In FY 2001, agencies took strategic steps to develop human resources (HR) initiatives in support of the Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program (FEORP). Significant HR activities, described in individual agency submissions, serve as a resource for agencies to use in developing their own programs. The HR initiatives fall into four categories: workforce planning, recruitment and outreach, mentoring, and career development opportunities. The HR initiatives complement agency activities listed under the Hispanic Nine-Point Plan.
Workforce Planning
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed workforce demographics and retirement eligibility data. These enable management officials to plan for the effective use of human resources, integrating such planning with the budget and program planning processes, and documenting results. As a result, managers are more aware of the need for investment in human capital.
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) anticipates conducting extensive trend analysis of its recruiting, hiring, training, career development, and awards. These data will be used to affect a more focused recruitment and retention program.
One of the corporate objectives of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is implementing a new succession management program to help the agency meet its leadership needs due to retirements over the next five years. The "Leaders Growing Leader Pilot Program" (LGL) began in the second quarter of 2001. LGL provides participants with short/long term assignments outside the candidate's technical areas of expertise; online, onsite, and external training; senior advisors as mentors; and participation in the Council for Excellence Fellows Program.
One of the agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed an in-depth Recruitment Plan for each of its organizations. It analyzed workforce data to determine the significant losses or gains, diversity profiles including comparing the civilian labor data against the agency data. This information allowed the agency to develop different recruitment strategies to address the underrepresentation of targeted groups and outline factors to look for in the overall retention of employees.
The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses several agency-wide activities that link results of strategic workforce planning to long-term recruitment strategies currently underway. The Affirmative Employment Oversight Board, appointed by the FAA Administrator, provides senior executive oversight for agency employment, development and retention programs and initiatives, and ongoing accomplishments and efforts. The Five-Year National Recruitment Plan will identify innovative recruitment and marketing strategies, tools, and processes that focus on underrepresentation. These include expanding the use of targeted technology-based recruitment tools and resources, expand the use of external search firms and evaluate FAA's ongoing efforts and accomplishments. In light of a projected increase in retirements, FAA will use the Executive Workforce Planning System to manage and develop talent to fill its executive needs. Also FAA intends to undergo several benchmarking activities with outside web-based organizations to identify more practical recruitment vehicles and sources and encourage their lines of business to post their "all sources" vacancies on these websites.
Recruitment and Outreach
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established and trained a Hispanic Recruitment Cadre who participate in a full range of department-wide recruitment events. This Cadre consists of 60 USDA employees from across the country. USDA’s Forest Service has developed Multicultural Workforce Strategic Initiatives, which include outreach and recruitment of Hispanic students preparing for bachelor's degrees and careers in natural resources. USDA used recruitment bonuses for hard to fill locations. In addition, payment of travel expenses to the first post of duty was authorized for persons in hard to fill locations. USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service continued an intensive recruitment effort dealing with shortage job categories to meet the goal of hiring 638 new in-plant employees. The advertising campaign includes 250 advertisements in national and local publications, formal recruitment visits to more than 54 educational institutions, and outreach to veterinary candidates, including mass mailing to over 6,000 prospective candidates. Through these activities, the Agency hired 553 new inspectors and 85 veterinarians, of which 59 percent were minorities and women.
The Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Office of the Secretary (OS) uses an Event Survey Form to evaluate the effectiveness of recruiting sources from job fairs. OS has a web-based Job Fair Resume Database, which stores all of the resumes collected at career and job fairs. All managers, supervisors and human resources staff at DOC have access to this automated application and vacancy announcement system. Information from brochures describing agency positions and hiring incentives is available on DOC's automated application system, the Commerce Opportunities OnLine (COOL).
The DOC continues to use its Intern MOU as a tool to establish agreements between itself and other Federal agencies. This initiative helps Federal agencies whose intern requirements are too small to justify the resources necessary to create an administrative infrastructure internally. In addition, the DOC continues to use its Postsecondary Internship Program, a student enrichment program that provides college-level interns to the Department. It serves as a pipeline for opportunities in student and career employment, especially to bring Hispanic students into professional and technical occupations. The interns are not DOC employees, and therefore, do not affect Full Time Equivalent ceiling levels.
