OPM launches online center to aid personnel reforms

As part of its efforts to modernize government personnel systems, the Office of Personnel Management has launched a new online resource for federal managers.

The Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework Resource Center is OPM's one-stop shop for managers navigating new personnel waters. It contains reports, checklists and texts of legislation, on topics including recruitment, retention, rewards and performance measurement.

In 2001, OPM, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accountability Office joined together to create a hard-copy HCAAF as a resource to drive personnel reforms.

The online version is meant to improve that model by making information more accessible to front-line managers and by linking the recommendations to examples of best practices, the full text of applicable laws and other Web resources. Creators describe it as "multidimensional."

A trend toward improved performance measurement, which is the goal of the personnel reforms under way at the Homeland Security and Defense departments and in the pipeline for the rest of government, was the impetus for the online center. According to OPM officials, however, HCAAF also is intended to help with the systems already in place.

HCAAF uses "policies and practices that now everyone is using, whether they are working under the current civil service system, or under alternate personnel systems," said Ann Ludwig, deputy associate director for human capital at OPM.

The target audience is a mix of human resources specialists, human capital managers, chief human capital officers and front-line managers, according to Ludwig.

"Transforming human capital requires effort at all sorts of levels," Ludwig said. "You have to improve your culture, you have to improve your practice, you have to improve your measurements. [HCAAF] brings all those dimensions together in one Web-enabled resource center to make it easy for people to find the tools and resources they need."

The Web site splits personnel issues into five areas: strategic alignment, leadership/knowledge management, performance culture, talent management, and accountability.

OPM also has recommended metrics for evaluation in each category. For example, the personnel agency suggests "respect for diversity" and "employee grievances and complaints" as two metrics for agencies to judge themselves in the area of performance culture.

The site includes links to agency best practices. One link leads to an interview with Ted McPherson, the Agriculture Department's chief financial officer, who explains how the agency earned a clean audit from its inspector general for the first time in its 140-year history, in 2002.

When personnel reforms hit the Homeland Security and Defense departments, and if they become law for domestic agencies, the site could prove even more useful, Ludwig said.

"All the requirements of the HCAAF, particularly assessments with performance management, are really the foundation on which all the reform efforts are based," Ludwig said. When personnel reforms are put in place, "There will be some fine-tuning, but the fundamental approaches and tools are the same," she said.

Ludwig said OPM worked for about 18 months to create the online version of HCAAF and will update the site periodically to reflect personnel reforms, and changes in laws and regulations.