OPM to Overhaul PMF Program

The Office of Personnel Management is looking to better recruit and retain the younger generation of workers by beefing up the Presidential Management Fellows program. In a letter to agency chief human capital officers, OPM Director John Berry said OPM is creating "power packs" - small teams of PMFS - to work on projects as part of the reinvigoration effort.

These teams will work on projects at OPM headquarters for up to four months, Berry said, and the initial projects will focus on increasing outreach to broaden the PMF applicant pool, revamping future PMF orientations, developing a job-matching process to connect PMF finalists to jobs, reenergizing the PMF alumni program and planning and executing assessment center interviews. Berry encouraged CHCOs to consider having PMFs from their agencies participate.

Many experts have criticized the PMF program, which targets recent master's graduates and provides two years of rotational experiences at government agencies, as having an impersonal application process and not doing enough to retain top talent in government. Are the "power packs" focusing on the right initiatives, particularly when it comes to attracting and matching applicants to IT jobs? What roles could social media play in overhauling these processes?