The Census Bureau within DOC has an Electronic Hiring system for students who match the needs of hiring managers. This interactive Internet on-line application is for users in the temporary student program.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within DOC continues to be active in the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) a private, non-profit consortium of 87 colleges and universities, to develop capabilities critical to the nation's science and engineering infrastructure. Annually, ORAU supports approximately 2,600 individuals (undergraduates, graduate students, postgraduates, and faculty) in internships, research participation and other educational programs in 100 Federal laboratories and research centers across the country. It includes participants from HSIs.
NIST participates in the District of Columbia Metropolitan Consortium for Mathematics, Science and Engineering, whose goal is to motivate and prepare elementary through high school students to pursue careers in mathematics, science, engineering and technology. The program includes curriculum enrichment presentations and engineering clubs. The Career Awareness and Resource Education Program encourages exploration of the sciences through science kits, videos, field trips and presentations by the scientific staff. In addition, science demonstration kits are provided to teachers for use in classrooms. Kamp Kwal-I-Fire is a summer studies program for University of Maryland graduates preparing for the Chemical Physics Ph.D. qualifier exam. The Kamp consists of regular meetings with NIST scientists, University of Maryland faculty, and students who discuss problems posed in previous qualifier examinations.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has established a toll free phone line and websites for its Student Career Experience and Entry-Level Professional Accountant Programs. DFAS sponsors Hispanic cultural and awareness training for all employees and management staff are encouraged to attend.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) provides agency-wide information through its website and uses commercial websites to increase the potential for attracting a diverse pool of applicants.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) conducts monthly resume preparation briefings. Participants may include other DOD agencies and departments. Participants receive guidance on how to prepare electronically scannable resumes for their automated staffing system. The OSD World Wide Web provides employment information such as vacancy announcements to internal and external customers. Customers can prepare and submit their resumes electronically through the on-line Resume Builder. Customers who need assistance to develop their resumes find help on-line with the Job Kit. The website also provides information on Special Employment Programs including the PMI Program and the Minority Institutions Faculty Fellowship Program. Through their INFO LINE customers can use their touch-tone telephones to call and order documents and have them delivered via their fax machine in a matter of minutes. Available items include vacancy announcements and the Job Kit.
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho Operations Office and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) support Hispanic education through an outreach program. The INEEL sponsors the Idaho Hispanic Youth symposium, which brings 300 Hispanic high school students to Sun Valley, Idaho each year to hear motivational speakers, attend career workshops, and compete for over $300,000 in college scholarships. This program serves as a pipeline for bringing talented Hispanic students into the INEEL.
Several employees in DOE's Office of Science (SC) are active mentors for high school students in the local community. For example, several local high school students volunteer to work in SC a few hours each day as part of their school curriculum. These students are given challenging work assignments and are encouraged to pursue college courses after high school. Depending on their interests, they are teamed up with a senior-level employee who will work closely with the individual and provide meaningful work assignments. The Albuquerque Operations office has a mentoring program through the Project Partnership's membership is an organization that has various programs, including mentoring, to motivate young people to pursue higher education and Federal careers. Project Partnership is comprised of Federal, State, and private industry employers that work with young people from the New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement Program and Youth Development, Inc.
One of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA's) regional offices has developed a formal program for recruitment, selection, and development of the Student Career Experience Program employees. The program includes individual development plans (IDPs) for each student, brown bag sessions with senior managers, field trips, and a buddy system. Supervisors are trained to inform the students of their responsibilities for making the program successful. The regional offices’ objectives are to build a diverse base of entry-level scientists, engineers, and administrative employees, including information technology professionals and environmental protection specialists.
In another EPA regional office, the Human Resources staff surveyed regional managers and 73 employees hired within the last three years to assess what recruiting efforts have worked and why. The response rate was 47 percent and the respondents indicated that most of the region's new employees learned about employment opportunities at that region's office through relatives and friends. That source was followed by the school career centers and the Internet. Another region reported that its success in recruiting and training women and minorities can be attributed primarily to management support and the excellent working relationship between the Human Resources Office and its Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO).
