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The Innovation Connection By The U.S Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
On 18 August 2011, President Obama signed and published Executive Order (EO) 13583, "Establishing a Coordinated Government-Wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce." The primary goal of the EO is to promote the federal workplace as a model of equal employment opportunity, diversity, and inclusion. The EO directs federal agencies to draw upon the talents of all parts of society and allow the federal government to tap diverse perspectives to overcome the nation's greatest challenges.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), along with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in coordination with the President's Management Council (PMC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) developed and provided a Government-Wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan with the associated Guidance to help agencies execute their respective diversity and inclusion initiatives. As a result of the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan (and Guidance) a group of key concepts were identified and consolidated into a document known as "Path Forward."
 Our "Path Forward" for agencies to improve their diversity progress consists of three goals: Workforce Diversity, Workplace Inclusion, and Sustainability (and also a transformation process). In other words, diversify your workforce, include everyone in your workplace, and sustain the first two through leadership accountability, measurement, and targeted diversity education. We believe these three goals are at the heart of establishing the federal government as the model of equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion. One of the significant benefits of implementing the Government-Wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan is fostering innovation. It has been widely documented that bringing diverse types of people together within the workplace produces more innovative ideas and generates better solutions to the complex challenges facing many government agencies today. At OPM we strongly believe that finding solutions to challenges such as increasing the number of minorities and women in leadership positions, STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) memberships, and improving the management of increasingly complex workforces that innovation is the key. And an innovative workforce can only be realized by creating and inclusive organizational culture where every member feels he or she has the ability to fully contribute to their team's and organization's success. Ultimately, to build a culture that fosters diversity, inclusion, and innovation, agencies must hire for talent; build teams that are diverse in talent, perspective and discipline; and place individuals in the right role to drive success. Once employees have been identified and placed, management can then provide them with the right training and onboarding relative to innovation and educate managers for skills needed to drive talent. At OPM we are determined to help agencies move forward with their diversity initiatives. We encourage them to build their initiatives around the diversify, include, and sustain model we developed as an effective method to ensure the federal government is the "model workplace". As OPM Director John Berry has stated, "As the Nation's largest employer, the federal government has a special opportunity to lead by example, we must recruit, hire, develop and retain a competitive, diverse workforce, because we'll deliver the best results to the American people when we fully use the talents of all parts of our society." We here at the OPM Office of Diversity and Inclusion share Director Berry's diversity vision and look forward to continued support of AFPC's impressive promotion of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
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