Employees to Get Help Advancing to Executive Ranks
FrontLines - August 2009
USAID will begin a new program
to help GS-15 employees rise to the Senior Executive Service (SES) ranks.
Modeled after similar programs already in use in the federal government,
the Agency program aims to help motivated people with strong executive potential reach the upper echelons of the Civil Service.
The program grew out of discussions by the Executive Diversity Council and the Office of Human Resources.
“USAID has a diverse pool of talented Civil Service employees who have the potential to serve in senior level positions,” said Agency Counselor Lisa Chiles, who chairs the diversity council. “However, to be selected for Senior Executive Service positions
in USAID, employees must be certified as eligible by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).”
The program’s formal name is the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program. Participants will spend between 12 and 18 months in structured classes and hands-on training. And there will be two rotational assignments to different positions either within the Agency or outside to other organizations where the SES trainees
will be asked to put their skills to use, said Ruth Derr, a human resources specialist who runs many of the Agency’s training programs.
Only people who are at the GS-15 level can apply and just five or six candidates will be selected for the first class, which is scheduled
to begin later this year.
The first preparatory sessions for people interested in the program
were to begin in August. They will include a primer on the SES program and details about how to apply.
The program is rigorous and competitive by design, said Sandra Wiggins, deputy director
of the Office of Human Resources. Think of it as having a full-time job and attending night school at the same time, she said.
“As anyone who has been through the process can tell you, it is not easy to meet all of OPM’s eligibility requirements,” Chiles added.
People who successfully complete the program and become certified by OPM’s SES Qualifications Review Board can be selected for SES positions when they become available, Chiles said.
“We want to develop a strong pool of candidates who will be prepared for other positions,” Wiggins said. “We also want to ensure that we have a diverse pool of candidates.”
Right now there are just 30 USAID SES employees—13 white men, six white women, six black women, two black men, two Hispanic men, and one Asian-American woman.
There are far more people—203—at the GS-15 level, but the percentage by ethnicity skews heavily to white men, who hold 47 percent of those jobs. The next closest category is white women, who make up slightly fewer than 30 percent of GS-15s. No other ethnic category makes it into the double digit percentage mark, with black women GS-15 employees coming the closest at 9.9 percent of the total.
In addition to expanding diversity
in the upper ranks, the Agency says the program is an investment that will help it with succession planning as the mass of baby boomers reaches retirement age over the next several years.
And, Wiggins said she hopes there will be a “ripple effect” as GS-15 employees move to higher positions and people from lower grades take their place.
For further information, contact
Ruth Derr of the USAID Office of Human Resources at (202) 712-5564 .
★—A.R.
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