OPM
or the office of personnel management is an organization that manages the records of of federal employees including but not restricted to all the retirement applications and processes.
Federal Employees Spill the names of best Employee Engagement Agencies in the FEVS Survey
The results of the FEVS survey conducted on federal employees by the OPM are out. It has mentioned which large and small agencies are at the top with regard to employee engagement. It also revealed which small agencies are at the top. The results also name the large and small agencies that have improved the most in keeping the employees engaged.
Topmost Large Agencies Named by Federal Employees
The topmost large agency in which got a score of 82 percent is the Federal Trade Commission. The next is NASA with 80 percent which is closely followed by Office of Management and Budget at 78 percent. Then comes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission that scored 77 percent and 74 percent respectively. The scores were offered as per the federal employees’ opinion.
Small Agencies Making it to the Top
As per the data released by OPM, 92 percent was the score at Marine Mammal Commission and it was 90 percent at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has succeeded in scoring 90 percent while the Federal Relations Labor Authority managed to get 84 percent score. Overseas Private Investment Corporation has also made it to the top 5 with 83 percent score.
The Improvement
The survey data also reveals that 7 big agencies have managed to improve their employee engagement scores in the last year. The score of Securities and Exchange Commission was boosted by 5 percent. The scores of Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department, National Archives and Records Administration and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased by 4 percent each. The Energy Department saw the maximum boost of 14 percent.
The small agencies which managed to increase their employee satisfaction score include the African Development Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts that gained an increase of 18 percent. The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board gained 14 percent while the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission gained 13 percent. The Office of Special Counsel and the International Boundary and Water Commission gained 12 percent each. The Postal Regulatory Commission ended up gaining 10 percent.
Conclusion
After seeing the aforementioned results based on the federal employees’ opinion prove that the small agencies are doing better improvement as compared to the larger ones as more small ones have managed to improve their percentage in double digits.
OPM Starts Assessing Pay Grades of Federal Employees
The Office of Personnel Management has begun the process of collecting data for assessing the pay grades of federal employees. OPM issued a memo to all the agencies and asked them to submit the special pay grade information. The memo also clarified that the overall changes are limited to 1.6 percent increase in total basic payroll because of the President’s budget. The federal employee unions are against the menial increase and are fighting for more. OPM memo has also set a deadline for the agencies to submit the required information.
Yearly Assessment of Federal Employees’ Pay Grades
The yearly assessment of federal employees’ pay grades has already begun at OPM. The review will consider locality and other pay grades that have been adjusted to higher levels than what federal employees usually earn. The higher levels are usually due to factors like recruitment and retention problems that occurred recently in the retaining the Border Protection guards in North Dakota and the Bakken Oil Field in Montana.
According to a memo released by OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert, the agencies now need to submit the special pay grade information if they plan to eliminate or reduce the special rate schedule or they are requesting pay adjustments higher than the general schedule base rate that will take effect in January 2017.
The President Budget
The memo also stated that the President budget for the year 2017 limits the costing to 1.6 percent of the basic payroll. So, the value of locality pay increases and the across-the-board increase in GS base rates cannot exceed the 1.6 percent increase in the total basic payroll of an employee.
The Dissatisfaction
It is vital to mention here that the federal employee unions are not happy with the 2017 raise and they want to change it. They even supported Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., that demanded a 5.3 percent increase which included 1.4 percent locality pay adjustment. The bill has not moved out of the committee yet. President Obama can make the changes in Federal Pay raise only until August 31, 2016. The locality pay bump in 2016 was 0.3 only.
The Deadline
The memo shared by Cobert also mentions that the agencies have a deadline to submit the requested information regarding federal employees’ pay grade. They just have until October 14, 2016, to submit the special pay grade changes they wish to implement in their organization.
Federal Employees Should Telework to avoid Heat
It has been an unusually hot summer. The scorching heat from the sun is making people sweat a lot and some people are even skipping work to stay at home. OPM has tried to resolve this problem by asking agencies to allow federal workers to work from home. Options like these would help the federal employees to have a better health and well being.
The Options Given to Federal Employees
OPM has urged the government agencies to allow the options like work from home or flexible hours to all federal employees. This will help the employees to adjust their schedules in such a manner that they won’t travel when the heat is at its worst. OPM also suggested that employees can take vacation days by requesting an annual leave or earned compensatory time off. They can also opt for options like credit hours especially on the days when heat and humidity threaten the health and welfare of an employee. All these suggestions were made by Beth Cobert, acting Director of OPM in a memorandum to agencies.
