The Office of Personnel Management tweeted on Tuesday that it is making notable progress on its federal hiring reform initiative. A new video on the agency's website highlights some changes the agency is making, including a blog to connect human resources professionals and an online tool to educate managers about good recruiting.
Rob Shriver, senior legal counsel to the hiring team at OPM, explains in the video what changes OPM is making or has planned to reform federal hiring. One new initiative is an "HR to HR" blog, which will allow for real-time communication between HR professionals and hiring managers.
OPM also is rolling out a tool called USAJOBs Recruit, a one-stop shop for hiring managers and HR staff to learn about good recruiting and take advantage of best practices across government, Shriver said.
"These are tools we are leveraging to communicate better with the HR community and see how we're doing," he said. "We're not going to wait until the end of 180 days to see how this is going. We're going to have a continuous assessment and make any tweaks that are necessary along the way."
OPM also is working to limit job announcements to three pages, allow applicants to submit just a resume as their application and use category rating to assess applicants. The agency also is working on a new tool that will point applicants to other jobs that are similar to ones they've applied for, Shriver added.
President Obama last spring unveiled plans to reform and revolutionize the process agencies use to hire government workers. The plan requires agencies to eliminate essay-style questions from federal applications and allow individuals to submit only resumes and cover letters in applying for jobs.
What are your thoughts on the progress made on hiring reform? Will embracing a tech-savvy strategy -- like blogs and social media tools for HR pros and hiring managers -- be effective in some agency cultures that aren't necessarily "wired to share?"
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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