Human Resources

Heroes of Excellence

Excellence.gov Awards were created to recognize government programs that provide substantive improvements in government activities. But that is not the whole story – At a time when government employees were singled out at the cause for everything wrong in the world, we felt that it was important to put faces on the great things thatRead… Read more »

How to Improve your Scores on the Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey

Thought you might be interested in this article I wrote regarding how to improve your scores on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey: The results of the latest government-wide Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey have been released. Over 687,000 federal employees completed the FEVS survey, and according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (PDF): The 2012Read… Read more »

1099R Statements, Replacement Copies, & Upcoming Changes

My 1099R arrived from OPM this week and annuitants should have also received their Notice of Annuity Adjustments, Form R1 20-53 (REV. 12/12), that outlines your new 2013 status and payments. The annuity adjustment statement includes the 1.7% COLA increase and lists any changes to your insurance and elective payments. Each year we receive manyRead… Read more »

Gov & Love: 3 Valentine’s Day Tips at Work

Have you ever been struck by Cupid’s arrow at work? If so, a bit of common sense, good manners and politeness will go a long way towards keeping you out of big trouble. While the following “do’s” and “don’ts” are especially applicable to the workplace on Valentine’s Day, they also merit consideration every day —Read… Read more »

For young feds is the pace of government change too slow?

Retaining and engaging young feds has been the drum beat in government for awhile now and will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future. But one of the main stumbling blocks for agency leaders has been the pace of government change. Millennials are quick to adopt new technologies and programs. But the government isRead… Read more »

Continuing the Conversation on Telework: Is Remote Work Too Remote?

Andrew Krzmarzick commented on my blog post Answering Joshua Millsapps’ Question: Is remote work, too remote? by saying OPM surveys reveal that supervisors feel the biggest barrier to telework adoption is the, “Need to learn new skills for managing a remote workforce.” As I had referenced in my post my success in learning new skillsRead… Read more »

Is March the Armageddon for federal budgets? Sequestration, CR, 2014 and more

March may go down as one of the worst months ever for federal budgeting. Take a look: Sequestration goes into effect on March 1st. 1.2 trillion in across the board cuts. Continuing Resolution expires on March 27th. In order for a budget to be passed by April 15th the House and Senate need to beginRead… Read more »