Digital Government

Unions Report No Sign of Telework Flexibilities Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Although both OPM and the CDC have strongly encouraged allowing employees to work remotely to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, several agencies have yet to respond to those recommendations.

Cybersecurity

OPM CISO Seeking a Small Business to Help Monitor Agency Cybersecurity

The winning vendor will help the government’s HR department track incidents across 1,000 servers and more than 10,000 devices.  

Digital Government

OPM Proposes Making It Easier to Rehire Former Feds

Under a new plan from the Office of Personnel Management, federal agencies would be able to rehire former federal workers at a higher pay grade than their previous job, provided they were high performers.

Cybersecurity

Watchdog: OPM is At Risk of Not Being Able to Restore IT Systems Post-Disaster

The massive 2015 data breaches that exposed personal information of current and former federal employees are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit. 

Digital Government

Congress Moves to Block OPM-GSA Merger

A provision in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act would first require an independent study of the challenges facing the Office of Personnel Management.

Digital Government

Watchdog: Proposed OPM-GSA Merger Continues to 'Evolve' Despite Lack of Legislation

Officials have continued to examine moving portions of OPM to GSA piecemeal, and still lack documentation for the legal authority and cost benefit analyses, the inspector general said.

Digital Government

The Agencies that Saw the Biggest Gains—and Losses—in Employee Happiness in 2019

Smaller agencies saw the widest swings in employee morale this year, as measured by the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Digital Government

Efforts to Reform Federal Hiring Already Showing Results

Administration officials said that performing pass-fail interviews earlier in the hiring process led to a faster turnaround, better candidates and more hires from public job announcements.

Modernization

How OPM Cut the Paper Out of the Performance Review Process

So far, the USA Performance app tracks more than 35,000 federal employees—a number expected to more than double in 2020.

Digital Government

Senate Appropriators Join House in Blocking OPM-GSA Merger

Senators go with Trump's latest proposal for a 2.6% civilian pay raise for 2020 but no locality increase, while the House has approved an average 3.1% raise.

Digital Government

Trump Administration Seeks to Quash Lawsuit Over OPM Hack

Government says feds are not entitled to damages as hackers intended to use the personal information they gathered for spying, not identity theft or fraud. 

Digital Government

OPM Cuts Security Clearance Backlog in Half, But Processing Delays Spell Trouble for Pentagon

The National Background Investigations Bureau is barreling through the backlog of clearance applications as the Defense Department prepares to take over the function in October.

Digital Government

House Passes Defense Policy Bill with Provision to Block OPM-GSA Merger

The must-pass legislation also includes amendments granting paid family leave and protecting feds’ health insurance during shutdowns.

Modernization

GSA's Centers of Excellence Wants Industry Feedback on Pending OPM Effort

The General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence effort at the Office of Personnel Management is ramping up.

Digital Government

OPM Announces New ‘Data Scientist’ Job Title

Officials hope that an "unofficial" data science marker for federal jobs could help both with recruitment of new federal workers as well as improve evidence-based policymaking and data management efforts.

Digital Government

OPM Still Lacks Legal Analysis of Proposed Merger with GSA

Lawmakers in both parties expressed outrage at the lack of documents provided to support the Trump administration’s proposal.