OpenOPM Browse Recent ideas

Currently, members of the public have no idea how to submit petitions for rulemaking to the agency and actively participate in the rulemaking process, because the agency does not make this information available like other agencies do. So OPM should post easily-accessible, plain-English guidance on its public website regarding how the public can submit and comment on petitions for rulemaking. See, for example, the... more »

As most of our agencies (Federal, State and Local) suffer drastic cuts to funding, one of the first things to be eliminated is training. Unfortunately, the elimination of these essential services not only brings down employee morale, but also also exposes many of our agencies to huge liabilities. With technological advances in e-learning technology and the standardization of delivery methods (thanks to DoD and ADL's... more »

I've heard that OPM is working on developing a diversity and inclusion strategic plan for the federal government, and that representatives from several federal agenices are involved. I would like to suggest that involvement in that effort be expanded to include people outside the government (for example: Shirley Davis, Director of Diversity Initiatives at the Society for Human Resources Management). Also, I'd like to... more »

I would like to see the USAJOBS data on data.gov.

Right now I think the data is available through partnerships with OPM. I would remove that barrier and make it easy to just grab the data from data.gov.

This would allow lots of innovation around the hiring process by 3rd party developers and would not cost OPM money.

Steve Ressler

Founder, GovLoop.com

I would encourage OPM to leverage existing or create new collaboration vehicles to increase collaboration between job seekers and federal recruiters. Often the two groups are very disconnected although there is basic contact information (email/phone number) on job descriptions. Through collaboration, some of the same questions can be answered once and create repositories of knowledge. See business.gov as an interesting... more »

Community = the citizens who are looking for federal jobs + the federal employees who need to fill jobs + the OPM'ers who are responsible for making the process work on a country-level scale. The work of the latter can be shared between OPM and other agencies' experts, but someone with a collegial, competent presence has to manage the community. I think that person should be based at OPM. A good model for how this could... more »

It just makes sense to measure the effectiveness of your outreach campaign. Typically, cookies are deployed to track user activity and store personal information. But this method is far too invasive for government use. Should restrictions be lifted to allow for the use of cookies on media placements for recruitment and outreach, agencies might spend thousands less on sites or sections of sites that are not producing results.... more »

OPM should use existing social networks, including LinkedIn, GovLoop, and Facebook to further its mission. You could have the OPM Director host a blog, announce "hot jobs," provide best business practices, and issue polls on hot topics. This shouldn't cost OPM much, but will make them much more accessible to their customers - Federal employees.

OPM should use web-casting technology to hold interagency meetings. This will save hundreds of hours of travel time and make these meetings more accessible to those outside the DC area. It will also help to encourage telework. The minimal cost to use this technology will be returned in saving time and expanding the impact of OPM.

A pilot project to build a next-gen OPM portal for the Federal Community Cloud. The idea is to build a suite of opensocial portals, one at each Federal Agency, based on The Open Stack that will enable communication with all opensocial partners.

Useful Links:

http://tinyurl.com/yks78pg

http://bit.ly/cUrTv8

On the current USAJOBS site, there is little information about the individual employers outside of what is discussed in the specific job description. The Silver Search offering allows an employer to brand the header of the position listing, but doesn’t allow for much more. Deciding to work for an organization is a major life-changing decision for an individual. A college student may want to know about training and advancement... more »

OPM should negotiate a supplemental health insurance plan for retired Federal Employees who are on Medicare since their health care costs are mostly paid for by Medicare. It is wrong that we continue to pay the full amount.

OPM should live webcast all meetings for proposed rule making and regulations where the public comment should take place. They should make these meetings available for on demand viewing and have the ability to have that content be indexed for video search. By doing this the public and stakeholders will be able to see the inner workings of the rule making process and make the content and proceedings transparent to the... more »

The OPM website hosts a lot of great information about approved programs. But when new program ideas are being considered, it is typically worked through the departments and agencies within the Washington, DC area. However, many of those departments and agencies have organizations/employees in field sites and information and solicitation of ideas rarely is requested or shared with those units. Similarly, the FEBs and... more »

OPM should consider revising its outdated qualification standards. Currently, for most positions, agencies can require only one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level. Agencies must then define the specialized experience necessary to do the job, which can often be very narrow and difficult to screen for on a resume. Most applicants do not think to specifically address the specialized... more »