Hydration is a Must
Cobert also said that the agency is working in conjunction with the Health and Human Services Department so that the agencies could be reminded to play a proactive role in protecting the well-being and health of the employees. A crucial part of the effort is to ensure that the workers stay hydrated at all times, especially when there is severe heat. She added that every agency should make sure that the employees are protected from the heat waves by having ample amount of water.
The Resources
OPM has also asked the federal workers to monitor all the resources available through HHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so that they can get some advice on the best methods available to cope with the heat.
The Silent Killer
OPM’s attempts to shield the federal employees are not worthless because the NOAA has recently warned that nearly 124 million Americans can be impacted by the excessive heat in the next few days. The NOAA also divulged that the heat index will probably reach 110 degrees in some areas too. The agency termed this severe heat as a silent killer. This seems to be an apt description as people rarely realize the effects of heat on their health until they are too far gone and need medical care in most cases.
OPM Creates Strategies to Retain Cyber Security Federal Employees
As OPM and other federal agencies are facing some problems in hiring and retaining federal employees who are experts in cyber security, OPM has created the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy to deal with the problem. The strategy aims to increase the number of cyber security personnel, not only at the government, but also at overall U.S. workforce.
The Aim of Strategy to Hire Cyber Security Federal employees
OPM Director, Beth Cobert recently announced that the strategy was created to ensure that more federal cyber experts are hired and retained as they can strengthen the security of federal systems, networks, and assets. She also added that cyber security is a shared responsibility of the leadership, employees, private industry, contractors as well as the American people.
OPM has outlined four core strategies to increase the cyber workforce at all levels. The strategies are mentioned below.
Education and Training
The first strategy includes offering a CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program and communicating with the universities regarding their resource and teaching needs. This strategy also proposed funds of $62 million to enhance cyber security education.
Better Hiring
OPM is also focused on hiring the best talent by streamlining the existing hiring processes, focusing on diversity outreach and searching for opportunities to build a cyber security team as a part of the Presidential Management Fellows program.
Retaining the Employees
OPM aims to enhance the retention of cyber talent by creating transparent career paths and developing a government-wide cyber orientation program that promotes sharing of information.
Seeking the Workforce Needs
The cyber security workforce needs of every agency would be identified by making use of the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework that points out identifies 31 discrete specialty areas within cyber security workforce. The framework was created by National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) partner agencies.
The Success Factors
Cobert also stated that these changes would be implemented over time and the long-term success of these strategies would depend on attention, resources, and innovation from all levels of government. She also added that the initiatives mentioned in the strategy would play a key role in establishing, growing and strengthening a pipeline of cyber security into the future. It is being hoped that this time OPM would succeed in hiring and retaining the best federal employees who specialize in cyber security and have the caliber to protect government from advanced cyber attacks.
Report Reveals Most Satisfied SES Federal Employees
A recent report has tried to find out that the SES federal employees are happy in which agencies and which of the agencies offer the least satisfaction. The report also digs up the reasons why SES employees leave their jobs. The report highlighted the need for hiring more SES employees as a huge chunk of them would retire in the next few years.
Satisfied and Dissatisfied SES Federal Employees
The report was offered by McKinsey & Co. consulting firm and the Partnership for Public Service. It listed the agencies where the SES federal employees have the best and worst satisfaction levels. The highest level of satisfaction was present in NASA, OPM, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Labor. The maximum numbers of dissatisfied SES employees were present in the Defense Department, Social Security Administration, and the VA.
The Reasons for Leaving the Jobs
The report also found out the main reasons why the SES employees quit their jobs. The biggest reasons were organizational culture, political environment, and senior leadership. It is pertinent to add here that salaries or dissatisfaction with the current pay structure was further down on the list.
Boosting Morale
One of the respondents pointed out that recognition and culture were key aspects to boost employee morale. The respondent highlighted the fact that President Obama’s meeting with SES employees that was held in November 2014 was a huge plus. The respondent meant that it motivated the SES employees a lot.
SES in Jeopardy
The report also pointed out the sad fact that the SES is currently in jeopardy as most of the SES members would be retiring in the next 10 years. The report also mentioned that just around half of federal employees who have GS 14 and 15 ranks have expressed interest in filling up the SES ranks that are soon to be vacant. Hence, there is a need to fill up a lot of empty SES posts in the near future.
