OPM announces internal restructuring plan

The Office of Personnel Management may need to hire more staff, not cut staff, as part of a reorganization aimed at making the office a better central human resources agency for the government, a senior OPM official said Wednesday.

Ed Flynn, a senior adviser to OPM Director Kay Coles James, said more staff may be needed to meet increased demands on the agency, including the pending creation of a Department of Homeland Security and efforts to reform the government's pay system. OPM cut its workforce from 6,000 to 3,000 employees during the 1990s.

"There's going to be more horsepower needed at OPM, not less," Flynn said.

The reorganization, which James approved last month, will eliminate the agency's current structure, which includes eight functional divisions, such as employment and workforce relations, and eight support divisions, such as procurement and technology. In its place will be three primary divisions and five support offices. The agency will also regularly pull together so-called matrix teams, temporary groups that pull members from permanent offices, tackle specific problems and then disband.

The new divisions are:

• Associate Director for Human Resources Program Development. This office will be in charge of federal human resources policy, including staffing, compensation, benefits, labor relations and position classification. A matrix team set up to work on federal pay reform will be located under this office.
• Associate Director for Human Resources Products and Services. This office will handle governmentwide benefit programs, such as retirement and insurance services. It will also be in charge of services that OPM charges other agencies for, including investigative services, training and the testing of applicants.
• Associate Director for Agency Merit System Accountability and Human Resources Programs. This office will be OPM's face to federal agencies. It will be divided into four sections that mirror the Office of Management and Budget's resource management offices, serving human resources agencies (such as Health and Human Services), natural resources agencies (such as Interior), national security agencies (such as Defense) and general government agencies (such as the General Services Administration). The office will also have a section serving small agencies. Officials in federal agencies seeking OPM's help can go to a "relationship manager" in this office, rather than try to figure out who in OPM would know the answers to their questions.
• Associate Director for Management and Chief Financial Officer. This office will combine most of OPM's support personnel, including contracting, information technology, human resources and financial management. OPM's governmentwide e-government initiatives will be overseen by a matrix team that falls under this office.
• Other offices Five other office heads will report directly to James: the inspector general, general counsel, communications director, congressional relations chief and Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee chairman.

The restructuring comes in response to a May 2001 directive from Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels ordering agencies to reorganize so that they are more "market-driven, citizen-centered and results-oriented." OMB also ordered agencies to cut supervisor-to-staff ratios and consider outsourcing work that could be performed in the private sector. OPM has taken heat from private contractors that offer services similar to those that OPM offers, such as staffing software.

Flynn said the restructuring does not directly address either of those issues.

Some human resources specialists in federal agencies have complained that OPM provides them with poor guidance. Others complain that the office puts too many restrictions on their activities. The restructuring aims to address those complaints by appointing relationship managers.

A June 2001 General Accounting Office review noted that OPM is responsible for effective human resources management across the government, but most human resources work is performed within federal agencies. "The basic strategic challenges confronting OPM are similar to those confronting other agencies: developing a set of performance goals and measures for events that occur beyond the direct control of the agency and understanding how the agency's programs and day-to-day activities contribute to achievement of those outcomes," the GAO report (01-884) said.

OPM is also rewriting its strategic plan to address those concerns and is analyzing its budget to determine the actual cost of its many activities.