaction at agencies across the government. We’ve got a quick summary of the results, and you can view the whole survey (which contains lots of interesting data) here.
One interesting point: OMB director Peter Orszag just gave a quick speech, and he said this about the survey results:
We will be looking to include the results in the fiscal year 2011 budget process, because we should not just let this be a report that generates a one-day news story. It needs to be something that is built into the way we run government.
Orszag went on to say that OMB will ask the poorly-performing agencies to come up with a plan for improving their scores.
OPM to unveil new telework policy
April 28th, 2009 | HR Management | Posted by Steve Losey
The Office of Personnel Management is going to announce the Obama administration’s new telework policy tomorrow morning. OPM Director John Berry, along with Reps. John Sarbanes, D-Md., and Gerald Connolly, D-Va., will outline his plan to improve the government’s efficiency by expanding the use of telework.
In a statement announcing the Capitol Hill press conference, Berry said:
Telework is good for the environment [and] good for the continuity of government operations. It also shows the commitment of President Barack Obama to provide a work/life program that is improving the quality of life for federal employees.
Check back with Federal Times tomorrow to find out what OPM has planned.
Swine flu and flexible hiring
April 27th, 2009 | HR Management | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Steve Losey linked to some OPM guidance on swine flu this morning. One other point to make from my reporting… I’ve talked to a few feds today about their swine flu responses, and they keep mentioning the hiring flexibilities that OPM grants during emergency situations: direct hire authority for doctors and nurses, 120-day temporary contracts to fill vacancies if an employee gets sick, etc.
Obviously the disease hasn’t affected federal agencies yet, and nobody’s sure if it will, but it’s worth being prepared.
GAO: Defense lacks information on acquisition workforce
March 25th, 2009 | Defense HR Management Procurement | Posted by Elise Castelli
The Government Accountability Office issued a blunt assessment of the Defense Department’s grip on its acquisition workforce needs today.
Its opening line:
DoD lacks critical departmentwide information to ensure its acquisition workforce is sufficient to meet its national security mission.
And its second line:
In its acquisition workforce assessments, DoD does not collect or track information on contractor personnel, despite their being a key segment of the total acquisition workforce.
Followed closely by:
DoD also lacks information on why contractor personnel are used, which limits its ability to determine whether decisions to use contractors to augment the in-house acquisition workforce are appropriate. GAO found that program office decisions to use contractor personnel are often driven by factors such as quicker hiring time frames and civilian staffing limits, rather than by the skills needed or the nature or criticality of the work.
GAO made four recommendations:
- Collect and track data on contractor personnel.
- Identify and update on an ongoing basis the number of acquisition personnel and skills they need to fulfill the department’s mission.
- Review and revise the guidance for using contractor personnel to clarify when it is appropriate.Â
- Develop a tracking mechanism to determine whether the guidance has been appropriately implemented across the department.
 DoD concurred with the recommendations.
Tags: acquistion workforce, GAO