Workforce
OPM offers guidance for agencies implementing salary history ban
Federal agencies will have until October to excise the solicitation and use of job candidates’ past compensation when setting pay for new hires.
Workforce
O’Malley reduces telework for Social Security HQ, regional office staff
The new commissioner outlined a plan to create “core collaboration days” for members of management, while most frontline workers are seemingly spared from the cuts.
Pay & Benefits
Federal retirement savings plan opens 2024 with a mixed bag
Only two of the five core funds within the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings plan posted gains last month.
Pay & Benefits
Biden administration to extend salary history ban to federal contractors
Officials said that new proposed regulations, released in conjunction with a final rule barring federal agencies from soliciting job applicants’ salary histories, will reduce pay disparities and improve the effectiveness of the federal contract workforce.
Pay & Benefits
Feds get 7.4% pay raise under congressional Democrats' plan
Despite two years of federal employees receiving the highest pay increases in decades, the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act’s sponsors say the federal workforce continues to suffer from “chronic underinvestment.”
Management
Archives clear pandemic-era backlog of veterans records requests
A combination of increased staffing and work hours, along with technological advances, allowed the National Personnel Records Center to dig out of backlog of more than 600,000 overdue records requests that accumulated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pay & Benefits
GAO: 4% of feds used paid parental leave in the benefit’s first 22 months
In 2022, 81% of federal workers who responded to an annual Office of Personnel Management survey and said they used the then-newly implemented program said they took all 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
Management
Senators unveil bipartisan bill to improve security at federal buildings
Legislation requiring agencies to respond to recommendations from the Federal Protective Service within 90 days, after a GAO investigation and congressional hearings revealed the vast majority of security recommendations go ignored.
Oversight
GAO: Agencies need to trust each other’s background check processes
An array of technical and cultural challenges plague the federal government’s ability to OK the transfer of federal employees across agencies, the government watchdog found.
Pay & Benefits
GSA could soon update some relocation expense reimbursement caps more regularly
It’s been more than a decade since the agency updated the maximum amounts of payments for miscellaneous relocation expenses that don’t require itemized receipts.
Workforce
Interior officials defend department’s approach to telework
After Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., accused the Interior Department of “abusing” telework, department leaders revealed that more than half of their workforce works in person every day, and those who do telework have experienced increased productivity, retention and employee engagement.
Management
Senate panel advances watchdog, labor nominees
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee favorably reported four nominees for adjudicative agencies recently hamstrung by vacancy-related case backlogs to the Senate floor for final consideration.
Management
Biden’s chief diversity officer is headed to the private sector
Janice Underwood, who serves as the governmentwide chief diversity officer and as director of the Office of Personnel Management’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility office, will be vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion talent outreach and development at Disney.
Workforce
Biden nominates OSC deputy to join FLRA
Biden’s previous choice to fill the last spot on the Federal Labor Relations Authority quietly withdrew from consideration last fall.
Pay & Benefits
OPM reduces the retirement backlog by one-third in 2023
The federal government’s HR agency’s work on improving the retirement application process for federal workers led to the agency shattering yet another longstanding record last month.
Pay & Benefits
Union decries end to retention pay at embattled Illinois prison
Labor leaders at Federal Correctional Institute Thomson said the Bureau of Prisons’ termination of a short-lived initiative to retain employees at the rural facility with a 25% boost to pay will cause hundreds to leave the agency.
Workforce
OPM’s latest telework report highlights productivity gains
The annual telework report covers fiscal 2022, though officials promised that recent policy changes will improve data collection and analysis moving forward.
Pay & Benefits
New OPM proposal would ensure feds detailed to temporary promotions are paid properly
Federal HR leaders said in a filing last week that a rule capping increased pay for federal workers noncompetitively selected to perform duties of a higher-graded position at 120 days penalizes employees for their agency’s mistake.
Pay & Benefits
TSP portfolios end 2023 on a high note
Each of the funds in the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program finished December in the black.
Workforce
Here are the agencies that saw the biggest shifts in employee morale in 2023
As the federal government regained its footing on employee engagement and job satisfaction, some agencies saw big swings in workplace sentiment.
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