Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) oversees the management of the federal government’s most important asset—its employees. Although OPM and agencies have made commendable progress in transforming their human capital functions since we first identified strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area in 2001, additional efforts are needed.

• OPM’s responsibilities include leading agencies and holding them accountable for acquiring, developing, retaining, and managing employees with the skills needed to carry out agencies’ diverse missions.
• OPM also helps federal agencies uphold governmentwide values such as merit system principles, veterans’ preference, and workforce diversity, and it administers retirement, health benefits, and other insurance services for employees, annuitants, and beneficiaries.
• In 2001, we identified strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area because human capital shortfalls were eroding the ability of many agencies—and threatening the ability of others—to effectively, efficiently, and economically perform their missions.
  
  Highlights of GAO-01-263 (PDF)