Strategic Management of Human Capital
Second Quarter FY 2005 Update

A Message from the Acting Director

Agencies continue sound progress in their human capital management efforts. All agencies have maintained status and the Office of Management and Budget improved its progress rating to green. Of the 26 scored agencies, 9 agencies are green, 15 yellow, and 2 are red.

In the enclosed report, we give a synopsis of governmentwide human capital management efforts and two agency success stories. The State Department tells us how a human capital management initiative allowed them to respond quickly to the Tsunami relief efforts and the Environmental Protection Agency shares their system of promoting high profile jobs.

To assist with the coordination of Chief Human Capital Officer member agencies on such matters as the modernization of human resource systems, improving quality of human resource information, and legislation affecting human resource operations and organizations, OPM launched the Chief Human Capital Officer Council website. The website at www.chcoc.gov provides access and links to governmentwide memoranda, Benefits Administration Letters, and other documents that provide information and guidance to the HR community. Topics covered relate to human resources management, including recruitment issues, employment benefits, employee security and emergency preparedness, and assorted issues to facilitate effective government service.

Please visit the website of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council and let us know if you find it useful.

Sincerely,
Dan G. Blair
Acting Director
U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Advancing the Strategic Management of Human Capital:
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

OPM works with the President, Congress, departments and agencies, and other stakeholders to implement human capital management policies that assist Federal agencies in meeting their strategic goals.

Governmentwide Progress

The chart reviewing President's Management Agenda (PMA) status scores for Federal agencies and the summary data chart below reflect the progress that has been made over the last four fiscal years in Strategic Management of Human Capital.

Dan G. Blair, Acting Director
U.S. Office of Personnel Managemen

Of the 22 agencies that had a "red" status score in FY 2001, only 2 agencies (or 8 percent of all agencies) still hold the "red" status score as of the second quarter FY 2005. The two remaining status score "red" continue to make significant progress towards "yellow" status.

Agencies continue to meet the challenge of transforming their workforce. Eighty-three percent or 1.5 million of the total number of Federal employees in scored agencies are at status score "yellow" and 16.6 percent or 300,307 are in agencies with a status score "green."

Agency Progress
FY 2005 Second Quarter Report

For the second quarter FY 2005, OPM can report that agencies demonstrated continued progress on the whole. Achievements as reported by OPM's Human Capital Officers indicate continued accomplishments in producing results in the Human Capital Standards for Success. All agencies maintained their status score from the first quarter FY 2005. The Office of Management and Budget moved to a progress score of "green."

Agency Success Stories

OPM is proud to share some significant accomplishments in areas of our Human Capital Standards for Success - Strategic Alignment, Leadership & Knowledge Management, Results-Oriented Performance Culture, Talent, and Accountability. Agencies are highlighted here to show how human capital management practices help meet their mission.

Department of State (State Department)

Using the goals of the President's Management Agenda to address its own Human Capital needs, the State Department works to make the best use of its workforce. The State Department must be prepared to engage quickly and capably wherever it is needed, and it must be ready to address important new challenges as they develop, especially in view of operational readiness needs and support for the President's foreign policy initiatives. The State Department has known for many years that its people have a wealth of skills and knowledge that official job histories do not capture. The State Department now has a way to identify those abilities more systematically through a new tool called Employee Profile Plus (EP+). Initially deployed in September 2004, EP+ has reached full participation levels.

The system, based on voluntary participation from Civil Service and Foreign Service employees, has now created a vast database covering five specific knowledge areas, including countries, organizations, self-assessed languages, occupation, and competencies. This information database has revealed to the State Department the wide range of capabilities within the State Department's workforce. Linking this information to the State Department's corporate knowledge has provided "total" employee capability knowledge to Department managers.

