Beth Cobert has been active in her time as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, ushering in a number of important workforce initiatives in a few short months. Unfortunately, many of those policies are in jeopardy of being thrown out, according to the OPM inspector general.
Citing judicial precedent, IG Patrick McFarland said Cobert cannot serve as acting director while her nomination is pending before the Senate, prompting the IG to declare all policies and directives issued since Nov. 10—the date of her official nomination—to be null and void.
Here’s a look at just a few of the major initiatives that will have to be recreated from scratch once Cobert—or another nominee—is confirmed by the Senate.
National Background Investigations Bureau
The NBIB was created in January to restructure the way OPM handles background investigations in the wake of a massive breach last year that exposed sensitive information on millions of current, former and prospective federal employees and their relations.
The new bureau would absorb the Federal Investigative Service and the rest of the civilian government’s investigations but would house the information in data centers managed by the Department of Defense, which will handle the IT security aspect.
With Cobert’s standing to establish new offices up in the air, so is the fate of NBIB.
Employee Engagement Guidance
Cobert introduced Performance Management Plus on Jan. 12, a plan to encourage more interaction between federal employees and their managers.
Rather than rely on yearly reviews, the new initiative would encourage managers to perform “light check-ins” and engage employees on a more active basis.
“We know from countless studies and case histories that employees feel most empowered and enabled to succeed and grow when supervisors involve them in continuous dialogue on: position expectations; alignment of position responsibilities and agency mission; progress toward achieving expectations; and areas of strength or needs for improvement,” Cobert said in a letter introducing the plan.
Raising Employee Incentive Caps
Last month, Cobert also issued guidance to lift caps instituted in 2011 that limit how much extra money agencies can offer employees to fill—or retain people in—critical positions.
The Jan. 15 guidance ups the caps on recruitment, retention and relocation incentives specifically for positions that are mission-critical.
“OPM recognizes the 3Rs are essential pay flexibilities for agencies facing serious staffing challenges,” Cobert said in a letter announcing the new guidance. “Agencies may need to resort to more expensive solutions or may have difficulties accomplishing their missions if the 3Rs are not available for use.”
Those caps would be rolled back to 2010 levels if the IG’s ruling stands.
OPM Guidance on Temporary Workforce Law
The National Federation of Federal Employees will be happy with one ramification of the IG’s letter: Nullifying OPM’s policy guidance on the Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act.
The act—which passed Congress in August—provides a path for temporary workers like wildland firefighters to get full-time jobs as openings occur. However, NFFE and others were dismayed when OPM issued its guidance in December using a different definition of “internal” that would only allow temporary employees to apply for positions that aren’t open to current full-time workers.
“We got a simple, two-page bill through Congress unanimously and I thought we were done,” NFFE Vice President Mark Davis told Federal Times. However, the OPM guidance is “not only contrary to the stated legislative intent, but it’s very clearly contrary to good government.”
Senior Executive Service Reform
The most recent major policy release from OPM came just last week. On Feb. 12, OPM issued guidance in response to a December executive order to improve the SES and the process for bringing employees into the ranks.
“The value proposition for the deliberate and structured onboarding of executives is particularly powerful for senior leaders due to their greater level of responsibilities and expected performance, as well as the deeper and broader impact they have on the overall performance of the organization,” according to the guidance documents.
This SES Onboarding Roadmap might have to take a detour for the time being.
And the Rest…
These are just a few of the major policy initiatives to come out of OPM since Cobert’s nomination. A fuller list can be found on the Chief Human Capital Officers webpage, which archives OPM’s transmittals to human resource directors and agency heads.
