3Rs Review Underway

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry has announced some of the details for the review of recruitment, retention, and relocation bonuses that he said he'd kick off back in May. Currently, agencies only have to report back on their use of retention bonuses, which have been the subject of some scrutiny over whether they've been used appropriately. Berry's asking for three things to happen: first agencies need to conduct internal reviews of their use of those bonuses, and report back on their plans for that use and any changes they intend to make it in that use, 45 days from today. Second, Berry wants the Chief Human Capital Officers Council to create a work group to examine and report back a cost-benefit analysis of recruitment, retention, and relocation bonuses within 90 days. And finally, his own agency will report back on the results of those reviews.

"As part of this cost-benefit analysis, I ask the [CHCO] work group to evaluate what the impact would be on recruitment and retention efforts if agencies were to scale back their funding of the 3Rs," Berry wrote in his memo announcing these actions. "The purpose of this evaluation is to improve our understanding of the return on investment we obtain when we use these discretionary authorities."