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Strategic Objective

MG01.02 Create a work environment where OPM employees are fully engaged and energized to put forth their best efforts and achieve OPM’s mission

Strategic Objective

Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.
Increase in OPM’s employee engagement index score (especially with respect to the supervisor

Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.
Increase in OPM’s employee engagement index score (especially with respect to the supervisor subcomponent) and New Inclusion Quotient (New IQ)..

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Lead Office: Diversity and Inclusion

Themes:

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Overview
Progress Update

Overview

Launching a comprehensive approach to employee engagement.
Building leadership commitment and ownership of the engagement approach that incorporates:
- supervisory training¹,
- improved assessment and selection of supervisors,
- training in problem-framing and problem-solving methods that empower their teams to develop excellent solutions,
- ongoing support to supervisors and
- monitoring of supervisors’ progress using an accountability tool.
Increasing communication to employees and promoting inclusion by:
- identifying and using available communication vehicles, including THEO,

Progress Update

OPM's overall engagement approach includes elements designed to invite and equip all employees to actively engage in collaborative problem solving and to celebrate individual and collective successes. In FY 2015, all OPM subcomponents designated leads for Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) action planning. For the most part, these leads were volunteer captains for component teams made up of a diverse group of employees. The leads were provided with 2014 FEVS data specific to their organizations and trained on a corporate approach to action planning. The group leads were brought together on a periodic basis to inform each other of the strategies they are pursuing and to provide input for corporate messaging.

All OPM supervisors who have a FEVS report specific to their organization were provided with the report, and the agency made online training available to all supervisors. The largest and most geographically dispersed components (Federal Investigative Services, Human Resources Solutions, Retirement Services) conducted significant "lower level" action planning. For example, Federal Investigative Services has teams at the local level who are selected by peer voting to represent the voice of the employee, the voice of the first line supervisor and the voice of the second line supervisor. Each group is working on an improvement plan that is tailored to local concerns and addresses local issues related to employee development, employee recognition and leadership training. Human Resources Solutions is pursuing a model that focuses on leaders and moving from transactional to transformational behaviors. Retirement Services has a team pursuing a CARE model (Compassionate, Accurate, Responsive, and Empowered) that has shown positive results within Retirement Services and has informed OPM's corporate approach to customer service.

All OPM supervisors have performance standards that speak to specific expectations concerning diversity, inclusion and engagement. Supervisors who are in challenging situations, based on FEVS and other data, have been included in a new Supervisor Support Program.

To increase collaborative problem solving, OPM continues to provide introductory training on Human Centered Design and Lean Six-Sigma to most employees and advanced training to some to build internal capacity. In FY 2015, OPM initiated the first in a series of corporate Rapid Improvement Exercises; where employees were asked for ideas to improve OPM and selected employees were given dedicated time and training to further pursue their ideas in an intensive two day program. The initial exercise focused on energy savings and corporate sustainability issues.

After establishing employee resource groups in previous years to promote the views of employees with similar characteristics (for example, women, LGBT, and Hispanic), in FY 2015, OPM convened an Employee Resource Group Summit to develop leadership skills of OPM group members. OPM leaders also reviewed and approved group proposals that include group leaders and members assisting the agency in strategic outreach, recruitment and employee development initiatives.

To further a corporate culture of inclusion, OPM executives, managers, and supervisors have been trained on the New IQ method. As of FY 2015, 87% percent, or 429 out of 495 OPM managers have received New IQ training. OPM has experienced some managerial turnover this year. As managers are trained in the New IQ and retire or leave the agency, new managers are hired whom need to be trained on the New IQ. Additional training opportunities are scheduled and OPM will target new managers for New IQ training. OPM also began training for all employees in FY 2015. In addition, the agency developed a web-based training regarding the inclusion of LGBT employees in the workplace.

