Retiring executives could come back as mentors

Retired federal executives might not be quite done with their service to the government. An initiative still in its early planning stages would bring volunteer Senior Executive Service retirees back to to help shape and cultivate the next generation of government employees by providing mentoring services.

According to a notice on FedBizOpps.gov, the Office of Personnel Management’s Executive Resources and Employee Development division is seeking small businesses to provide outreach and coordination of SES retirees to provide mentoring services for SES Candidate Development Program candidates and other federal employees.

ERED is tasked with designing, developing and promulgating merit-based policies and programs to help recruit and retain SES members. It also develops merit-based performance management systems and manages the SES Qualifications Review Board and the agency performance management appraisal system approval and certification processes.

The contractor for the mentoring outreach project will facilitate, manage and provide any other relevant assistance that would be helpful for program. The Sources Sought Notice also identifies small businesses in the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program or HUBZone program as particularly interesting, but points out that contractors must have federal contracting experience.

Interested contractors are asked to submit a cover letter before Jan. 13, describing how they would manage the program, match the mentor with the mentee and any of the mentoring activities that may take place, among other things.
 
So far, there is no launch date for the mentoring program, and OPM contract specialist Vito Bertucci described the current phase of the effort as “just market research.”