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Strategic Objective

SG08.01 Enhance policy, procedures and processes used to ensure people are fit to serve

Strategic Objective

90% of Top Secret investigations completed in average of 80 days or fewer and Secret investigations completed in average of 40 days or fewer.

Percent of milestones met in FBI/OPM implementation plan to provide emerging Criminal

90% of Top Secret investigations completed in average of 80 days or fewer and Secret investigations completed in average of 40 days or fewer.

Percent of milestones met in FBI/OPM implementation plan to provide emerging Criminal History Information to employing government agencies implementation plan

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Lead Office: Federal Investigative Services

Themes:

General Government

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Overview
Progress Update

Overview

Defining executive branch wide quality standards for background investigations and revising tools and measures to universally assess quality in collaboration with Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council,.
Automating front-end processes to reduce paper investigation requests in support of Background Investigations timeliness standards.
Implementing revised Federal Investigative standards.
Establishing and enforcing standards for information systems used for management of adjudication

Progress Update

In September 2014, OPM announced it would not exercise options to renew contracts with the contractor that performed the majority of its background investigations. The agency has continued its operations by assigning cases to its Federal staff and its two remaining investigative contractors. In addition, OPM signed an agreement with another contractor to take on a support services contract, which was effective October 1, 2014. Because of the short-term reduction in investigative resources, the time to complete initial national security investigations increased throughout FY 2015. To counter the temporary reduction in capacity, OPM’s Federal Investigative Services and its two fieldwork contractors increased their field staff, backfilled vacant Federal positions, and maximized OPM’s training capabilities Actions that OPM has taken to expand investigative capacity are within budget constraints, while maintaining the high-quality of OPM’s investigations. Until the additional vetted and trained resources are in place, OPM expects that investigation timeliness will continue to degrade and inventory will continue to increase through FY 2016. OPM will continue to re-evaluate its position to determine if additional measures are needed to meet timeliness goals while continuing to deliver high quality investigations.

OPM officials met with OMB and interagency partners to address how to respond to seven legislative proposals related to suitability and security clearance reform introduced in the 113th Congress. Although this effort was an outgrowth of the Presidentially-directed 120-day review of suitability, fitness, credentialing, and national security investigative and adjudicative procedures for Federal employees, members of the Armed Forces, and employees of Government contractors, it was also important to OPM in other ways, for example by potentially changing the contours of its options with respect to contracting.

Also in FY 2015, in accordance with the Government-wide phased implementation plan, OPM implemented the Tiers 1 and 2 investigation products that improve the quality of vetting by providing more information to decision-makers for suitability and credentialing determinations. The new products are based on the 2012 Federal Investigative Standards that OPM and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) jointly issued in December 2012. Further, OPM began implementing the new Executive Branch-wide Quality Assessment Standards for investigations signed by OPM and the DNI on January 22, 2015.

Meeting Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and DNI timeliness goals while continuing to deliver high quality investigations will continue to be OPM’s Federal Investigative Services’ main challenge into FY 2016. OPM is addressing this challenge by developing and employing detailed key measures of operational performance and tracking progress toward improving timeliness. In addition, to increase its capacity to execute investigations, OPM has developed plans to hire additional Federal field agents. Further, OPM is developing a new enterprise case management system which will allow detailed end-to-end management of investigations, allowing for more item-level scheduling which will result in efficient and cost effective operations.

OPM, in consultation with OMB, has highlighted this strategy as a focus area for improvement.

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

SG8 Enhanced Federal Workforce Integrity

Statement:

Enhance the integrity of the federal workforce.

Strategic Objectives

SG08.01 Enhance policy, procedures and processes used to ensure people are fit to serve

Statement:

90% of Top Secret investigations completed in average of 80 days or fewer and Secret investigations completed in average of 40 days or fewer.

Percent of milestones met in FBI/OPM implementation plan to provide emerging Criminal History Information to employing government agencies implementation plan

Description:

Defining executive branch wide quality standards for background investigations and revising tools and measures to universally assess quality in collaboration with Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council,.
Automating front-end processes to reduce paper investigation requests in support of Background Investigations timeliness standards.
Implementing revised Federal Investigative standards.
Establishing and enforcing standards for information systems used for management of adjudication decisions and data.
Developing tools to deliver appropriate emerging information to decision makers.
Developing automated tools to support efficiency and consistency in background investigation processes.

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FY 14-15 Priority Goal: PG2 Improve the Oversight and Quality of Background Investigation Processing

Statement:

Ensure that investigations achieve quality standards, while maintaining timeliness goals of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Throughout FY 2014 and 2015, OPM will target 99 percent or more of all OPM investigations adjudicated as “quality complete” by agencies receiving closed investigations.

Description:

Beginning in FY 2013, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) further challenged the background investigations process by revising the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act timeliness metrics to establish a separate standard for Top Secret investigations. As a result, the DNI shifted greater management focus on the manpower intensive workload, necessitating the creation of revised workload management tools and rules to measure and manage workload by case type.

While OPM has made significant progress on timeliness since 2004, the agency has maintained its primary focus on delivering top quality products to agencies. OPM will work with its executive branch reform partners to develop and implement Executive Branch quality standards, with a measurement tool designed for universal application during both the investigative and adjudicative processes. OPM will focus on implementing these additional initiatives while maintaining timeliness objectives. OPM will satisfy all national security standards, deliver quality products, and achieve Congressional and DNI mandated timeliness goals.

OPM is sensitive to the fiscal environment and the need for customer agencies (i.e., the employing or sponsoring agencies) to have more insight into the costs of background investigations. To this end, OPM will continue conducting business efficiency studies and maturing its cost allocation model to provide more detailed cost data and to optimize the value of OPM’s investigative products to agency adjudicators, which in turn translates into better value to taxpayers.

