OPM readies new IT job series

The Office of Personnel Management is one step closer to changing how jobs performed by government information technology workers are structured and defined.

Within 60 days, OPM plans to issue a new occupational job series that will encompass at least 50,000 employees who perform IT work, said Henry Romero, associate director of the Office of Workforce Compensation and Performance at OPM.

The new GS-2200 series will replace existing series that are used to classify IT workers, such as the GS-334 computer specialist and GS-391 telecommunications series.

Once issued, the GS-2200 standard will be mandatory for agencies to use, Romero said, adding that agencies likely will apply it right away for new hires and gradually fold current IT workers into it.

The 33,000 IT workers who received OPM's special IT salary rates, which went into effect last month, will continue to receive them when the workers are moved into the GS-2200 family, said Romero, who spoke Wednesday at a conference hosted by the Federal Section of the International Personnel Management Association.

In addition, the GS-2200 job series will incorporate new authorized titles, specialty designators and descriptions of the kinds of work covered by the titles and specialties. OPM wrote them to more closely resemble those used in the private sector in an effort to make it easier to attract IT workers to government and retain them. Agencies tested the titles and job descriptions in pilots last year.