Digital Government
What incentives would you like your agency to offer?
The Office of Personnel Management says that the number of feds participating in the federal student loan repayment program has jumped in recent years—23 percent in 2009 alone.
Digital Government
Count ‘em before they’re Hatched
With an eye to the approaching elections, “Federal Diary” in today’s Washington Post took a quick "heads up" look at the Hatch Act, especially as it relates to social media. The Hatch Act generally forbids feds from participating in political activity while at the workplace or while on government time—or while using a government computer. News articles reviewing the law pop up every fall as elections draw near, but as the paper points out, social media have added a new dimension to the issue.
Digital Government
Cart before horse …
Some of the comments on the recent “HR, heal thyself” post bring up an interesting point: Ambitious new initiatives (HR or otherwise) sometimes are planned and launched without anyone giving enough thought as to whether staffers have the skills and training to execute those initiatives.
Digital Government
HR, heal thyself
The Partnership for Public Service, which advocates for policies that help bring good people into government service, today released a report called “Closing the Gap: Seven Obstacles to a First-Class Federal Workforce.”
Digital Government
Is the economy holding back your retirement?
A good bit of the traffic we have on our FederalSoup Web site is related in one way or another to impending retirements from federal service.
Digital Government
Insourcing is not just a dollars issue
“We weren’t seeing the savings we had hoped from insourcing,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 9. He was referring to work DoD had brought back in-house from the private sector, and made the statement during a press conference to explain his sweeping new plan to cut overhead and make better use of the department’s dollars.
Digital Government
Gates puts the squeeze on DoD overhead
In a major move this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a range of proposed cost-cutting measures that included hiring freezes, cuts to executive ranks, and even the possible elimination of the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.
Digital Government
Do federal employee unions earn their keep?
The weakening leverage of unions in the private sector was apparent this week when Ford announced that over the next several years it would begin to hire about 2,000 new workers—under a 2007 union-negotiated contract—at $14 an hour, about half the wages of current workers.
Digital Government
Turning the tables: What do you think of John Q. Public?
Well, we know that many members of the public harbor the opinion that feds are overpaid, and there are plenty of congressional budget hawks and special interest groups who work to bolster that perception. It’s a message that is not hard to sell in a tight economy.
Digital Government
Obama Orders Second Try at Bringing More Disabled into Federal Workforce
President Obama hopes to succeed where President Clinton failed, and reinvigorate a 10-year-old plan to bring 100,000 disabled workers into the federal workforce.
Digital Government
Do tech skills win out over leadership skills in winning supervisory jobs?
A recent report claims that job candidates with a high level of technical skills—but little or no aptitude for or interest in leadership—often win jobs as first-line supervisors.
Digital Government
Department of Homeland Security may be the place for job-seeking vets
There’s no underestimating the importance of military veterans to the federal workforce. Transitioning vets have long provided a reliable pool of high-quality candidates for civilian positions in the federal government—and not just at DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Digital Government
Sustainability provides yet another reason to increase telework opportunities
In releasing new greenhouse gas reduction targets for federal agencies this week, the White House noted that some new ideas—including reducing emissions from employee travel and commuting, and expanding bicycle commuting—are being incorporated into each agency’s annual sustainability plan.
Digital Government
Contractors in top secret programs may pose a major challenge for insourcing proponents
The explosive series of news articles currently running in The Washington Post—“Top Secret America”—is bound to add weight to the case against outsourcing.
Digital Government
Wanna-be federal teleworkers raise their voices
Anyone doubting feds’ deep-seated desire to telework had better take a look at some of the activity on the GovCareerNetwork blog over the last 48 hours.
Digital Government
Are qualified feds being denied teleworking opportunities?
The Office of Personnel Management has made it a point to voice strong support for telework. And Congress is working on passing legislation that will make it easier to do.
Digital Government
Federal job fair in D.C. today!
Today’s the day if you’re a young federal jobseeker in the D.C. area looking for one of those 50,000 jobs the government hopes to fill in the next 12 months
Digital Government
‘Expensive’ older feds provide valuable mentoring resource
One of the recent posters to this blog, “Civil Servant,” makes a good point about the hard-to-measure value to new feds of those “expensive legacy employees”—long-time feds who really know the ropes.
Digital Government
The value of longevity -- What’s your federal experience worth?
Heritage Foundation policy analyst James Sherk suggests that lining up federal and private-sector salaries more closely could cut the federal payroll by $47 billion in Fiscal Year 2011.
Digital Government
Your federal career: Get ready for the worst
The Office of Personnel Management may have learned a few things in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—and last winter's D.C.-area double-whammy blizzards.
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