FEDweek is the largest information resource in the federal
government with now over one million weekly readers.
To Subscribe, Go to http://www.fedweek.com/subscribepopup.htm
**********************************************************
Valued Added Service to Our Readers:
Federal Job Search
http://www.fedweek.com/Jobs/default.asp
Job Bulletin Board
http://www.fedweek.com/Jobs/default.asp
Unlimited Internet Access for as low as $10.90
http://fedweeknet.com
Our Readers Will Get Special Discounted Travel Rates
Including, Airfare, Hotels, RV's, Car Rentals, and
Special Weekend Getaways--Anywhere in the world
http://www.fedweek.com/images/adart/travel_redirect.htm
*********************************************************
In This Week's Issue
1. OPM Calls for SES Candidate Applications
2. Report Defends Competitive Sourcing, Says Few Positions
Are Actually Lost
3. Report Looks at "Soft-Landing" Program for Separated
Employees
4. Brand New Federal Employees Legal Survival Guide Just
Published New Publication Announcement: The Federal Employees
Legal Survival Guidehttp://www.fedweek.com/pub/index.php
*********************************************************
1. OPM Calls for SES Candidate Applications
The Office of Personnel Management has issued a call to
organizations representing middle managers as well as
"communities of veterans, minorities, people with
disabilities, and women," for applications to the senior
executive service federal candidate development program.
It said the program consists of "a mix of residential
training, tailored work experiences, reading assignments
and forums, and direct mentoring and monitoring,"
stressing that the program would be consistent with
merit principles.
Nationwide recruitment would partly focus on women and
minorities inside and outside the government,
traditionally underrepresented in the SES, according to
OPM.
It said candidates have to show one or more years of
leadership experience at the GS-14 level or above in the
federal service or comparable experience to be considered,
Once having completed the program, participants obtain
certification by an SES qualifications review board and
may be selected for an SES position anywhere in the federal
government without further competition, said OPM.
Further information about the program can be found at:
www.opm.gov/ses/fedcdp.
2. Report Defends Competitive Sourcing, Says Few Positions
Are Actually Lost
Claims that job competitions in the federal government have
a negative impact are largely unfounded, according to a new
report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government
looking at nearly 1,200 A-76 competitions conducted by
the Department of Defense from 1994 through the first
quarter of 2004.
It said that since 1999, competitions have increasingly
been won in-house, up to twice as many in 2003, and that
just five percent of civilian positions studied since 1995
were eliminated by involuntary separation, and estimated
savings of 44 percent of baseline costs, or $11.2 billion
- mostly derived through the elimination of 24,852 positions.
Taking into consideration the small numbers of involuntary
separations revealed in their data -- which did not support
"claims of low employee morale" due to competitions -- the
authors said agency managers should continue to pursue
competitive sourcing to reap performance gains and cost
savings.
NASA was able to implement an effective outsourcing plan
without any reductions in force by "reassigning affected
employees to more core-level tasks, avoiding involuntary
separations and improving performance," according to the
report.
It said that when a workforce has to be reduced, managers
could offer buyout plans to employees, as well as early
retirement and transfers to other government positions.
The Office of Personnel Management should compile and
analyze data stemming from DoD�s experience restructuring
its organizations and personnel over the past 15 years,
during which time it saw a 36 percent reduction in its
civilian workforce, nearly 380,000 civilian workers, even
though most of those losses were outside the context of
competitions, said the report.
It made the point that in order to defend the competitions
against those seeking plainly to defend potentially
affected jobs, it is crucial to understand clearly how the
practice affects employees.
The full report is available at
http://www.businessofgovernment.org.
3. Report Looks at "Soft-Landing" Program for Separated
Employees
Agency managers should expand on the traditional benefits
to displaced employees such as priority rehire and career
counseling by pressuring contractors during the bidding
process, said the report.
It said that in deciding on a bidder, "managers can insist
that contractors provide benefits to federal employees in
the form of bonuses, comparable pay and benefits, and
job offers," citing the Army�s contract for its logistics
modernization program which guaranteed affected employees
a three-year job in the same location with similar pay
and benefits, and a $15,000 sign-on bonus with the first
paycheck.
It said that in 1997 the Army�s communications and
electronics command was directed to explore alternatives to
modernizing the wholesale logistics processes and
associated IT as well as the implications for the existing
478 employees involved.
It undertook reforms focusing on its 30-year old logistics
information management systems that were written in archaic
and difficult COBOL, for which it had become difficult to
find replacement workers to maintain, according to the
report.
It said that following two years of analysis and planning,
the Army awarded a performance-based contract to Computer
Sciences Corporation that entailed job offers for all
remaining 207 employees, 83 percent of whom are eligible
for early retirement as of 2004.
As a result, many of the employees chose to transfer to
other federal positions or accepted buyouts and early
retirement packages offered by the Army, said the report.
It said privatization is another way to mitigate the effect
of a reduction-in-force order on employees, citing the
closing of the Navy�s Indianapolis-based Naval Air Warfare
Center, Aircraft Division in 1995, which would have
eliminated over 2,000 jobs had the city not proposed an
alternative.
After deciding privatization could be cost effective and
satisfy its needs, the Navy agreed and the contractor wound
up taking on nearly all of the 2,000 employees at comparable
levels of pay and benefits, according to the report.
4.Brand New Federal Employees Legal Survival Guide Just
Published New Publication Announcement: The Federal Employees
Legal Survival Guide http://www.fedweek.com/pub/index.php
Passman & Kaplan announces the October 2004 publication of
the SECOND EDITION of the Federal Employees Legal Survival
Guide. This comprehensive book, first published by Passman
& Kaplan in 1999, has been called the definitive how-to
guide for enforcing the rights of federal employees.
The second edition of the Guide includes 100 PAGES OF
ADDITIONAL NEW MATERIAL (now 616 total pages) and useful
advice. New features include information on internet
legal research, preparing for and conducting a hearing,
sample discovery requests, and up-to-date contact
information for federal personnel agencies. The Guide
also includes a listing of frequently used civil service
acronyms and practical appendices of sample forms,
charts illustrating appeal rights, and commonly-needed
deadlines.
As with the first edition of the Guide, Passman & Kaplan
has attempted to move away from the "legalese" which so
often complicates an already-bewildering array of
regulations and policies. Although the Federal Employees
Legal Survival Guide, Second Edition is clearly an
invaluable resource for practioners, Passman & Kaplan has
maintained its commitment to target the book to the
average federal employee.
**********************************************************
To place your order for The Federal Employees Legal Survival
Guide just go to http://www.fedweek.com/pub/index.php and place
your secure order online. The cost of this
publication is only $49.95 Plus $6 s&h--Remember, this is
a 616 page reference that is chalked full of invaluable
information that every federal manager must have!
Or you can mail your order with payment of $55.95 to
FEDweek, PO Box 5519, Glen Allen, VA 23058.
This is a one of a kind book you can't afford to be without!
Published by FEDweek
11541 Nuckols Rd. Suite D
Glen Allen, VA 23059
(804) 288-5321
Website: http://www.fedweek.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--You are subscribed to
federalmanagersdailyreport as [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