OPM also deployed other key strategies to improve employee inclusion. They include developing:

the 20 Small Acts of Inclusion, which are 20 actions, based on neuroscience, that increase behaviors that lead to the perception of inclusion;
a Habit Scan, a survey where managers are asked how many inclusive habits or activities they have engaged in;
the Simple Pledge, in which senior leaders identify two to four commitments related to diversity, inclusion, engagement, and employee development to increase accountability and transparency across organizations. Simple Pledges are posted on the OPM Intranet for all to see, and senior leaders provide periodic updates on their implementation of the pledges; and
Diversity and Inclusion Dialogues to promote open and honest conversations on prescient topics to improve communication, understanding, and teamwork among employees from different offices, backgrounds and groups.

Finally, to better recognize the accomplishments of OPM employees, the agency conducted a full slate of activities at multiple OPM locations during Public Service Recognition Week in May. The culmination of the celebration was the Director's Awards for Excellence ceremony where OPM employees were recognized in individual and group award categories based on peer nominations that were reviewed by volunteer employee panels and coordinated through OPM's Labor-Management Transformation Forum. To build upon the successful awards process, the Labor Management Transformation Forum formed a working group to review current recognition programs and processes across OPM components to develop non-monetary recognition programs on a rolling basis, rather than only during Public Service Recognition Week.

The primary challenge associated with strategy 1.02 involves supervisors and employees making time for training, recognition and regular communications activities to improve employee engagement. Through all employee town hall meetings and special sessions with all OPM senior executives, OPM leaders have highlighted the importance of these activities as enhancing mission accomplishment rather than somehow being separate from daily work. Component leaders have also impressed upon their supervisors the importance of regular communication, training designed to improve core skills and competencies and employee recognition. In addition, OPM’s employee development programs (featured in strategy 1.03) and employee recognition programs should be coordinated with stakeholders, including local labor unions. The Labor Management Transformation Forum has chosen to focus on these issues and the corporate learning programs and Director's Awards process are success stories of that collaboration that can inform future partnership activities.

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

MG1 Diverse and Effective OPM workforce

Statement:

Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.

Strategic Objectives

MG01.01 Deploy agile recruitment and outreach tactics to attract a diverse and talented workforce

Statement:

Increase applicant flow from groups that underrepresented within OPM and remove barriers where they exist

Description:

Further developing and implementing our approach to recruitment and outreach.
Identifying OPM’s unique value proposition as an employer to establish the “OPM Brand” (externally and internally)
Developing and implementing an approach to internal recruitment with a focus on agility (e.g., connecting talent to project-based work through a government-wide talent matching tool).
Leveraging technology and social media to create communities around specific mission areas.
Investing in application assessment tools and processes.
Identifying and addressing barriers to diversity.

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FY 14-15 Priority Goal: PG5 Promote Diversity and Inclusion

Statement:

OPM will support diversity and inclusion by aligning OPM business intelligence tools to help decision makers, like hiring managers and supervisors, analyze key workforce data including applicant flow, attrition/retention, and inclusion indicators. In so doing, decision makers can develop better outreach and recruitment methods; determine what factors contribute to the retention of a talented workforce; experience cost savings through decreased attrition; and create an inclusive work environment that empowers employees to contribute to their full potential. By September 30, 2015, 95 percent of OPM and 25 percent of government-wide hiring actions will occur following human resource and/or hiring manager’s use of a tool that reveals applicant flow data from prior recruitment efforts. This tool will assist human resource and/or hiring managers in planning their strategic recruitment efforts, resulting in measurable improvements in the recruitment and outreach to underrepresented communities and manager satisfaction with the quality of new hires.

Description:

OPM is responsible for the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion effort focused on developing, driving, and monitoring strategies and initiatives designed to create a more diverse and inclusive Federal workforce. Executive Order 13583, “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce,” challenged the Federal Government with leading by example and attaining a diverse, qualified workforce that enables employees to contribute to their full potential. Similarly, Executive Order 13548, “Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities,” requires agencies to improve their efforts to employ Federal workers with disabilities and targeted disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of these individuals.

