OPM to make HR business plan more competition-friendly

The original guidelines for the human resources line of business did not reflect the fact that private companies can also become shared service centers.

Human Resources Line of Business

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Because private companies can also become shared service centers, the Office of Personnel Management plans to release a revised version of a Human Resources Line of Business report in September, an Office of Personnel Management official said today. It will outline target requirements for the centers.

Norman Enger, OPM’s director for the business line, spoke today at an Input-sponsored breakfast in Washington, D.C.

The target requirements will describe the subfunctions of the HR centers, such as HR strategies, performance, HR development and labor relations.

The first version of the Service Component Reference Model, which details the core functions required to become a shared service center, will also be released in September, Enger said.

The Bush administration is private -sector oriented, which characterizes the push for the centers and the list of emerging lines of business, he said. The vision for the HR business line is to consolidate operations governmentwide and eliminate existing stovepipes.

“Basically, what we’re doing is modernizing and trying to improve how the government does a job,” he said.

About 70 percent of the professional HR workforce at agencies does “back-office, transactional grunt work,” he said, citing a Government Accountability Office report. The rest focuses on strategy and improving the workforce.

Shared service centers would flip the ratio, allowing employees to focus on agencies’ mission-centered jobs.