SEPA
190B12004
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Cross-Cutting Fundamental Strategy
FY 2011 Action Plan Annual Progress Report
Strategy 5: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
Continuously improve EPA's internal management, encourage innovation and creativity in all aspects of our
work, and ensure that EPA is an excellent workplace that attracts and retains a topnotch, diverse workforce,
positioned to meet and address the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
Executive Summary
Success under Strategy 5 means EPA is One Great Place to Work. In FY 2011, our actions were employee-
focused and driven by opportunities to find smarter ways to work, save money, and reduce our environmental
footprint. Our continuing goal is to provide a supportive and productive work environment so EPA has the
talent, processes, and tools we need to protect human health and the environment effectively and efficiently.
Accomplishment Highlights:
• Reduced Hiring Time: EPA's time-to-hire decreased to 96 days in FY 2011 from 161 days in FY 2010. We
expect to continue reducing hiring time at EPA by automating processes and improving hiring tools and
practices, including use of standardized recruitment packages. In FY 2012, we will track use and measure
the impact of standardized packages on the hiring timeline. FY 2011 data indicate that use of our new
standard packages saves 15-20 days compared to the non-standard recruit timeline. We plan to release 13
more standard position packages by the end of first quarter FY 2012, which will help us meet our FY 2012
hiring time reduction target of 10% (10 days) to 86 days.
• Increased Telework: In FY 2011, we trained nearly 100% of all EPA managers and supervisors, improving
their ability to manage teleworkers effectively. EPA increased the average number of hours teleworked per
pay period by 24% over FY 2010, more than doubling our goal of a 10% increase. In FY 2012, our goal is to
increase the number of hours teleworked by 10 percent above the FY 2011 baseline.
• New Employee Orientation: EPA produced well-received New Hire Videos for new EPA employees. The
videos, featuring EPA people and places, welcome new employees to the agency and convey a good sense of
how they will fit into OneEPA by providing an overview of the EPA mission, programs, and people. We also
updated and standardized the on-boarding process, and created external and intranet sites for New
Employee Orientation, which help prepare new employees for their first day on the job.
• Reduced Unliquidated Obligations (ULOs): The Agency exceeded FY 2011 targets for ULO reductions in
expired grants and contracts. With an FY 2011 target to reduce unliquidated obligations in expired grants by
15% from the FY 2010 baseline, EPA achieved a reduction of 41%, or $9.9M, for ULOs in expired grants and a
reduction of 81%, or $12.2M, for ULOs in expired interagency agreements. The Agency's FY 2011 target for
reducing unliquidated obligations in expired contracts was 20%; we achieved a reduction of 71%, or $52.2M.
• Increased Green Conferencing: EPA is increasing the use of green conferencing to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and costs associated with business travel, while taking advantage of new, efficient ways to
conduct business, share information, and build partnerships. In October FY 2011, we installed 50 green
videoconferencing units across the Agency and began tracking the use of both new and existing units
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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throughout the fiscal year. This established a baseline to track and measure comparative use in FY 2012,
when we plan to install 50 additional green videoconferencing units.
Total Duration (minutes)
FY2011/Q1 217,444
FY2011/Q2 404,068
FY2011/Q3 496,447
FY2011/Q4 493,957
FY 2011 Total 1,611,916
Challenges:
• Continue to Reduce Hiring Time: FY 2011 was a transition year in hiring reform, with federal agencies
implementing new requirements and responding to guidance from the federal Office of Personnel
Management on how to improve and measure the quality and speed of their hiring processes. Beginning
with FY 2011, we have refined the way we measure our hiring process against the 80 day standard to align
with other federal agencies. We learned through benchmarking that EPA has been measuring hiring time
differently than other federal agencies. EPA was counting every step of the process, while other federal
agencies do not start counting until they receive a complete recruitment package. A complete package
includes a classified position description, a job analysis, EZhire questions, a Standard Form-52 for processing
personnel actions, and budget approval. In EPA, these steps alone averaged about 38 days, almost half of
the 80 days. In FY 2012, we plan to continue to reduce hiring time at EPA by automating processes and
improving hiring tools and practices. The EPA's recruitment and hiring process is a cross-Agency
partnership, with human resource specialists and hiring officials in each part of the organization playing key
roles. The overarching challenge we face is to shorten the timeframe for announcing and making selections
for Agency vacancies while continuing to ensure we have the talent in place when needed to meet mission
requirements.
• Telework Policy: Developing a new telework policy required dedicated teamwork across senior Agency
levels to ultimately resolve and integrate management policy issues and questions, which were linked to key
implementation factors such as technology/equipment, employee tenure, and number of telework days
allowed per pay period. We anticipate negotiating and implementing the new policy in FY 2012.
As One EPA, success in strengthening the Agency's workforce and capabilities depends on forging and
implementing effective partnerships, and will require continued support and participation in strategy initiatives
from across the Agency.
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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FY 2011 Performance Summary
Strategy 5: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
FY 2011 Action Plan Activity
Status/Explanation
= Activity complete
1. Reform EPA's hiring process to make it easier
for applicants to apply for jobs, increase the
pool of qualified candidates, and reduce hiring
time. New hires report increased satisfaction
with the hiring process, and EPA hiring officials
report increased satisfaction with the quality
and number of candidates referred for
consideration (Supports Principle 1).
FY 2011 was a transition year in hiring reform, with
federal agencies implementing new requirements and
responding to direction and guidance from the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) on how to improve and
measure the quality and speed of their hiring processes.
