OPM’s Software Business Hurts Federal Hiring
Federal Times
August 1, 2005
The challenge of filling vital government positions with the best-qualified candidates is not going to get any easier in the years to come. New Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer surely recognizes this, and will no doubt make meeting this challenge among her chief concerns. As she considers the future of recruitment across the federal government, however, it will be critical that she examine an operation inside her own agency - and how this operation is slowing the business of government and lessening agencies' ability to recruit efficiently.
For years now, OPM has been in the software business, selling its USA Staffing product to agencies. OPM boasts USA Staffing is "the most cost-effective means of getting the best-qualified candidates for public-sector hiring in a single, integrated software solution." Hundreds of OPM employees work full time maintaining, repairing and selling this software, and revenues from its sale make up a significant percentage of OPM's operating budget.
At the same time, OPM is also in the business of regulating federal human resources policy. For years, it has fought to increase its ability to oversee how agencies address their recruitment and staffing issues, and what technology is used to streamline outdated processes. Anecdotes abound of instances where OPM applied regulatory pressure when an agency was considering purchasing technology other than that sold by OPM.
Imagine that the Securities and Exchange Commission offered financial auditing software to public companies and then used its regulatory power to pressure companies into buying it. Or that the Food and Drug Administration sold pharmaceuticals. OPM is operating a for-profit enterprise inside an oversight agency, and its profit margins are in many ways determined by how it operates its oversight. The conflict of interest is nothing less than amazing.
At many agencies, the time to fill a federal job opening - from the first day of the job classification process to the day an offer is made - can be three to six months. These delays paralyze agencies, leaving mission-critical positions unfilled and appropriated funds wasted. To remedy this, a number of agencies have turned to private-sector technology solutions. These technologies not only streamline outdated paper processes, but also extend an agency's recruiting reach to a far larger and more diverse applicant pool. While we of course think our solutions are the best on the market, there are a number of vendors that offer technology to address these issues. And each of us competes with a federal agency - OPM.
What makes this situation more damaging is that USA Staffing is an inferior product. It's built on an outdated platform, supported by an outdated database, and its technology does not meet the Federal Enterprise Architecture standards developed by the Office of Management and Budget. These technology flaws expose OPM's customers to security threats and data losses.
OPM's direct, unfair competition with private-sector vendors is not only bad government, but is in direct conflict with the stated positions of the current administration. In a time when policymakers are searching for ways to make government more efficient and to use technology to save valuable funds and valuable time, OPM is doing just the opposite.
We think it's time the administration and Congress take a look at what's happening at OPM. Agency leaders need at their disposal the best available technology in order to attract the next generation to government service - and to manage the employees who have made the commitment to federal service. Today, OPM is standing in the way. The agency should focus on setting sound human resources policy for the federal government, and leave the competition to the private sector, where it belongs.
Submitted by James Miller and Linda Brooks Rix.