The Corrective Measures
The report was not only focused on finding out the problems, it also offered solutions. It demonstrated that how agencies are doing well in culture, performance management, and recruitment. It pointed out which agencies were lacking in these areas and how they can improve their performance so that the overall health of the SES and satisfaction of federal employees can be improved government-wide.
OPM Getting Better at Clearing Retirement benefits Backlog
OPM’s struggle to keep pace with the retirement benefits applications of the retirees has been a much discussed issue. We updated you last on the same in April. It’s time for another update. In the month of June, the agency received fewer applications and so the agency succeeded in processing more applications than it received for the month.
June’s Data on Processing Retirement Benefits
OPM got about 6,000 new retirement benefits claims in the month of June. It is about 18 percent lower than the claims received in the months of May. The number of new applications is also sixth lowest since October of 2014. In June, the agency processed just over 6,400 claims. It shows that the agency processed more claims than it actually received. The number of claims processed in the month of June is around 16 percent less than the claims processed in May. The number of claims processed is also the third lowest amount processed by the agency in the last 21 months.
The Total Backlog
The total backlog of the claims now stands at just over 13,500. It is a bit less than around 14,000 outstanding backlog of May 2016. In the report presented in May, the OPM added the steady state line at exactly 13,000 claims but the agency has clearly failed to reach this line. It has just been able to reach half of the goal.
Getting Better
Despite the hiccups, it is clearly visible that the agency is getting good at handling the claims and it seems that it has finally gotten a handle on the inventory backlog of claims. This inventory was out of control in the month of January. The reason behind the sudden escalation in the inventory was the fact that most federal employees file for a retirement in January only.
The 60 Days Factor
OPM data has also revealed that it processed 75 percent of claims in less than 60 or exactly 60 days in June. It has not changed since the month of May. The agency took an average of 37 days to process the claims that were processed in less than 60 days. The average has also remained unchanged. The retirement benefits claims that took more than 60 days to process were 103 in May and it stands at 115 in June.
Federal Employees Receive Huge Extra Bonuses
A Senator is seeking more information on the matter of some bonuses given to a federal employee via smurfing. The Senator is against the provision of offering extra bonuses to the federal employees as it violates the law. The Senator took up this matter with the OPM and wants to know whether any other government agencies are paying extra bonuses to the employees.
Are Federal Employees Being Paid Extra Bonuses?
The incident of offering extra bonuses to federal employees came into light when Senator Claire McCaskill sought information from the OPM and asked why a TSA employee was paid extra bonuses that exceed the amount the employee was entitled to receive as per the law. The information was sought via a formal letter.
The Incident
The letter was written by Senator McCaskill when she learned about the reports that state that extra bonuses were paid to the former head of security for TSA, Kelly Hoggan. The bonuses were paid by using a special technique known as “smurfing” in which the particular financial transactions are broken into something below the reporting requirement so that they can be masked. It is pertinent to add here that Hoggan received the extra bonuses when the news of security problems and delays at TSA were spreading like fire.
The Money and the Discrepancy
The letter written by Senator McCaskill to OPM Acting Director clearly mentions that Hoggan received $90,000 in bonus payments in 13 months. She mentioned that this incident is a clear violation. She also added that as per the federal law, the SES bonuses must not exceed the 20% of an employee’s base salary and they must be paid in a lump sum. If the 20% base salary factor is considered in this incident then Hoggan’s salary would have had to be more than $450,000 per year.
No Excess Bonuses
Senator McCaskill also opined that the federal employees must not be receiving bonuses in a clandestine manner and the amount of the bonuses must never exceed the 20% cap that is mentioned in the law. She also expressed concerns over the fact that other agencies might be doing the same thing that the TSA did with Hoggan. Hence, she has requested OPM to provide details on the number of federal workers that received bonuses that are over the 20% amount or the ones that are more than 10% of an agency’s base pay for senior executives.
OPM Offers Cyber Security Tips to Federal Employees
OPM is still correcting the mistakes it made that led to two massive cyber security breaches last year. The agency recently directed all the federal employees to take some measures to ensure their cyber security remains intact like changing their passwords often. OPM is also increasing the length and coverage of those people who were impacted by the breach and whose accounts were hacked. More details on the extension of the period would be shared later this year.
OPM Asks Federal Employees to Stay Vigilant
The Acting Director of OPM, Beth Cobert recently wrote a letter and urged the federal employees to become more vigilant towards the cyber hygiene. She stated that the current electronic environment is very complex and so there is a need to be on guard against malicious people as well to protect the security of the technology people use on a daily basis. She suggested that feds should constantly update their passwords and stay aware of all the phishing email scams. She says these sorts of actions would prevent any cyber intrusions.
