Robert Hosenfeld

Health and Human Services
Robert Hosenfeld
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources,
Chief Human Capital Officer

When Robert Hosenfeld was appointed chief human capital officer at the Health and Human Services Department in January, he took the helm of a ship already on course. For its human capital management, the department had earned a green rating, the highest, on the President's Management Agenda score card in the third quarter of 2004. Yet it won't necessarily be smooth sailing for Hosenfeld. He will have to steer HHS through implementing the plans his predecessor laid out-especially the move to performance-based pay.

Hosenfeld is no stranger to managing change. He came to the CHCO job from the National Institutes of Health, where he served as director of the Office of Human Resources. He also headed human resources at the Interior Department's U.S. Geological Survey and worked at the Defense Department, Army and Navy-accumulating more than 30 years' experience in human resources.

A proponent of technology, Hosenfeld built a reputation in part through his drive to automate human resources functions. Under his leadership, the Geological Survey became one of the first federal agencies to use software from Monster Government Solutions, a division of New York City-based Monster Worldwide. The system, called QuickHire, automates the collection and screening of job applications and allowed the Geological Survey to drastically cut down the time it spent choosing candidates.

It has not worked as well at HHS, however. Late last year, large numbers of applications caused the system to crash at both HHS and the Homeland Security Department. While officials at Homeland Security decided to terminate the contract with Monster, Hosenfeld opted to stick with QuickHire while the company worked out glitches in the software. It became fully operational again in August.