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has developed a Diversity Recruitment Guide (DRG), which lists numerous professional, academic, and social communities from which to recruit a diverse workforce. The guide is available on the agency's web site, InSite. The DRG lists the names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of these organizations. Accordingly, offices can easily develop mailing labels, which can be used to mail out vacancy announcements. In addition to using the DRG as a recruitment tool, the agency recognized a need to reduce time frames for recruiting and hiring employees. As a result, EEOC purchased and began initial implementation of an automated tool for recruiting and staffing positions. The tool also makes it easier for job applicants to apply, which creates larger, better qualified and more diverse applicant pools. In addition, EEOC has standardized its vacancy announcements to ensure that applicants are not discouraged from applying.
The EEOC continues its efforts towards retatining a diverse and qualified workforce. This includes reminnding managers of the importance of collecting analyzing data on separations, including the reasons, from the agency. EEOC’s Office of Human Resources is currently tracking separations and exploring a comprehensive strategy for employee retention.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) supports a variety of minority-focused fellowships and internships. For example, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) support the Public Health Summer Fellowship for Minorities, which provides students with opportunities to work in a project area relating to epidemiological investigation, community projects, or laboratory study. The program addresses the shortage of minority professionals in public health. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have maintained active participation on the Dunbar-Hopkins Health Partnership Advisory Board as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding, which established a partnership between the school and the agency. EEO staff conducted mock employment interviews with graduating seniors at Dunbar.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within HHS has advertised 29 positions using on-line application procedures. This system continues to attract a large number of diverse applicants. HHS is able to review applications before the announcements close and they are rated and ranked using the automated system. Diversity groups are also quickly identified as are veterans and individuals with disabilities. The advantage to the on-line system is the ease of monitoring a large applicant pool. A recruiter may quickly see if additional targeting of a specific occupational series is needed. After a full year of data has been collected, more analyses can be completed.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has made many changes to the way in which it advertises its vacancies. As needed, HUD follows these initiatives to locate qualified minorities and women for employment. For instance, HUD will expand the geographical area of consideration for position vacancy announcements to ensure the broadest practical spectrum of applicants, with emphasis on minorities and women. HUD will also extend the closing date on position vacancy announcements to ensure receipt and adequate response time and use paid advertisements. It will continue to use the HUD Intern Program to recruit qualified minorities and women for employment. Further, HUD will restrict position vacancy announcements at the Department when there is an available pool of qualified employees identified as underrepresented. Finally, HUD will redesign mid-level vacant positions at the entry level with career advancement potential for lower graded employees including the use of the Upward Mobility Program. HUD's external and internal announcements include a statement noting that proficiency in languages other than English is highly desirable, particularly for frontline, customer service positions
The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is partnering with Region VI of the Forest Service to recruit for the FY 2001 fire crew. Along with the Fish and Wildlife Service, they signed a partnering agreement with the National Society of Minorities in Agricultural, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences. Also, BLM appointed representatives to DOI's National Fire Plan Advisory Group to discuss recruitment and retention issues facing the FY 2002 fire program. Through the use of the web-based automated recruitment and rating system, the DOI has seen more a The 100% increase in applications per job and per announcement over the last 15 months.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), through its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) designed an Internship Program to allow college students to volunteer their services to the FBI while earning college credit, and concurrently fostering a relationship between the FBI and the academic community. This program also serves as a method of contributing to the learning experience of highly motivated students interested in careers in law enforcement. This program provides considerable assistance to the mission of the FBI and provides an outstanding learning environment for highly motivated college students.
An organization in the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) within DOJ partnered with the local community college and devised a law enforcement degree program that will give credit for the Border Patrol Academy curriculum and provide courses to satisfy requirements for an Associate of Arts degree in law enforcement. INS Border Patrol Agents have adopted schools in which they tutor students in reading, serve as role models, and participate in special recognition ceremonies. In some schools, Border Patrol Agents have been invited to serve as "Principal for a Day."
