Overview

A detailed discussion of OPM’s major activities and key initiatives is found on our website at our home page www.opm.gov or the Human Resource Focus Area at http://hr.performance.gov/, or in our Annual Performance Report at http://www.opm.gov/gpra/opmgpra/.

Here is a brief description of our key activities:

• Employee Services (ES) Provides policy direction and leadership for Government-wide human resources systems and programs such as recruitment, pay, leave, performance management and recognition, employee development, work/life/wellness programs and labor and employee relations.
• Retirement Services (RS) is responsible for administering the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS), serving 2.5 million Federal retirees and survivors who receive monthly annuity payments.
• Healthcare & Insurance (HI) manages insurance benefits for more than 8 million Federal employees, retirees, and their families. These benefit programs the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP), the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS), and the Federal Employee Dental Vision Insurance Plan (FEDVIP). Under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 OPM administers the Federal Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) Program and is in the process of implementing the Multi-State Plan Program.
• Merit System Audit & Compliance (MSAC) ensures through rigorous oversight that Federal agency human resources programs are effective and meet merit system principles and related civil service requirements.
• Federal Investigative Services (FIS) provides investigative products and services for over 100 Federal agencies to use as the basis for suitability and security clearance determinations.
• Human Resource Solutions (HRS) partners with Federal agencies to provide effective human resource solutions that develop leaders, attract and build a high quality public sector workforce, and transform agencies into high performing organizations.

Here is a brief description of our key initiatives:

• Hire the Best Talent: President Obama’s Memorandum of May 11, 2010, Improving the Federal Recruitment and Hiring Process, outlined Phase I of the Administration’s comprehensive initiative to address major, long-standing impediments to recruit and hire the best and the brightest into the Federal civilian workforce. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is spearheading the government-wide initiative to reform recruiting, hiring and retention policies and procedures. This initiative will encompass multiple years and require sweeping changes to streamline and improve the hiring process. Time to hire remains a challenge for Federal agencies. OPM is making notable strides in hiring veterans into its own workforce, and is actively engaged in coordinating the Veterans Employment Initiative created by Executive Order 13518.
• Close critical skills gaps in the Federal workforce: The Administration is working to close critical skill gaps in the Federal workforce. Skills gaps are defined as the difference between skills currently available within the current workforce and the skills required to complete those activities in the future. Competency and skills gaps in critical areas impact the Government’s ability to deliver on its mission(s) and provide service to the American taxpayers. The Government Accountability Office identified examples of current talent vulnerabilities in the Federal workforce such as a shortage of trained acquisition personnel, shortages of staff with critical language skills, shortage of staff with petroleum engineering skills and shortage of veterinarians. OPM helps agencies close gaps in those competencies that are necessary to effectively perform mission critical activities.
• Respect and Engage the Workforce: Agencies continue to promote a healthy work-life balance and create development opportunities to engage the workforce, improve employee well-being, and increase government performance. OPM helps Federal agencies to establish standards for effective performance management systems. OPM continues to hold agencies accountable for human resources activities that are carried out in accordance with merit system principles and OPM standards.
• Expect the Best Employees: Agencies are working to create a culture where employees want to be, and can be, as effective as possible serving the public each and every day. Federal employees work hard to make their agencies successful in carrying out their mission and strive to ensure that American taxpayers obtain the best from their Government. OPM research indicates there is disconnect between the various functions responsible for organizational performance improvement and employee performance improvement. OPM is piloting the Goals-Engagement-Accountability-Results (GEAR) model at five Federal agencies. It is important to understand the GEAR strategies a set of interrelated processes that will improve employee and organizational performance. They are based on the principle that every successful organization must have clear, aligned goals, engaged employees and supervisors, and accountability for every employee at every level. These elements combine to produce results. The GEAR elements are: articulate a high-performance culture, align employee performance engagement with organizational performance management, implement accountability at all levels, and create a culture of engagement.
• Retirement Claims Processing: Our top priority is to improve the overall retirement claims adjudication process and to address the backlog of retirement claims within 18 months. The Office of Personnel Management is responsible for the administration of the Federal Retirement Program covering over 2.7 million active employees and 2.5 million annuitants. This responsibility is shared with our agency partners who are responsible for counseling their employees and administering the initial retirement application process. The agencies submit the employee’s application and all supporting documentation required to OPM’s Retirement Services. It is likely that the volume of the retirement workload will increase as more agencies utilize Voluntary Early Retirement Authorities and Voluntary Employment Separation Incentive Payments (VERA/VSIP) to downsize their workforces and the United States Postal Service downsizes its workforce. OPM will increase its retirement claim processing capacity to eliminate existing backlogs, process retirement claims in a timely manner, and react to workload surges caused by Federal downsizing efforts.
• Security Clearance Reform: OPM will maintain or exceed OPM-related goals of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004. The goal is to maintain a 40 day or less average completion time for the fastest 90 percent of Secret/Confidential initial security investigations. 

Over the last few years, the Federal government has made critical advances in reforming the security clearance process. While there is still work to be done, individuals seeking to work for the Federal government now face a substantially different clearance experience than they did just a few years ago. The IRTPA, signed into law in 2004, challenged the Federal government to address longstanding coordination problems that unnecessarily affected the timeliness and quality of security clearances. IRTPA required all agencies to complete 90 percent of their security clearances in an average of 60 days, which includes 40 days to complete the investigation (generally OPM's responsibility) and 20 days to adjudicate the investigation (responsibility of employing agency). At the time IRTPA was enacted, the government-wide average was 205 days for both investigation and adjudication. As a result of actions taken to meet the objectives of IRTPA, the average speed to process security clearances has been reduced to 40 days.

Improve Access to Healthcare: This OPM strategic goal to addresses the newly enacted responsibilities given to OPM by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the ACA, OPM is responsible for contracting with at least two issuers to offer Multi-State Plans (MSPs) that will provide health insurance options through Affordable Insurance Exchanges beginning in 2014. Multi-State plans will be one of several health insurance options that individuals and small employers will be able to choose from. In total Affordable Insurance Exchanges are expected to provide health insurance coverage for as many as 25 million Americans. OPM is actively preparing to contract for the insurance packages required by the Act, and will contract for them in fiscal year 2013. Through another ACA program, employees of participating tribes and tribal organizations are offered health insurance within the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). We plan to offer Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) coverage by the end of fiscal year 2013. This responsibility brings unique challenges as it requires OPM for the first time to interact with up to 600 outside entities and enroll a large non-federal population.