Human Resources

Harness the Power of Unstructured HR Data with Text Analytics

Federal HR professionals with access to electronic employee databases typically have access to a wealth of so-called “structured” employee data, or information that can be quickly counted and analyzed in spreadsheet programs to create pivot tables and reports. Examples of structured HR data include employee salary and demographic information and employee survey responses, all ofRead… Read more »

Keeping It Simple with One USDA

Have you ever worked at a large company or organization prior to government? If so, you’ve probably experienced the complexity of vast human resources departments. At many companies or private organizations, they’ve got it down to a science – recruiting, application, interview processes, and onboarding – it all happens seamlessly. The government is the largestRead… Read more »

Wins, Losses, and Next Steps for Female Feds

We’re making progress, but there’s more to be done. That’s the main takeaway from the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) recent report, Women in Federal Service: A Seat at Every Table, which used workforce data and Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results to analyze that status of women in government. What I appreciate most about this reportRead… Read more »

A Brief Introduction to Starting an Outstanding Intern Program

There are a ton of freely available articles, blogs, how to’s, and other publications about the benefits of good internship programs so why haven’t you started one yet? A need has been identified. In another blog post on Govloop.com Donna Dyer describes that 20% of interns graduating in 2014 wanted to intern in government. ThisRead… Read more »

Just Bleach it Out

Apple took some heat last year regarding the lack of diversity among its emojis. It should not be surprising that this technology behemoth would be tone deaf when it comes to inclusion. Here is the evidence. There workforce representation breaks down as follows: • White-64%. • Asian-21%. • Black-3%. • Hispanic-6% • Women-30% • Men-70%.Read… Read more »

Everyone Lied: There IS an “I” In Team!

You have been living in a world of lies since kindergarten. From the time you thought paste was a member of the food pyramid, you were taught that there is no “I” in team. And while the spelling bee members of your team were correct — the letter I is not actually in the word — thoseRead… Read more »

5 Questions to Ask Departing Federal Employees

Last week, I explored how federal agencies can use HR data to build predictive models to evaluate and reduce costly employee turnover. An article published in Business Insider this month described how HR software company Workday built an app to help employers do just that. Workday claims its software can not only predict who isRead… Read more »

Federal Talent Acquisition and Performance Management — People Analytics is the Way Forward

When I talk with federal human capital officers about some of the challenges agencies face confronting the prospect of moving toward a more analytical approach to federal talent acquisition and federal performance management, here’s some of what I hear: – “I know it’s important, but the thought of really ‘doing’ Talent or People Analytics is… Read more »