OPM to set up centralized personnel records system
Web-based records management system is slated to save $740 million over the next 10 years.
Federal workers soon will be able to access their personnel records from a centralized online database, and managers will be able to make long-term personnel projections using information from electronic personnel folders.
Leaders of the Office of Personnel Management's Enterprise Human Resources Integration e-government initiative announced last week that Chantilly, Va.-based Integic Corp. would provide the software for the initiative, known as Quicksilver. Agencies will contract with Integic on a fee-for-services basis.
The Health and Human Services Department already has contracted with Integic for the personnel record-keeping system, and about 50,000 employee records have been scanned into the database.
Electronic folders would replace agencies' current paper filing systems. The new system is designed to speed up delivery of records, cut the cost of delivering them and allow managers to project future personnel needs electronically.
The project is expected to save $740 million over the next 10 years.
Rhonda Diaz, OPM's EHRI manager, said the program will help eliminate paper, create a central data repository, and provide analytical methods for identifying personnel trends.
Diaz said agencies' current system for mailing personnel folders--for reasons ranging from an employee transfer to another agency to an employee's request to view their personnel folder--is expensive and cumbersome. By centralizing and standardizing the personnel folders, information for long-term personnel planning is easily compiled, Diaz said.
Other agencies preparing to switch to the EHRI system are the Education and Homeland Security departments, OPM, the Agricultural Research Service, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the Forest Service.
Diaz said other benefits to putting the folders online include protection from fire and paper damage.
"It's very expensive to recreate [a personnel folder]," Diaz said. "We have a very robust backup plan."
Jim Fraley, vice president for Integic's Civilian Federal Practice, said the program will provide a standardized method for integrating agencies' human resources records and addresses the complex personnel issues within the federal workforce.
"This changes how we manage human capital across the globe for geographically dispersed agencies," Fraley said. "[Managers] can look at trends towards retirement and get a better look at what's going on."
Fraley said agencies' current human resources systems fail to provide a clear view of employees' tenure and transfers, and retirements aren't accurately predicted. By providing the personnel records electronically, the process for gathering the data is simplified, and administrators are freed from having to copy personnel information, allowing them "to do the higher level thinking and step away from the paper folder work."
"It's the foundation of moving to the 21st century in human capital management," Fraley said. "What you will take out is the space required to store the folders, the retrievers for the filing systems, the copying, mailing, recreation costs and lost file costs."