In May 2010, President Obama directed federal agencies
to measure the quality and speed of their hiring process
as part of an initiative to reform recruiting and hiring so
we can bring the best and brightest into the federal
workforce. The OPM set a target of 80 calendar days on
average for agencies to complete the end-to-end hiring
process. EPA, along with all agencies, is reporting our
results to OPM on a quarterly basis.
Hiring Time
EPA's time-to-hire decreased to 96 days (FY 2011) from
161 days (FY 2010). We expect to continue reducing
hiring time at EPA through improved hiring tools and
practices, including use of standardized recruitment
packages.
New Hires
• New Hire Survey Results
"Overall I was satisfied with the Agency's hiring
process"
FY 2010:82%
FY 2011: TBD (Results expected by Dec. 1)
Hiring Officials
• Management Hiring Satisfaction Survey Results
"Overall satisfaction with the hiring process"
FY 2010: 40%
Q3 FY 2011: 54%
FY 2011: TBD (results expected by Dec. 1, 2011)
OPM's survey data has EPA at 7.3 on a 10-point scale (Q3
FY 2011) regarding "Overall satisfaction with the hiring
process." The government-wide average is 7.2.
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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FY 2011 Performance Summary
Strategy 5: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
FY 2011 Action Plan Activity
Status/Explanation
= Activity complete
• Convene cross-Agency taskforce to provide
advice regarding performance of EPA's Human
Resources Shared Service Centers (by November
2010).
Complete standardized recruitment packages for
10 occupations for customer use (by December
2010).
2. Attract a diverse pool of applicants for EPA
jobs, including increased representation from
minority, veteran, women, and disabled
populations (Supports Principle 1).
Launch the Diversity Dashboard, an internal
database capable of providing snapshots of EPA
employment data (by December 2010).
Conduct training for hiring officials in all EPA
regions and program offices on targeted
outreach strategies and the use of social media
tools to attract qualified, diverse applicants (by
March 2011).
EPA will conduct this activity in FY 2012.
Enhance the capability of telework-eligible EPA
employees to work remotely and increase the
number of EPA employees who telework
and/or the number of hours teleworked by 10
percent (Supports Principle 2).
In FY 2011, EPA increased the number of hours
teleworked by 24% over FY 2010.
• Use results from the EPA Telework Study
(includes regional approaches, best
practices, and technology options) to inform
the EPA policy approach to telework (by
December 2010).
EPA used results from a study of telework approaches,
best practices, and technology options to draft a new
telework policy. We anticipate negotiating and
implementing the new policy by the end of FY 2012.
Train 100 percent of managers and
supervisors in the training course,
"Telework: A Manager's Perspective" (by
March 2011).
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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FY 2011 Performance Summary
Strategy 5: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
FY 2011 Action Plan Activity
Status/Explanation
= Activity complete
Launch the enhanced Employee Portal to
support employee remote access to specific
EPA applications and systems. Track usage
to build baseline data for measuring usage
rates in future years (by April 2011).
In September 2011, One EPA Workplace
(http://workplace.epa.gov/) was launched as EPA's
intranet homepage with a single address for employee
access internally and remotely. The site provides:
streamlined navigation to employee tools and
information; more comprehensive search capabilities;
single sign-on for selected applications; and, access to
EPA's web conferencing tool. Implementing One EPA
Workplace was the first phase in improvements to
employee information access, including enhanced remote
access to enable expanded telework.
4. Improve the on-boarding experience for new
hires, expand opportunities for management
and staff for ongoing development, and foster
increased collaboration as One EPA (Supports
Principles 1 and 2).
Identify and implement on-boarding "best
practices," including integration of
technologies such as social networking.
Achieve improved employee satisfaction
scores on the FY 2011 federal Employee
Viewpoint Survey.
• Investigate and prepare options for
expanding the Leadership Development and
Professional Rotational Program to include
potential rotations/details to employees in
the "professional-technical" career track (by
March 2011).
The 2012 program will include both leadership and
technical professional detail opportunities, offering
employees more opportunities to broaden technical and
specialized skills/experiences (i.e., attorneys, engineers,
scientists).
5. Practice outstanding resource stewardship and
ensure maximum use of Agency funds by
reducing unliquidated obligations in expired
grants and contracts. Reduce unliquidated
obligations in expired grants by 15 percent and
in expired contracts by 20 percent by the end of
FY 2011 * (Supports Principle 3).
• Review 100 percent of unliquidated
obligations recorded on or before March 31,
2011 by June 30, 2011 or per EPA guidance.
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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FY 2011 Performance Summary
Strategy 5: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
FY 2011 Action Plan Activity
Status/Explanation
= Activity complete
6. Utilize existing and emerging tools to support
the President's focus on Open Government and
provide a way for the diverse community of
scientists, researchers, and professionals to
connect, communicate, and share ideas
(Supports Principle 4).
• Launch EPA's internal professional
networking and collaboration site for EPA
employees (by September 2011).
In FY 2011, EPA identified 3 potential professional
collaboration and networking solutions and began a
series of pilots to assess capabilities offered and whether
they match employee needs. A tool will be fully deployed
to selected users and a decision made about Agency-wide
usage in FY2012.
7. Increase use of Green Conferencing and Green
Meeting practices (Supports Principle 5).
Measure the use of video conference
equipment to establish an FY 2011 baseline
against which to track future usage (by
September 2011).
We installed 50 green videoconferencing units across the
Agency and began tracking the use of both new and
existing units throughout the fiscal year.
Total Duration (minutes)
FY2011/Q1 217,444
FY2011/Q2 404,068
FY2011/Q3 496,447
FY2011/Q4 493,957
FY 2011 Total 1,611,916
FY 2011 Annual Progress Report: Strengthening EPA's Workforce and Capabilities
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