Project of the Week: “What’s My Role? Step-By-Step Hiring Guide for Federal Managers”

With all of the talk about federal hiring reform, the Partnership wanted to create a resource tailored to federal managers, not simply the HR community. Anyone who has hired, or will hire, someone in the federal government is our target audience.

“What’s My Role” was authored by former federal managers who now work at the Partnership for Public Service, and based on the experiences of three agencies in our FedRecruit pilot program: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). FedRecruit is aimed at building agency capacity to recruit, hire and retain entry-level talent in mission-critical occupations. The first phase of FedRecruit focused on the acquisitions community, and our current phase is geared towards IT talent. What we found is that the lessons learned from phase one were broadly applicable to federal government as a whole. We also circulated drafts among a number of individuals inside and outside of government.

Our formal release was on Friday, October 15 at the second of three Hiring Reform bootcamps, in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management. The audience was a mix of hiring reform leads from cabinet agencies and executive departments, and they anticipate sharing with audiences far and wide. We also received kudos from folks at the President’s Management Council and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Great question! You’re very wise. The responsibility to recruit and retain top talent does begin and end with managers across our federal government. The best way to inspire confidence and performance in your employees is to show them that you care about the team, its mission, and delivering results for the American people.