Seeking Identity Protection
About 2.7 people who were impacted by the cyber attacks that impacted more than 21 million people have signed up for free identity protection services that are being offered by ID Experts. This was revealed in the data shared by the agency.
More Insurance Coverage for the Victims
In the letter, Cobert also highlighted that the agency is implementing the fiscal 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act. This act would increase the length as well as the amount of insurance coverage offered to people who were victims of the cyber hacks.
Cobert said that the agency has already increased the amount of identity theft insurance from $1 million to $5 million. This change came into effect on June 1, 2016. She added that the agency is putting in a lot of efforts towards extending identity protection services and credit monitoring services to the people who were impacted by the attacks. The extension would ensure that these people are offered these services for at least 10 years. Cobert concluded that the details of the extension would be shared later this year.
It seems that the agency and its personnel are doing their best to ensure that the victims of the cyber attacks, current and former federal employees, feel better and such an attack never happens again.
Defense Department Allows Phased Retirement
The Defense Department has recently given a green light to phased retirement plan. In this plan, a person does not retire directly, the person works part time and gets paid accordingly until he fully retires. The phased retirement plan has been available for a few years now but OPM data states that only a few federal employees have signed up for it. Many other government departments may soon start the program as well.
Phased Retirement for Civilians
Starting a few days ago, the Department of Defence began to allow civilian employees to phase into retirement. The details of this plan were mentioned by the Pentagon’s personnel office. These policies will be used for the hybrid arrangement in which the employees who are eligible for retirement would get the opportunity to cut back to part-time work for a while before they opt to retire fully.
The Policies
The policies mostly repeat the basic requirements that are set by law for government-wide regulations. The policies also include a list of factors the department will consider while deciding to offer the phased retirement option to an eligible employee.
How Phased Retirement Works?
For those who don’t know, phased retirees work half time and collect the exact half of their salaries. They also collect half of the annuities that they have accumulated until they decided to opt for phased retirement. When the phased retiree completely retires, the annuities are recalculated and it includes adding the part-time work.
Less Success of Phased Retirement
Phased retirement has not been a huge success across the government departments until now. Though the phased retirement was initiated a few years back, only 80 federal employees are using it as of now. This was highlighted in the data released by the OPM. It is pertinent to add that the 80 employees are from a workforce of 2.1 million outside the independent U.S. Postal Service. These 80 employees do not include 7 other employees who have completed the phased retirement stage and are now fully retired.
The Future
It is being predicted that the adoption of phased retirement by the Defense Department will prompt other government departments to start the program too. The Commerce Department has announced that the program will start there soon. The Defense Department can boost the program considerably because it employs around one-third of the non-postal executive branch workforce that comes down to about 77,000 employees. Over one tenth of these 77,000 employees are already eligible for phased retirement.
Veterans to Get Training to become Federal Employees
Elizabeth City State University is organizing a workshop for veterans that will let them know how they can grab federal jobs and become federal employees. The workshop will benefit all the people related to veterans. OPM is also involved in the workshop as it will teach employees the process of federal employment. The workshop will be conducted soon and the registration process is very easy. The workshop is also free of cost.
Veterans Can Learn the Process of Being Federal Employees
The workshop will be organized at the Elizabeth City State University this Wednesday and Thursday. The workshop is free for everyone and anyone can attend it. The people who are eligible for attending the crucial workshop are veterans, student veterans, transitioning military service members and their families. The Veteran Center of the university is working in conjunction with Office of Personnel Management and Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City to organize this vital workshop.
The Aim
The aim of the workshop is to teach the participants how veterans can become federal employees. The details about the steps required to be a federal employee would be shared. The workshop would also include details such as how to create a resume for federal jobs. Experts representing Office of Personnel Management will teach the federal employment process to all the participants of the workshop.
The Helping Hands
Apart from the university members and the Office of Personnel Management, several agencies are also helping in organizing the workshop. The names include N.C. Dept. of Commerce Division of Workforce Solutions, Disabled American Veterans Transition Service and the N.C. Division of Veterans Affairs.
Vital Details
The workshop would begin at on June 22 at 9 a.m. and would last till 2 p.m. The same timing would be applicable on June 23. The venue of the workshop would be the Information Technology Center on the ECSU campus.