In FY 2012, OPM issued the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to provide direction to fifty-seven participating departments and agencies under the two subject Executive Orders. The three primary goals in the Plan included:

Workforce Diversity. Recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society;
Workplace Inclusion. Cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and further retention; and
Sustainability. Develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.

In support of the Diversity goal, OPM seeks to improve applicant flow reporting to enable human resources staff and hiring managers to determine whether recruitment efforts have been successful in drawing from all segments of society and to aid in developing future recruitment strategy. Applicant flow data has historically been collected on the basis of race, national origin, and sex, and beginning in 2014, it will be collected on the basis of disability. Historically, the data has been analyzed in an aggregate format; however, through the use of business intelligence tools, applicant flow data for individual hiring actions will be available for review at the hiring manager level after a vacancy has closed, creating incentive for increased hiring manager involvement in the recruitment process and greater opportunity for planning future recruitment efforts.

To further understand how to create an inclusive work environment where employees are fully engaged and productive, OPM and the Department of Veterans Affairs conducted factor analysis on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and found that twenty questions cluster into five areas or behaviors (i.e., fair, open, cooperative, supportive, and empowering) that create inclusive work environments. Based on these five areas, OPM developed the “New IQ” (Inclusion Quotient) techniques and training to assist managers and supervisors in practicing behaviors that foster inclusion, an antecedent to employee engagement. OPM will also continue to focus on the life cycle of the Federal employee to ensure that the Federal workforce is able to hire and develop the best talent from all segments of society, with a focus on internal Diversity and Inclusion efforts to ensure that we serve as a model agency. Internal efforts will focus on the implementation of a data-driven, habit formation strategy that leverages first-line managers and supervisors to foster inclusion and engagement in the OPM workplace.

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MG01.02 Create a work environment where OPM employees are fully engaged and energized to put forth their best efforts and achieve OPM’s mission

Statement:

Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.
Increase in OPM’s employee engagement index score (especially with respect to the supervisor subcomponent) and New Inclusion Quotient (New IQ)..

Description:

Launching a comprehensive approach to employee engagement.
Building leadership commitment and ownership of the engagement approach that incorporates:
- supervisory training¹,
- improved assessment and selection of supervisors,
- training in problem-framing and problem-solving methods that empower their teams to develop excellent solutions,
- ongoing support to supervisors and
- monitoring of supervisors’ progress using an accountability tool.
Increasing communication to employees and promoting inclusion by:
- identifying and using available communication vehicles, including THEO, USAJOBS, USAStaffing®, Retirement ServicesOnline, EmployeeExpress, and OPM.gov,
- Involving employees in design of programs, products and services through collaboration using the Innovation Lab and other internal resources,
- Reflecting OPM core values in communications to employees, including recognition of employees who exhibit core values,
- Involving employee labor/representative groups as vehicles to support the engagement approach.

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MG01.03 Provide targeted learning and developmental opportunities for OPM’s employees

Statement:

Increase in the percent of OPM employees reporting real opportunities to improve their skills within the organization (Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, item #1).

Description:

Developing an agency workforce plan that outlines OPM’s workforce needs for the medium to long term.
Conducting a skills gap analysis that identifies the skill requirements of the OPM workforce.
Aligning Learning Center and The Lab @ OPM’s offerings with OPM needs identified through the skill gap analysis.
Training OPM employees on the agency’s core values as well as problem-solving methods that support those values.
Instituting a formal experiential development program (e.g., Fellows, details, cross-organization project opportunities).
Supporting shadowing and mentoring practices and programs.
Defining career paths for OPM occupations.
Leveraging Employee Resource and Affinity Groups to help connect to employees at all levels of the organization.

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Agency Priority Goals

FY 14-15: PG5 Promote Diversity and Inclusion

Statement:

Description:

Workforce Diversity. Recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society;
Workplace Inclusion. Cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and further retention; and
Sustainability. Develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.

Learn More

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