Biden HR strategy features new agency 'talent teams'
By
Natalie Alms
New talent teams aimed at bettering hiring strategies are part of the Biden administration's multi-year strategy for the federal workforce, said OMB official on Tuesday.
The Biden administration is establishing agency talent teams to implement new hiring strategies to improve hiring outcomes.
The move was first disclosed in the FY 2022 budget, which calls for talent teams along with requirements for agencies to revive their internship programs and contribute funding to a new office targeting centralized, government-wide hiring actions for critical positions.
"The administration supports a return to fully staffed agencies to ensure they can meet their missions on behalf of the American people," Pam Coleman, associate director of performance and personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget said at a National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association event on Tuesday.
"That's why the budget helps efforts to expand and enhance recruitment and hiring efforts, as well as deploy more effective qualifying assessments to improve the overall hiring process," she said.
Biden's overall budget request proposes an increase of about 50,000 full-time equivalent employees across the civilian workforce in the executive branch, excluding the U.S. Postal Service.
A new "hiring line of business" for agency-level "talent teams" will "connect agencies and hiring managers with the best talent to meet mission needs," and be managed by OMB and the Office of Personnel Management, Coleman said.
The idea of these teams is to fill in where "understaffed and overwhelmed" HR teams might not have the "capacity to tackle these persistent challenges," an OMB spokesperson told FCW.
"Talent teams are expected to include HR change makers throughout the government, and are tasked to use data to inform improved hiring strategies and drive hiring innovations, as well as implementing applicant friendly approaches so the government can recruit top talent," the spokesperson said.
All of this is meant to bring in new workers to add to the existing federal workforce "without displacing or harming current employees," Coleman said. It "supports the existing and future workforce by filling positions in a timely manner with applicants who are prepared and ready to support their agency's mission and coworkers."