Senate Committee OKs Hiring Bill
07/31/09 08:28 am ET
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill on Wednesday to streamline the federal recruiting and hiring process. The bill (S. 736) requires agencies to:>>
TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT
07/31/09 08:28 am ET
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill on Wednesday to streamline the federal recruiting and hiring process. The bill (S. 736) requires agencies to:>>
07/31/09 11:47 am ET
I've been an avid reader of Tim Wright's special package of articles on Examiner.com this week about generations in the workplace. Today, Wright notes that the differences among the four generations in the workplace are getting a lot of attention, and all sorts of differences keep cropping up.>>
07/30/09 11:45 am ET
The Office of Personnel Management has posted its proposed strategic plan on its Web site.>>
07/30/09 11:17 am ET
The Partnership for Public Service and TMP Government has released a guide to accompany its 2009 Best Places To Work in the Federal Government rankings, which evaluate employee satisfaction across 278 federal agencies and subcomponents. The new two-part guide provides tips, tools and guidelines to provide agency managers with a clear understanding of how to use the Best Places To Work data to improve workplace performance and organizational effectiveness.>>
07/29/09 09:16 am ET
My former beat partner Alyssa Rosenberg writes at Government Executive that the Office of Personnel Management will allow federal employees and the public to comment on the agency's proposed strategic plan. OPM's technology will let the public track debate on the plan during the four weeks it is available for comment online.>>
07/28/09 11:40 pm ET
Tim Wright has an interesting post on Examiner.com about the top five social networking sites those of older generations should take a peek at in an attempt to understand and engage with Generation Y. Simply taking one hour to look at these social networks, Wright argues, "will enhance>>
07/28/09 03:54 pm ET
The federal government's need for attracting and retaining cybersecurity expertise has been making a lot of headlines lately, especially in light of the cyberattacks that knocked a few U.S. and South Korean Web sites off line earlier this month. A report released last week by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton found that a successful government scholarship program that graduates about 120 students each year and places them in federal cybersecurity jobs is not coming close to meeting the demand for such expertise. Officials estimate that between 500 and 1,000 such graduates are needed each year.>>
07/28/09 11:12 am ET
Penelope Trunk has an interesting post on the Brazen Careerist blog about what Generation Z (those born between the mid-1990s through the 2000s) will be like at work.>>
07/27/09 03:16 pm ET
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has launched the U.S. Cyber Challenge, a new effort to recruit 10,000 young Americans with the skills to fill the nation's cybersecurity ranks.>>
07/27/09 12:07 pm ET
Marking the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Labor Department has revamped Disability.gov to include social media tools and encourage interaction and feedback. The new Web site allows visitors to sign up for personalized news and updates, participate in online discussions and suggest resources for the site. It also includes a Twitter feed, RSS feeds, a blog, social bookmarking and a user-friendly platform to obtain answers to questions on such topics as finding employment and job accommodations.>>
07/24/09 04:08 pm ET
NASA is holding off on providing updated projections on the number of jobs that may be lost within its highly technical workforce as it retires the space shuttle and transitions to its new moon program. The third edition of the NASA Space Shuttle Workforce Transition Strategy report, released on Wednesday, provides workforce estimates only through fiscal 2010, while the shuttle will still be flying.>>
07/24/09 11:05 am ET
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org, has a great piece on FedScoop.com on the value of technology in government and about the shared responsibility we all have in transforming the way government works.>>
07/23/09 03:17 pm ET
The Call To Serve initiative -- a joint effort by the Partnership for Public Service and the Office of Personnel Management -- is planning a workshop for September that will focus on federal agencies' use of social media for recruiting. The workshop is part of an annual Effective Hiring Workshop Series for federal agency representatives. In the meantime, the Partnership and OPM are asking federal employees to fill out a survey on what areas should be covered in the workshop.>>
07/23/09 02:01 pm ET
A report on the state of the federal cybersecurity workforce released on Wednesday by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service highlights that there are often good reasons for hiring contractors to fill immediate or short-term hiring needs in the federal government, or when budgetary constraints limit the number of full-time employees an agency can hire. Without an adequate pipeline of talent coming in to fill federal cybersecurity positions, the report states, the response at many agencies has been to turn to contractors to perform sensitive government information technology work, vulnerability analysis, intrusion detection, digital forensics and protocol analysis.>>
07/22/09 09:30 am ET
The federal government must design and implement a coordinated strategic blueprint to recruit and retain cybersecurity expertise in the federal workforce, according to a new report by the Partnership for Public Service. "There's been a lot of attention recently on cybersecurity attacks," said Bob Lavigna, vice president of research at the partnership, on Tuesday. "But [the government] can't win the cybersecurity war unless it wins the war for talent.">>
07/21/09 12:36 pm ET
My former beat partner Alyssa Rosenberg has a couple of great stories on civil service reform from Monday's Excellence in Government conference sponsored by Government Executive. In a speech, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry called for a comprehensive overhaul of the federal civil service, from recruitment and hiring to pay and training.>>
07/21/09 12:20 pm ET
CIO.com discusses three approaches to structuring your resume so that it's better targeted for the technology job you're applying for.>>
07/20/09 05:05 pm ET
The Senior Executives Association has launched a survey of GS-14s and 15s or their equivalents to gauge their interest in applying for and serving in the Senior Executive Service, Senior Level and Scientific and Professional positions. The purpose of the survey stems from concerns that many talented and able federal employees do not aspire to positions in the SES, largely because it would mean a loss of locality pay and a guaranteed annual pay raise, increased hours and responsibilities and executive pay overlap with the General Schedule and other personnel systems.>>
07/17/09 11:28 am ET
