OPM - Office of Personnel Management - The Structure of The Human Capital Framework
OPM - Office of Personnel Management - The Structure of The Human Capital Framework
TALENT MANAGEMENT
OVERVIEW
Talent Management exists to ensure that organizations get the right people with the right skills into the right position at the right
time so an agency can accomplish its mission. Locating, recruiting, hiring, and developing the best talent is crucial, not just to
support agency strategic planning, but to contribute to a thriving, sustained Performance Culture in the Federal workforce.
Standards
The standards for the Talent Management System require an agency to—
Outcomes
Ready workforce
The workforce is positioned to address and accomplish evolving priorities and objectives based on anticipated and un-
anticipated events.
Employee investment
The agency invests in its employees through formal and informal learning and development related activities to close
competency gaps and enhance mission related outcomes.
Efficient operation
The workforce is aligned, positioned, and trained to provide efficient and effective services to the agency's internal and
external stakeholders.
Increased retention
Retention strategies create an environment where employees understand and are committed to the mission of the organization
and empowered to make a difference.
Increased customer satisfaction
Learning and development activities demonstrate enhancements in program management and service delivery yielding
increases in customer satisfaction.
Trusted labor/management relationship
Labor and Management partner to ensure the workforce receives the tools, resources, and training to accomplish the mission
of the agency.
Related Information
Talent Management should be woven into and throughout all strategic and business plans. It is
supported by Human Resources, not owned by Human Resources. The presence of an integrated strategy and strategic partnerships
throughout the Agency is the key to talent management.
You must think beyond attracting talent. Your talent management strategy must include succession planning, assessments,
development, retention, and knowledge sharing. These functional processes must be planned and executed as part of an integrated
talent management strategy. Another important issue is how will you create a more flexible and agile organization that responds and
adapts to change.
Is my workforce performing optimally? Are we achieving goals and objectives? If not, why? Can
we attribute organizational performance to attrition and/or retirements? Does my agency have an overarching workforce strategy?
How can I support talent mobility, the ability to move employees within an organization across functions and roles, across lines of
business?
How is employee morale overall at the agency and within my organization? Can we sustain and enhance it through the demands of
the next 24 months? How can I mitigate any negative impact?
Are we continuously monitoring employee development and progress to ensure that our workforce is able to address future changes?
Are we continuously keeping abreast of current workforce talent management strategies that we can integrate into our business
processes in light of fiscal restraints (e.g., crowdsourcing, hiring recent graduates using Student Pathways, or individuals with
disabilities using the Schedule A hiring authority, and Veterans)?
What do the retirement and turnover trends reveal? How can we leverage this information to build a comprehensive process to
transfer knowledge from experts to entry and mid-career professionals?
What are the results from my organization's Employee View Point Survey (EVS)? Are we addressing challenges/issues identified by
employees? Are we communicating actions taken to employees?
Plan
Plan for the unexpected. Does your Agency anticipate a new strategic goal that will require an influx of resources and
capabilities? Are there environmental factors that will impact your workforce that may require you to downsize or train
existing employees?
Identify Agency-level vacant and/or potential shortfall positions. What skill sets are critical to accomplishing your mission?
Which positions and competencies are essential to accomplishing the mission with significantly limited resources?
Make a plan to address competency and skills gaps, and whether your agency could train and develop current employees, hire
employees with specific desired strengths, or a combination of these approaches. Processes can include leveraging employees'
knowledge to train their colleagues and/or using skills from across the government and within your agency (e.g., rotations and
agency skills banks).
Evaluate agency recruiting goals. This is more than a total number of FTEs. Are you looking to bolster a particular functional
area, or do you need to increase staff resources across the board? Take the time to align your recruitment, development, and
retention priorities to the specific skill sets and expertise that will ultimately fulfill your strategic goals and priorities.
Instill agility into the broader workforce. By promoting talent mobility, which refers to the ability to move employees within an
organization across functions and roles, and across lines of business or business units. Talent mobility allows greater
organizational agility by quickly filling near-term talent needs as well as developing talent to fill critical job roles longer-term.
Plan for managers' time spent on talent management. Senior leaders have an important role not only in driving strategic
priorities, but also in supporting managers' ability to devote time to talent management functions.
Design a strategy and methodology for collecting, transferring, and managing knowledge. Too often, organizations are not
aware of gaps in knowledge management processes until the need for knowledge transfer is urgent (e.g., a critical staff
member's impending retirement). As a best practice, think about knowledge management throughout the life cycle of a project
or initiative—not just at the end.
Implement
Oversee recruiting initiatives by determining specific targets and milestones to ensure successful completion of recruiting
goals.
Support a robust on-boarding and orientation program for new employees. The on-boarding model should include ongoing
feedback, development, and acculturation.
Include talent management as a standing agenda item for your staff meetings. Talent management initiatives should not take
place in a vacuum; rather, they are integrated into other programmatic initiatives. Incorporating talent management into each
staff meeting helps to maintain this connection.
Empower managers by providing them with information regarding the various recruitment, assessment, employee
development, and retention strategies.