The Department of Labor's (DOL) FEORP database continues to be a productive referral system for applicants recruited through all sources. Consistent with agencies' FEORP recruitment goals, these applicants are proactively referred to agencies and regions for consideration in vacancies for which they may qualify. Staff members in the human resource office stay in touch with the applicants and advise them of employment opportunities at DOL. The FEORP database now includes information for over 500 potential applicants. The DOL redefined its image to focus on recruiting for the 21st Century. Several DOL agencies showcased their recruitment materials at the “21st” Century Workshop Conference and Job Fair, sponsored by the Secretary of Labor. This program brought more than 125 local employers together with hundreds of job seekers. The Workforce Planning and Diversity Center, within the Human Resources Center, was established to ensure the integration of workforce planning initiatives with recruitment and special emphasis program initiatives.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has introduced a new resume management process and system that will change how its human resources offices accomplish recruiting and staffing, how applicants apply for jobs, and how referral lists are provided to managers. The new automated Staffing and Recruiting System (NASA STARS) uses state-of-the-art technology that provides Internet job postings with the opportunity for employees and the public to apply on-line. It includes a computer-assisted rating and referral system to simplify and expedite hiring and enables the creation of a skill database.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) uses a variety of recruitment methods and sources. For example, NSF modifies supervisory performance plans to hold supervisors accountable for making meaningful efforts to increase diversity in the workforce. The organization also establishes cross-divisional recruitment committees to assist with identifying minority candidates for vacancies. Senior leaders have been asked to provide information on best practices, roadblocks, and any additional resources needed to attract and maintain a diverse, professional staff. NSF endorses comprehensive, nationwide searches for executive positions as well as for its scientific and technical positions. Subscribers to NSF's Custom News Service have access to all NSF publications, including vacancy announcements, and may request e-mail notification of specific vacancies as they are posted. These electronic advancements in disseminating information have revolutionized the ability of the Foundation to bring its announcements to the attention of the science and engineering community, as well as the general public.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) received recognition for its college recruitment efforts in the October 8, 2001 edition of the Federal Employee News Digest. The article stressed PBGC's mission and the need for graduates with pension law-related training.
Social Security Administration (SSA) has designated six of its regions as recruitment hubs with responsibility for identifying potential applicants for jobs in any SSA component and sharing this information with recruiters nationwide. In addition, SSA established multidisciplinary recruitment teams with hiring authority that actively participate in job fairs and career days. SSA monitors the progress of the recruitment strategies by providing all executive staff with monthly reports on the status of its nationwide hiring efforts.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) reports that because of continued emphasis on restructuring and continued budgetary constraints, many DOT organizations have reduced hiring. Therefore, much of the recruitment continues to be dissemination of career information and image building. However, DOT has been targeting minorities for temporary promotions, details, and special assignments during this period to provide ample developmental opportunities.
DOT’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recognizes the value of pre-college outreach programs. In these programs, the students are presented with opportunities to involve themselves in transportation related disciplines. FHWA believes that active participation in these programs will provide opportunity for developing and strengthening relationships with education institutions and minority groups.
DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) continues to review existing position descriptions before vacancies are advertised to analyze whether the occupational series may be changed from a specialized series to a more general series whenever feasible. FRA has taken a broad-spectrum recruitment approach, and is announcing the majority of GS-13 and above position vacancies as "all sources," accepting applications from individuals both within and outside the Federal government.
The Coast Guard within DOT continues to encourage "governmentwide" and "all sources" recruiting, and is developing an electronic catalog of minority recruitment sources for automatic notification of vacancies, using the new automated system in FY 2002. DOT's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) centers recruitment activities on balancing the rate of turnover, with an intensive recruitment and staffing initiative. To attract new employees OIG expanded its outreach to individuals with qualitative and quantitative skills by recruiting in the GS-0343, Management and Program Analyst occupational series in a wide range of grade levels. In addition, this approach helped OIG include individuals whose backgrounds were not in the traditional accounting/auditing occupational categories typical of most Inspector General organizations. OIG advertised executive positions with prominent organizations and publications, such as the Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association and the Washington Hispanic Newspaper.
