Human Resources

The Value of Volunteering is Not About Headcount, but Headway

Earlier last week, the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) released a report on volunteering and civic life in America in collaboration with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Census Bureau. Promisingly, surveys of 100,000 subjects found that one in four American adults volunteer with an organization and nearly two-thirds engage in activities to helpRead… Read more »

Federal Talent Management – Overcoming the Talent Assessment Hurdle

Federal agencies are grappling with how to best move from their legacy talent management systems to what can help them with the challenges of 2015 and beyond. And while there are seemingly no shortages of choices, the truth may not be as complicated. While the talent management market has expanded significantly over recent years, in… Read more »

The Role Differences Play in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World

We live in a VUCA world. We have elected an African American President for two straight terms. In five states, minority populations are the majority population-Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas and the District of Columbia. 36 states and 15 tribes recognize same sex marriage. Women can not only serve in the military but in combatRead… Read more »

What Your Agency Can Learn from NASA

NASA has done it again. For the third consecutive year, it ranked highest among large federal agencies for its employee satisfaction, according to the 2014 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey. The big question is, of course, how NASA continues to do it. This is especially puzzling when overall federal employee satisfactionRead… Read more »

Happy to Work in Gov? Survey Says No

I am going to be brutally honest with you. It’s a tough time to be a federal employee. For the fourth year in a row, The Best Places to Work data showed a decline in federal employee satisfaction. The Partnership for Public Service found government-wide, federal employee job satisfaction and commitment fell 0.9 points to aRead… Read more »

Where Did All the American Indians Go?

Sarah Shear, an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at Pennsylvania State University in Altoona, PA along with other researchers spent two years analyzing US history standards to determine what students are learning about American Indians. Their research will be published in the upcoming issue of Theory and Research in Social Education. Shear’s research isRead… Read more »

Talent Analytics – Make that Move

HR leaders and their HR teams throughout federal agencies can presumably feel the groundswell of talent analytics all around them. Industry analysts, press and vendors are all declaring the importance of big data and how it relates to talent analytics. Forward-thinking government leaders are asking more questions and providing more directives about the analysis ofRead… Read more »