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Mark ReinholdActing Associate Director for Employee ServicesU.S. Office of Personnel Management
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
PG4 Closing the Skills Gap for the HR Workforce
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
In response to the critical need for ensuring that the Federal Government possesses the Human Capital required to meet 21st Century mission-related challenges, the Administration designated closing skills gaps as a 2012-2013 Cross-Agency Priority Goal. The initiative is being implemented in two phases, described below. OPM has designated closing Human Resources Skills Gaps, one of several focus areas under this initiative, as a 2014-2015 OPM Priority Goal.
Phase I created a Government-wide strategic workforce planning method through which agencies and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council (CHCOC) could identify occupations and competencies where staffing gaps could jeopardize the ability of the Government or specific agencies to accomplish their missions. Agencies and the CHCOC used this common method to identify occupations and competencies for skills gaps closure. Based on this analysis, the CHCOC identified six mission critical occupational groups and seven competencies, requiring government-wide focus. The six occupational groups are Cybersecurity, Acquisition, Economist, Human Resources, Auditor and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The seven competencies are strategic thinking, problem solving, data analysis, influencing/negotiating, grants management, grants management compliance, and grants financial management. Successful skills gaps closure is critically dependent on a strong HR workforce who can provide strategies, programs and tools that help occupational leaders design and implement skills gaps closure efforts. For this reason, OPM designated HR Skills Gaps as an Agency Priority Goal.
In Phase II, OPM has designated a sub-goal leader for each of the six occupational groups to assist OPM in identifying potential pilot projects through which effective skill gaps strategies could be explored in order to design a comprehensive skills gap closure strategy. OPM’s Associate Director for Employee Services has served as the sub-goal leader for HR Skills Gaps Closure. He chairs the CHCOC HR Skills Gaps Working Group, which meets monthly to set the direction for skills gap closure, provides research and design support, and makes recommendations to the CHCOC.
Strategies
In FY 2014, the HR Skills Gap Working Group established two HR University goals to further professionalize the Federal HR workforce. The intent was to drive the Federal HR community to use HR University as a “one-stop shop” for all HR training and developmental needs. HR University (HRU) is the CHCOC’s one-stop resource for Federal HR professional education, training and career development. HRU provides career maps, curriculum framework, course catalogues, course registration, online courseware, and learning resources. HRU also provides cross agency mentoring opportunities, a dedicated site for all Federal supervisors/managers interested in developing their talent management skills. In the future, HRU will also link to a talent-matching program that enables HR professionals to engage in cross-agency rotations, developmental assignments, and project-based work. These “on-the-job-training” experiences have been demonstrated as among the most effective ways to build sustainable skills. HRU’s curriculum is being designed specifically to enable Federal HR professionals to meet the requirements for certification being developed under the second initiative described below.
In FY 2014, OPM’s HR University goal was to increase the percent of the GS-201/203 population registered on HR University; and of those registered users, to increase those completing at least one course. In FY 2015, OPM seeks to ensure HR specialists have access to the complete set of courses they need to fulfill learning requirements for the roles identified in the HRU curriculum. OPM and the CHCOC Working Group will define the learning requirements for staffing and classification across all roles identified in the curriculum framework, and will collect and review existing courses that meet quality criteria for posting onto HRU. The staffing and classification technical area is critical for supporting key Administration initiatives such as the President’s Management Agenda Hiring Reform sub-goal, and OPM’s Strategic Goals related to recruitment and hiring. While building out curriculum that will address HR professionals’ immediate skill needs in staffing and classification, the working group will use community managers in each agency to continue expanding the registered population and encouraging active participation in HRU services in FY 2015.
Progress Update
In FYs 2014-2015, OPM made progress towards professionalizing the Government-wide HR workforce. At the end of FY 2015, 98 percent of Federal HR professionals (GS-201s/203s) had registered for HR University, exceeding the goal of 95 percent. Curriculum is in development for the HR technical area of staffing as a step towards future professional recognition.
In support of the goal to professionalize the Federal HR workforce, OPM has enhanced the Human Resources University (HRU) Ambassador role. Ambassadors, appointed by agency CHCOs, are responsible for promoting HRU to HR professionals in their agencies, with marketing tools provided by OPM. Ambassadors will also be responsible for identifying evolving HR skill and knowledge needs, providing best practices and recommendations for the community to adopt, and implementing the framework within their agency. Through the community framework, HRU will become more deeply integrated into agencies' existing HR skills gaps efforts, and all agencies will increase their access to enterprise resources that can be shared. In addition, OPM will continue to hold monthly training and information sharing meetings with Community Leaders/HRU Ambassadors to increase participation in HRU, while forming and managing the community framework.
To increase participation on HRU, OPM:
- posted new training opportunities and resources on HRU, sparking the interest of more HR professionals;
- enhanced HRU.gov with new resources for users, including new user transcripts and a new Retirement Studio page;
- held monthly HRU Ambassador meetings to share updated information about HRU.gov and provided marketing materials; and
- supported marketing and participated in the OPM Virtual HR Conference.
In FY 2015, the HR Executive Steering Committee gathered data on business customers’ skill and role needs, and used this information to prioritize build out of HRU curriculum areas. OPM also designed a two-prong approach to building HRU through a community framework and curriculum for the staffing specialty area, and launched the design of the community framework.
The CHCO Council's Executive Steering Committee for the HR Skills Gaps initiative created a “community framework” for HR skills needs and developmental strategies and reviewed the initiative’s objectives and identified a new strategy for meeting the goal to close skills gaps in HR. The Committee, with OPM staff support, has designed a two-pronged approach to enhance agency participation in HRU, while assuring the curriculum provides valuable learning resources and developmental opportunities. The framework makes enterprise agreement on the specific skills and knowledge HR professionals needed in various roles and specialty areas, and design a range of developmental strategies for meeting those needs, drawing from existing programs individual agencies have executed. The framework is managed by OPM with continuous input and support from Community Leaders identified by the agencies.
While OPM’s strategy is to professionalize the HR workforce (GS-201/203 job series) through HRU and, eventually, credentialing, HRU is available to all Federal employees seeking knowledge of Federal HR policies and practices, with courses and resources for hiring managers as well as other employees who are not in the 201 or 203 job series but may be involved in hiring operations.
OPM will continue to focus on improving the ability of the Federal human resource workforce to attract, develop, train and support talent in the Federal government, and has set a new human resource workforce Agency Priority Goal for 2016-2017.
Next Steps
Expand All
Performance Indicators
HR University Registration Percentage for HR Workforce (GS-201s/203s)
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Chief Human Capital Officers Council, Employee Services, Human Resources Solutions, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Merit System Accountability & Compliance
No Data Available
