President Obama nominated Katherine Archuleta to be the next director of the Office of Personnel Management, who took over for John Berry.
Archuleta, who has previously served as the national political director for Obama’s re-election campaign and chief of staff at the Labor Department, is the first Latina to head the agency.
But she has big shoes to fill, Berry was able to accomplish quiet a bit in his four years in the director’s seat. Tom Fox is the Vice President for Leadership and Innovation at the Partnership for Public Service. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that Berry really did an exceptional job leading an agencies that is responsible for the people component of government in some very difficult times.
“When I look at the range of things Berry did it is really quiet extraordinary. He was able to amend the way we recruit and hire recent grads through the Pathways program. He was able to systemize the way we do the Federal Viewpoint Survey every year. He has done a lot to establish a centralized office,” said Fox.
Not Just A Cheerleader
“He is not just the federal government’s cheerleader. He followed it up with actions and results, even something like reducing the amount of time for a background investigation. Through his leadership Berry helped OPM make some significant strides,” said Fox.
More to be Done
“Even with all the progress he was able to make there is still so much that needs to be done.” Fox says Archuleta should focus on three things in particular:
- Make OPM a world class talent organization for the executive branch.
- Lay the groundwork for federal pay reform. x
- Make sure we can increase the professionalism of the 27,000 HR professionals in government
- Streamline the process for dealing with poor performers
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Don’t forget about eliminating the backlog of retirement applications!
would also include improve/streamline the management of the Federal Employee Health Benefits…. Not overly sure, there is some question on whether OPM or Treasury is going to implement the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but suspect that there will need to be some additional involvement by OPM.
Not sure how much OPM, in the future, will be involved in the election process after one of the Supreme Court’s last decisions this year, but would suspect that if congress moves forward with updating the Act there will be some significant involvement in the future
And last, but surely not least, government management of the Telework program, has certainly got a long way to go.