Human Resources

Proposed Discipline Letters: Is Less More?

Recently Bill Wiley wrote an article for the Federal Employment Law Training Group (FELTG, LLC) newsletter titled It’s All About Size. This article was in direct response to a question from a reader regarding the amount of detail necessary in a proposed discipline letter. Apparently, in this reader’s office, there were two distinct opinions: TeamRead… Read more »

A Tool To Improve Management Practices

Management Practices Improvement Diagnostic From: Michael VanBruaene www.advancingyourorganization.com We have developed a diagnostic tool that is an approach for assessing and improving management practices in your organization. This improvement diagnostic tool that you can use, instead of hiring a consultant, provides a comprehensive approach for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of management practices; and thenRead… Read more »

I work in HR at the Department of Global Competitiveness.

Could this be you? Keep reading. In an effort to streamline government, the White House announced Friday their intent to consolidate federal agencies and offices with interconnected missions, including: Department of Commerce’s business and trade functions Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Small Business Administration Export-Import Bank Overseas Private Investment Corporation U.S. Trade and DevelopmentRead… Read more »

Everyone Wants to Manage Us but No One Wants to Work Here!

According to the January 16th article in FedSmith titled Debating the Cost of Federal Employees, “Recent reports in the media … have sparked a debate about whether or not federal employees are overpaid at a time when the federal deficit is soaring. Federal employee unions contend that federal employees are substantially underpaid, whereas others argueRead… Read more »

Building the Better Burger: Cover Letters

We’ve done all the necessary preparation and have our philosophy of building the better burger. Here’s the structure I suggest for your cover letter (and I like using block paragraph format–saves space and looks cleaner): Your street address (notice your name is not here) Your City, State and Zip [one space] Date [one space] ContactsRead… Read more »

5 actions human services agencies should take now to make the most of the ACA

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will expand health coverage in the United States by more than 35 million people. This expansion requires states to take a fresh look at eligibility and customer service operations, and develop new business processes for interacting with stakeholders. Existing IT systems are outdated, and under-resourced state agencies are challenged byRead… Read more »

Navigating the New GovLoop Redesign

If you have been on GovLoop recently (or even if you haven’t), you have probably noticed a few changes around the site. We appreciated your patience as we rolled out the seven new community pages last week, but the fun doesn’t end there! In addition to the launch of the newly focused GovLoop community pages,Read… Read more »

Purchasing preferences for veteran-owned businesses on the rise

Deltek Sr. Analyst Kyle Ridley reports. As the unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans continues to climb, more states and localities are establishing purchasing preferences for veteran-owned businesses (VOBs). Current-war veteran unemployment is more than four percentage points higher than the national average of 8.5 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13.1Read… Read more »

To Dream is to Question

More research indicating that our inner capabilities for perception, understanding, and imagination are not three separate activities in our brains – but rather an intertwined set of abilities directed at prediction. We have an efficiency unmatched by any computer: we notice and process only that information about our world that does not match our predictiveRead… Read more »

No rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something!

Edison’s quote about trying to accomplish things has always been one of my favourites. For me it highlights the problems that can occur when rules, guidelines and parameters are applied to something as fluid as engaging online. One of the things I find people ask for most when devising a ‘social strategy’ are previous examplesRead… Read more »