The House on Thursday passed legislation that would provide federal employees with a pay increase of 2 percent in 2010. The raise, which is included in the fiscal 2010 financial services and general government appropriations bill, is one of a number of competing proposals for military and civilian pay in House and Senate appropriations bills.>>
07/16/09 04:02 pm ET
The Partnership for Public Service will host its largest-ever federal job fair at the National Building Museum on July 16, bringing together hundreds of recruiters from 78 federal agencies and more than 3,600 job seekers.>>
07/16/09 08:38 am ET
I reported on Wednesday about the top 10 tech skills and certifications that can help job applicants stand out, according to a recent Dice.com survey. That survey also reports that as of July 1, 48,993 jobs have been posted to the Dice Web site.>>
07/15/09 01:47 pm ET
On Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the first Summer of Gov event in San Francisco. The event was well-attended by state, local and federal workers and industry representatives, including Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist.org.>>
07/15/09 03:40 pm ET
A recent survey by Dice.com found that hiring managers are having a difficult time finding job applicants with skills and experience related to the security, efficiency and cost effectiveness of technology, specifically to fill talent voids in areas like networks and databases, and strategies like virtualization and collaboration.>>
07/15/09 11:37 am ET
Norman Ornstein writes in Wednesday's Roll Call that rather than merge federal agencies or reorganize the congressional committee system, the federal government should invest in social networking to better govern across policy and issue lines.>>
07/14/09 05:44 pm ET
USAJobs has compiled a list of the 50 most in-demand jobs at federal agencies over the past four weeks, and it should come as no surprise that information technology positions were some of the most popular.>>
07/14/09 01:23 pm ET
Officers Council to establish a work group to develop recommendations for improving the administration and oversight of the 3Rs -- recruitment, retention and relocation incentives. The work group will responsible developing approaches for measuring the cost-benefit of the 3Rs program to the government, after which the work group with evaluate what the impact would be on recruitment and retention efforts if agencies were to scale back their funding of the 3Rs.>>
07/14/09 01:09 pm ET
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry met with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, General Services Administration Acting Administrator Paul Prouty and officials from the Federal Reserve Board to discuss ways to create a model federal work-life program that improves the wellness, morale and productivity of federal employees, OPM said on Tuesday.>>
07/13/09 11:08 am ET
Members of a new advocacy group -- the 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Coalition -- which represents the collective voices of millions of young Americans, will convene in Washington this week to participate in a summit where they will develop solutions and federal legislation aimed at putting young people to work and getting the economy back on track.>>
07/13/09 09:40 am ET
The Washington Post reports that as the federal government is expected to spend 3.5 percent more on technology services over the next five years, the demand for technology expertise continues to grow. This is largely the result of new government contracts and an increased reliance on technology in nearly every sector of the economy.>>
07/10/09 01:42 pm ET
Federal Computer Week reports on how Web 2.0 technologies can help the federal government reach out to a large pool of viable job candidates to help offset the pending wave of retirements.>>
07/10/09 11:52 am ET
Federal Computer Week reports that Facebook has become the channel of choice for many executives in announcing career moves, especially as many news outlets have cut back on their "people" coverage.>>
07/09/09 10:21 am ET
In following up to Wednesday's post on the 2010 federal pay raise, Alyssa Rosenberg reports that Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has unveiled legislation that would provide federal employees with an increase of 2.9 percent in 2010, nearly 1 percent more than the House version allocates for the pay raise.>>
07/08/09 10:48 am ET
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday passed legislation that would provide federal civilian employees a fiscal 2010 pay increase of 2 percent. The decision comes after the full House approved a 3.4 percent pay increase for members of the military as part of the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. It also comes after the House and Senate passed a budget blueprint in support of pay parity among federal civilians and members of the military.>>
07/07/09 01:30 pm ET
EWeek.com reports that social networking Web site Facebook has seen a 500 percent boost in users aged 55 and above during the past six months. This adds to the great amount of new evidence that points to a blurring of the generational lines when it comes to Web 2.0 use.>>
07/07/09 11:30 am ET
Examiner.com reports on how hiring managers at small, mid-size and large companies are increasingly using social networking Web sites to research job candidates before making a job offer. But while social media has become a major part of the hiring process, it takes time and effort to make such Web sites truly useful.>>
07/06/09 12:46 pm ET
BBC News highlights a new report that speculates what the offices and workplaces of 2030 will be like. The report, by Johnson Controls, a company that designs car and office interiors, predicts that as workforces become more mobile, technology will ensure that everything an employee needs is available no matter where they are.>>
07/02/09 01:08 pm ET
Wednesday marked the deadline for agencies to assign teams to work on the hiring reform efforts laid out in a June 11 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget. These teams will be responsible for mapping their hiring processes and writing plain-language job descriptions for their 10 most prevalent positions by Sept. 30.>>
07/02/09 12:49 pm ET
My former beat partner, Alyssa Rosenberg, gives the details on the new student loan forgiveness program in Thursday's Pay & Benefits Watch column.>>
07/02/09 12:36 pm ET
San Jose Mercury News reports on the explosion of Web 2.0 across the federal government as well as some of the obstacles that remain, including the cultures at some agencies, the absence of technical know-how, strict rules on privacy, security and access for the disabled.>>
07/01/09 02:17 pm ET
There's little doubt that Web 2.0 technologies have matured at an amazing pace, with many government and public service organizations embracing them to improve their ability to collaborate with and serve citizens. A new report by Accenture suggests the new model for governance is to engage citizens electronically and offers a framework for governments to use in evaluating Web 2.0 technologies.>>