Demonstrate the value of learning and development by providing time, support, and resources for employees and managers to
participate in these activities. Actively engage in building a strong pipeline and a diverse pipeline of future leaders.
Communicate your organization's commitment to its employees. This can be in the form of videos, emails, or handwritten
notes.
Evaluate
Determine metrics with meaningful targets and track progress in meeting goals. Align metrics with government-wide
performance measures such as GPRAMA and HRstat metrics. Track quarterly reporting requirements through OMB and
performance.gov (i.e., manager and applicant satisfaction measures, time to hire, hiring reform progress).
Review accountability for metrics. Senior leaders are responsible for holding supervisors and managers accountable for
achieving talent management metrics. They help colleagues maintain a clear understanding of the strategic alignment between
Administrative goals, Agency strategic objectives, and performance goals.
Ensure competency and skills gap analyses are performed. Assess skill and competency gaps on a regular basis. This insight
into your employee's abilities will enable you to provide developmental interventions that will enable you to develop a
workforce with up-to-date skills and abilities.
Ensure the right skills are available when the organization needs them, along with the ability to retain them. Are the right skills
available when and where the organization needs them? Did new hire placement result in measurable progress toward
strategic objectives? Are resources appropriately allotted for recruitment, onboarding, and development?
New Hire Survey
CHCO Managers' Satisfaction Surveys and Applicant Satisfaction Surveys
Employee Viewpoint Survey
One- and two-year retention data
Exit surveys where applicable/available
Evaluate the accuracy of your position descriptions in relation to the effectiveness of your assessment tools. Ensure position
descriptions accurately reflect what employees are doing.
Under the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act (GPRAMA), an agency's APP defines the level of
performance to be achieved during the year in which the plan is submitted and the next fiscal year.
A useful way to capture, measure, and understand the hiring manager's satisfaction levels with the hiring process. The agency's
CHCO can use the survey data to design strategies that improve and strengthen the relationship between the human resource office
and the hiring managers.
A useful way to capture, measure, and understand the applicant's satisfaction levels with the application and hiring process. The
agency's CHCO can use the survey data to design strategies that improve the application and hiring process.
Exit Survey Results
Exit surveys are a great way to identify and understand trends associated with the reasons that employees leave a particular
organization. Information from the exit surveys can be used to improve an agency's recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies. The
surveys should become a regular and recurring part of the process as employees transition out of the agency or retire from Federal
service.
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Related Information
Reference Materials
All parties who will have a part in the operation must be involved in all stages of the planning and
implementation. To be successful, this requires a strong partnership between Program/Process Owners and Human Resources staff.
This marathon, not a sprint, will require that both parties establish a cooperative partnership that involves regular communication
about an organization's functions and goals. This partnership will influence the guidance Human Resources staff provide and will
influence managers' staffing decisions.
Actions/Decisions For Program Owner And HR
Professionals
Is my organization keeping abreast of future trends and environmental factors? What will have a significant impact on my
organization and workforce?
Are we developing and implementing talent management strategies that will enable the organization to address foreseeable and
unforeseeable workforce challenges?
Do I have the talent and capacity to accomplish specific program and policy related goals and objectives?
What other resources are available to me to achieve program and policy-related goals and objectives? This includes information
about hiring authorities, workforce programs and resources, such as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and the Department of
Labor Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP).
Am I aware of, and do I have access to, appropriate data and information about my workforce and occupational specialty? This
includes data about workforce trends and employee perspectives.
Do I have appropriate tools and technology required for capturing, measuring, and reporting program and policy goals and
objectives?
Do we have current procedures and practices required for achieving program and policy-related goals and objectives?
Does my organization have an up-to-date strategic workforce and recruitment plan? Are they comprehensive in that they include
strategies for recruiting hard-to-fill and mission-critical occupations, in additional to veterans, students, people with disabilities, and
those from underrepresented groups?
Plan
Invest in analysis of trend information available to build into the recruitment plan. Did recruitment initiatives result in a high
yield of viable candidates? Are we diversifying our recruitment strategies, such as using social media, to reach a diverse and
talented applicant pool? Did the candidates that were ultimately hired meet the strategic expectations of the vacancy
announcements and recruiting initiatives?
Create a viable assessment strategy and implementation plan. Where could the recruitment process have been streamlined?
What specific areas for improvement were identified from the analysis of your recruiting, development, and retention
initiatives?
Create a marketing/outreach plan. Work with subject matter experts to identify sources for recruiting applicants with
particular skill sets. Consider educational programs, professional organizations, networking groups, or other relevant
populations that could enhance your mission-critical objectives along with the overall workforce priorities.
Create an action plan. Develop actionable goals that support priority areas for improvement. Include short-term milestones to
ensure progress toward complex, long-term objectives.
Review Individual Development Plans (IDPs). Guide employees in setting individual goals and ensure their development
activities align with agency goals.
Implement
Identify accountable parties for talent management initiatives. Connect operational staff with leadership champions whenever
possible.
Consider having co-leadership with a program leader and an HR professional to monitor the entire project. This encourages
collaboration and enables strategic integration of talent management goals and operational program priorities.