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SG08.02 Hold agencies accountable for maintaining efficient, effective and compliant human capital management programs and accountability systems

Statement:

70% or greater of agency human capital offices evaluated demonstrate progress in improving their human capital programs after implementing OPM required and recommended actions.

80% or greater of all required actions cited in reports are addressed by agencies within prescribed timeframes.

80% or greater of Delegated Examining Units with severe problems demonstrate satisfactory level of competence within one year or cease to independently operate.

Description:

Evaluating agencies’ human capital management programs and accountability systems for effectiveness, efficiency, and compliance with law and regulation.
Ensuring OPM’s products and services are designed to help agencies maintain efficient, effective, and compliant human capital management programs
Ensuring agencies take corrective actions when high-risk vulnerabilities and violations of law in human capital management programs are identified.
Exploring options to strengthen OPM’s enforcement authorities or measures when agencies fail to meet regulatory requirements.
Developing work products and processes that increase transparency and strengthen agency senior leader commitment and support in ensuring their human capital management programs are efficient, effective, and compliant, including
- a dashboard of human capital management targets to increase agency awareness and drive improvement efforts,
- information on effective human capital management programs, practices, and strategies Government-wide and agency-specific problematic trends, root causes, and improvement strategies.

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SG08.03 Provide guidance, tools and training to help agencies attain human capital management goals and meet OPM requirements

Statement:

80% or greater of participants assess the quality of training provided by Agency Compliance and Evaluation staff at no less than 4 out of 5 points on a scale of 1-5.

Increase in the percentage of HR specialists and agency benefit officers trained and certified by HR University.

Increase in the percentage of applicable HR information systems across the Federal government are certified to align with OPM policy and guidance for equitable treatment.

Description:

Training and certifying gency staff to carry out competitive hiring operations delegated by OPM.
Training agency staff to conduct self-assessments of agency human capital management programs.
Creating a certification process for agency self-assessment evaluators.
Communicating new and existing policy and standards to agencies.
Educating agencies about the merit system principles and prohibited personnel practices.
Promoting and delivering low-cost, effective learning solutions for the federal community through expanded distance- and blended-learning solutions, skills immersion mini-workshops, and open enrollment course offerings through the new HR Training On Demand program.
Training HR professionals across the Federal government through HR University (HRU) and the HR Training on Demand program and assisting HR specialists with additional policy and guidance.
Promote training programs across all OPM platforms, including USA Learning, HR Learning Connection, OPM Learning Center, HR University, THEO, USAJOBS, and OPM.gov

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FY 16-17 Priority Goal: Human Resource Workforce Capability

Statement:

Close skills gaps in the Federal human resource workforce by developing and launching a Federal HR curriculum. By the end of FY 2016, build and launch curricula for staffing and classification. Baseline HR professionals’ proficiency levels for the Staffing specialty area competencies, and set targets for improvement. By the end of FY 2017, build and launch curricula for employee relations and labor relations; and design a certification program for existing HR University curricula.

Description:

The Federal human resources profession performs the vital role of supporting the recruitment, hiring and management of the Federal civilian workforce. The President’s Management Agenda and OPM Strategic Plan both rely critically on the ability of human resources professionals to keep abreast of innovations in talent management, evolving human resources policies, and new skills required for successful execution of Federal talent strategies. Currently, investment in development for Federal HR professionals varies across agencies in approach, content, and quality. To assure a leveling-up of HR professional development and support Government-wide HR reforms, OPM is partnering with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council to build a comprehensive curriculum of HR training and education to be delivered through the HR University (HRU). The CHCO Council is using a Community Framework to develop an agreed approach to identifying required skills, assessing the current workforce competencies to identify gaps, and targeting the development of coursework toward high priority skills. The HRU Curriculum will address all HR professional roles and technical specialty areas, and will consist of courses offered by OPM’s HR Solutions, as well as courses available from other Federal agencies. The Community Framework also includes a credentialing strategy to be developed by the CHCO Council based on benchmarking of industry best practices. A certification program will be built into the HRU Curriculum to support any future credentialing program.

The highest risk to successful execution of this goal is agencies’ willingness to pay for courses offered by HR University. Recovering the investment costs for the curriculum and HRU operations is critical to OPM’s Human Resources Solutions’ (HRS) sustainable delivery of HRU curricula and developmental resources. To mitigate this risk, HRS is collaborating closely with the CHCO Council HR Skills Gaps Executive Steering Committee to build the curriculum. Through a co-production method, HRS will ensure that courses being offered directly meet agencies’ perceived needs for HR skills development.

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SG08.04 Assure effective human capital management of Senior Executive Service (SES) and other senior employees

Statement:

Increase in the percentage of hiring officials reporting satisfaction with quality of appointee.

Increase in the number of agencies adopting the basic SES performance appraisal system and including cross-Government requirements (e.g., Employee Viewpoint Survey results, diversity management and inclusion, effective human capital management, etc.).

Increase in the number of agencies receiving training on the Qualification Review Board requirements enabling initial SES appointments.

Description:

Establishing policy and guidance to foster an effective enterprise approach to the diverse and inclusive recruitment, selection, appointment, performance management, compensation, recognition, and development of SES and other Senior Employees consistent with applicable law.
Administering enterprise processes to ensure the selection, appointment, performance management, compensation, recognition, and development of SES and other Senior Employees complies with civil service laws, rules, and regulations.
Providing an optional automated performance management system, USA Performance℠, to automate the government-wide SES PM System.

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