Registration Details
Veterans who are keenly interested in becoming federal employees must sign up for the workshop by completing a simple registration process. To register, one needs to visit this link- www.eventbrite.com/e/federal-employment-workshop-tickets-25386648148. For people who need any more information about the workshop, it’s timings or any other details the number 252-335-3253 is a direct way to get all the answers. One can also learn about the veteran center of the Elizabeth City State University by calling on the mentioned number.
Federal Employees Get Another Source of Discounted Tuitions
It seems that OPM is very serious about developing the skill levels of federal employees and closing the skill gap spread over the country. A few days back, we reported that OPM had partnered with Excelsior College to offer discounted-tuitions to federal employees and their families. Now, the agency has partnered with the Central Michigan University to offer discounted tuitions.
Federal Employees Get a Discount at CMU
The partnership terms that offer federal employees to get a discount state that about 15 percent discount is made available to all the federal government workers and the federal agencies’ departments. The discounts cover all the dependents and the spouses of federal workers.
The Limitation
A major limitation with regard to this benefit is that the discount is available only on the online courses and not the main campus in Mount Pleasant. The courses available on the CMU’s 45 satellite locations would be included in the discounted courses. The discount would also be applicable on all of CMU’s 30 online academic programs These details were made public through a press release created by CMU.
The Benefit
When a federal employee, a dependent or spouse opts for a standard undergraduate credit hour via the Global Campus, he or she will have to shell out just about $336. If the discounts are removed, the actual cost of the hour is $395. It must be added here that Global Campus hosts CMU’s online classes.
CMU Reaction
Pete Ross, who currently serves as the CMU Vice Provost of Academic Development expressed delight at the prospect of partnering with OPM. He said that the CMU is proud of this partnership and that they would be happy to help 1.8 million federal employees to grow personally and intellectually via the programs.
OPM’s Reaction
The Acting Director of OPM, Beth Cobert also expressed her views on the partnership. She stated that the agreement done by the government with CMU would play a key role in ensuring that the federal workers get access to higher education and further their careers. She also added that it is being hoped that this step would close the skill gaps within the federal government.
Cobert also highlighted the core fields in which the skill gap is increasing. She said that the areas in which the federal employees lack proper skills are human resources, acquisitions, cyber security, management and engineering.
Agencies Reminded to Offer AWS to Federal Employees
OPM has reminded the agencies to offer alternative work schedules for the federal employees. This step is taken to make sure that the Metro’s 10-month SafeTrack plan doesn’t affect the work progress at the agencies as the employees face commuting difficulties. The agencies were given full freedom to adopt the AWS they liked but most of the agencies have not offered any AWS to the employees.
The Directive Shared by OPM to Help Federal employees
Metro’s 10-month SafeTrack plan has started affecting the federal employees. OPM has reminded the agencies of the AWS system that was earlier shared in the form of a directive. On June 8, 2016, OPM sent out a memo to the agencies in which the varieties of AWS were mentioned in detail. OPM didn’t directly order the agencies to implement AWS but ensured that the agencies knew how it can be done.
The details regarding AWS such as what are the types of AWS, how it functions and different factors that needed to be considered such as premium and holiday pay were mentioned. OPM also made it clear that it is not issuing blanket decisions and that the onus is entirely on agencies.
Unique Solutions
OPM memo mentioned that the one size fits all approach would not be useful in this regard as the agencies need to decide about which AWS schedules they are adopting. The agencies are free to not adopt any AWS plan if the SafeTrack project doesn’t impact the agency mission and employees.
The Survey
The impact of SafeTrack project on federal employees was gauged via a survey conducted by Federal News Radio. The survey was carried out for three days during the first week of SafeTrack plan. It found out that almost all the feds were feeling the impact. About 85 percent of respondents said that they saw an increase in commute times.
About 50 percent of respondents admitted that their commutes had increased by more than half an hour. Around 13 percent of the respondents stated that they were spending more than an hour longer than usual during commuting.
Minimal AWS Offered
More than half of the federal employees who were surveyed admitted that their agencies have given no other option than their existing standard work schedules. About 38 percent respondents admitted that they got the option of Telework. Just 14 percent respondents stated that their agencies were offering alternate work schedules.
More Protection for Federal Employees who got their Data Hacked
The federal employees who became the victim of the massive data breach at OPM last year may get extra protection and benefits from the OPM. The OPM has refused to comment on the situation but employee unions are demanding better protection. The issue can be a hot topic now that the 18 months of protection offered is to expire soon.
How Were the Federal Employees Victimized?