In light of a projected increase in retirements, DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will use the Executive Workforce Planning System to manage and develop talent to fill its executive needs. FAA also plans to undergo several benchmarking activities with outside web-based organizations to identify more practical recruitment vehicles and sources and encourage their lines of business to post their "all sources" vacancies on these web sites.
The Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) established a cadre of full-time recruiters to support its recruitment efforts. The recruiters were aligned to specific college and universities, including HSIs. The recruiters were augmented by community outreach liaisons-volunteer employee organizations located across the United States. New brochures and recruitment flyers depicting IRS employees from targeted minority groups were given to full-time recruiters to distribute at career fairs. IRS designed its career web site to provide online access to employment information. The website highlighted IRS seasonal positions and focused on sites for professional organizations, college recruitment sites, special interests, and sites promoting diversity.
Treasury’s Secret Service considers each employee a potential recruiter and has distributed an Employee Recruiter Handbook to ensure that employees provide accurate and consistent information to all potential applicants.
Treasury’s Bureau of Public Debt implemented a user-friendly Electronic 52-integrated program, which allows vacancy announcements to be easily placed on the Internet, thus broadening the scope of potential Hispanic applicants who will be reached.
Mentoring
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has an agency sponsored Mentoring Program, which includes mentorees from grades GS-6 to GS-13. A number of the mentors participating in this year's program are from the SES level. The 8-month facilitative program for career guidance consisted of 9 partnerships. Mentorees attended career development training, participated in job shadowing, developed individual development plans, and received one-on-one and collective career development counseling.
The Department of Commerce’s (DOC) National Institue of Standards and Technology (NIST) formed the Harris County Honors Programs Partnership with four community colleges to provide experiential training to enhance academic and professional development. The Professional Research Experience Program provides laboratory experience and financial assistance for higher education students. These fellowships are designed to ensure the continued growth of science and engineering in the country. The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program is a partnership project between NIST and the National Science Foundation (NSF) with American colleges and universities. The project, designed to expose outstanding physics students to world-class research for 12 weeks during the summer, offers hand-on work experience with NIST scientists.
The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) San Antonio facility has a mentoring and student employment program.
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Undergraduate Training Assistance Program (UTAP) provides a select number of high school seniors the opportunity to receive up to $17,000 per year college tuition, a yearly salary, work experiences during summer months, and full-tine employment upon graduation from college. The Hispanic Employment Program Council (HEPC) has sponsored workshops on mentoring, training opportunities, and career development. DIA has a formal mentoring process for new employees, which HEPC uses as a network to reach out to all Hispanic employees for career development and support.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed and implemented a new Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP) to improve the pipeline of undergraduate students majoring in engineering, science, mathematics, and information technology in to the NASA workforce. This stipend program consists of a 10 to 15 week research experience under the supervision of a NASA technical mentor at a NASA Center.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) offered two mentoring programs for employees in grades GS-5 through GS-14 in the professional and technical occupations.
Career Development Opportunities
The Department of the Air Force (AF) has 17 career development programs designed to develop, advance, and retain high potential employees. Each centrally managed career program assesses its minority representation within the career fields and establishes recruitment strategies to target underrepresented groups.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) Management Partners Program was a 12-month pilot program sponsored by the Office of Training. Participants who ranged in grades GS-13 to GS-15 were given preparatory SES level training. When the program was completed, the participants drafted and presented findings and recommendations to senior level managers.
The Department of Commerce’s (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers year-long details as Program Analysts through its the Program Office Developmental Opportunity program. Many of NIST's top management officials completed this program.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) provides substantial continuing education to its auditors who need to be highly skilled in contract audit techniques and methodologies, especially during the first few years of employment. DCAA auditors are hired at the entry level of positions that have promotion potential to the GS-12. Also DCAA has a Master Training and Development Plan to assist managers in determining organizational training needs and achieves a balance between functional and leadership development. As part of their required training, newly appointed supervisory auditors must complete the DCAA Supervisory Skills Workshop that is conducted at the Defense Contract Audit Institute.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has a graduate and undergraduate training program for high-performing civilian employees. The agency also has a leadership development program.
