June 4, 2004
MEMORANDUM FOR CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICERS |
FROM: |
KAY COLES JAMES
DIRECTOR
|
Subject: |
Hiring Flexibilities Workshop: Tools and Strategies
|
As I pointed out in my "Ten Things You Can Do to Improve Federal Hiring" memorandum of February 10, 2004, the keys to improving the quality and speed of the hiring process are to use existing flexibilities as and when they are appropriate and to fully engage your human resources (HR) staff. Agency managers and HR practitioners must be completely familiar with these flexibilities and with successful strategies for using them. As you know, OPM has provided agencies with substantial encouragement, guidance and training opportunities to ensure that your HR staff is fully aware of, and prepared to use, these flexibilities. Nevertheless, based on the results of our recent survey on Federal hiring, it is clear that there are still agency HR staff who may need further assistance. We always stand ready to provide that assistance. Accordingly, as part of OPM's continuous effort to help you improve your hiring processes, I want to invite you and your staff to participate in a Hiring Flexibilities Symposium to be held on June 29, 2004 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM in the Campbell Auditorium here at the Office of Personnel Management.
We are planning this day-long symposium as an expanded version of the hiring flexibilities briefing we will provide as a CHCO Academy offering on June 17. It will feature a morning session on the various hiring flexibilities - appointing authorities for veterans, category rating systems, and applying the criteria for seeking direct hire authority, as well as student and excepted service employment authorities. These are the tools that can help streamline your recruitment and hiring, and we will make sure your staff is equipped to employ them in your agency. The afternoon session will address strategies for implementing these flexibilities - workforce planning, reengineering internal staffing processes, and establishing measures of performance.
We look forward to a lively and useful forum and encourage full participation and interaction. If your HR practitioners need further training - I urge you to send them to this free opportunity to hear straight from the experts here at OPM. If they have questions - I encourage them to asked. It is important that our joint efforts to improve the hiring process are not hindered by a lack of fully informed and prepared HR staff.
Please let us know by June 18 how many participants you plan to send by calling Mr. Steve Ramp at (202) 606-1642. Also, I encourage you to let him know about any particular flexibilities and issues you want us to cover.
cc: Directors of Human Resources
Download PDF version 
5KB
Transmittals