The EP+ system was deployed for the first time in response to the South Asian tsunami. Within minutes, the State Department was able to identify every employee who had served in the area, by country, by language, by competency. The State Department was able to immediately produce a roster of potential responders broken down several ways, including linking languages, competencies and regional experience. In many instances, the report demonstrated the State Department had not previously had data on numerous staff with language capability stemming from pre-State Department work experience, where the employee had not subsequently been tested by the State Department's language system. This is the case with many Peace Corps volunteers who have very specific regional and dialect experience.

To meet the pressing concerns of today's world, the State Department cannot wait until events occur to organize themselves to respond. EP+ offers enormous potential for the State Department to insure it has the personnel and the capacity needed to respond quickly and with the most appropriate staff available.

The State Department achieved "green" status in the Strategic Management of Human Capital of the PMA by using tools such at EP+. It has made other notable advances:

• The State Department's skills gap reduction strategy is the result of its innovative approach to workforce planning. In October, 2003, the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) Federal Section awarded State with their coveted Leading Edge Award for the State Department's breakthrough transformation in this area.
• The State Department has decreased its civil service "time to hire" from 80 days to 39 days. Similarly, the "time to hire" for a Foreign Service employee has been decreased on average from 27 months to 10 months.
• The Foreign Service Institute has established a new School dedicated to Leadership and Management Development. The State Department began providing the training for mid-level Foreign Service and Civil Service employees and then expanded leadership training for their junior and senior employees. The State Department now ensures leadership and management training is part of every employee's career path.
  

Overall, the State Department has used outcome measures to make significant operational and program improvements that position its human capital management programs to promote mission accomplishment.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

PAVE is "Project Announcement Visibility Effort", a Lotus Notes-based tool used to advertise high profile project opportunities to agency employees. PAVE consists of temporary assignments, details and short-term special projects. In 2000, Tyrone Aiken, a chemist and project manager with over 25 years with EPA developed and introduced to EPA a Lotus Notes-based tool that advertised special project opportunities available within EPA and assigned agency employees to these projects.

PAVE was first introduced to the Office of Pesticides Program within EPA. Although some managers were skeptical at first, they now praise the effectiveness of the tool. As a result of the successful implementation in this program, PAVE has been successfully implemented in five regional offices as well as the entire EPA headquarters.

To date, PAVE has covered 1500 applicants and 500 projects. Mr. Aiken is the architect of this tool and has designed it as an intuitive system. As a result, no training has been required to use the system, making it very user-friendly for a new applicant.

This tool provides a strategic approach to aligning the right skill with project need. The system can count how many volunteers "apply" for projects, the diversity of the applicants, and who was actually selected for the project. Mr. Aiken has also indicated this tool can track competencies needed to perform mission-critical work. Although this portion of the system has not been fully developed, Mr. Aiken has started some work on developing a competency tracking capability.

PAVE not only resides within EPA, PAVE has also been implemented in NASA. NASA piloted the program at their headquarters and also at Goddard Space Center and, as a result of the success of the pilot, fully implemented PAVE in 2004. Currently, meetings are taking place with the Council for Excellence in Government as well as other agencies to present how this Lotus Notes tool can help them move to strategically align the talent that exists in these organizations with the needs of their mission-critical projects.

Some advantages of PAVE:

• Diverse ideas
• Greater opportunities for individuals who may have less visibility.
• Occasionally will lead to opportunities for promotion (specialized experience, visibility).
• Gives potential promotion candidates "dry run" at assuming more responsibility
• Win-win for the volunteer (applicant) and the project manager (hiring official).
• Managers get to observe employees' performance on the project.

Overall, PAVE provides a strategic approach to announcing special mission-critical projects, aligning talent with project needs, and giving visibility to talent that otherwise would go unnoticed.

More Information

For more information on how OPM is leading the way, please visit opm.gov and click on "Strategic Management of Human Capital." You will find excellent information resources, as well as our Human Capital Update FY 2001 to FY 2005 1st Quarter and other subsequent reports. This publication offers a comprehensive look at OPM's role in the President's Management Agenda. Just click on "HC Stories" found under the "In Focus" Section.

Version: April 25, 2005