The data breach had exposed the data of more than 21.5 million people. The hackers have penetrated the OPM website and the website of its related outsourcing contractors to get access to the data of all the current and former federal employees whose data was collected as a part of the background investigations done at OPM.
The Changes
As of now the people who got the impact of the data breach are eligible for 3 years of credit monitoring services and identity theft protection as well as up to $1 million in identity theft protection. The head of the company currently providing those services has hinted that the protection period may be expanded to 10 years and the protection amount to $5 million. It is pertinent to add that the expansion of the protection was directed by Congress last year.
The Vulnerability
Bob Gregg who currently serves as the CEO of ID Experts has stated that this better package might not be enough and may still leave people vulnerable. The company, ID Experts got a $330 million contract from OPM after the announcement of the massive breach. He added that using the data exposed in the hack to receive medical benefits is a fraudulent activity is growing popular day by day and the OPM has informally considered the idea to include protection against this fraud in the expansion of the protection.
The Appeal
While the OPM spokesperson declined to comment on the assumptions of expanding the protection, lawmakers and employee unions want better protection. The federal employee unions have asked for extended services and the lawmakers want the hack victims to get lifetime protections.
The Anticipation
Gregg has stated that the matter of protection would heat up soon enough as the 18 months of protection that was given to the original population of 4.2 million hack victims is about to expire. It is being predicted that all the hack victims, i.e., the federal employees would surely speak up for attaining better protection in the future as well.
About 30,000 Federal Employees to get better Retirement Benefits
The federal employees who fall under the designation of police series GS-0083 may soon have the ability to retire early and get better retirement benefits. A new bill has been proposed by the Democrats on the same. This move has been appreciated by many federal unions.
The Bill Impacting Federal Employees’ Retirement Benefits
The bill entitled The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act was introduced by Senators Barbara Mikulski, D-Md and Cory Booker, D-N.J. It states that all federal employees who have the authority to carry a firearm and who investigate criminals or apprehend them should be given better retirement benefits. It includes all the employees designated in the police series GS-0083 such as Internal Revenue Service officers who are in charge of collecting delinquent taxes, Veterans Affairs Department police officers and U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service employees.
The Retirement Age
If the bill is passed, some of the employees working at the FBI, Defense Department and many such agencies would get the right to retire at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service. They would also be able to retire at any age after they have completed 25 years on the job. Law enforcement officers get a more generous annuity when they retire and they contribute more from paychecks towards their retirement. Booker said that he wanted to fix that loophole so that all law enforcement officers get the benefits they deserve.
No More Punishments
Mikulski stated that the bill would right the wrong that has been happening with people who defend the nation against terrorists and stop the smuggling of illegal drugs.
The Credit
If the bill is passed, the employees would be able to get credit for the time they have served. They would just need to send a notice to the OPM within 5 years time from the date the bill is enacted or before they have to retire.
The Praise
Many of the federal employees’ union groups praised the bill suggested by the democrats’ senators. The groups stated that the officers deal with the same problems faced by the federal law enforcement so they really deserve the same perks. The President of National Treasury Employees Union, Tony Reardon wrote a letter to Booker and stated that IRS officers deal with critical situations such as assaults, threats, and even gunfire so they must be given the retirement benefits they deserve.
Federal Employees to Get Discounted Tuitions from Excelsior College
Excelsior College has partnered up with OPM to offer discounted tuitions to the federal employees. This step has been taken to ensure that the skill gap in government jobs is filled optimally. This step is also taken to ensure that the employees become ready for the future roles expected from them.
Federal Employees and Their Spouses will Benefit the Most
The major beneficiaries of this new benefit will be over 1 million employees who are considered to be eligible. The benefit would also cover the spouses or domestic partners of the employees. The percentage of discounts will depend on the type of education one has signed up for.
Federal employees or their spouses pursuing an undergraduate degree would get a 20 percent discount as well as an application fee waiver. Those who are pursuing a graduate degree would be able to get a 15 percent discount.
Quality Education is the Goal
John Ebersole, who serves as Excelsior President recently stated that this step was taken to ensure that the skill gap is closed in the government sector. He also added that the college would provide quality education at an affordable rate. After the employees are better trained, it will help the agencies to meet their workforce needs of the present as well as the future. Some of the courses that are expected to be high in demand are business, cyber security, national security and public service.
The Agreement
The agreement was done with the OPM when the agency realized that there is a skill gap crisis across the nation. There is an abundance of jobs but the candidates applying for them have got fewer skills and credentials. Some of the candidates who possess skills don’t have a quality education, which is a pre-requisite for applying for a job. On the other hand, some agencies are unable to find good candidates with skills to complete specific, technical trades as the candidates applying for the job have no skills.
