FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 3, 1998

CONTACT: Mary Ann Maloney (202) 606-1800 mamalone@opm.gov

OPM WILL RECEIVE THE 1998 OPTIMAS AWARD FOR SUCCESSFULLY MANAGING CHANGE

Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Office of Personnel Management will beat Hollywoods brightest stars to the awards this year.

The federal human resource agency, led by OPM Director Janice R. Lachance, will be one of 10 recipients of the 1998 Optimas Award. The award is given annually by Workforce Magazine (formerly Personnel Journal) to recognize outstanding achievements in human resources management.

Director Lachance will accept the award at an 8 p.m. ceremony on Thursday, March 5, 1998, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I am honored that OPM has been selected to receive the Optimas Award for its work in reinventing government, said Director Lachance. In the past four years, OPM cut its own workforce in half, crystallized its mission and completed a major redesign to focus on customer service and producing top quality results. Today, as we face the new millennium, OPM stands ready to help agencies prepare for the human resource challenges ahead.

Workforce Magazine describes the Optimas Award as more than acknowledgment of a job well done, more than recognition of something very special. Its really a celebration of the gains made by HR--and in HR-- since the Optimas conception in 1991....They are examples of the heights HR can scale when released from the binds of administrivia and allowed to be forward-thinking, challenging and creative.

Over the past seven years the award has been given to such innovative companies as Ben & Jerrys Homemade Inc., Texas Instruments, Saturn Corp., UPS, Levi Strauss & Co., and McDonalds Corp.

In selecting the agency for the award, Allan Halcrow, Editor-in-Chief of Workforce Magazine said OPM is being recognized in the Managing Change category for an array of innovative, bottom-line labor management initiatives. The agency was recognized for establishing a humane model for downsizing government and providing successful outplacement that has guided other agencies, and for pioneering privatization with the federal governments first Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

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