OPM's Tech-Savvy Strategy

The Office of Personnel Management is taking a tech-friendly approach to the federal hiring overhaul unveiled by the Obama administration on Tuesday.

Federal employees and the public can find answers to pressing questions about new policies and procedures on OPM's new hiring reform website. Updates on the effort also are available on Facebook and Twitter.

But OPM isn't the sole origin of this tech-savvy strategy. As we told you yesterday, the Obama memo also requires the agency to stand up a public-facing website on all things reform-oriented. The website, which would be developed in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget and in consultation with other agencies, would be used to track key human resource data, including progress on hiring reform implementation. It also would be used to assist senior agency leaders, hiring managers and human resource professionals with identifying and replicating best practices within the federal government for improving new employee quality and the hiring process, according to the hiring reform directive.

The directive also requires OPM within 90 days to begin establishing a governmentwide performance review and improvement process for hiring reform actions, develop a plan to promote diversity in the federal workforce and evaluate the effectiveness of shared registers used in filling positions common across multiple agencies. OPM also must develop a plan to increase the capacity of the USAJOBS website to provide applicants, hiring managers and human resource professionals with information to improve recruitment and hiring processes, the directive states.