U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

OPM Deputy Director Blair Testifies Before Congress
on the Strategic Management of Human Capital
in the Federal Work Force

Washington, D.C. -- Dan G. Blair, Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, testified on the state of the federal work force before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform.

Blair delivered the good news that while the number of retirement eligible employees remains high, the mass exodus that was predicted has not occurred. Separation rates have actually declined, and as the recent release of OPM’s Human Capital Survey shows, over 90 percent of federal employees think their work is vitally important.

Reiterating the collaborative efforts between OPM, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office on adopting Human Capital Standards for Success to help agencies address their human capital management more strategically, Blair stated that agencies are no longer just satisfied with filling a vacancy. Agencies now recognize the need to assess the strategic value of the position and the competencies required to perform the job.

In addition, Blair cited the Administration’s proposal to allocate $500 million for a new Human Capital Performance Fund to allow agencies to give extra pay raises based on an employee’s superior performance or possession of skills critical to the agency’s mission. The Fund provides an incentive for agencies to begin making meaningful distinction in and rewarding superior individual performance. “Our concern is that we don’t maintain the status quo,” said Blair. “When pay is not performance-based, it is unacceptable.”

Blair stated that most attention, however, will be paid to the actions of OPM Director Kay Coles James and Secretary Tom Ridge in designing new pay and personnel systems to bring together the employees of the 22 agencies that now make up the Department of Homeland Security. A design team, made up of a cross-section of department employees, including frontline employees and union representatives, is meeting to develop a series of options for the new human resource systems. These options will be delivered to a senior review committee that will develop recommendations for Secretary Ridge and Director James sometime this fall.

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.