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

OPM Goals

Goal 3

Objective 2

Facilitate retirement income security for Federal employees by making the transition from active employment to retirement seamless and expeditious.

The program designs of the Civil Service and Federal Employees Retirement Systems (CSRS and FERS), as defined in title 5 of the U.S. Code, provide Federal employees with a secure retirement income. OPM facilitates this outcome by ensuring that Federal employees are prepared for retirement and that retirement incomes are not placed at risk by a lengthy, confusing and cumbersome retirement process. After they transition from active employment to retirement, OPM maintains annuitants’ income security by providing them on-going account maintenance services and responding to inquiries about their benefits. Similarly for the survivors of deceased Federal employees and annuitants, OPM ensures that these individuals quickly and efficiently receive the survivor benefits to which they are entitled.

The CSRS and FERS programs were established before today’s modern, technology-based business environment came into existence, and before the resources for handling large retirement programs like the CSRS and the FERS existed outside the Federal sector. Thus, OPM is committed to modernizing this system to meet future demands.

Strategies

• Work aggressively to ensure financial integrity of the retirement trust funds.
• Tailor communications to the individual needs of customers.
• Leverage technology to improve service delivery by implementing Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM) and expanding self-service systems.
• Study retirement program services and determine the most efficient and effective way to deliver these services.
• Work with agencies to improve their part of the retirement process.

Performance Indicators/Measures

OPM will achieve its objective for the Retirement Program when Federal employees are prepared for retirement and know what to expect when they retire; all annuitants receive the correct benefit they have earned on the day these payments are due; and all program customers receive consistent, timely and accurate on-going services and communications from the retirement system throughout their Federal career and retirement years. To determine if these outcomes are being achieved, OPM collects data from its business systems that assess the timeliness, accuracy and efficiency of its claims processing and customer service functions. OPM surveys annuitants (The Retirement Insurance Service (RIS) Client Satisfaction Survey) and maintains a strategic relationship with agency human resources offices, especially benefits officers, to ensure employees receive accurate and consistent benefits counseling throughout their Federal careers. The information collected from these various sources is assembled in a balanced array of performance indicators that enable OPM to assess performance from a variety of perspectives, as shown below:

• The average times for processing new claims will improve so annuitants begin receiving their full monthly annuity payments when they are first due according to the Retirement Law;
• The number of claims processed per FTE will increase and the average cost per claim will be reduced;
• The percent of claims processed accurately will increase;
• Our already high levels of customer satisfaction with retirement program services will improve;
• The percentage of customer telephone calls we handle will increase even as the volume of calls we receive increases;
• The percentage of customer transactions handled by self-service systems will increase;
• The efficiencies resulting from self-servicing will drive an increase in the number of customer service transactions processed per FTE and reduce the average cost per unit for these transactions;
• We will more clearly identify the causes of erroneous payments and pursue initiatives to prevent their occurrence; and
• Our on-going efforts to improve training and informational materials for agency benefits officers and staff regarding the benefit programs will result in their increased knowledge and access to tools and information concerning the benefit programs. As a result, more Federal employees will receive the counseling they need to plan their retirement and make other benefit related decisions.

We also use data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index that compares the satisfaction of Federal annuitants to customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services purchased in the United States.

Goal 1    Objective 1    Objective 2    Objective 3    Objective 4

Goal 2    Objective 1    Objective 2

Goal 3    Objective 1    Objective 2    Objective 3