OPM BRINGS DECISION-MAKING CLOSER TO CUSTOMERS
BY RESTRUCTURING FIELD SERVICES

Washington, D.C. -- In an effort to further enhance customer service in its field operations and reduce layers of bureaucracy, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management today announced the reduction of management and overhead positions in the five Regional Offices across the country.

OPM customers outside the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area now will receive employment service information from 24 OPM Service Centers located throughout the country. In addition to providing the public with the latest federal job openings, the Service Centers also assist other federal agencies with their recruitment and examination needs.

The Service Centers also will provide merit systems oversight and effectiveness services to federal agencies. This includes preserving and protecting a merit system where the goal is to ensure fairness to all federal employees and job applicants. The Service Centers will provide employee and labor relations guidance, performance management direction and training leadership services.

The streamlining directly links the front-line Service Centers to the program offices in Washington, D.C., headquarters.

"The restructuring results from the need to focus limited resources where they really count--on service delivery," said OPM Director Jim King. "Only by reducing unnecessary overhead and multi-level, duplicative management layers are we able to meet our customers' demands with greater efficiency and at a lower cost."

The action comes at a time when the federal government is reorganizing the basic way it does business. "Our customers must come first," said Director King. "It is only by empowering our front-line employees in the Service Centers and utilizing modern communications and automation technologies that we will bring our program direction in line with our customers' needs."

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Web page created 2 December 1997