The Defense Security Service (DSS) helps to ensure that its workforce realizes its performance potential through the DSS Academy program for computer-based training. A significant operational goal of the program is to achieve a systematic approach to individual employee development. Each DSS employee should understand how different training programs work, that is, how opportunities are decided upon, how they are advertised, applied for, and how selections are made.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has several career development programs. A total of 1,055 employees participated in career development programs. The Merit Promotion Upward Mobility Program provides for substitution of training time for required experience until the participants meet the applicable qualification requirements. The DLA Program for Developing Managers is provided to employees through a contract with the Simmons College Graduate School of Management. The DLA offers a Tuition Assistance Program with a maximum of four college courses per year. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducts internal recruitment as an important component of human resource management that provides individual opportunities for employees. This is done through establishing individual development plans and using the Career Opportunity Training Agreement program as a tool for providing upward mobility training. Past experience has shown that by using this approach the Agency can target FEORP occupations and develop internal employees to solve the problems of underrepresentation as well as increase employee morale and retention, which benefits both the employee and the Agency.
The Department of Labor (DOL) instituted its Clerical Support Program to train entry level candidates seeking permanent or temporary employment in administrative and support staff positions. The program provides introductory training, guidance, supervision, and skills development while they complete rotational assignments throughout the DOL agencies. The DOL Hispanic Employment Program Committee partnered with OPM to host another seminar at DOL headquarters.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provides a broad range of challenging work experiences as well as high quality internal development programs for its employees. The formal programs in combination with informal developmental processes (i.e., mentoring, on-the-job training, rotational assignments, ad hoc committees, boards and panels, and high visibility special projects) provide an effective range of options for custom-tailoring developmental experiences of employees to meet individual needs and organizational objectives. NASA also established its Administrator's Fellowship Program (NAFP) to enhance the professional development of NASA employees and the science and engineering faculties of minority universities. The Fellowship Office of the National Research Council administers NAFP. The fellowships awarded to NASA employees have enabled them to serve as exchange scientists/engineers/managers at these educational institutions for periods ranging from six months to one year. These fellowships have empowered NASA career employees to teach and conduct research in science/engineering, and assist in an administrative capacity at these institutions.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is currently revamping its training and development strategy to meet the needs of its diverse workforce. NARA is engaging in a competency modeling initiative with OPM to identify agency-wide leadership competencies. These will be used to design a competency-based leadership curriculum.
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) After Hours Program provides financial assistance for tuition and allowable class-related fees to a limited number of competitively selected employees who are eager to continue their education to advance in their careers. Employees enrolled in this program are assigned a counselor who provides ongoing career counseling and mentoring. Counselors also assist participants in preparing their development plans and in selecting appropriate courses to meet their career goals. An After Hours counselor is an agency employee with at least a bachelor's degree and/or academic background related to a participant's field of study.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) restructured vacant jobs so that they could be filled with internal trainees. This approach was used to fill positions for Benefits Specialists and Customer Service Specialists in the Retirement Operations Center. OPM also reconfigured Information Technology positions at the trainee level to hire Computer Specialists and Analysts. This allowed for upward mobility opportunities for internal candidates, many of who were women.
Many Department of Transportation (DOT) organizations have reduced hiring because of continued emphasis on restructuring and continued budgetary constraints. However, they have been targeting minorities for temporary promotions, details, and special assignments during this period to provide ample developmental opportunities.
DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) implemented a professional development program that commits 4 percent of payroll and time for employee development. Each employee has an account for tracking developmental activities and cost.
The Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) expanded its Career Development Initiative, which was designed to foster training and career development for support staff. Employees participated in the first National Support Staff Conference, held in April 2001. The conference featured such subjects as thinking and talking like a leader, and improving information technology skills. In another initiative, OCC implemented a pilot Examination Technician Program, which was designed to test the effectiveness of using paraprofessionals as part of the regular bank examination staff.
Other Efforts
The Department of the Interior (DOI) involved its organizations at every juncture in implementing the DOI Strategic Plan for Improving Diversity. Under the Plan, the job performance of all Senior Executives is measured against a workforce diversity critical element. All SES vacancy announcements require documentation of outreach efforts. This plan was one of the first ones developed in the Federal government and has been used as a model by several agencies.