Follow organizational guidelines for on-boarding and acculturating employees into their new positions by working with your
operational support team to ensure that their work space is ready for the employee (prior to their start date), have meaningful
work assignments ready, fully welcome your new team member (e.g., create a welcome sign, assign a mentor), and follow up to
make certain that orientation and on-boarding deliverables are met (e.g., establish their performance plan within their first 30
days on the job). In addition, ensure that employees are given information about organizational procedures (e.g., how to
submit timecards, access printers, have knowledge about key meetings such as staff meetings).
Include milestones from talent management action plans in performance management plans in order to show employees their
specific connections to agency objectives. Hold open, timely feedback discussions with employees.
Document all plans, decisions, and desired outcomes along the way. If an initiative works well, this documentation will
streamline the process for next time. If it is less successful, detailed documentation of plans and decisions will make it easier to
target specific areas for improvement.
Supervisors are accountable for the development of their employees/direct reports, but employees also should be accountable
for their own development as well. Act as a role model for encouraging, monitoring, reinforcing, and rewarding the application
of new learning.
Support positive knowledge management practices. Make time available for collecting and recording work processes,
decisions, outcomes, and events as part of the normal work day.
Evaluate
Compare actual results to desired targets to determine if gaps exist. Where there are gaps, look to implementation
documentation to identify areas of improvement.
Based on results, determine how you want to make improvements. Manager involvement is paramount in talent management
processes, but also in evaluations. Managers need to consistently participate in the CHCO Managers' Satisfaction Survey in
order to provide feedback on how to improve current processes. Operational staff should also focus on Time to Hire, manager
satisfaction survey results, applicant satisfaction survey scores and new hire survey data.
Create and document lessons learned. Discuss successes, challenges, and modifications for next time. Include multiple
perspectives in your Lessons Learned (senior, management, program manager, HR professional, candidates, sources of
candidates, employees, unions). Determine where business re-engineering needs to occur for process improvement, and
leverage best practices throughout the organization.
Reviewing past hiring trends can reveal a host of critical decision making actions and activities. For example, past hiring data on
Veterans employment can uncover useful information about successful recruitment strategies and events to target for upcoming and
emerging hiring needs. The hiring data may also be used to track retention and longevity within an organization.
A useful way to capture, measure, and understand the applicant's satisfaction levels with the application and hiring process. The
agency's CHCO can use the survey data to design strategies that improve the application and hiring process.
Workforce Planning
The process agency leadership uses to identify the human capital required to meet organizational goals, conducts analyses to identify
competency gaps, develops strategies to address human capital needs and close competency and skills gaps, and ensures the
organization is structured effectively.
Lessons Learned
Review lessons learned from previous experiences.
Tools
In addition to these documents, policies, and guidelines, OPM provides several useful tools to for HR professionals and managers
under the Talent Management System.
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EMPLOYEE VIEW
Results from the Employee Viewpoint Survey demonstrate the importance of the employee's
perspective about how management decisions and actions regarding employee development, performance appraisals and rewards
must be fair and consistent. As this reinforces how employees are valued by their organization. Also of value to employees is a work
culture that recognizes the importance of quality of Work/Life programs.
Conversely, employees must be active participants, as this is a two-way process. Employees should work with their supervisors to
identify developmental opportunities to ensure that their skills are current and aligned to their organizational goals. Employees also
should become familiar with their organizational mission, vision, and strategic goals and objectives as these will directly impact their
work assignments and performance plans. Finally, employees also should identify opportunities where they can contribute
innovative ideas that will result in more efficient processes.
What can I do to enhance my knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be a successful contributor?
How can I assist leadership with the decision making process and stay engaged in the mission of the agency?
What resources are available to create and foster positive working relationships with my managers, supervisors, and coworkers?
Plan
Be aware of how your role and responsibilities relate to the agency's strategic plan and human capital objectives.
Take responsibility for the development and identification of your career goals. Self-assess your skills and ability to advance
your career. Ask for feedback from peers, supervisors, and subordinates (if applicable).
Implement
Provide recommendations for how to improve business processes.
Informally share your knowledge in an effort to establish a knowledge and succession management process in support of
ensuring that your wealth of experience is passed on to your successors.
As a part of your continued support for your agency's knowledge and succession planning program, document information
about business processes or projects that you are responsible for in the form of notes or a standard operating procedure (SOP).
Continuously strive to identify opportunities for ways in which work assignments can be improved beyond what is expected.
Recommend creative and innovative ways to accomplish a project in a different way.
Work towards your identified goals as stated in your Individual Development Plan. Track your progress and the results of your
efforts.
Seek mentoring and/or coaching relationships to facilitate development.
Evaluate
Review the results of your ideas and solutions to determine if improvements were made.
Actively participate in evaluation efforts that involve employee input. Leaders and managers rely on employee participation in
order to gather meaningful data on employee engagement, satisfaction, and a variety of other topics.
Agency Mission
The agency mission statement serves as the guiding principles for all activities within a given organization. All strategic plans, annual
performance plans, human capital plans, and individual performance plans, to name a few, should link directly to the mission of the
agency. Agency mission and vision statements are available on their respective websites.
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