A Worthy Choice
OPM has stated that Excelsior was a good candidate to help federal employees learn new skills as the college has the mission of providing educational access and educational opportunity to adult learners. It includes the learners who have been underrated in their higher education. The college serves adult learners through online educational courses. It also accepts credit from previous learning experiences of a student.
OPM Cyber Security Breach Source Still Not Found
The federal government has still not found the source of the major OPM breach that revealed the data of over 20 million federal workers last year. The officials have hinted that the attack might have originated from China but have failed to prove that. The officials are still not sure on whether the highly sensitive case would be closed anytime soon as they have failed to provide a specific timeline.
Why the Source of OPM Breach is still not Pin Pointed?
When Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) spoke of the matter during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S.-China relations, the officials were unclear on the points made by them. Antony Blinken, who serves as the Deputy Secretary of State stated that the source of OPM breach hasn’t been identified yet because finding the exact source of the intrusion is an on-going effort.
Is China the Source of the Breach?
Many media sources have pointed out that the government officials have privately admitted that China was behind the attack. They even hinted the same in the public but have offered no proof of any of it so far.
The Pending Acknowledgement
Senator Perdue also wanted to find out whether the attacks were acknowledged by the Chinese government as a part of the cyber deal that was concluded last September. The deal was signed by President Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The deal was done to ensure that there was a complete eradication of digital espionage for commercial gain. It also aimed at ensuring that the two countries cooperate in a better manner on the cyber issues because cyber issues have been an irritant between China and the U.S. relations in the last few years.
Blinken responded that he is not recalling anything that resembles an acknowledgement of the attack in the deal. He added that the U.S. made it clear that some major cyber actions like the breach on the OPM would not be ignored by the country.
The Report
When Perdue asked Blinken about a timeline by which a definitive report on what happened with the OPM would be submitted, the federal representative was unable to provide any specific timeline. It seems that the federal government still has a long way to go before they actually find the source of the attack and punish the ones responsible for the one of the major cyber attacks that happened in the U.S.
OPM Reduces Retirement Benefits Backlog Again
OPM has made considerable progress in clearing up the backlog of pending retirement benefits cases in the month of April. Although the main reason behind the reduced amount of backlog could be the fact that the agency received fewer applications, still the efforts put in by the agency are certainly showing up. It is being predicted that if the agency keeps working at the last month’s pace, it will reduce the backlog considerable by the end of the year.
Retirement Benefits Claims Processing Data
The recent data received on claims processing has revealed that the agency processed several more claims than the number of claims received in the month of April. OPM has processed nearly 12,000 pending claims in April while it received just more than 7,000 new claims. The efforts made by all the people working in the agency have brought down the total outstanding backlog by 24%.
Comparison with March’s Performance
The backlog was just over 19,000 in the month of March but now, at the end of April, it’s just over 14,500. The agency received over 7,000 new claims in the month of April, which is far higher than the 5,741 claims received in March.
The Average number of Days to Process Case in 60 days or less was 44 in March which increased to 50 in April. The Average number of Days to Process Case in more than 60 days was 118 in March and it stood at 92 in April. The agency processed 88% of claims in 60 days or less in the month of March and this percentage was just 76% in the month of April.
The Serious Problem
The biggest challenge for OPM that seems to be of importance is that it needs to bring the backlog down and make it below 10,000. Unfortunately, the agency hasn’t been able to achieve this goal in the last two years. It was just over 11,600 in December 2014 and about, 11,400 in December 2015.
The Positive Approach
One positive thing that needs to be analyzed with regard to retirement benefits claims processing is that the backlog was more than 22,000 in February. The agency has controlled it a lot in just two months. It can also be hoped that if the agency shows the same speed in chipping away the backlog that it has shown in the month of April, the backlog would be less than 10,000 by the end of 2016.
OPM’s Online Course for Employees Seems to be Successful
OPM has been taking some serious steps to boost the skills of federal workers. It seems to be working fine as about 1,800 people have benefitted from it in one year. A federal employee and a learning expert have shared their views on the matter and mostly favored the step taken by the agency.
The Aim of OPM’s Initiative
The aim of OPM’s partnership with Champlain College was to ensure that the skill gaps present in the key areas such as human resources, leadership, and cyber security are closed, according to OPM acting Director, Beth Cobert. The initial stages of this alliance are somewhat successful as nearly 1,800 feds and their families have enrolled in the program. The online coursework has gotten a huge discount. The most popular programs liked by the feds are M.S. or MBA in executive leadership and B.S. programs in cyber security and business management.
