FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 29, 2002

Contact: Eldon Girdner (202) 606-2402

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OPM Expands Efforts to Modernize Job Vacancy Announcements
Private Sector Experts Tapped for Expertise

Washington, D.C. � The Office of Personnel Management today announced that its effort to modernize job vacancy announcements has been expanded with additional private sector expertise participating in the Harvard University Executive Session on the Future of Public Service. Kay Coles James, Director of OPM stated, �OPM is committed to making the application for Federal jobs a positive experience that reinforces one�s interest to serve the nation. OPM welcomes the advice of volunteers � we are always looking for good ideas to make our process better. OPM continues to seek creativity both within government and in the private sector in order to accelerate and streamline our systems.�

Since last fall, OPM has been involved in an interagency project to improve Federal Job Vacancy Announcements. The project intends to address the quality of the writing in announcements, the presentation of information, readability, and the appearance of job announcements on the USAJOBS web site (www.usajobs.gov), aiming to make Federal jobs more attractive to job seekers. Today�s announcement is another example of an ongoing effort to tap expertise throughout the nation to reform the Federal hiring process.

Commenting on the public-private partnership between OPM and Harvard, Professor Steven Kelman, one of the leaders of the Harvard executive sessions, stated, �Too many government job announcements are too bureaucratic and do little or nothing to attract people to public service. I am very pleased that some top-flight private sector human resources professionals have volunteered to help the government improve and I salute their public service.�

The individuals advising OPM are:

· Dave Russo, the former head of Human Resources at SAS Institute, which has been listed on the top ten annual Fortune lists of best companies to work for in America. He is now the CEO of Empliant, an Internet-based Human Resource transaction management software for small/medium sized companies (it does not sell products to the government).

· Renee Lerche, a former senior Human Resource official at Ford Motor Company, is currently a professor at the University of Michigan. Ms. Lerche has had extensive experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of competency-based adult education and training systems. She is considered a national authority on adult education and the relationship between education and employment. An author of several books, Ms. Lerche received her doctorate from Harvard University.

Volunteer experts sign legal agreements barring them from business interests with the Federal Government.

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OPM oversees the federal work force and provides the American public with up-to-date employment information. OPM also supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.