Losing Employees is Inevitable
Susan Camarena, a longtime public servant and a propagator of the program has admitted that though losing a few federal employees to the private sector is inevitable, she is sure that taking care of the employees also matters a lot. She says even the employees who switch to the private sector would have good things to say about the public sector after they have left their jobs. This may help the government sector get more employees from the private sector. Camarena also expressed hope that the federal employees who have left the job after acquiring new skills may not be gone for long and they may want to join the public sector again.
Learning the Necessary Skills
The Academic Dean of Champlain College’s Division of Continuing Professional Studies, Dr. Mika Nash says that she would make sure that feds don’t get to hear much about the private sector opportunities. She also added that most feds undergo the skill development courses so that they can apply the new skills in their own agencies.
Employee Development leads to Employee Retention
Camarena also thinks that ensuring employee skill development leads to ensuring better employee retention. She gave her own example and stated that she had been in public service since 1981 mainly because her superiors offered her chances to gain new skills and try different things.
Pushing Others
Camarena also hopes to push her colleagues into signing up for a course offered as a part of OPM’s initiative after she returns to her home agency in October this year. She works for the Transportation Department’s Federal Transit Administration. She will do so because she wants more people from her own department to make the most of this opportunity.
OPM might use social media to perform background checks
The Office of Personnel Management or OPM has been preparing a pilot program that will help in automatic tracking of the pro-bono social media postings of people that are security clearance applicants.
OPM SET TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO PERFORM BACKGROUND CHECKS:
Market research is going to be carried out to locate the companies that can be assigned the project of carrying out automatic social media tracking. Apart from this, companies that excel in web crawling and other techniques will also be made part of the background checking and investigating process. This Request for information that got posted on April 8th indicated this. All the interested companies were to get back by April 15th.
OPM is not going to peek into details that are considered “private” or “confidential” of course; their aim is to gather information that’s “publicly available and electronic”. This will comprise of all the social network postings, blog posts, any online court records and all the videos and photos that can be crawled out.
OPM is interested in companies that have completely automated services in this regard. As they put it, “With no human intervention”, and with the ability to crawl in to the parts of the WWW, the contents of which can’t be found out by standard search engines. In addition to this, the companies should also be able to report a “Robust identity matching algorithm” that can’t be tricked by sophisticated tech-geeks and similar names.
While the project is still in the getting-ready phase, it’s expected to clear out a lot of problems and ambiguities that arise during the background checking phase. With the use of state-of-the-art technological techniques, it’s expected that the final decision of security clearance will become more credible and seamless to find. Here’s hoping that this project ends up being a success.
Federal Government Cyber Security Still the Worst: Report
The federal government, state governments and even the local governments, still have the worst cyber security protocols when compared to the major private industries. The report also highlighted which agencies and sectors were the best performers and which were the poorest performers.
Federal Government Agencies’ Performance
Many federal agencies were among the poor performers as they got a low score on software patching flaws and malware, as well as, network security. NASA was most vulnerable to malware intrusions and email scams. It ranked last place in the performance chart.
The Report
The report was generated by SecurityScorecard, which is a venture-backed security risk monitoring startup. The report was prepared after measuring the current cyber security of government and private industries such as retail, healthcare, transportation, etc. The performance was measured by variables such as exposure rates of passwords, susceptibility to social engineering and defenselessness against malware infections. The report included low-performing government agencies and surprisingly, The U.S. State Department was on that list.
Worst Industries and Regions
The three industries that have the worst cyber security include pharmaceutical sector, telecommunications, and the education sector. The worst performing regions were Washington, Connecticut, Maricopa County, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
This new report has once again highlighted the government’s inability to keep its cyber security up to the mark. The government faced a lot of criticism last year when OPM was hacked and data of nearly 22 million Americans was leaked due to poor cyber security.
Best Performers
Though there seems to be major loopholes in the government cyber security initiatives, there are some government agencies that performed well on the security scores. The Hennepin County Library in Minnesota and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation were among the top performers. The regions that have good cyber security are Nevada and Clack County.
The Measures
The federal government has taken some measures to deal with the cyber security issues. The foremost have been the Obama government’s decision to seek $19 billion towards cyber security for the fiscal year 2017. The amount if approved would include $3.1 billion to be spent on technology modernization of several federal agencies.
